Year: 1866

ent noVHe exists Witiln the Jurisuic-
tion of the United States. Nor has there
been, nor is it likely there will be any at


tempts to revive it by the people of the
State. Ii, however, any such attempt
shall be made it will then become the
duty of the General Government to ex-


ercise any and all incidental powers nee
essary and proper to maintain inviolate
this great law of freedom. The fourth
section of the bill provides that officers
and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau


shall be empowered to make arrests.
and also that other officers may be spe-
cially commissioned for that purpose by
the President of the United States. 1t
| also authorizes the Circuit Courts of the
United States and the Superior Courts
of the Territories to appoint, without
limitation. Commissioners. who are
to be charged with the performance OF
| quasi judicial duties The fifth section
empowers the Commissioners so to be
selected by the Court, to appoint, in
writing. one or more suitable persons
! from time to time to execute warrants
and other processes desirable by tie bill.
These numerous official agents are made
to constitute a sort of police in addition
to the military, and are authorized to
summon a posse comitdfus, and even to
{
and navel forces of the United States or
of the militia las may be necessary to
the performances of the duty with which
they are charged" This extraordinary
/ power is to be conferred upon agents ir-
responsible to the Government, and to
the people. to whose number the discre-
ton of the Commissioners is the only
limit, and in whose hands such authori-
ty might be made a terrible engine of
wrong, oppression and frand The gen
eral statutes regulating the land and ma
val forces of the United States, the mil
| ita, and the execution of the laws are
| believed to be adequate for any emer-
gency which can occur in time of peace
| If it should prove otherwise, Congress
/ can at any time amend those laws in
such manner as, while subscribing the
! public welfare, not to leopard the rights,
interests and liberties of the people.


The seventh section provides that
! fee of SO shall be paid to each Com
missioner in every case brought before
/ him and fee of five dollars to his deputy
or deputies for each person he or :hey
may arrest and take before any sucn
| Commissioner, with such other fees as
/ may be deemed reasonable by such Com
missioner in general for performing such
other duties as may be required in the
/ premises. All these fees are to be paid
/ out of the Treasury of the United States
/ whether there is conviction or not but
| in case of conviction they are to be re-
coverable from the defendant 1t seems
to me that under the Influence of such
1 temptations, bad men might convert
any law, however beneficient, into an in
strument of persecution and fraud. By
the Sth section of the bill, the United
States Courts. which sit only in one
place for white citizens, must migrate
with the Marshal and District Attorney,
and necessarily with the Clerk (although
he is not mentioned to any part of the
District. upon the order of the Presi-
dent and there hold court for the pur
pose of the more speedy arrest and trial
of persons charged with a violation of
this act; and there the Judge and officers
of the court must remain, upon the or
der of the President, for the time there
in designated.


The 9th section auth orizes the Presi-
dent. or such person AS he may empow-
er for that purpose, to employ such part
of the land or naval forces of the Uni
ted States. or of the militia. as shall be
necessary to prevent the violation and
enforce the due execution of this act
This language seems to imply perman
ent military force that is to be always at
hand, and whose only business is to be
the enforcement Of this measure over
the vast region where it is intended to
operate


do not propose to consider the poll
cv of this bill To me the details of the
bill are fraught with evil. The white
race and black race of the South have
hitherto lived together under the rela
ton of master and slave-capital own
ing labor Now that relation is chang
ed and as to ownership, capital and la
Dor are divorced. They stand now,
each master of itself. In this new rela-
ton, one being necessary to the other.
there will be new adjustment, which
both are deeply interested in making
harmonious. Each has equal power in
settling the terms and, if left to the
laws that regulate capital and labor, it
is confidently believed that they will sat
isfactorily work out the problem. Capt.
tai, it is true, has more intelligence; but
labor is never so ignorant as not to un-
derstand its own interests, not to know
its own value. and not to see that capital
must paw that value. This bill illustrates
Z THIS adjustment II iltcFNcIeS DeIWeen
capital and labor, and attempts to settle
questions of political economy through
the agency of numerous officials, whose
interest 1t will be to ferment discord be-
tween the two races for as the breach
widens. their employment will continue;
and when it is closed, their occupation
terminals In all our history, in all our
experience as people living under Fed





that contemplated by the details of this
bill has ever before been proposed or
adopted. They establish for the securi
ty of the colored race safeguards which
go indefinitely beyond any that the Gen
eral Government has ever provided for
the white race In fact, the distinction
race and color is by the bill made to ep-
crate in favor of the colored and against
the white race. They interfere with the
municipal legislation of the States with
relations exiStinp exclusively between a