Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-16


relative to the matter, long after every
arrest which the military authorities de-
sired to make in Missoula county had
been made, and the men imprisoned at
Wardner. Then his excellency wrote:
General Merriam, Wardner, Idaho-Sir:
l notice through the medium of the press
a statement that YOU ordered Lieutenant
Lyons. having prisoners at Missoula. to
take them at once to Idaho and pay no
attention to orders of any one else than
the commanding officer. May l ask if
YOU were correctly reported in this re-
spect? In these troubles the civil au-
thorities of Montana have been willing
to aid the proper authorities in the ar
rest of fugitives from Idaho. INT have
done all that was asked of them. But
we must understand that no part of Mon
tana Is acting under martial law. While
l am willing to give all proper and legal
aid to the officers of Idaho or your SOL
dlers in the arrest of criminals. 1t must
not be assumed that the civil authorities
of this state will silently permit even
federal troops to disregard the civil law
or the process of civil authorities. I am
a firm believer in the doctrine that the
military must always be subservient to
the civil authority. Trusting that you
We're misquoted in the press dispatches,
and that you did not intend to disregard
the civil authorities, I am. etc, etc.
Though the matter of assisting the
military authorities to arrest suspects
in Missoula county was of so much inn
%portance as to require Geographic instruc-
tons to the sheriff. it appears from the
foregoing letter that the governor de-
pended upon the wspap for infor-
nation concerning results. From that
source he gathered the impression that
Lieutenant Lyons had taken men out Of
the state contrary to law. but he sim
ficer, who sent Lyons after the men. had
nothing to do with it, and that he did
not intend to disregard the civil authori-
ties and the laws they are supposed to
represent.
The letter contains many points of in
terest that can be studied with profit,
chiefly because it is apparently an adroit
attempt to evade responsibility for a vio-
lation of the laws OF this state and the
constitutional rights Of man. It implies
a doubt as to whether the newspaper re-
ports that men have been arrested with
out a state warrant and taken to Idaho,
are correct. It ssume a well feigned ig-
norance of the facts. Then it indicates
that if these reports are correct the civil
authorities have been disregarded, but he
is not sure and writes General Merriam
as 10 the truth of the ru1nors-as to
whether that military official had been
stealing men out CT Montana by the
wholesale without anybody finding it out.
Why did not his exceliency wire the
Sheriff Ct Missoula county for the facts
the gentleman who assisted Lieutenant
Lyons to make the arrests by direction
CT the governor? Having once posted HIM
self as to the facts IN the case, the gov
ernor could have written, not an argu-
ment nor an apology, but a demand upon
'Gensral Marian for the prompt return
out of this state in violation Of the law.
\. great deal Of valuable time-very val
liable time to the men in the filthy bull
pens-could have been saved.
One cannot read the governors letter
to General Merriam, taking it INTO con-
sheraton with the known facts in the
case, without attributirg to his excel
lency a desire to evade responsibility for
an act touching upon his qualifications
as the chief executive Of this state. This
is said in all kindness, and with no de-
sire whatever to place MIR. Smith in a
false light before the public.
Certain it is that Lieutenant Lyons.
acting under the instructions Of General
Merriam, took men out Of this state and
placed them in confinement in Idaho tc
be tried, not by a civil but by a military
court. This vas done without protest be.
fore the act from the governor Of Mon
tana. General Merriam acted under The
tacit approval of the governor, or he
wantonly violated the civil law in the tx.
ercise of his military functions, n is
subject to punishment by court martial
Governor Smith owes it to himself and
to the state he represents to push thi:
matter to a conclusion. If the military
authorities can invade this state at will
and arrest men without state warrants
and drag them away to military prisons
and confine them at will without trial
denying them the right Of habeas cor.
pus, the people of Montana want to know
it. If his state has a governor who viii