The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-03-13

in language 30 purely techmcah ana
not pertaining in the least degree to
their profession 2 If not, then each Eofii-f
Ger may define cruelty according to his.
own temper, and if it is not usual, he
will make it usual. Corporal punish
ment, imprisonment, the gag, the ball
and chain, and the almost insupportable
forms of torture invented for military
punishment, lie within the range of
choice. Third The sentence Of
commission is not to be executed with
out being approved by the commander,
if it affects life or liberty: and SEN
tence of death must be approved by the
President. This applies to cases in
which there has been trial and sem
tence. / take it to be clear, under this
bill, that the military commander may
condemn to death without even the
form of trial by military commission,
so that the life of the condemned may
depend upon the will of two men, in
stead ofone.
1t is plain that the authority here
given to the military officer amounts to
absolute despotism. But, to make it
still more uncomfortable, the bill provides
that it may be delegated to as many
subordinates as he chooses to appoint;
for it declares that he shall punish or
cause to be punished.
Such power has not been welded by any
monarch in England for more than five hull
dred years. In all that time no people who
speak the English language have borne such
servitude. Itreduces the whole population
of the ten States-all persons, of every col
or, sex and condition, and every stranger
within their limits-to the most abject and
| degrading slavery. No master ever had q
control SO absolute over his slaves as this
bill gives to the military officers over both
white and colored persons.
It may be answered to this that the officers
of the army are too magnanimous just, hui
name to Cypress and trample upon subju-
gated people. I do not doubt that army Of
ficers are as we'll entitled to this kind ofcon-
| fidence as any other class of men. But the
history of the world has been written in vain,
if it does not teach US that unrestrained au-
thority can never be safely trusted in human
hands. It is almost sure to be more or less
abused under any circumstances, and it has
always resulted in gross tyranny where the
| rulers who exercise it are strangers to their
subjects, and come among them as the rep
resentatives of distant power, and more
especially when the power that sends themis
unfriendly. Governments closely resembling
that here proposed have been fairly tried in
Hungary and Poland, and the suffering en-
dured by those people reused the sympa-
s +l,n ial in,
Ireland and, though tempered at first by
principles of English law, it gave birth to
cruelties so atrocious that they are never re-
counted without just indignation. The
| French Convention armed its deputies with
this power, and sent them to the Southern de.
partments of the republic. The massacres,
murders, and other atrocities which they
committed show what the passions of the
ablest men in the most civilized society will
tempt them to do when wholly unrestrained
by law. t 7
The men of our race in every age have
| struggled to tie up the hands of their Gov
ernments and keep them within the law; be-
cause their own experience of all mankind
taught them that rulers could not be relied
OF. to concede those rights which they were
not legally bound to respect. The head of
great empire has sometimes governed it
with mild and paternal sway; but the kind
ness of an irresponsible deputy never yields
| what the law does not extort from him. Be-
tween such master and the people subject
| ed to his domination there can be nothing
but enmity; he Furnishes them if they resist
| his authority, and, if they submit to it, he
hates them for their servility.
| l come now to a question which is if pos
sible, still more important. Have we the
power to establish and carry into execution
measure like this? I answer, certainly
not, if we derive our authority from the Con-
stitution, and if we are bound by the limi-
tations which it imposes. er
This proposition is perfectly clear-that
no branch of the Federal Government, exec
utive, legislative or judicial, can have any
just powers, except those which it derives
through, and exercises under, the organic
law of the Union. Outside of the Constitu-
ton, we have no legal authority more than
private citizens, and within it we have only
so much as that instrument gives us. This
broad principle limits all our functions, and
applies to all subjects. 1t protects not only
the citizens of States which are within the
Union, but it shields every human being
|
ton. We have no right to do in one place,
more than another, that which the Constitu-
ton says we shall not do at ALL If, there
fore, the Southern States were in truth out
of the Union, we could not treat their peo-
pie in way which the fundamental law for
bids.
Some persons assume that the success OF
our arms in crushing the opposition which
was made in some of the States to the exc
cution of the Federal laws, reduced those
States and all their people-the innocent as
well as the guilty-to the condition of vassa-
lage, and gave us power over them which
the Constitution does not bestow, or define
or limit No fallacy can be more transpa-
rent than this. Our victories subjected the
insurgents to legal obedience, not to the yoke
fan arbitrary despotism. When an abso.
lutte sovereign reduces his rebellious subjects
he may deal with them according to hi.
pleasure because he had that power before
But when limited monarch puts down an
instruction, he must still govern according
to law. If an instruction should take place
in one of our States against the authority of
the State government and end in the over
throw of those who planned it, would that
take away the rights of all the people of the
counties where it was favored by part or
majority of the population Could they, fol
such reason, be wholly outlawed and de
prived of their representation in the Legis
lature 2 have always contended that the
Government of the United States was sover-
eign within its constitutional sphere; that il
executed its laws, like the States themselves
by applying its coercive powers directly te
individuals; and that it could put down in
surrection with the same effect as State