Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-01

\ ueuerhi OrQtFb NO. ~ was lbbueu NJ ANtW
Orleans, November 20, 1867, and your
letter was dated January II, 1868. AL
lowing time for order No. 40 TO reach
Texas, and become generally known,
some additional time must have elapsed
before its effect would be manifested and
a yet further time must transpire before
you would be able TO collect the evidence
Of what you term" the condition of the
country" and yet after all this you
would have to make the necessary inves-
| legations to ascertain il order No. 40 or
something else was the cause. The time,
therefore, remaining to enable you,
before the 18th Of January, 1868, to
reach satisfactory conclusion on so
delicate aud nice question must have
been very short How you proceeded,
whether you Investigated yourself or
through third persons, and If 50, who
they were, what their competency and
fairness, on what evidence you rested
your conclusion, or whether you ascer-
tanned any facts at all, are points upon
which your letter so discreetly omits all
mention, that may well be excused for
not relying principally upon it; nor is
my difficulty diminished by the fact that
in another part of your letter you state
that ever since the close of the war a
very large portion of the people have
had no affection for the government, but
bitterness offeeling only. Had the duty
of publishing and circulating through
the country long before it reached me,
your statement that the action OF the
| district commander was increasing crime
and hostile feeling against the govern
ment, been less painful to your sensi-
bilities, it might possibly have occurred
to you to furnish something on the sub
ject in addition to your bare assertion.
But what was order No 40, and how
could it have the effect you attribute to
it2 1t sets forth that "the great prin-
ciples of American liberty are still the
Inheritance of this people and ever
should be-" That the right Of trial by
Jury, the hdbeds corpus, the liberty of the
press, the freedom of speech, and the ma
tional rights of person and property must
be preserved" Will you question the truth
ofthese declarations Which one of these
great principles of liberty are you
ready to deny and repudate Whoever
does so avows himself the enemy of hu-
man liberty and the advocate of despot-
ism. Was there any intimation in gen.
eral order No. 40, that any crimes or
breaches of law would be countenanced 7
You know that there was not. On the
contrary, you know perfectly we'll that
| while 1.-THE consideration of crimes and
offenses committed in the Fifth Military
| District was referred to the judgment of
| the regular civil tribunals, pledge was
given in order No. 40, which all under
stood, that tribunals would be supported
in their lawful jurisdiction, and that
"forcible resistance to law would be in
stantly suppressed by arms" You will
| not affirm that this. pledge has ever been
| forfeited There has not been moment
since | have been in command OF the
Fifth District, when the whole military
force in my hands has not been ready to
support the civil authorities of Texas in
the execution of the laws. And am un-
willing to believe they would refuse to
call for aid if they needed it.
I, There are some considerations which,
| Il seems to me, should cause you to hes-
tate before induging in Wholesale CEN
sures against the civil authorities of
Texas. You are yourself the chief of those
authorities, not elected by the people, but
created by the military. Not long after
| YOU had thus come into Office, all the
| Judges of the Supreme Court in Texas
five in number-were removed from
office and new appointments made;
twelve of the seventeen district judges
| we're removed and others appointed.
| County officers, more or less, in seventy
| five out of one hundred and twenty-elght
counties, were removed and others APP
pointed in their places. 1t is fair to con-
cude that the executive and judicial
civil fuuctionaries in Texas are the per-
sons whom you desired to fill the Offices.
IL is proper to mention, also, that none
but registered citizens, and only those
who could take the test oath, have been
allowed to serve as jurors during your
administration. Now, it is against this
local government, created by military
power prior to my coming here, and so
composed of your personal and political
friends, that you have preferred the most
grievous complaints. 1t is of them that
YOU have asserted they will not do their
duty; they will not maintain justice;
will not arrest offenders will not punish
crimes and that out of one hundred
homicides committed in the last twelve
months, not over ten arrests have been
made; and by means of such gross dis
regard Of duty, you declare that neither
property nor life is safe in Texas.
Certainly you could have said nothing
more to the discredit of the officials who
are now in office. If the facts be as you
al!ege, a mystery is presented for which
can imagine no explanation. Why is
it that your political friends, backed up
and sustained by the whole military pow
er of the United States in this district,
should be unwilling to enforce the laws
against that part of the population lately
in rebellion, and whom you represent as
the offenders. In all the history of these
troubles, have never seen or heard be-
fore OF such fact / repeat, if the fact
be so, it is q profound mystery, utterly
surprising nay comprehension. l am
constrained to declare that l believe
you are in very great error as to
facts. On careful examination at the pro-
per source, l fnd that at the date of your
letter, four cases only, of homicides, had
been reported to these headquarters as
having occurred since November 2s,
1867, the date OF order 40, and these
cases we're ordered to be tried or investi-
gated as soon as the reports were re-
ceived. However, the fact of the one
hundred homicides may still be correct,
as stated by you. The freedmen's bureau
in Texas reported one hundred and
sixty; how many Of these were BY In
dians and Mexicans, and how the re-
mainder we're classified, is not known;
nor is it known whether these data are
accurate.