The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-19

ders Fitz John Porter could not have had dis
loyal thought or dream without detection.
son the day after we left Raleigh on the march
towards Richmond, large packages of New York
papers brought to our camps for sale.
Without orders from their officers, the soldiers
speedily suppressed and destroyed them, An in
telligent soldier of my command explained the
acts of his associates. He said: These papers
are teeming with abuse of General sherman,
charging him with INSTRUMENTATION, violation
of his orders. and some OF them even lnslnuat-
ing that he is dislOyal-all on account OF his
treaty with General Johnston We do not in
tend to have these ISLANDERS against the man we
have followed so many hundreds of miles circu-
lated among the boys | felt that these men
better appreciated the merits of their com
mander than did some of the authorities in Wash
"Just before we arrived at Richmond another
batch of New York papers came to our camps,
announcing that new department. had been ere
ated-the department of the Janes-that Gen
era Halleck had been assigned to the command,
and had ordered Generals Meade, Sheridan and
Wright to invade that part of North Carolina oc-
cupiod by Sherman, and disregard his truce with
General Johnston, and pay no attention to his
(Sherman's) orders. In my presence Sherman
declared that if an attempt had been made to
execute that order he would have defended his
truce if it had cost the lives of half his com
mand. ] was with him when he received note
from General Halleck asking to be allowed to re-
view the army it passed through the streets
of Richmond, and | saw him write reply say
ing that so far from giving him a review, he
deemed it his duty to say that it would be unsafe
for General Halleck to be seen in the streets.
Il stood beside General Sherman on the grand
stand at the other end of this avenue when the
armies of the Union. in the presence of all the
chief civil officers of the government and the rep
resentatives Of all foreign countries with whom
we have diplomatic relations, were being re-
viewed; and saw General Sherman, in the face
of this vast concOurse, refuse the profered hand
of the officer of the government, who, in the clos
ing days of brilliant services in the field, had
brought so much undeserved reproach on him:
and honored him for it. A most cruel and de-
fenseless attempt had been made to rob him of
his hard-ealned reputation
But it may be said: why revert to these pain
full events now that some of the chief actors in
them are in their gravesE l have purpose In
it. First. i wish to make it apparent to every
member of this House that in the heat and ex
element or civil war, the purest and ablest Off
Ger is liable to be stricken down without cause.
j. THE ENEMIES OF PORTER.
cat the close of the war one wing of Sherman's
army was commanded by General Logan and the
other by myself. wish to remind the old sol
diers of that army that the very weapons used to
strike down Porter were welded by the same
hands against Sherman, and it is my firm con
viction that had not the war been brought to
successful close Immediately after Sherman's
treaty with Johnston, an attempt would have
been made to place his name side by side with
that of Fitz John Porter; and, instead Of com
1nanding the army eighteen years after the war,
and then retiring with the love and admiration
of grateful people, he might to-day have been
yainly pleading at the doors of Congress for re
hearing of his case-pleading his previous good
character, his great services to his country, and
the heat and passion of the hour when the cruel
verdict was rendered against him, precisely as
Porter is now doing.
EVERY proceeding through which an attempt
is made to ascertain the guilt or innocence of
person charged with crime-call the proceeding
by whatever name you may-must in order to
command confidence, be conducted with deliber
alton and in spirit of justice and impartiality.
While admit that in time of war, and in places
where the powers of civil courts are suspended,
courts martial are a necessity, yet / regret to
say that in no country and in no age have these
courts been regarded either as safe or worthy
of confidence as civil tribunals. To the lack Of
confidence in such courts is due the hostility of
our people to the extension of martial law over
places where civil courts can be maintained To
the same cause must be attributed the course of
one of our late chief magistrates, in habitually
reversing the findings of these courts. Officers
sentenced to dismissal for the most disgraceful
offenses were in many instances restored to the
army, greatly to the Generalization of the
service. ~, ... .s.
''If this case had been tried before civil court,
with all the safeguards thrown around the ac-
GuSed which ftne CIVIL law guarantees TO nm,
and had been reviewed by higher court author
lied to examine the evidence as well as the legal
points involved. and had the case been entirely
free from political prejudice, every lawyer on
this floor would say at once that the decision of
the higher court should be final But the case
was tried by a court-martial where the accused
had no safeguards. Why should men versed in
the law pay more Difference to the court which
tried General Porter than they would pay to a
civil tribunal2
"Among semi barbarous races the settlement of
disputes among the people, and the decision as to
the guilt or innocence of persons accused ofcrme,
is left entirely with the king orchief of the people
But just in proportion as the people become en-
lightened the control of the courts has been
removed from the power of the executive The
progress of n people in civilization has always
been indicated by their demands for checks
against the arbitrary power of their rulers. The
changes in the laws of England during the past
two centuries have all been in this direction, so
that to-day, both there and in our own coun-
try, no man can be convicted of crime except
after a fair trial before an impartial judge and
jury.
''But the practice in military courts has made
no such progress The court-martial of to-day
is precisely what it was two centuries ago The
executive prefers the charges, selects the court,
appoints the judge advocate, and passes iudg-
ment upon the proceedings. If, in the progress
of rt-martial, question arises as to the adj
instability of evidence. the accused, with his
counsel, is ordered from the room, and the prose
cuUnR attorney Is leIJ alone WIN the court NO
argument can be heard from either the accused
or his counsel on the vital points on which the
case may turn.
''No better illustration of the wide difference in
the practice in the civil and military courts of
our country can be found, than in the proceed
ings in two celebrated cases tried in this city
On the I'd of July 1881, a miserable wretch,
whose whole life had been stained with crime, in
the broad light of day shot the President of the
United States After a long delay he was
brought to trial Weeks were spent in securing
jury and months in the trial of the case Day
after day he was permitted TO insult the court,
counsel and witnesses, because, it was said, it
would be unlawful to remove him from the
counsel because public opinion as well as the
law, demanded it. He was convicted, but
granted an appeal as matter of right 1t was
not until the highest court in the District had
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