The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-04-26
The Force Bill.

Some years ago, when statesmen like
Alexander 81 Stephens and Clement L. Val
! iandigham predicted that the Radical cries
| OF. "Union," Constitution" "Rebellion,"
&C., we're but the ~masquerading slogans of a
party conspiring for the overthrow OF the
monuments of free government, they we're
hooted at, North and South, by timid opti-
mists as strident maniacs or false prophets.
But time has at last justified the sagacity
and warnings Of these great ''sentinels on
sthe watchtower."' The passage OF the ku-
Klux bill by Congress has laid bare the hide
Gus character of the party in power, and
| proved that while they have been unscrupu-
lously robbing the people OF blood and treas
ure, under false pretences Of virtue aud pa
triotisn, they have likewise determined to
make their plumber good by destroying the
Magma Marta of our common country.
In some respects we are glad that Con-
gress has gone to the extremity Of promul-
eating the Force Bill. If there is any true
patriotism left 10 the land, this outrage will
elicit it. 1t is not now the still small voice
of som disfranchised Democrat of the South,
or sCopperbead" politician OF the North,
which warns the people Of a tremendous dan
ger from the Executive and Representative
branches of the government. 1t is not solely
the desperately eloquent protest OF the Opps-
sition press. But, from ono corner Of the
United States to the other, from tie bet ter
class of Republican journals especially,
there surgges forth a blast Of edmonton
which may well mak tyrants tremble, and
which declares. in u~nmistakable language,
that the conspirators at Washington have
overshot their mark when they legislated as
II the American people were ripe for empire,
centralized despotism, and the reign OF cor
ruption.
Our space forbids the reproduction of the
many striking passages we have culled from
the Republican press Of the North. But
we. cannot forbear quoting a remarkable
analysis of the illegality Of this obnoxious
bill, which appeared 10 a late issue Of The
Nation-the most tolerant, the most enlight-
ened, the most influential, perhaps, Of the
Republican press. The Nation says, briefly
on this point but decisively:
ssTo sum up the results The statute violates
the letter of the Constitution by declaring that
to be q rebellion against the United States,
which Is nothing more than violence to indi-
viduals, and by permitting the writ of Habeas
Corpus to be suspended in time OF peace by
autho izlng ne President to employ the mill
tary forces n REFRESHING opposition to State
laws without any application from State au-
thorlties {; by extending the prohibitions of the
Fourteenth amendment to cases Of private
wrong ; and by clothing the National Courts
with jurisdiction over ordinary crimes and with
the function Of ordinary police repression. 1t
violates the entire spirit of the Constitution By
conferrlng upon the President in time of peace
q military discretion which belongs to him only
as Commander-in-Chief in time of actual war
and by destroying the separate-although SUBJ
neutrality-suspicious. of the States within
their appropriate spheres, which was firmly
established Ia the Constitution as an essential
of our Institutions"
Gould anything, even from Robert Toombs
be more terriblei in its condemnation
Of the whole Radical programme as laid
down by General Grant and General Butler
the Gemini OF wicked ambition. Out OF the
mouths OF it's WI prophets is the dominant
branded with felony, and by the up
masses of still free American citizens
will it ere long be consigned to an ignomin-
ious grave.