STATUS. 





such la\\s. There are no laws to be cofbrecd, 



there arc lit i rights (1. tilled l.y law to lit- pro- 

 :he olliccrs uf ilir army whom \\ e 

 send into tho*e di.-trict-. They themselves 

 make tlu- laws, as well as enforce them. They 

 (1 they al"ii' dotilie (lie rights they nro to 



The third section of the I. ill is explicit atad 



on that point. It says: 



h:ill IK- the duty of each officer assigned as 

 iiil to jiroti-ct oil persons in their rights of per- 



1 ]>r<>]ii-rty. to suppress insurrection, disorder, 

 I'-ni-.-, mill to jiiini-li, or cause to be punished, 



all disturbers of the public peace and criminals 



according to their own judgment of rights and 

 of laws. That is not in the bill, but that is the 

 necc-sary inference, because no other provision 

 i.-, made. There is nothing to specify what is 

 the peace they are to maintain ; what are the 

 crimes they are to punish ; what are the con- 

 tracH they are to enforce. "We send a brigadier- 

 general into each one of the five military de- 

 pai-Mnents created by this bill, to be absolute 

 sovereign over all its people, to issue his decrees 

 as their law, and to enforce his will as in all 

 cases their rule of action. 



" Gentlemen will all admit that is an extreme 

 measure, the most extreme measure which can 

 possibly be enacted by this Congress or by any 

 legislative body in the world. No legislative 

 body can do more. Can there be any higher 

 exercise of authority than to clothe a solitary 

 individual with absolute power, authority, and 

 control over millions of men ; to give him 

 power at once to prescribe the law and to en- 

 force it ? 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, is there a necessity 

 which calls for this? Is the emergency so 

 absolute that we must enact such a law as 

 this; The able and learned gentleman from 

 Ohio (Mr. Shellabarger), who spoke a few mo- 

 ments ago on this point, insisted that it was 

 made the duty of Congress by the Constitution 

 ;>ciid the writ of habeas corpus under cer- 

 tain contingencies, and that such action was all 

 this law contemplated I do not think that is 

 all this bill contemplates. As I have already 

 attempted to show, the law extends far beyond 

 that when it clothes an individual army officer 

 with power to make laws for the people over 

 whom he is placed in'command. Is it the duty 

 in an unqualified sense, is it the absolute duty of 

 Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus 

 even in such an emergency ? 



" Now, I say that the proper course for this 

 Congress to take is, to establish in the Southern 

 States some government Avhich will meet its 

 ideas of justice and of right, and then send just 

 as many troops as may he necessary to main- 

 tain the authority of that government and to 

 enforce the laws it may enact. What form of 

 government that shall bo I will not now 

 attempt TO decide. 1 can imairine a great many 

 forms that wgnld bo far preferable to the re- 

 source now proposed. I would prefer greatly 

 the bill introduced the other day by the honor- 



able member from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens), 

 which proposes that the people of each of tbOM 



States .shall organi/..- new govern 

 thein.selves. When < '..tigress has decided upon 

 such a course as that, then I say sen-: 

 army there if necessary to rapport that gov- 

 ernment. I would greatly prefer to thin hill 

 the organization of territorial governments for 

 those Southern States, because then 

 have at least an organized civil authority from 

 which laws and regulations might emanate. 



"I do not enter upon any of the disputed 

 questions which the institution of such govern- 

 ments might raise. Upon some points I should 

 have doubts as to our power, and us to the pro- 

 priety of the specific measures proposed. But 

 I say that either of those measures is far pref- 

 erable to the one which we are now called 

 upon to adopt. I would even prefer that this 

 Congress, if it be deemed necessary, should ap- 

 point civil commissioners for each State. Name 

 them in the bill if you are not willing to trust 

 the naming of them to the chief Executive. 

 Let those commissioners organize tribunals of 

 some sort, and then let the army support their 

 decrees. What I insist upon as fundamental, 

 unless we are to abandon all pretence of self- 

 government and republican institutions, is that 

 we shall not clothe subaltern officers of the 

 army with the unrestricted power of life and 

 death with absolute authority over the liber- 

 ties and the property of our fellow-citizens. 



"It is not in harmony with our institutions. 

 It is not a precedent that we should be willing 

 to establish. It is not such a precedent as will 

 secure respect for this nation and for this Gov- 

 ernment anywhere on the face of the earth. 

 Will it aid the cause of democratic govern- 

 ment to exhibit this great Republic this model, 

 as we have sought to make it, of what every 

 republic should be abandoning all the func- 

 tions of civil government, abrogating every 

 thing like civil authority over one-third of our 

 domain and one-third of our people, and for 

 very imbecility and inability to agree upon any 

 measure handing over the control of this sec- 

 tion and these people to the absolute and sov- 

 ereign will of a brigadier-general in the regular 

 army ? Will that aid the cause of free republi- 

 can government anywhere on the face of the 

 earth ? It is the last resort of a decayed and 

 dying republic. If we have no better resource 

 than this, we may as well do at once what this 

 would seem to be a preliminary step for doing : 

 invite the regular army to take control of the 

 whole country, install itself here in the capital 

 as the central, sovereign power, and make such 

 laws and issue such decrees as it may see tit." 



Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, said: "Sir, the 

 bill does what the law of nations and his oath 

 of office justified Abraham Lincoln in doing, 

 and required his successor, Andrew Johnson, t > 

 do; that is, to administer under the military 

 power such laws as should give security to prop- 

 erty, person, and life in districts the civil gov- 

 ernment of which had been overthrown, and 



