American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-10-30
The Yerger Case.


From the New Orleans Picayune.
The Yerger case before the SUI
preme Court of the United States
has advanced one important step.
The court on Monday, Overruied the
plea to the jurisdiction,
and decided that it has authority to
the appeal, and under the
pleadings to reverse the decision OF /
the cicuit court below, and to dis |
charge the prisoner, if he shall have
been unlawtu,ly detained. The ar |
gument on the merits of the case |
will next follow. We do not know
whether a day has been fixed for
that hearing.
The case before the court involves
the lawfulness of military commits.
sioas in time of peace, within the
States that have not been reconstruc-
ted on the congressional plan. The
ease of Milliken decided that militia.
.ry commissions were unlawful IN
the loyal" States, except where
the actual existenco and presenc9 OF
war suspend.lhe civil authorities, or
civil courts cannot be held. This
case inquiries further, how far there
| is any constitutional authority for
maintaining military government
and suspending civil processes, in
Nimes of peace, when there Is no OBJ
/ stacle to the action of the ordinary
courts, except that which is inter
posed by military assertion of an
arbitrary authority above them.
J Included III this inquiry, necessarily,
is the Question, whether the constl-
tuition, in this respect, when it as
sprts the inviolability of personal
liberty, except by due process OF
law, continues to have force in the
States which Congress refuses to per
init to be represented aa i'll the
Union; and, if the constitution he
decided to prevail, how far, and tn
what other acts of Congress, the eff
feet of the decision MAY extend.
Tnis way, the whole question may
possibly he reached, whether powers
which were pleaded III support OF
the SuSpt nsion of the hdbedS COrpuS
act, as means for carrying on q
war, still exist in period of pro
found peace and whether the re
crssities of an Imperfect national eX
istence. which were allowed to inSti
fy the indefinite extension of those
powers to every case in which exp,
diency feigned alarm, are still con
s;dered to sulv,ve in any portion o
, The country.
These inquiries are supposed, b,
some Radical agii ators, to portend ;
a judicial Judgment against the re
t construction acts Of Congress. and t
carry ont the decision, an overthrov
. OF the whole scheme, nom the tonnd
alton. Accordingly, a strain f in
timidation against the court ha
5 been taken up, chiefly under the in
. tiuence of Forne'ys two papers-on
I at Washington and the other a
Philadelphia. These are invokin;
the interposiIiOn of Congress to dis
+ arm the decision Of the court OF an,
: such effects, and, if time serves, +
q lcgislate in order to deprive til
,. present court of Il Q power OF maxim;
such a decision. Forney declare
;, that the President will pay no hce'
!, TO decision which takes 1ergr
: from military custody, and tina
!. Congress will back him mp in defy
ing the judiciary. Their fanatica
talk betokrns an apprehension tina
! the dt cision of the court will b
v against military commissions, an
9 to that extent encourages the hop
q that this much will be done toward
the restoration of civil tribunals i
these prosecuted States. But W
are far from expecting from a deci:
y ion of the Supreme Court any II
e veFsal of the facts of reconstruction
q OF any restoration of the statH
!. which that policy has overthrow
The court will, il we judge rightly {
" the future from the past, CAREFUL
!, abstain from the purely polite;
is branches of the question, and az
n indge the case on the law for tI
,, case, leaving the political deduction
and applications to be made by til
l. political power. They may drelal
e the criminal jurisdiction of militar
G admissions to be unlawful, aud
s. this way undo a great deal that Ia
been done and is now doing in til;
" way. But we would deceive on
l. selves very much, il we we're to SUI
Q pose that any decision of the cou
>, will undo what is done in the recni
q stIuctpd States. 1t would, we III
=. agiue have as little effect upon OF
= condition as it would have in brin
IL ing back Mrs. Surratt 10y a jud
g mcnt that the commission While
\ convicted an innocent woman vi
n an unlawful one. The law may
n successfully set up again, but Il
victims are dead.