said States until loyal and republican State governments can be legally established," and therefore enacts, "that said rebel States shall be divided into military districts, and made subject to the military authority of the United States; " "that it shall be the duty of the President to assign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the army not below the rank of brigadier-general, and to detail a sufficient military force to enable such officer to perform his duties, and enforce his authority within the district to which he is assigned;" "that it shall be the duty of each officer, assigned as aforesaid, to protect all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence" [except of course his own violence, and that which he orders], “and to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace, and criminals, and to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, WHEN IN HIS JUDGMENT IT MAY

BE NECESSARY FOR THE TRIAL OF OFFENDERS, HE SHALL HAVE POWER TO ORGANIZE MILITARY COMMISSIONS OR TRIBUNALS FOR THAT PURPOSE; AND ALL INTERFERENCE UNDER COLOR OF STATE AUTHORITY WITH THE EXERCISE OF MILITARY AUTHORITY UNDER THIS ACT SHALL BE NULL AND VOID."

The military commander who should desire more ample authority than this must be somewhat unreasonable.

But there are some restrictions upon it. The laws and regulations for the government of the army are not to be affected by the act except so far as they conflict with its provisions. How far is that? Persons arrested are to be tried without unnecessary delay, of which the district commander is of course to be the judge; no cruel or unusual punishment is to be inflicted, that is, none deemed by military law and officers to be cruel or unusual, whether bucking and tying up by the thumbs and other tortures are to be deemed cruel or unusual is not said; no sentence of a military tribunal affecting the life or liberty of any person is to be executed until it is approved by the officer in command of the district, and even with his approval, no person is to be murdered by military authority without the approval of the President.

The limitations are not very formidable, unless it be the last, which may perhaps be regarded as rather stringent.

It is next provided that when the people of any one of said States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all re

spects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been resident in the State for one year previous to the day of election (thousands and thousands of whom do not know what a constitution means), with the exception of persons disfranchised; and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications for electors of delegates (idiots and all other persons non compos mentis, and negroes too ignorant to know what or who they are voting for, included); and when such constitution. shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting, &c., and shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same; and when the State legislature shall have adopted the proposed 14th article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States (which it cannot do unless the State is a State in the Union), and when that article shall have become a part of the constitution, then, all these things having happened, the State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, &c.

But until the people of said States shall be by law admitted to representation in Congress (the two houses having bargained with each other not to admit any representation without the consent of both), "any civil government which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States, at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same," &c.

Then came a supplemental act of March 23d, providing for the calling of conventions with ample provisions to secure the ascendancy of military authority; and after this a supplement to the supplement, July 19, 1867, declaring that it was the true intent and meaning of the act of March 2d, and of the supplementary act of March 23d, that "the governments then existing in the rebel States of Virginia," &c., "were not legal State governments; and that thereafter said governments, if continued, were to be continued subject in all respects to the military commanders of the respective districts, and to the paramount authority of Congress." 1

1 There seems, after all, to have been an omission in the Acts of Reconstruction, or

It was further enacted "that the commander of any district named in said act shall have power, subject to the disapproval of the general of the army of the United States, and to have effect till disapproved, whenever in the opinion of such commander the proper administration of said act shall require it, to suspend or remove from office, or from the performance of official duties, and the exercise of official powers, any officer or person holding, or exercising, or professing to hold or exercise, any civil or military office, or duty in such district, under any power, election, appointment, or authority derived from, or granted by, or claimed under, any so-called State, or the government thereof, or any municipal or other division thereof; and upon such suspension or removal, such commander, subject to the disapproval of the general as aforesaid, shall have power to provide, from time to time, for the performance of the said duties of such officer or person so suspended or removed, by. the detail of some competent officer or soldier of the army, or by the appointment of some other person to perform the same, and to fill vacancies occasioned by death, resignation, or otherwise."

If Congress were to govern the territories, over which the United States has full power of legislation, with such unmitigated despotic military authority, it would be rank tyranny. How much better is it nay, how much worse it is, - when States in the Union are subjected to it; whether to gratify the vindictive spirit, or to promote the selfish purposes, of the party leaders, is immaterial.

But this is not all, I had almost said it is not the worst.

This unhallowed march to power proposes to strike down the Judicial department, as well as the Executive, and the States. Another bill which has passed the House, requires the concurrence of two thirds of the Supreme Court in order to a decision that any law of Congress is unconstitutional.

"SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, that no cause pending before the Supreme Court of the United States, involving the action or effect of any law of the United States, shall be decided adversely to the validity of such law without the concurrence of two thirds of all the members of said court in the decision upon the several points in which said law or any part thereof may be deemed invalid; pro

a military district commander has slept upon his post, or the Supreme Court has been guilty of treason against Congress. Texas, not having the fear of Congress before her eyes, has prosecuted a suit in the courts of the United States, which could only be maintained by a State in the Union, and she has been declared to be, and to have been, a State in the Union all the time, and the suit is sustained.

vided, however, that if any Circuit or District Court of the United States shall adjudge any act of Congress to be unconstitutional or invalid, the judgment, before any further proceedings shall be had upon it, shall be certified up to the Supreme Court of the United States and shall be considered therein, and if, upon the consideration thereof, two thirds of all the members of the Supreme Court shall not affirm said judgment below, the same shall be declared and held reversed."

There is no hope of the present majority in Congress. They are committed to their attempt to secure the offices to their party if their march is over the ruins of the other departments. The watchword of their radical leaders is, "No step backwards," and their army of office holders, and dependents, and tools, and expectants, reëcho it.

Some of the timid hesitate respecting this war measure against the Judicial department; but they have given in against their conscientious convictions heretofore, and may be expected to do it again. The arithmetic required to enumerate the newspapers of the party which will not swear to all their readers, that the acts of reconstruction are sound constitutional law, is very limited indeed. I think I may undertake to count them upon my fingers, - yes, confining myself to one hand.

The only chance of redemption for the country is, the possi bility that the intelligent portions of the community who love their country, and have no ambition for its offices, or none except that they may fill those offices for useful purposes and noble ends, may shake off their lethargy, arise in their might, sweep from the statute book the unconstitutional enactments, discard with them the ruinous policy which has dictated them, and consign the conspirators against the Constitution to the obscurity which they deserve.

Let us labor and pray that the effort come not too late.

Gentlemen: I have expressed my opinions somewhat more freely than I should have done, were it not that I address you as members of the Law School, for the last time. My resignation of the office of Royall Professor of Law will be in the hands of the Corporation in the course of this day, and with this Address my connection with the School is terminated.

You are just entering on the active business of life. You will have, to a greater or less extent, influence,—places of trust

and confidence,

if not political offices, stations where you may do much for the dissemination of true principles of government, and of constitutional law.

Let it be my last will and testament, in this last official act, to bequeath to you, and to those who have gone before, and those who may come after you, the support of a republican government, and the preservation of the Constitution.

I take my leave with fervent wishes for the prosperity of the School, and the happiness of all who have been or shall hereafter be connected with it.

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