The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-15

should not be the means of securing the peace
of Europe, as well as its progress in liberty
and civilization.
THE PHILADELPHIA OUTRAGE.
From the NJ Y.rWorld- "a aFHreh ese
1t is difficult to restrain ourselves within
the limits of decorum in what it becomes us
to say of the outrage perpetrated in Philadel-
phia by the United States Marshal, under
color of the Congressional election law. We
have already given some of the reasons for
regarding this law as palpably unconstitu-
tional. That it is naked usurpation of
powers not vested in Congress we entertain
no doubt. The construction and operation
which the Federal authorities have given it
in Philadelphia prove the correctness of our
structures. Here is O law which undertakes
to authorize nadrshdls to keep the peace in
the streets of city at elections by employing
q military force to displace the local police
authorities, and the constitutional provision
under which this power is claimed is clause
authorizing Congress to regulate the naGnner
of holding an election of members of that
body! 1t is superduous to say that this
provision was never designed 8g to
comprehend anything but power to
determine whether representatives in
Congress shall be chosen in districts or by
q neral ticket, and how the votes shall be
received, when there exists any reason for
changing the State regulations on these
points. But the popular tribunal, to which
the press addresses itself, will not authori-
tatively determine the validity of this law.
We confne ourselves therefore, at present,
to the avowed construction and operation
given to this law in Philadelphia. There can
be no doubt that the Marshal acted under
previous instructions from the Presidents
military man, given to military methods
and we trust that not moment will pass
after the assembling of Congress without
call for those instructions. But, with or
without instructions, the Marshal undertakes
to appoint deputies to keep the peace at sn
election, and to back them by military
force. This he justifies under section of
the act which purports to clothe him with the
power of appointing deputies to keep the peace,
while it is in another section that the Presi-
de1t is authorized to employ the army and navy
to enforce the general provisions of the act
Let the people then direct their attention to
the fact that Congress has interfered to sweep
into the hands of the Marshal of the United
States, on his sole judgement of the supposed
exigency, the whole control of the peace of
any ''city containing more than twenty thou
sand inhabitants" and to authorize him to
fire upon and kill in the streets people whom
the said Marshal judges to be disturbing the
peace. Let us suppose that the commanding
oficerbf the marines had ordered his men to
fire on the crowd in the streets of Philadel-
phia, and that death had ensued. Unless all
law in Pennsylvania is prostrated under the
military heel of General Grant, the officer
would be indicted and tried for murder. He
must then justify under some order; and he
proceeds to justify under an order given to
him by the Marshal to fire on the citizens in
the street engaged, in the Marshals judg-
ment, in breaking the peace at an election!
| Can nything be more monstrous? Yet this
| is exactly what this act of Congress comes to,
| according to its administration in Philadel-
phia and the understanding of his powers and
| duties by the Marshal. The people of this
country cannot have forgotten that, if there
| is one principle of the common law more
| sacred, important, and indispensable than
another. it is that infexible rule which re-
| quires the employment of military force in
the preservation of the public peace, to be
under the control of responsible civil
magistrates. When, in the Lord George
Gordon riots of 1870, all London was for
days at the mercy of mob and the
| military had to be called out, not q
bayonet was lifted or a shot fred or an indi-
vidual arrested by the military until the King,
in his capacity of supreme civil magistrate,
had given the necessary orders for the
| soldiers to act; and our own laws are
| saturated with the principle that death in
fiicted by soldier, in the preservation of the
| peace, is murder, unless the order to inflict il
is given on the spot by the magistracy in
whom the law has specially lodged tha
power. Do our rulers at Washington imagine
that the people will Tolerate this power IN
the hands of marshal, and that a marsha
can be authorized to use q military fore,
under the pretext Of keeping the peace? DE-
they suppose it is to be tolerated that Unitec
States mdrshdts shall be empowered to ''arres
for dny offence or breach Of the peace com
mitted in their view," under Constitution
which gives no eognizance whatever o.
breaches of the peace to either the military
or civil authorities of the United States?
they do, they have something to learn con
cerning tho laws of the land and the spirit O
the people. We advise all who may be con
cerned in the direction of soldiers to keel
the peace in our streets to remember, wheI
they proceed to use force, that behind then
stands the hangman duly appointed by Law
for all who commit murder. fs,l8
Enough for to-day. This matter will no
be allowed to rest. Our people viii act as be
comes a community of law and order, pos
sessed of the needful means for preservin
them and protecting citizens in their civi
privileges and the safety OF their lives.