The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1867-03-14

profession If not, then, each officer
may define cruelty according to bis o wn
temper, and If 1t be not usual, he will
make It usual. Corporeal punishment,
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 com
mission is not TO be executed without
being approved by the commander, IL it
effect life or liberty, and sentence Of
death must be approved by, the Presi-
dent. This applies to cases in which
there has been trial and sentence.
take tito be clear, under this Bill, that
the military commander may condemn
TO death without even the form of
trial by a Militsry Commission, so that
the life of the condemned may depend
upon the will Of two men, instead of
one.
1t is plain that the authority here
given to the military officer amounts t.
absolute despotism. But, to make it
still more unendurable, the Bill provides
that it may be delegated to as many
subordinates as he chooses to appoint;
for il declares that'h shall "punish or
cause 10 be punished" Such power
has not been welded by any monarch
in England. for more than FIVE hundred
years. In all that time no people who
speak the English language haveborne
such servitude. 1t reduces the whole
population of the ten States-all per-
sons, of every color, sex, and condition,
and every stranger within their limits
to the most abject and degrading slave.
ry.- No master ever had control so
absolute over his slaves, as this Bill
gives to military officers, over both
white and colored persons.
1t may be answered to this, that The
officers Of the army are too magnani-
nous, just, and humane to oppress and
trample upon a suhjugated people. l
do not doubt that the army officers are
as well entitled to this kind of coufid-
ence as any other class of men. But
the history Of the world has been writ
ten in vain, il it do not teach US that
unrestrained authority can never be safe.
ly trusted in human hands. It is al
most sure 10 be more or less abused nm
der any circumstances, and it has always
resulted in gross tyranny where the ru
lers who exercise it are strangers TO their
subjects, aud come among them as the
representatives of distant power, and
more especially when the power tha,
sends them is unfiiendly. Governments
closely resembling that here proposed,
have been fairly tried in Hungary and
Poland, and the suffering endured by
those people reused the sympa,hies of
the entire world. II was tried in Ire
land, and, though tempered at first by
principles Of English law, i: gave birth
TO cruelries so atrocious that they are
never recounted without just Indignation.
The French Convention armed its dep
uties with this power, and sent them TO
the Southern departments of the Re-
public. The massscres, 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 unre-
strained by law.
The men Of our race in every age
have struggled to tie up the hands Of
their governments and keep them with>
in the law; because their own expert
ence Of all mankind taught them that
rulers could not be relied on 10 coucede
those rights which they were not legal
ly bound to respect. The head Of
great empire has sometimes governed it
with a mild and paternal sway but the
kindness Of an irresponsible deputy new
er yields what the law does not extort
from him. Between such master and
the people subjected to his domination,
there can be nothing but enmity he
Furnishes them if they resist his author.
ity, and, il they submit to it, he hates
them for their seryility.
come now 10 a question which is, If
possible, still more important. Have
we the power to establish and carry in.
to execution measure like this? Ian
sWer, certainly not, if we derive our
authority from the Constitution, and If
we are bound by the Limitations which
it timposes. o..
This proposition is perfectly cleaI--
that no branch of the Federal Govern
ment, executive, 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 Constitution, we have no
legal authority more. than private eili>
Eens, and within it we have only so much
as that instrument gives us. This broad
principle limits all our functions, and
applies 10 all subjects. 1t protects not
only the citizens of States which are
within the Union. but i. ehields every
human being who comes or is brought
| under our Jurisdiction. We have no