nchised, and its actual ratification by their vote; fifth, the
submission of the State constitution to Congress for examination and
approval, and the actual approval of it by that body; sixth, the
adoption of a certain amendment to the Federal Constitution by a vote
of the legislature elected under the new constitution; seventh, the
adoption of said amendment by a sufficient number of other States to
make it a part of the Constitution of the United States. All these
conditions must be fulfilled before the people of any of these States
can be relieved from the bondage of military domination; but when they
are fulfilled, then immediately the pains and penalties of the bill are
to cease, no matter whether there be peace and order or not, and without
any reference to the security of life or property. The excuse given for
the bill in the preamble is admitted by the bill itself not to be real.
The military rule which it establishes is plainly to be used, not for
any purpose of order or for the prevention of crime, but solely as
a means of coercing the people into the adoption of principles and
measures to which it is known that they are opposed, and upon which
they have an undeniable right to exercise their own judgment.

I submit to Congress whether this measure is not in its whole character,
scope, and object without precedent and without authority, in palpable
conflict with the plainest provisions of the Constitution, and utterly
destructive to those great principles of liberty and humanity for which
our ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic have shed so much blood and
expended so much treasure.

The ten States named in the bill are divided into five districts.
For each district an officer of the Army, not below the rank of a
brigadier-general, is to be appointed to rule over the people; and he
is to be supported with an efficient military force to enable him to
perform his duties and enforce his authority. Those duties and that
authority, as defined by the third section of the bill, are "to protect
all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress
insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish or cause to be
punished all disturbers of the public peace or criminals." The power
thus given to the commanding officer over all the people of each
district is that of an absolute monarch. His mere will is to take the
place of all law. The law of the States is now the only rule applicable
to the subjects place