Year: 1866

passion.


The trials having their origin under
this bill are to take place without the
intervention of jury, and without any
fixed rules of law OF evidence. The
rules on which offences are to be" heard
and determined" by the numerous
agents are such rules and regulations as
the President, through the War De
partment, shall prescribe. No previous
presentment is required, nor any in
dictment charging the commission of a
crime against the laws; but the trial
must proceed on charges and specifca-
tions. The. punishment will be not
what the law declares, but such as 9
court-martial may think proper. And
from these arbitrary tribunals there
lies no appeal, no writ. of error to any
of the courts in which the Constitution
ofthe United States vests exclusively
the judicial power Of the country
While the territory and the classes of
actions and offences that are made sub
ject to this measure are so extensive,
the bill itself, should it become law,
will have no limitation in point Of time,
but will form part of the permanent
legislation of the country. / cannot
reconcile system of military jurisdic-
ton ofthis kind with the words Of the
Constitution which declares that "no
person shall be held to answer for cap
ital or otherwise infamouJ crime unless
on presentment or indictment OF a
grand jury, except in cases arising IN
the land and naval force, or in the mil
tia when in actual service in time Of
war or public danger" and that ''s in
all criminal prosecutions the accused
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and
public trial by an impartial jury of the
State or district wherein the crime shall
have been committed" The safeguards
which the experience and wisdom of
ages taught our fathers to establish as
securities for the protection OF the in
nocent, the punishment of the guilty,
and the equal administration of justice,
are to be set aside, and for the sake of
more vigorous interposition, in be-
half of injustice, we are to take the
risk of the many acts of justice that
would necessarily follow from an al
most countless number of agents, es-
tablished in every parish or county in
nearly third of the States of the I'm
ion, over whose decisions there is to be
no supervision or control by the Fedral
courts. The power that would be thus
place in the hands of the President is
such as in time of peace certainly ought
never to be entrusted to any one man.


If it be asked whether the creation
of such a tribunal within State is
warranted as measure of war, the
question Immediately presents itself,
whether we are still engaged in war;
Let us not unnecessarily disturb the
commerce, and credit, and industry of
the country by declaring to the Anleri-
can people and to the world, that the
| United States are still in condition of
civil war. AT present there is no part
of our country in which the authority
of the United States is disputed. Of
fences that may be committed by indi-
viduals should not work forfeiture of
the rights of whole communities. The
country has returned OF is returning to
state of peace and industry, and the
rebellion is in fact at an end. The
measure, therefore, seems to be as in
consistent with the actual condition of
! the country as it is at variance with the
| Constitution of the United States.


If, passing from general considera-
| ton. we examine the bill in detail. it is
open to weighty objections.


In time of war it was eminently prop
er that we should provide for those
who were passing suddenly from con-
dition of bondage to state Of freedom.
But this bill proposes to make the
Freedmen's Bureau, established by the
act of 1865 as one Of many great and
extraordinary military measures to sup
press formidable rebellion, a perma-
nent branch of the public administra-
tion, with its powers greatly enlarged.
Ilhaye no reason to suppose, and | do
not understand it to be alleged, that
the act of March, 1865, has proved de-
ficient for the purpose for which it was
passed, although at that time, and for
considerable period thereafter, the
Government of the United States re-
manned unacknowledged in most of the
States whose, inhabitants had been in
volyed in the rebellion. The institu-
ton Of slavery, for the military destruc-
ton of which the Freemen's Bureau
was called into existence as an auxilia-
ry, has been already effectually and
finally abrogated throughout the whole
country by an amendment of the Con-
stitution Of the United States, and
practically its eradication has received
the assent and concurrence of most of
| those States in which it at any time
had had an existence. / am not, there
fore, able to discern in the condition of
| the country anything to justify an ap-
prehension that the powers and
agencies of the Freedmen's Bureau.
which were effective for the protection
! of freedmen and refugees during the
actual continuance of hostiiities and
1 the African seryitude, will now, in a
time Of peace and otter the abolition
Of slavery, prove inadequate to the
same proper ends. If [ am correct in
| these views there can be no necessity
| for the enlargement of the powers of
! the Bureau, for which provision is made
in the bill.


The third section of the bill authorizes a
general and unlimited grant of support to
the destitute and suffering refugees and freed
men, their wives and children. Succeeding
In, s.