ency 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 subserving the public welfare, not to jeopard the rights,
interests, and liberties of the people.
The seventh section provides that a fee of $10 shall be paid to each
commissioner in every case brought before him, and a fee of $5 to his
deputy or deputies "for each person he or they may arrest and take
before any such commissioner," "with such other fees as may be deemed
reasonable by such commissioner," "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 a
conviction or not; but in case of conviction they are to be recoverable
from the defendant. It seems to me that under the influence of such
temptations bad men might convert any law, however beneficent, into an
instrument of persecution and fraud.
By the eighth 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 President,
and there hold a court, "for the purpose 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 order of the
President, "for the time therein designated."
The ninth section authorizes the President, or such person as he may
empower for that purpose, "to employ such part of the land or naval
forces of the United 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 a permanent 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.
I do not propose to consider the policy of this bill. To me the details
of the bill seem fraught with evil. The white race and the black race of
the South have hitherto lived together under the relation of master and
slave--capital owning labor. Now, suddenly, that relation is changed,
and as to ownership capital and labor are divorced. They stand now each
master of itself. In this new relation, one being necessary to the
other, there will be a new adjustment, whic
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