Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-06-13
MILITARY COMMISSIONS.

N1LlIAHI COM MlSSBONSs
The recent opinion of the United
States Attorney-General, upon the
right of the President to org lnize
Military Commissions for the trial OF
the Modoc prisoners, is exciting some
comment, though many papers are
maintaining a conspicuous silence in
reference to it.
The Philadelphia Age thinks the
question has been rightly determined,
though the Attorney General blunders
in saying Military Commission i'll
stead of "Court-Martial, and in quo
ting bad precedents. The Age refer
ring to these ''bad precedents,' says
The assassins of President Lincoln
ought to have been tried by the law
court of Washington City. where the
crime was committed, and then the
life of al innocent old woman would
not have been blunderingly sacrificed,
after her counsel, the Hon. Reverdy
Johnson, had been driven, with brutal
1QSOlence, from nef SlQe.
The Baltimore 4uerican objects to
the trial by Military Commission, be-
cause it is recognition of the right of
the Indians to make war upon the
United States, and thinks that the
common sense of the nation will utter
an almost unanimous protest against it.
The Anacrtcna very pertinently asks
Might not Captain Jack. if he were as
good a lawyer as he mas proved him.
self to be a desperately brave fighter,
retOrt this argument on us with con-
siderable force Could he not show
that there haye been occasions when
even the United States forces, in deal
ing with the Indian, have not paid
much attention to the rules of civilized
warfare; occasions when camps have
been attacked without demand for a
surrender, and woman and children shot
down without mercy; or times when
the flag of truce has been used by us
with just as little respect as was shown
to it at the slaughter of General Can
by? The fact is that all this theory
of two nations ruling oyer the same
territory, and the tacit admission of
the right of either to maze war against
the other, must be abandoned if the
Indian question is ever to be brought
on the ground OF safe, practical, com
mon sense, and the savages Taught that
whenever they come in contact with
the Government they must be gov
erned by the laws of a civilized COM
munity.
The Boston Post thinks the solution
of the vexed Modoo problem is q salts
factory one, for the reason that the Of
fence .''is a military offence, not de-
fined in the statutes, and therefore not
punishable by them The Post seems
also Of opinion that the hanging of
Wirz and the hanging of Mrs, Surratt
are competent precedents.
We confess that we have been sur
prised at the views taken of so grave
question as t,.a+ involved in the Modoc
problem, by such stahneti papers as
the Boston Post and Philadelphia 49e.
If the President has the right to APP
point a ...ilitary commission for the
trial of the Modoc psisoaers, the over
throw of the constitution is complete.
What is there to prevent President
Grant, if SUCH se bis power, from
treating Colonel Leblanc and the men
who were under bis co'nmand, by au-
thority of the AteEp.ty IeEernment
in Louisiana, or any other persons, as
prisoners of war, and trying them by
military commissions What defence
or protection is left to the citizen if
such abso4ute payer is vested in the
President ?
The murder of the friendtess for
eigner, Wirz, and the murder of that
innocent victim of blind hate and fury,
poor old Mrs. Surratt, are now held M
as warrants fer the judicial murder of
a band OF captive iliqllff is We say
"judieial MURDER" for the execution !
of any man, guilty or not guilty, under
the form of law, without warrant of
law, is nothing more nor less than ju-
dicial murder. And if this shall be
done, and President Grant shall desire
to hang Colcnel LIE blanc or Governor
McEnery, or any one else, NJ. Attorney
General Williams will have another
precedent for appointing a military
The Age says it would be "sorry to
see farce enacted, for 'Buncombe,''
of cheap and spurious Differences to
State rights in the case Of 3 wild |.
Indian, when, in the case of the citi- !
zens of whole State, they were !
under foot in Louisiana"
We regret that the Age has given
utterance to such sentiments. We
cannot conceive how the surrender of
the Modocs to the proper civil author
ties of Oregon and California would
be either farce or ciaseer and spuri-
ous Difference to States Highs. Eqr
,an we see how the trampiing under
MS foot of the rights of the State OF
Louisiana can justify President Grant
n disregarding the rights of the State
IF Oregon, any more than We eaa sea
now the hanging of Mrs. aurratt,
without law, can confer a right to
lans Captain Jack without law.
And it causes equal regret and equal
surprise to hear our old ally, the Bos-