The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-08-08
Gen. Sherman and the khOtt
Amendment.
From the New York SUM-

IniliT pIuIlls wv W.T. ~ WV N''
led States was used mainly as a polillN
al machine. 70 set up a c0rpct-bag'
ger against the viii aud suI'raees oflhe
people Of n State, aud sustain him
WITH Federal bayoncts while he and
his accomplices abused and %plundered
the northumberland was guaranteeing
81 republican torn Of government
according TO their Interpretation OF the
Constitution, 70 hand over squfds,
s%quadrOus, hattaliOnS, and even rcgi
meuts 10 the control OF irresponsible
aud frequently exceedingly dIsrepula'
pie marshals and their deputies, to he
employed in tcrrori2tng Democrats,
and driving decent people from the
polls, was u common practice. Inc
army was the main prop, for u long
while the only prop, Of the Republican,
party in the South, without the ar
my, directed by INSCRIPTIONS men at
Washington, the Great Fraud Of 1876
could not have been perpetrated. 1t
surrounded aud protected the Return
Ing Boards while they folsjfed the re-
turns, gave courage to the carpet bag
Governors while they certified the
false lisl Of electors. and it was largely
assembled at Washington to ovcrawe
the representatives Of the people and
compel them TO count lhe Fraudulent
votes rs the true ones. 1t was force
and fraud combined that seated Hayes
in the chair to which Mr.. Tilden had
been called by a great majority OF all
the people.
The House of Representatives OF the
Forty fourth Congress refused to pass
the Army Appropriation hill without a
clause prohibiting under certain penal
ties the use Of troops for unlawful po-
%Iilical purposes, aS had been habitnal
under the Grant administration. To
this the Senate would not acceae, and
Congress adjourned without any pro,
vision for the army, But the Omission
proved no EN- arrassment to Hayes.
Being a fraud himself, he had no scru.
pies about maintaining an army whose
warrant for existence VAS little better
than his own, and he kept the cstah,
lisiImcnt on the old footing, month at
ter month, without authority or law.
Bat the present Congress inserted i n
the Army lhll the Knott ~amcndment,'
wHich provides that at shal! not he
lawful to employ any part of the army
as a posse comitotaS, or otherwise, for
the purpose of executing laws, except
in such cases and under such circum
stances as such employment OF said
force may be expressly authorized hy
the Constitution or by act OF Congress.
Is this statute to he 0heycd? Or has
the Fraudulent Administration deter
mined to coustrue it away
Gen. Tecumseh Sherman, brother Of
John, has issued a general order, in
which he undertakes to Cciine the cases
excepted from the operation oil this
section. Among the rest he mentions
the Civil Rights Jaw, under which he
says the President may use troops not
only to enforce judicial process but
to "prevcnL the violation Of and Ell
force the execution of civil rights"
This Interpretation is certainly broad
emo Igh to embrace all the %Outrages
the Giant Administration was in the
hn3it Of committing under pretcnce OF
protecting the colored people in the
enjoyment Of the ballot. The "Elcct.
i've Franchise law also, in the opinion
Of Gen. Sherman, permits the Pres''
dent to station troops around the polls
10 keep, in comprehensive phrase. "lhe
peace" That means the peace OF Re
publican bpllot box suffers and rasca.~
V election oiliccrs--the sort Of peace
which reigncG Tor ten years in the
South. aud ended in the Great Fraud
of 1876. Altogether Gen Sherman
has found, thus far, eight exceptions to
the operations Of the Knott amend
mcnt, and it is not impossible that he
would fluid hundred and fifty more il
the necessities OF his party required it.
But he is not quite prepared to IN
trust the business Of protecting the
four millions OF negroes IN the South
crn States, and conducting the cleo
Ii ms IN military fashion, 20 subordi-
mates. who nay perchance be Demo
Gratis or hoaest Republicans. "When
applications for the use of troops for
these purposes are received" he says,
''they must be forwarded through the
military channel to the Adjutnnt Cen
eral for the consideration and acton OF
the President" Are they getting rCa ~
for the re election of Grant by the old
methodist The time is not distant
when Gen. Sherman will have to he
taught law as well as manners. He
can he reached by the long arm OF
Congress- as readily as his brother
John; and we suppose this thing of
slashing through legal knots with the
sword is not much to the taste Of the
American people.