assigned as military commander of the district including the State of Mississippi, from executing or in any manner carrying out the Reconstruction acts.

Attorney-General Stanbery, appearing for the President, objected to the bill as containing matter not fit to be received-saying in the conclusion of his argument: "So far as this bill seeks to make the President a party I have said from the first that it was scandalous. I mean of course in legal language-that is to say, a suit not fit to be brought and which no court in the United States can sustain. Therefore it is that as amicus curiae or as law officer next the President I have felt bound, at the first motion made to file this bill, to attempt to keep so scandalous a thing from the records of this court. It is with the approbation, advice and instruction of the President that I appear here to make this objection. I should have felt bound to make it on my own motion, as the law officer of the Government. But although counsel in their bill have said that the President has vetoed these acts of Congress as unconstitutional, I must say in defense of the President that when the President did that he did everything he intended to do in opposition to these laws. From the moment they were passed over his veto there was in his estimation but one duty resting upon him-and that was faithfully to execute and carry out these laws. He has instructed me to say that in making this objection, it is not for the purpose of escaping any responsibility either to perform or to refuse to perform."

The motion for leave to file the bill was refused on the ground that the President of the United States cannot be restrained by injunction from carrying into effect an act of Congress alleged to be unconstitutional, and a bill for that purpose cannot be filed.

Subsequently, on behalf of the State of Georgia, a bill was filed in the Supreme Court against Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War, U. S. Grant as general of the army, and John Pope, assigned to the command of the third military district, consisting of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, for the purpose of restraining those officials. from carrying into execution the Reconstruction acts of Congress. Attorney-General Stanbery moved to dismiss the bill for want of jurisdiction, and the application was granted, on the ground that the bill called for a judgment on a question political in its nature— the court thus declining to consider on their merits the grave constitutional questions presented.

An application was next made to the Supreme Court, on behalf of the State of Georgia, for leave to file a bill against General Grant, General Meade and others, having the same objects as those of the previous bill, but stated to be not open to the objections thereto sustained by the court. The motion was docketed for argument, but before it could be reached the Reconstruction acts had been put in force in Georgia, injunction had become impracticable, and the complainants' case thus came to nought.

In November, 1867, William H. McCardle, a citizen of Mississippi, was arrested by the order of the military commander of that State, claiming authority under the Reconstruction acts, and was held for trial, by military commission, on the charges (1) of disturbance of the public peace, (2) of inciting to insurrection, disorder and violence, (3) of libel, and (4) of impeding the execution of the Reconstruction acts. The Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Mississippi, in habeas corpus proceedings, decided that the accused was lawfully in the custody of the military authorities. On appeal the Supreme Court, first considering the question of jurisdiction, held that the appeal was properly taken-this at the December term, 1867. The case was argued on its merits on March 9, 1868, and was taken under advisement. On March 27 Congress passed over the President's veto an act repealing the law which had given the right of appeal from the Circuit Court to the Supreme Court. Upon further consideration the Supreme Court decided that under the repealing act McCardle's appeal was no longer effective and must be dismissed.

Thus every effort to have a judicial inquiry into the constitutionality of the Reconstruction acts was defeated by the action of the Government's law officers or by the action of Congress, evidently taken with the purpose to prevent such inquiry. The constitutional questions involved are yet open.

On June 12, 1867, Attorney-General Stanbery, on the previous request of the President, wrote an opinion in which, after an exhaustive and discriminating analysis of the Reconstruction acts, he advised that those laws were beyond the scope of the legislative authority vested in Congress by the Constitution, and were therefore neither binding upon the President nor lawfully enforceable by the measures and agencies therein provided.

Upon this opinion the President took no action, but in that connection he showed a purpose to obey and execute these laws until by some competent proceeding in the Supreme Court their validity should be judicially considered and determined.

Soon after the publication of the Attorney-General's opinion General Sickles, commanding one of the military districts created by the Reconstruction acts, addressed to the President a communication asking to be relieved of his command, on the ground that "the declaration of the Attorney-General that the military authority has not superseded the so-called State governments, declared illegal by Congress, prevents the execution of the Reconstruction acts, disarms me of means to protect life, property or the rights of citizens, and menaces all interests in the States with ruin." General Sickles further asked for a court of inquiry, whereby to disclose the character of his enforcement of the acts of Congress and to vindicate himself. These requests were by order of the President refused and General Sickles was ordered to retain command in his district.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ORGANIZED.

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The passage of the Reconstruction acts having introduced the negro vote as the dominant factor in restoring South Carolina to her place in the Federal Union, Republican politicians were not slow to take steps to organize the negroes under the direction and control of the party to which these agitators professed allegiance. A convention of the Union Republican party of South Carolina met in Charleston on May 9, 1867, but on the next day, without transacting any business or making any declaration, adjourned to meet in Columbia on July 24. On that day there assembled the following delegates :

Abbeville-H. J. Lomax, Henry Sager.

