The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1876-04-01
NATCHITOCHES LOUISIANA, APRIL 1. 1876

OUT u6ClODnI lnuopet(leI1ce, HIlN tOrIn"
ed our institutions of free govern.
mcnt, foreboded, if we should ever
fall in intestine strife, that the idea it
would inspire in military minds-of
characterization to the laws and of
ambition-and the habit it
would generate in the people, Of &C.
qulescence in acts Of unlawful mil.
itary violence would imperil, it not
destroy, civil liberty. o'f.vents com.
PEELED US to a manly elioice Of con-
fronting these dangers in. a struggle
to save our country from disuemher.
ment, and to vindicate the just rights
Of the. Federal Union. Having tri-
umpled in that struggle, now forever
closed, we are made sensible of the
wist foresight of the founders Of our
freedom in their warning Of the op
positc dangers which would attend
our success. Those dangers come to
us in acts of illegal military violence,
committed in time of peacc-in the
usurpation by the sol,liery Of a power
to decide the membership of our leg
islative assemblies, whose right to
Judge exclusively in such cases has
ever been guarded with peculiar jeal.
ousy by our race.-in the proposal,
made and accepted by our hi ghest
civil and military fanctionaries. to
subject our citizens to tribunals in
which a military officer will decide,
without appeal, What persons, hap.
pening to be found in the locality.
shall be sent to them for trial-will
appoint the members of the court
will review aud coutirm or change the
Judgment and sentence-and may Or
der instant executions, and in which
the accused will be tried in secret,
and without counsel for Ills defense.
This proposition is thus made, and
thus sanctioned, notwithstanding that,
for similar acts, oar English ancestors
sent the first Charles to the scatfold
and expelled the second James from
the throne; and our own forefathcrs
-exhiled by. kindred tyrannies and
planting freedom in the Wilderness
were careful to insert in our Consti-
tuition, positive prohibitions against
the application tn any but military
persons of such tribunals. ;.H'
Unless such q proposition, 90 made
and so sanctioned, shall be condemn
ed by a public. Reproduction which
shall make it memorable as a warn
ing to all future officers of the State
and the army, the decay of the jeal.
Gus spirit Of freedom. the loss of our
ancestral tradition Of liberty, acquired
through ages Of conflict acQuiesence
in the maxims and the practices of
tyranny, will have realized the fears
of Washington, and Jay, aud Clinton,
aud their compatriots. -...
New York, first Of the common
wealths OF the American Union, in
population, in resources. and in mil.
itary power, should declare her sen
timents, on this occasion, with a dis.
tinctncss, a dignity and a solemn en-
phasis, which will command the
thoughtful attention Of Congress, Of
her sister States, and Of the people Of
our whole country. With the same
unanimlty with which she upheld the
arms Of the Union in the past con-
tlict, she should now address herself
to the great aud most sacred duty Of
re establishing civil liberty aud the
personal rights Of individuals, of res
toring the ideas and habits of free.
dom, and Of reassertiHg the suprema-
cy Of tile civil authority over the mil
itary power throughout the Republic.
SAMUEL ]. TlLDEN.