St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-01-02

astonishment caused by the fact that such an
Illegal tribunal could have been ordered to sit
in our country even though great civil war
was racking the country to its very founda-
tons, and that officers bearing the commits
sion Of the United States could be
found ready to so flagrantly vio-
late every principle Of law, justice
and right, the first thing which strikes re-
tlecting mind is the query, slow was 1t pos
sihle that man of Buell's high character,
recognized ability, knowledge of the law, and
exalted rank, could have permitted himself
to have appeared before such tribunal, or
in any sense recognized it as competent to
investigate his conduct or anything else?"
For although Buell. did with great dignity
and calmness set before the members of the
commission" the utterly illegal character of
their organization and the nudity of their
proceedings, yet the fact remains that the
recognition given them by a man of Buell's
well known ability and character conferred
upon them about the only standing they had,
as tribunal.
Perhaps the only explanation of this action
on the part of Gen. Buell. is to be formed
in the aversion that high toned honorable
to placing any obstacle in the way of full
investigation of his official acts, and in fact
these are almost his very words when on The
meeting of the Commission" he submitteda
paper in which he said The undersigned
submits to the com mission, that in his desire
to avoid anything which could interfere with
prompt investigation of his official acts, he
has RETAINED from making objections which
he might be excused from urging, that the
organization of this commission for any pur-
pose of trial and condemnation is without
the form and sanction Of law.
If this so-called "commissonn had been
created in accordance with any existing law,
its composition would still have been in viola
ton of law. There were then in the army
but two judicial tribunals provided for by law
the court of inquiry and the court martial
and this ICON mission" was not organized in
accordance with the law governing either of
these.
The law governing the trial of military
offenders is in accordance with long stand
ing principles of justice, scrupulous in regard
protecting the rights of an accused, and pro-
Vidrs that no officers shall be tried by officers
OF an inferior rank, if it can be avoided.
This s'com mission" was entirely com posed
OF Buell's interiors. The old common law
that an offender must be tried by his peers
was violated in the most glazing manner.
Not one of the members was the peer of
Buell., or had the slightest pretentiOns to be
considered such, and this they simply demon
Onstrated for themselves in making up their
verdict" or opinion. They themselves
must originally have had grave doubts in re-
gard to the legal status of the body, aud their
proceedings, as they progressed in their in
vestigation, are such as ought to have con-
WINGED sounder minds that all action on
their part was a nullity, though they may
have consOled themselves with the reflection
that the object of ordering them to assemble
would be reached just the same as if their
assemblage was legal. The reflections of the
members of an American tribunal
cannot be of very consolatory
character when they look back and
think that when they were gov
erned by any rules at all, they were governed
ny court martial rules. That they did not
swear themselves at all nor their judge advo-
cate at least, not in the presence of the ac-
cused; that they did not know whether that
accused was an accused or not; that they
tried to swear him to secrecy; that he was
not permitted to summon witnesses in his
uefense; that he was not allowed to be con-
fronted by his accuser, nor to properly
cross examine the witnesses brought against
him.
The proceedings of this remarkable body
covered 720 octave pages, and the accom-
panying documents as much more, and this
small cart load of papers has never been seen
since 1t entered the portals of the war de-
partment! Evidently the war department
was more ashamed of the records than its
tools were.
1t on record in the Office Of the adjutant
general of the army that the rec ord was sub
mitted to the secretary of war, and
that about a week afterward a sort
of review of the case without date,
caption or signature was referred
to that officer by Mr. Judge Advocate Gen
eral Holt. "That is the last trace of this
huge mass of official documents"
General Fry is entitled to the gratitude of
every true American for the clear, straight
forward manner in which he has exposed all
the features of one of the most fragrant out
RACES ever perpetrated in free country.
Had the victim of this outrage been an uu-
known, inefficient commander. to get rid of
whom was necessity in the successful pro-
secution of the war, his being relieved from
his command might easily be- justified, but
the treatment afterward of one Of the most
accomplished, faithful, loyal and competent
soldiers of the republic is calculated to shock
the moral sense of the American people in
way In which IL has not often been their mis-
fortune to be shocked. j. &.