The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-05-11
The Legal Aspect of the Southern
Question.

he following letter from one or the
clearest headed lawyers In New Hamp-
shire upon the "Legal Aspect of the
Southern Question" is worth perusing.
We copy entire:
MANCHESTER, April 10th, 1877.
Friend Moore: There seems to be
class of Republicans, not numerous
however, who adopt the view that the
great and paramount duty of the Ma
tional Government is to settle conflict
ing claims of rival claimants to State
governments, in favor of the party con-
trolling the national administration, and
they look upon any failures of prompt
action in that direction as a base
abandonment of the principles of the
Republican party! Adroit appeals to
partisan pride, hate and prejudice, give
hearing to such ideas which their alb
surdity does not permit.
The National Government must
protect it's citizens" is very plausible
phrase, but those who use it to excite
popular prejudice against the policy of
the administration toward the Southern
States, know very well that the gov
ernment of the United States has no
more power to preserve local police
for the protection of the colored people
of New Orleans or elsewhere in tke
South, than it has for New York City,
where murder finds its victim daily
and it has no more power in either city,
to protect life or property against MUIR
der and theft, than the Sultan of Turkey
has. The duty of local police in the
States was never vested in the general
government, and never parted with by
the States.
There is but one power to prevent
crime and that is the power to punish
/ the criminal. The United States courts
have no jurisdiction to try offences
against the criminal laws of States.
They cannot arrest, try, convict or exc
cute, and there cannot be, III the nature
of things, any preventative to the COM
mission of crime, except that which
flows from the sure and speedy convic-
ton of the criminal; and how absurd
| the proposition, that the Government of
the United States is charged with the
| duty of protection against offences
where it has no jurisdiction over the
| offender. Armies may suppress insur-
rection and organized domestic violence
| and repel invasion, but they cannot
punish crimes once committed, nor try
persons accused of violating the crimi-
nal laws OF States. 1t can only pre-
vent violence against the freedmen of
the South by guard and escort duty,
for which there is no adequate army,
| and no constitutional warrant.
When, from any cause, the course
of criminal justice becomes obstructed
in any community, so that crime goes
unpunished, the security which the law
| should throw around the citizen becomes
impaired, and there is no remedy that
craftsmanship has ever devised.
Let us then be reasonable IN our de-
mands upon the national administration
and not claim at his hands duties which
he has no earthly power to perform,
nor to expect it to accomplish in Louis
lana what it never did accomplish, and
never attempted to, elsewhere. Ii the
purpose exists in any quarter, among
those who were instrumental in securing
the election of President Hayes, to use
the army in the South, ostensbly for
ssprotection, but really for political effect
the sooner such purpose Is abandoned
the better for the peace OF mind OF those
who entertain it. Even if such prosti-
tuition of executive power were possible,
ten votes would be lost to the Republi-
can party in the North for every. one
that could be gained in the South a3nd
that such purpose is entertained, is
evidenced by the fact, that certain par
ties are clamoring for the retention OF
the army in some of the southern States,
when notoriously not one single con-
dtion exists which legally justifies the
military interference of the National
Government. But fortunately, under
President Hayes. no such thing is pos
| sible.
The establishment of southern socie-
ty, composed of late masters and late
slaves, but now all freedmen, upon a
perfectly harmonious basis, and moving
in its various legal, social, civil and
political relations, without friction and