Anderson-Samuel Johnson, Henry Kennedy.

Barnwell-C. P. Leslie, Northern white man and Government employee; Charles Fisher, Smart Folk, Fred Nix, William Allen, E. P. Stoney.

Beaufort-R. H. Gleaves, Northern negro; W. J. Whipper, Northern negro; E. G. Dudley, Northern white man and Government employee; W. H. Langley, Northern negro; J. J. Wright, Northern negro.

Charleston-J. P. M. Epping, naturalized citizen and Government employee; Gilbert Pillsbury, Northern white man and Government employee; E. W. M. Mackey, native white man and Government employee; C. C. Bowen, Southern white man; W. J. McKinlay, James D. Price, R. C. DeLarge, Peter Miller, R. Howard, Jr., P. Wall, James N. Hayne.

Chester-M. Blackwell, J. Humphreys, Dublin Walker, Barney Burton.

Clarendon-Elias E. Dickson, native white man; William Mc

Dowell.

Colleton-Gilbert Reece.

Darlington-B. F. Whittemore, Northern white man and Government employee; Alfred Bush, John A. Barnes, Isaac Brokenton, E. J. Snetter.

Fairfield-W. W. Herbert, Southern white man; Sandy Ford, Samuel Greer.

Greenville-W. A. Bishop, Southern white man; James M. Allen, Northern white man; Wilson Cook.

Kershaw J. K. Jillson, Northern white man and Government employee.

Lexington-Simeon Corley, native white man; James Rawl.
Marion-H. E. Hayne, Edward Inman, B. A. Thompson.

Newberry-B. Odell Duncan, native white man; Joseph Boston, James Anderson, Simon Young, Matthew Gray.

Orangeburg-T. K. Sasportas, Northern negro and Government employee; B. F. Randolph, Northern negro; E. J. Cain, Northern negro; Thomas Phillips.

Richland-Thomas J. Robertson, native white man; C. H. Baldwin, Northern white man; C. M. Wilder, William Myers, S. B. Thompson.

Sumter-Joseph White, James Smylie, W. E. Johnson, Northern negro; J. G. Burrows.

York-John W. Mead.

All not otherwise specified were Southern negroes.

Officers were elected as follows:

President-R. H. Gleaves.

Vice-Presidents-C. M. Wilder, Thomas J. Robertson, Gilbert Pillsbury, James N. Hayne.

Secretaries——W. J. McKinlay, R. Howard, Jr., T. K. Sasportas, E. E. Dixon.

Chaplain-Rev. J. Brockenton.

The platform declared for universal suffrage, elections by the people (except in the case of the judiciary), reorganization of the courts, the division and sale of unoccupied lands among the poorer classes, the cautious restoration of the rights of those lately guilty of "treason," the enforcement of the Reconstruction acts in the Southern States, ad valorem taxes, liberal provision by the State for "the poor and destitute, those aged and infirm people, houseless and homeless and past labor, who have none to care for them"; the repeal of the tax on cotton, and steadfast loyalty to the Union Republican party.

A resolution offered by J. J. Wright, of Beaufort, was passed, declaring that the colored man should "be represented by one of his own race on the next Presidential ticket of the Republican party."

The State Executive Board was organized as follows: President, B. F. Whittemore; Vice-President, B. F. Randolph; Secretary, W. J. McKinlay; Treasurer, J. P. M. Epping.

The State Central Committee was appointed as follows: Abbeville, H. J. Lomax; Anderson, Samuel Johnson; Barnwell, C. P. Leslie ; Beaufort, J. J. Wright; Charleston, Gilbert Pillsbury; Chester, Barney Burton; Chesterfield, H. L. Shrewsbury; Colleton, William M. Viney; Darlington, J. E. Brockenton; Fairfield, Samuel B. Clowney; Georgetown, Joseph H. Rainey; Greenville, Wilson Cook ; Kershaw, J. K. Jillson; Lexington, John S. Hendrix; Marion, H. E. Hayne; Newberry, Matthew Gray; Orangeburg, J. K. Sasportas ; Richland, C. M. Wilder; Sumter, William E. Johnston; York, John W. Mead.

Upon the adoption of the platform as above summarized, Mr. B. Odell Duncan, of Newberry, announced that he must withdraw from the Convention because he could not pledge loyalty to the party-this on account of the declaration as to the division of certain lands, which was in these words: "That as large land monopolies tend only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and are ruinous to the agricultural, commercial and social interests of the State, the Legislature should offer every practicable inducement for the division and sale of unoccupied lands among the poorer classes, and as an encouragement for immigrants to settle in our State."