The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-04-15
The ksA KEuX Bill.

What is known AS the Ku kIux or force
bill, to pass which Congress has been in seS
sion six weeks, passed the House last week
and has since been the prominent subject of
discussion in the Senate. 1t will no doubt
pass that body with some amendments
This infamous and unconstitutional measure
confers almost despotic power on the Pres-
Gent. and makes him substantially dicta-
tor. 1t authorizes MIN to suspend the habeds
corpus and also to proclaim martial law In
any part of the United States, constituting
him the sole judge Of the necessity for the
exercise Of such unprecedented and Danger
Gus power Whenever Grant sees fit to
proclaim martial law his ,ciN is supreme.
If he suspends the hG6eas corpus act, ne can
arrest any person he pleases without assign
ing any cause. The person thus summarily
seized. may be denied hearing for the pur-
pose of establishing his Innocence and be
kept in prison at the will of Ulysses S.
Grant. Neither Judge nor jury will be per-
mitted to exercise Jurisdiction over his case,
however guiltloss he may be. All this is
done in country which the Radical leaders
boast enjoys the freest government on the
face of the earth. The true secret Of the
passage of this arbitrary and tyranuica!
measure is. not to suppress and punish dis
order. in the Southern States, but to enable
Grant, through the exercise of the absolute
power it confers on him to force the Radi
Gals of those States to elect delegates to lhe
National Convention who will vote for his
re nomin alton This he can easily do by
the use of the military forces at his COM
mand.
The New York Evening Post, one of the
ablest aud most influential Republican pa
pers in the country, in an article denouncing
the bill as unconstitutional. impolitic and
dangerous to the liberties of the people, has
this to say:
but these are not the worst provisions Of
the bill The Constitution expressly au-
thorizes the Executive to nse the army to
support the laws and authority of the State
when the State Executive calls on him Tor
aid, and thus by direct implication forbids
him to do so in other cases. But this bill
authorizes him to interfere when the rights
OF citizens are not protected oy o'dte, ana
when the State authorities fail or neg lect'
to ask his aid. And of the necessity for such
interference and of the extent to which his
military operations shall be carried it makes
him the only and final judge. He may even
at any time pronounce by proclamation the
disorders in any State "a rebellion against
the United States and when. in his iudg-
ment, the public safety shall require it,
may suspend the ha6eds corpus and establish
military occupation and martial law any
where.
''In other ,cordS, ereTy constitutional re-
ssriction upon the posOer Of the Ereent'Ue as
rithdiarc,i, and instead Of the Constitution
aud lis checks, the nation rs left TO the coinn
tarv f6ybearance and sound judgment Of the
President as The sole safeguard for as Hber
hes. IL he should choose at any time to
declare the City of New York or OF Wash
insten 10 rebellion, and to take possession
of il with the army. under martial law, that
is, under the will OF himself as commander
in-chef, the people must choose between
submission and armed resistance to the en-