Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-20
DIsREG ARD or La v BY FHE.
GRANT apMTNIs EssA1IOE.

81 VA uA0StAuS hOSkO
Weaver was found guilty and SEN
fenced to be hung on the oath of
September, and unless some United
States. court shall interpose this
murder viii be perpctrated. 1t will
be remembered that when the des
cision of the military commission
was received by the President, he
submitted the question of the power
OF the military commission to try |
citizen to the Attorney General |
for his Interpretation of the law.
Attorney General Hoar gave an
opinion that under the reconstruc-
ton laws, it was competent for a
military commission to stry al
citizen Of Texas, and upon
the strength of this opinion,
Grant has approved the. find
ing of the commission. Is The
war was declared by proclamation
by the President in the recess Of
Congress, and after it had been
prosecuted for number of years,
the President declared it at an end,
and that The laws and authority of
the United States were respected
and obeyed throughout the coun-
try. This was done long after the
surrender of the last of the Confed-
crate troops. Thus we had both a
practical and a legal ending of the
war. But it suits the purposes of
the Radicals to regard the "unre-
constructed" States as still in a
state of war, and Attorney General
Hoar advises Grant that such is
their condition, and that it is COM
potent to govern the citizens of
these States by military law, or
rather he should have said, by
military caprice. The citizens Of
those States are quite as peaceful,
quito as submissive to the govern
ment and laws of the United States
as those of New York or Massachu-
sets. This is a fact notorious and
undeniable. Not man within
the broad limits of Virginia, Mis-
sissippi and Texas dreams of making
, war upon the government of the
United States, resisting its lawful
authority, or doing anything else
but honestly building up the for.
tunes of himself and the people
among whom he lives. Not a mar
within those States but desires
they should be represented and re-
presented at once in the Congress
of the United States. Would il
not have been a worthier occupa.
ton for the Attorney General to
have engaged in, and have re.
bounded more TO his fame if be
had advised the President that the
Supreme Court of the United
States had decided that military
commissions npnn- ciLizans in Tina
of peace were unlawful, and that
the decision Of that court was the
law and binding upon every officer
and citizen, high and low Would
it not have added TO his reputation
as a jurist TO have advised the Pre-
sident that every department O
the government had repeatedly re
eognized the fact that the war was
at an end, and that the government
having pied in its own courts il
several cases the fact OF the cessa
ton of hostilities, was now estoppeC
from taking any other position
We cannot conceive how a lawyer
could come to the conclusion thai
il was competent for Congress OF
any other department TO deny 8
fact patent TO all the world, or TO
attribute TO that body an absurdity
such as that we allude to What il
a state Of war may be a question
Of law as well as a question
of fact, but surely a state of peace
is not less question of fact, and if
so, where are the evidences of waI
in the State of Texas Mr.. HoaI
must have been hardly pressed
when he cited the existence of the
reconstruction acts on the statute
book, as proof that the people Of
Texas stood in a hostile attitude
towards the federal government
According TO this Massachusetts
judicial luminary that has arisen
TO enlighten the people of this
country, and especially Gen. Grant,
if Congress should see fit for the next
fifty or hundred years TO continue
in force upon one pretext or an
other the acts known as the ere.
construction acts" should see fit
not to receive the Senators and
Representatives of the States of
| Virginia, Mississippi and Texas,
they are to be considered and
treated as at war with the govern
ment of the United States, and their
citizens to be governed by military
law. Although this opinion of the
Attorney General has been received
with almost universal surprise and
Indignation by every lawyer who
has any respect for his legal char
acter, the President has acted upon