Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-21
THE YERGnR CASE THE sU-

III StI Cdoto u giving AiSC W 81 va - -
conjectures4 as TO the cause of this delay,
some of which are not at all compliments
airy to the integrity and independence of
that department Of the government. A
Washington dispatch of the 9th inst, to
one of our Southern exchanges gives This
reason for the delay:
sit is learned that, with the substan-
tial concurrence of the administration,
counsel have agreed that the Hergcr case
shall not be argued on the pending pctl-
ton for hd6eas corpus The Attorney
General, in common with all of the mem
bers of the Supreme Court bar, feel con-
fident that the court, having decided that
it had jurisdiction in the case, viii decide
in this petition that portion of the recon-
structiOn laws unconstitutional which pro-
Vides for the trial of Yerger by military
commission. Rather than have such a
decision made, the administration Is VII
ling that the sentence of 1erger shall re-
main in the Presidents hands until Mis-
sissippi is reconstructed, when the pris-
oner can be turned over to civil court.
He will probably then make the plea that
he has been once tried for his life, and
cannot, under the Constitution of the
United States, be again put in jeopardy
Il may be that the Grant administration
is thus seeking to avoid the consequent
ces of a decision prOnouncing at least
portion of the reconstruction laws uncon-
stitutional. There has been an evident
purpose on the part of the leading Radi-
Gals to avoid all tests before the Supreme
Court as to the constitutionality of the
laws under which the Southern States
have been and are being reconstructed.
If these test cases can be shirked until
the remaining States-Virginia, Missis-
sippi and Texas-have been restored to
their relations TO the Union according to
the Radical programme, the party under
whose sanction the atrocities of military
rule have been sanctioned, will be salts
fed, as it is not probable question
would then be made as to the illegally of
the acts of the Satraps, on the irregularity
of The manner in which the claws "
were executed and "justice" admins
tered. The Yerger case is important to
the individual concerned, but it receives
additional importance from recent occur
rences in Virginia and Texas. In the
former State Satrap Candy has directed
civil proceedings in several cases to be
quashed and the parties held to be turned
over to the military to be tried by court
martial, the organization of which has
been ordered by him. In Texas, the
military court which has been in session
for some time at jefferson, engaged in
The trial of citizens, has concluded
its labors hv variety Of findings and
sentences, some of which, where
persons have been found guilty
and sentenced 10 Imprisonment for life,
have been approved by the commanding
general and ordered to be carried into eX-
ecution, and others, where the parties
were acquitted, have been disapproved.
| The Baltimore SIM says: In the face
of distinct and authoritative decision OF
the Supreme Court rs to the Illegally OF
military rule and of the trial Of citizens
bv military tribunals in time of peace,
such cases rs the foregoing could hardly
| have occurred. Such n decision has al
ready been rendered in the case of Mill
can. who was citizen of Indiana, but it
is claimed by the military that different
rule applies to those States which, having
taken part in the rebellion, have not been
formally restored by Congress 10 their
rights in the Union, but continue subject
10 military control Two cases have been
brought to the bar of the Supreme Court
calculated TO test The validity of this dis
| tincfion. The first was McArdie's case,
the other Ycrger'S, both arising in The
State of Mississippi In McArdle's case
! the question came before the Court upon
an appeal from the Circuit Court Of the
United States for the Southern Dis
| trict of Mississippi, to which comt
| NcArdlc had Intellectually applied
for relief by hahcas corpus from
military restraint The application
had been made and the appeal talier
under an act Of Congress passed Feb
| >, 1867, extending the origina
jurisdiction by habcas corpus of the Dis
lricl and Circuit CO,uts of the United
States to al cases Of restraint of liberty
in violation Of the Constitution, treatie.
or laws Of the United States, and au
Ihogizing appeals in such cases 10 thc
Supreme Court from judgments Of Tho
| Circuit Counts. After the case had beor
argued before the Supreme Court and be-
fore any decision had been announced
'beforc, (savs Chief Justice Chase il
his recent opinion in the Yergcr case,
the court had time to consider the de
cision proper to be made an act repeal
inc the act Of 1867 was introduced into
Congress. This act, continues the
Chief Justice, 'was carried through botl
houses, sent to the President returned
with hisobicctions, repasscd by the con
sfilutional majority in each house, anC
became a law On the 9th of March, with
in IS days after the conclusion of the
| argument The repeal had the effect
in the Judgment of the court, Of busting
its Jurisdiction in McArdle's case under
the act of 1867. The case according
" fell 10 the ground without
any decision being arrived a
upon the great and vital Ques-
ton involved. In Yergcr's case, which
comes up in the form of an application
for a writ Of ccrtiorari to review the pro
cccdings of The Circuit Court below, anC
to grant a writ of habeas corpus directed
! To the military officer to whose custody
Ycrgcr was remanded, ny virtue Of an ar
rangcmcnt between The Attorney Genera
and the counsel for The petitioner, an ar
| gnmcnt has been had, which was confined
10 The single question whether since Tho
| repeating act of 1865, the Supreme Court
has any jurisdiction in the premises. Tho
court has decided that il has jurisdiction,
and that the repeating ;ct was confined in
its operation to the act of 1867, and left
untouched thcappelatc jurisdiction which
the Supreme Court had before under The
Judiciary act of 1889. The court signiicd
It's willingness to grant the writ prayed
| for whenever counsel should move for it.