Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-08-05

representations literally true II Tor such r0aS-
On5 Should set aside the civil tribunals, and
order IL military comm ission. there is no place
IN the United States where Ii might not be
done with equal ptop.iety. There is not a
state in the Union or SOuth-where
the like facts are not continually happening.
Perfection is not to be predicated of man or
his works. No one can reasonably expect
certain and absolute justice in human trans
actions, and ii military power is to be set in
motion on the principles for which you would
seem to contend, L fear that civil Govern
ment, regulated by laws, could have no abid-
ing place beneath the circuit of the sun. 1t
is rather more than limited in your letter, that
there is no local State Government in Texas,
and no local laws outside of the acts of Con-
greSS which | ought to respect, and that l
should undertake 10 protect the ri shts of per-
sons and property in nsJ oion iC1y and III an
arbitrary nsgIlfler. If sucl be your meaning,
am compelled to differ with you. After the
abolition OF slavery, tan event which hope
no one now regceGsJ the laws of louisiana and
Texas existing prior to the rebellion, and not
in conflict with the acts of Congress, COM
prlSed a vast system of Jurisprudence. both
civil and criminal. 1t required not volumes
only, but libraries to contain them. They
pertaining the rights and adjusting the con-
troversies of men in every conceivable case.
They were the creations of great and good and
learned men, who had labored in their day
for their. kind. and gone down to the grave
long before our recent troubles, leaving
their works an inestimable legacy to the hui
man race. These laws, rs L am informed,
connected the civilization of past and present
ages, and testiie1 of the justice, WISDOM hui
manity and patriotism Of more than one Ma
ton, through whose records they descend
ed to the present people of these States. I
am satisfied, from repreSc nUatiOnS OF persons
competent TO Judge. they are as perfect sys:
better suited than any other to the condition
of this people, for by them they have long
Congress has abolished these laws? Why
should any one wish to abolish them? They
have committed no treason, nor are hostile to
the United States, nor countenance crime, nor
favor injustice. On them, as on foundation
of rock, repoSes almost the entire superstruct-
ure of social order in these two States. Anuul
this code of local laws. and there would be no
longer any rights, either of person or property,
here. Abolish the local civil tribunals made
to execute them, and you would virtually an
null the laws, except in reference to the very
few cases cognizable in the Federal courts.
Let us for moment suppose the whole local
mander Of the Fifth Military district, the sole
fountain of law and justice. This is the posi-
ton in which you would place me.
am now to protect all rights and redress all
wrongs. How is it possible for me to do it?
Innumerable questions arise, of which am
not only ignorant, but to the solution of which
would establish a will, another a deed-or the
question is one of succession, or partnership,
or descent. or trust-a suit OF ejectment or
claim to chattels-Or the application may re-
late to robbery, theft, arson or murder. How
am to take the first step in any such matter?
If turn to the acts of Congress L find nothing
on the subject. dare not open the authors
on the local code, for it has ceased to exist.
And you tell me that in this perplexing con-
dition l am to furnish, by dnt of my own
hasty and crude Judgment, the legislation de-
manded by the vast and manifold interests of
the people. 1 repeat, sir, that you, and not
that are oea % n
situations here to be respected BY me, outside
the acts OF Congress. L say unhesratingly, if
1t were possible that COlgre IS should pas; an
act aboli Shing the local codes for Louisiana
and Texas-which 1 do not believe-and it
should !o fall to my lot to supply their places
could do better than follow the laws in force
here prior to the rebellion. excepting what
ever therein shall relate to slavery. Power
may destroy the forms, but not the principles
of justice. These will live in spite even of
the sword. History tells US that the Roman
rubbish that war and revolution hal heape1
upon them, but at length W re dug out of the
ruins-again to be regarded as precious
treasure.
You are pleased to state that ''since the
publication of my) general order No. 40
there has been perceptible increase OF crime
and manifestation of hostile feeling towards
the Government and its supporters, and add
that it is an ''unple lsant duty to give such
recital of the condition of the country
You will permit me to say that deem it inn
possible the first of these statements can be
true, and that do very greatly doubt the cor
rectness of the second. General order No. 10
was issued at New Orleans, Novenber %, 1857,
and your letter was dated January II, 1858.
Allowing time for No. 40 to reach Texas and
become generally known, some additional
time must have elapsed before its effect would
be manifested, and yet n further time must
transpire before you would De able to collect
evidence of what you term 1.-The condition of
the country" And yet, after ali this. you
would have to make the nece -sary investiga-
tons to ascertain If No. ~ or some hing else
ing to enable you, before the lIth of January,
1868, to reach a satisfactory CONCLUSION on so
delicate and nice a question must h we been
very short. How you proceeded, whether you
yourself or through third per-
sons, and if s., who they were, what their COM
rested your sion, or W lcther you ascer-
tanned any facts at all, are p ,ints upon which
your letter SO discreetly om : all mention, that
l may wei be excused f IT not relying implc-
lilly upon it, nor is my Difficult y dimin shed by
the fact that in )ther p art of your letter you
state that ever since the close Of the war
no affection for the Government, but bitter
ness of feeling only. Had the duty of puo-
long before it reached me, your statement
that the action of the District Commander was
increasing crime and hostile feeling against
the Government, been less painful to your
sensibilities, it might pos 'ibly have occurred
to you to furnish something on the subject in
addition to your bare assertion.
But what was order No. 10, and how could it
have the effect you attribute to it? 1t sets
forth that I" the great principles of American
liberty are still the inheritance OF tn; People
jury. the habeas corpus, the liberty of the
press, the freedom of speech and the natural
q ane he Of
declarations? Which one of these great prin-
ciples of liberty are you ready to deny and
repudiate? Whoever does so avows himself
the enemy of human liberty and the advocate
of desp Jtism. Was there any intimation in
general order No. 40 that any crimes or
breaches of law would be countenanced?
You know there was not. On the con-
trary, you know perfectly well that
while 'the consideration of CRIME and Ofenses
co nmitted in the Fifth Military Dis; rict was
referred TO the judgment of the regular civil
tribunals" II pledge was given in order No.
40 which all I'm lcrstood, that tribun lis would
be suppo ted in their lawful jurisdiction,
and that "forcible resistance to law woul 1 be
Instantly suppressed by arms" You will not
affirm that this pledge has ever been forfeit
ed. There has It been moment since
have been in command of the Fifth District,
when the whole military force in my ruds
has no. been really TO suppo I the civil aut hor-
tiles of Texas in the execution of the laws.
And am unwilling to believe they would re-
fuse TO call for aid if they needed it.
There are some considerations which. it
seems to me, should cause you to hesitate be-
fore indulging in wholeS lie censures against
the civil authorities of Texas You are your
self the chief of these authorities not elected
by the people, but created by the military,
Not long after you had thus come into office,
all the Judges of the Supreme Court of Texas
live in number-%ere removed from office,
and new appointments made-tweve of the
seventeen District Judges were rem we'd, and
others appointed. County officers, mo or
less, in seventy-ive out of one hundred and