Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-23
mTLITARx JusTloe

mALA IAN JUSTICE.
we do not know that we can &C
anything to this announcement
made from Washington few da,
ago:
1.-The military COMMISSION whic
convened at Austin, : exas, on II
18th of September, 1868, 10 II
James Weaver, a civilian, for q
murder of another civilian, name
Anthony Knowles, have complete
thelr labors by finding the accuse
guilty of murder in the first degre,
and sentencing him to be hanged
de will be hanged On the oath q
v September next.
The findings of the court-martia
which convened at Atlanta, Geor
gla, July Is, 1868, wherein privat
Henry Moyatt, of company b, six
teenth United States infantry. wa,
tried for the murder Of a colore,
man named Henry Gillespie, ant
found guilty, have been submitted
10 The President, and by him disap
proved, and the prisoner ordered &c
be discharged from custody anG
from the service of the United
States"
In the first case, the utter lille.
gality of the procedure appears on
Its face. One civilian is tried for the
murder of another civilian, and by
a military commission! If there
was a murder, says the Philadelpbis
Age, no lawful tribunal has SO
found certainly the more deliberate
murder is that which is now an
nounced for the oath of September
next, with Ulysses S. Grant as alder
and abettor.
In the second case, a soldier is
tired p; he, too, it seems, murdered a
colored man such is the Judgment
oil a tribunal recognized by the con-
sttution of the United States for
cases arising Gin the land or ma;
val forces" But this lawful SEN
tence the President disapproves,
and dismisses the convict from Gus
tody with 4 punishment which
seems more like a reward! This is
the military justice of the military
President. II, in the unnatural
strife which Radicalism fosters be-
tween the races, a homicide occurs
the act is murder, if done by 8
Southern white man, and the pun
ishment is death, in contempt of all
the forms Of law. Neither passion
nor other extenuatiOn is urged on
the side of mercy. Tender-hearted
Radlcalism that cannot bear to see
the most deliberate murderer mount
the scatiold at the North, exuIts at
the execution Of white man of the
South. Vet let us admire the priv
ilege that it accords to the military
profession. A soldier may kill
anybody at the SOuth-even a ne
gro, and go scot free! We have
before adverted TO the case of an
officer of the United States Ar
sensl, at Mount Vernon, Ala
bama, who had a quarrel with a
private citizen ofthatneighborhood.
The officer sent for the citizen, and
brought him unarmed and under
guard into his august presence, and
then and there, with his own pistol,
and with his own hand, he shot his
captive through the neck, INJECTING
a mortal wound. The newspapers
made some str over the case, for
the war was then thought to be over
-HOar had not corrected that i'm
preston on the public mind. The
gallant Captain was tried by his
military comrades, and they sen
fenced him, not to the halter, but
to six months confinement in "a
fortress; the lot, this, of many an
officer who has committed no of
Tense. Such is the foul thing
that now rears its head in a free
country, in time of profound peace,
under the name Of military justice
Ii began ITS course with the murder
of poor old womsn, now recog-
niZed 10y every one as innocent. 1t
is fostered by Radicalism as a fit in
strument for lis new war. "a war
against civil liberty. Let all who
are true TO the great principles Of
free civil government make haste to
vindicate them at the polls-while
the polls are still open among us.