d under his control, and that is completely
displaced by the clause which declares all interference of State
authority to be null and void. He alone is permitted to determine what
are rights of person or property, and he may protect them in such way as
in his discretion may seem proper. It places at his free disposal all
the lands and goods in his district, and he may distribute them without
let or hindrance to whom he pleases. Being bound by no State law, and
there being no other law to regulate the subject, he may make a criminal
code of his own; and he can make it as bloody as any recorded in
history, or he can reserve the privilege of acting upon the impulse of
his private passions in each case that arises. He is bound by no rules
of evidence; there is, indeed, no provision by which he is authorized or
required to take any evidence at all. Everything is a crime which he
chooses to call so, and all persons are condemned whom he pronounces to
be guilty. He is not bound to keep any record or make any report of his
proceedings. He may arrest his victims wherever he finds them, without
warrant, accusation, or proof of probable cause. If he gives them a
trial before he inflicts the punishment, he gives it of his grace and
mercy, not because he is commanded so to do.

To a casual reader of the bill it might seem that some kind of trial was
secured by it to persons accused of crime, but such is not the case.
The officer "may allow local civil tribunals to try offenders," but
of course this does not require that he shall do so. If any State or
Federal court presumes to exercise its legal jurisdiction by the trial
of a malefactor without his special permission, he can break it up and
punish the judges and jurors as being themselves malefactors. He can
save his friends from justice, and despoil his enemies contrary to
justice.

It is also provided that "he shall have power to organize military
commissions or tribunals:" but this power he is not commanded to
exercise. It is merely permissive, and is to be used only "when in his
judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders." Even if the
sentence of a commission were made a prerequisite to the punishment
of a party, it would be scarcely the slightest check upon the officer,
who has authority to organize it as he pleases, prescribe its mode of
proceeding, appoint its members from his own subordinates, and revise
all its decisions. Instead of mitigating the harshness of