The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-23

TO power. lQ6 series OI SJHrtllng aQQ uu6X-
pected events (which characterized the late
war may not be quite at an end even now.
KU-KLUX IN CONGRESS.
From the N. p. World.
According to present appearances, no Ku-
klux bill will be passed at the present session,
and nothing done beyond the appointment of
q committee of investigation. The reason of
this seeming forbearsnce is that there are
some cear-headed lawyers among the Repub-
lean members of Congress, and no lawyer
who is honest and intelligent will say that
Gong ress has any power to punish ordinary
crimes of violence committed within the juris-
diction of State. Congress has no more
authority to take cognizance OF. such offenses
than the State of New York has to punish q
murder committed in the State of Illinois.
A committee of investigation is acquiesced
in by Democrats, because they believe it will
explode the wild exaggerations and reckless
falsehoods of the Republican press; not be-
cause they believe it can furnish grounds for
legislation by Congress. Competent Repub-
Gcan lawyers perceive as clearly as the Demo-
crats that such legislation would be unconsti-
tutional; but they hope that committee of
investigation will serve party ends. The Re-
publicans disclosed their real aim ON Tuesday
by proposing in the Senate that the commit
tee of investigation be permitted to print
and publish the results of their inquiries
from time to time during the
recess. This extraordinary propo-
sal needs no interpreter. 1t shows that
the Republican party feels the need of a
''bloody shirt, to be carried as banner in
the fall elections. A large majority of the
committee will of course be Republicans;
and the design of having them report 'from
time to time during the recess, is to furnish
a hideous raw-h ad- and bloody bones just on
the eve of the autumnal elections to rouse
and invigorate the Republican party. This
proposal is tacit confession that the COM
mittee is meant by the Republicans as an
electioneering device, and that they are
sensible it can furnish no pro-
per ground for legislation. The Re
publican majority of the committee will
make it their business to find Cor invent) in
fammatory matter to influence the fall cleo
tions in the Northern States; it being we'll
understood that the Republican press will
spread before their readers the reports of the
Republican majority made from time to
time, and take no notice of the rectifying
reports of the Democratic minority. There
is no precedent for @ Congressional COM
mittee making report except to Congress
by whom they were appointed. The proposal
that the Ku-klux Committee shall furnish
electioneeripg documents for the Republican
party during the recess, shows that the OBJ
iect in view is not legislation to uphold order
in the South, but inhammatory appeals to ena-
BILE the supporters of General Grant to carry
the fall elections in the North.
1t is impossible for any Republican men,
Der to frame Ku-klux bill which would not
be in clear and fragrant violation of the Con-
stitution. Every such bill is palpable usur-
patton of the exclusive jurisdiction of the
State over ordinary crimes committed within
their limits. 1t is not pretended by anybody
that the State governments are not competent
to punish the Ku-klux outrages, supposing
the alleged outrages to be real. 1t will
be readily admitted by the most hot
headed radical of them all, that it is both
the right and the duty of the State
authorities to suppress and punish such
acts of violence. For in what do these pre-
tended Ku-klux outrages consist Why, in
murder, manslaughter, arson, manning, and
other crimes of violence against person and
property. Now these are crimes which the
United States have never attempted to punish,
and have no authority to punish, except when
committed on the high seas or within places
Qike the District of Columbia and the forts)
where the United States have exclusive juris-
diction. The whole body of the criminal
statutes carefully recognize this limitation, as
will sufficiently appear in the following cita-
tiens from the United States Statutes at
Large:-
'gf any person or persons shall, within any fort
arsenal, dock yard, magazine, or In any other place
or district OF couhtrI under the sole and exclusive
jurisdiction OF the United States commit the crime
OF willul murder, such person or persons on being
thereof convicted shall suffer death.
'f any person or persons shall, within any FORT
arsenal, dock-yard magazine or other place dis
trct OF country under the sole and exclusive juris
diction OF the United States commit the crime OF
mansaughter and be thereof convicted, etc. etc.
"If any person or persons within any places upon
the and under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction OF
the United States, shall uDlawfuy cut OF the ear
ears, cut out or disable the tongue put out an eye
slit the nose cut on the nose or a lip, cut off
or disable any limb or member Of any person, etc.
| etc.
'If any person within any place within the sole
ard exclusive jurisdiction OF the United States, or
upon the high seas, shall take and carry away, with
an intent TO steal or puroin, the personal property
| Of another, etc ETC."
| We might extend such quotations from the
statutes; but enough has been given to show
how carefully Congress, in its criminal legis-
latioD, has respected the exclusive Jurisdiction
of the States and avoided interfering beyond
its constitutional authority The principle
TO which all such legislation is conformed is,
that Congress has the same power to punish
ordinary crimes committed within the forts
arsensls, ETC., that the States have to punish
them when committed within their own State
limits; but that its jurisdiction is as strictly
confined to such places as the criminal juris-
diction of each State is confined to its own
boundaries. Outside of the forts in our
harbor, Congress can no more punish mur-
der committed in this State, than the State of
New York can punish a murder or other ordi-
nary crime committed in New Jersey. Not