The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-01-10
ALL NOT YET LosT.
Under this head, the Richmond Times takes thu
following hopeful view Of the recent decision o
the Sunrama Cnnrt.

4
There are encouraging indications that the pro-
gress Of the nation to Avernus may yet. at the
eleventh hour, be arrested by the strong and Wig
orous arm Of the Supreme Court. Although the
Chief Justice of that Court is not worthy sue
cessor to jursts like Marshall yet his official as
sociates are men of pluck, nerve and honesty.
Their recent decision with reference to the trial OF
civilians by military commissions is judicial Dec
nrstion that during the last four years, hundreds
/ of men have been murdered and illegally incarce-
i rated by these tribunals. The persons charged
with the assassination of poor Mr.. Lincoln were
put to death in gross violation of the Constitution
There are scores of prisoners languishing on the
scorching sands of the Dry Tortugas who are
there without the authority of law. Mr.. Stanton's
military bastiles were also crowded With the VIC
Tins of these lawless military commissions.
1t is not strange that the leading organs Of the
Radical party aghast at the recent decision Of
the Supreme Court. Forney shrieks as poor Tom
clutched by the devil. That decision has turned
o thousand "sentences' ty military commissions
into murders and other grave crimes. 1t is an en-
dorsement of the bold and fearless denunciations
with which the despised "copperheads' ussailed
the conduct of the military commissions. Mr..
Secretary Stewards 'little bell which tinkled the
| kncll Of so many victims, has been broken, and
from their graves the ghosts Of hundreds of mur-
dered men have emerged TO charge these lawless
military commissions With the "deep dnmnation Of
their taking off,"
| In this body there still seems to Gnger some vr-
tue, honesty and respect for the Constitution AL
though its chief belongs body and soul to tho Rad
cals, and administers Justice with the spirit and
prejudice Of partisan, majority Of the Court
are not unworthy automatons, ready and willing
to register the decrecs Of the Thad. Stevens eau
! cusses.
The con1pirators who are at work preparing to
degrade ten os the oldest States Of tho Union to
the condition Of Territories, know full we'll that
the fruit of their wicked labor will be turned to
dust and ashes by the men who have just decided
| that Military Commissions have again and again
| deliberately murdered American citizens.
In the gaudy, tawdry, gariuh legislative halls Of
| the Nep Capitol reckless and unprincipled dema-
gogues may outrage and insult the South end dis
honor the nation, but in the grand, hi0trionic old
Senate chamber, once tonanted and illuminated by
| the talent and genius of Calhoun, Hayne, Web
ster, Wright, Clay and host Of other giants who
have passed away, there now sits in grave and
decorous judgment body Of sageS who have juut
shown that ell is not yet loat.
The National Intelligencer, another able and in
fuential journal, uses the annexed language re-
specting this decision;
That the Union is aaved, in the full integrity of
its three great divisions, has become majestic
consummstion by the unanimous voice Of the Su-
preme Court in vindicaton of the civil Institutions
of the country. The moral weight Of the decision
in the Milligan case cannot be measured by that
of any Of the great constitutional questions which
shook the Republic in days gone by. For neither
in the breadth of the issue, the extravaganza Of
contemporary heresies the subject, in the
magnitude of the stake, could any past cause be-
fore that high court compare with this. But moro
than oil, the unanimity of the whole bench on ell
that was vital in this great question is without
previous example. In great constitutional ques-
tions heretofore, even when the court were unani-
nous (which happened but rarely on tho judg-
ment, they were various in their reesonings; and
in the greatest questions the dissenting opinions
we're all but as weighty as the judgment itself
Here the only diversion from the common current
of the judicial mind OF the supreme bench (and,
indeed, the bar of the country at large} was upon
the speculative question whether, under any cir
cumstanoes, it would DO possible to reconcile
military commission for the trial Of civilians With
the Constitution of the United States. All the
judges agreed that if such power could be found
in that instrument it was altogether latent yet,
and consequently, that for the purpose Of any ex-
istiug case there was no shadow of Law for the
monstrous and sanguinary pretensions with which
the disordered and perverted partisanshp Of the
times would strike down the liberties of the peo-
pie. The dicta of four of the judges go no farther
than to assert the power of Congress to legalize
military commissions. In all that is actual; in
all that has ever entered into discussion Of this
theme in the press the courts, or the halls Of Con-
gress in all that there is in the question: the con-
stitutional exponent of the law in this country,
has spoken in one voice Of rebuke, seated on the
exalted judgment seat of the nation, clothed in
the spotless ermine Of justice.
Not from the thckened tongue and blOodshot
eyes Of the boisterous harangue; not from the
poisoned plume or the nerveless equivocation Of
partisan editors; not from the honest but prepos-
ferrous vehemonos Of the political pulpit not even
from the speeches Of statesmen, pledged to party
measures, and bound by personal obligations, are
we to look for test Of loyalty, rule Of civil
obedience, criterion Of national patriotism. An
cient, benefcent juss majestic, it is the loV which
spreads from the judicial branch Of the organic
republic. he that hesitates in this obedience, or
pospones his respect, is ignorant Of freedom, un-