The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1867-04-04

quested to publish these proceedings.
w. +. KERCHEVAL,
Chairman.
NAru. FRIzzELL, Secretary.
-1
The South and the Force Bill.
From the Nashville Union & Dispatch.l
Three of the Military Governors
under the unconstitutional and arbitra
ry force bill have assumed the dutie
oftheir offices and the States of Vir
ginia, North and South Carolina, Louis
lana and Texas are enjoying the felici
ties of martial law. In Louisiana tn,
regular legal and constitutional cleo
tons for the municipal offices of New
Orleans were stopped by a military cdict
This vas the Inauguration of the Rad
ical plan in that State. The next steE
ofthe Brigadier Governor was the ar
bitrary removal Of the Attorney Gen
eral Of the State, the Mayor of the city
of New Orleans, and TIE Judge Of the
First District Court in that city, and tc
appoint their successors respectively
1t was, doubtless, deemed importan!
that a precedent should be at once es.
tablished, showing the military abso.
lutism over the civil administration
both general and municipal. No ground
is urged, no reason alleged; but the OF.
der is simple and imperative--it is the
will Of the military imperator, respon-
sible to no one but himself, and is SO
proclaimed rs to appear as a wanton
exercise of power, because the power
was possessed under the law. As q
pregnant fact in the current history OF
the subversion of publican Ian marks
and institutions, we bring forward the
order from the Geographic columns Of
yesterday, and place it where it can be
more fully inspected and admired
Here it is:
GENERAL ORDER No. 5.-Andrew j.
Heron, Attorney General of the State
of Louisiana, Jno. L. Monroe, Mayor
of New Orleans, and Edmund Abel,
Judge of the First District Court ofthe
city of New Orleans, are hereby re-
moved from their respective offices
from II NJ. to day. The following ap-
pointments arc made to take effect at
the same date B. L. Lynch, Attorney
General of the State of Louisiana, Ed.
ward Heath, Mayor of New Orleans,
and W. w. Howe, Judges of the First
District Court of New Orleans. Each
person removed will turn over all books
papers, records, etc, pertaining to his
office, to the appointed thereto. The
authority of the latter will be duly res
pected and enforced.
BY command Of
Maj. Gen. p. II. SHERIDAN.
(Signed. GEO. L. HARrsUrF, A. A. G..
In the very midst of profound peace
when there is not an arm raised against
the civil authority of the government,
a military ruler, sustained by bayonets,
is silencing the people and displacing
the agents of their choice from the
rights and functions of their official pc.
sitions! For the time-being and as
long as this state of things continues, it
is nonsense to talk of civil liberty, or of
constitutional guarantees. 1t is a des-
potism as absolute rs could be posi-
bly, devised. Nay more it encourages
usurpation and tyranny on the part of
the little military subalterns who as
sumo the role of dictators AZ pleasure,
and without the authority of the ''force
bill " itself. This fact is amply illus.
tratcd by the officious and unauthorized
interference of an inferior post officer
at Augusta, interdicting the regular
municipal elections in that city. Well
might the President exclaim, as he
does with patriotic Indignation in his
last veto message: cit is absurd--it is
prepostrous-it lisa scott and satire or
constitutional liberty for forms of gov
crnmcnt to be prescribed by military
leaders, and tue tight of suffrage be ex-
ercised at the point of the sword" And
he never uttered a more solemn truth
than, when he says in the same docu-
ment:
"When I contemplate the millions
of our fellow-citizens of the South,
with no alternative left but to impose
upon themselves this fearful and untried
experiment Of complete negro enfran-
chisemont, and white disfranchisemcnt,
Git may be almost completed or sub
init indefinitely to martial law, without
single attribute of freemcn, deprived
of all the sacred guarantees Of our Fed
eral constitution, and threatened with
even worse wrongs, it seems to me
their condition is the most deplorable
to which any people can be reduced
Yet, under these 1erce prosecutions,
the people of the South, relying on the
ultimate triumph Of the %immutable prin'
ciples of human right, liberty and jus.
tice, are passing through the ordeal
with an elevation of spirit, Of dignity
and courage worthy Of them and of the
cause of freedom. They do not quar-.
rel with fate T; but are uniting to q man
in the only course possible under the
circumstances. Under the guidance of
the wisest and best among them they
are acting their part to save the temple
totters amid the revels Of the
sacriligious Knockers and should con-
stitutiOnal liberty survive in this coun-
try it will owe its preservation to the
wisdom, patience, virtue and patriot.
ism of the South. The stone which the
builders have rejected will become the
chief corner Of the temple, il We re-