Decatur Eagle, Volume 11, Number 17, Decatur, Adams County, 2 August 1867 — Page 1

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PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY, BY JL. J. HILL, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

OFFICE.—On Second Street, In the •eeond story of Donrin & Brother’* new brick building. Terms of subscription. One copy, one year, in advance, $1,50 If paid within the year, 2,00 If paid after the year hae expired 2,50 iSTPapera delivered by carrier twen-ty-five oenta additional will be charged. RF'No paper will be discontinued until all arrerages are paid, except at the option of the publisher. Rates of Advertising. On* column, one year, $60,00 One-half column, one year, 35,00 One-fourth column, one year, 20,00 iRTLess than one-fourth column, proportional rate* will be charged. Legal Advertising* One square [the space of ten lines brevier] one insertion, $2,00 Each subsequent insertion, 50 s©“No advertisement will be considered less than one square; over one square will be counted and charged as two;. over two as three, &c. B@*Local notice* fifteen cents a line for each insertion. gS-Relij ;ious and Educational No-1 tices or Advertisements, may be contracted for at lower rates, by applioa- . tion at the office. g®*Deaths and Marriages published ns news—free. I >■»- >1 ' - I - OFFICIAL DIRECTORY. District Officers. Hon. Rob’t Lowry, Circuit Judge. T. W. Wilson, Circuit Prosecuting Att’y. Hon. J. W. Borden,.. Com. Pleas Judge. J. S. Daily, Com. Pleas Prosecut’g Att’y. County Officers. W. G. Spencer Auditor. John McConnel,Clerk. Jesse Niblick, Treasurer. W. J. Adelsperger,Recorder. James Stoops Jr. Sheriff. Conrad Reinking, ] Jacob Sarff, }•.... Commissioners. Josiah Crawford, J Town Officers. Henry- B. Knoff, Clerk. D. J. Spencei, Treasurer. William Baker, Marshall. John King Jr., ) David King, > Trustees. David Showers, J Township Officers. Union.—J. H. Blakey, Trustee; E. B. Looker and George D. Hackett, Justices; Wn. May, Assessor. Root.—John Christen, Trustee; Jacob Bottenberg and Henry Filling, Justices; Lyman Hart, Assessor. Pnjtnx.—John Rupright, Trustee; Abraham Mangold and John Archbold, Justices; Jacob Yeager, Assessor. Kirkland.—Jonathan Bowers, Trustee; 8. D. Beavers aud James Ward, Justices; John Hower, Assessor. Washington.,—John Members, Trustee; - Jacob W. Grim aud Samuel Merryman, Justices; Harlo Mann, Assessor. fir. Mart's.—Edward McLeod, Trustee; 8. B. Merris, Samuel Smith and William Comer, Justices; Samuel Teeple, Assessor. Bluecrekk.—Samuel Eley, Trustee; 0. M. France and Lemuel R. Williams, Justices; Christian Coffman, Assessor. Monroe.—Joseph R. Miller, Trustee; Robert McClurg and D. M. Kerr, Justices; Robert E. Smith, Assessor. f bench. —Solomon Shull; Trustee; Lot French and Vincent D. Bell, Justices; Alonxo Sheldon, Assessor. Hartford.—Alexander Bolds, Trustee; Benjamin Runyan and Martin Kixer, Sen., Justices; John Christman, Assessor. ■ Wabash.—o. H. Hill, Trustee; Emanuel Conkle and James Nelson, Justices; David McDonald, Assessor. JErrcßSON.—Jonathan Kelly Jr., Trustee; Justus Kelly and John Fetters, Justices; Wm. Ketchum, Assessor. Time of Holding Courts. Circuit the Fourth Monday in April, and the First Monday in November, of each year. Common Pleas Court.—On the Second Monday in January, the Second Monday in May and the Second Monday in September, of each year. Commissioners Court.—On the First Monday in March, the First Monday in June, the First Monday in September, and the First Monday in December, of each year. CHURCH DIRECTORY. St. Mart’s (Catholic.)—Services every Sabbath at 8 o’clock and 10 o’clock, A. M. Sabbath School or instruction in Catechism, at 1} o’clock, P. M.; Vespers at 2 o’clock P. M. Rev. J. Wemhoff, Pastor. Methodist.—Services every Sabbath, at 10} o’clock A. M. and 7 o’clock P. M. Sabbath School at 9 o’clock A. M. Rev. D. N. Shackleford, Pastor. Prbsbtterian.—Services at 10} o’clock A. M., and 7 o’clock P. M. Sabbath School at 2 o’clock P. M. Rev. A. B. Lowes, Pastor. DRUGS. DOR WIN & BRO., -DEALERS INDrugs, Medicines, Chemicals, Toilet aud Fancy drtidu, Rponges,Brushes and Perfumery, Coal Oil and Lamps, Patent JUedieenes, he. DRCAT&R, i INDIANA. Physicians’ Prescriptions carefully compounded, and orders answered with care and dispatch. Farmers and Physicians from the country will find our stock, es Medicines complete, warranted genuine, and of ths best quality.

The Decatur Eagle.

Vol. 11.

ATTORNEYS. D. Da HELLER, -Attorney at Law, DECATUR, INDIANA. Will practice his profession anywhere in Indiana or Ohio. OFFICE.—With Dr. Borg, over Spencer & Meibers’ Hardware Store. v!ons2tf. JAMES R. 8080, -Attorney at Law, -AJKTX) Pension & Bounty Agent, DECATUUR, INDIANA. Draws Deeds, Mortgages and Contracts. Redeems Lands, pays Taxes, and collects Bounties and Pensions. OFFlCE—Opposite the Auditor’s Office. vlon6tf. D. STUDABAKER, -Attorney at Law, AND Claim & Real Estate Agent, DECATUR, INDIANA. Will practice law in Adams and adjoining counties; secure Pensions and other claims against the Government; buy and sell Real Estate; examine titles and pay taxes, and other business pertaining to Real Estate Agency. He is also a Notary Public, and is prepared to draw Deeds, Mortgages and other instruments of writing. vlOnlltf. reMl estate agents. JAMES R. 8080, LICENSED REAL ESTATE AGENT. DECATUR, INDIANA, lAAA ACRES of good farming ,Ot-FvJ land, several Town Lots, and a large quantity of wild land for sale. If you want to buy a good farm or wild land he will sell it to you. If you want your land sold he will sell it for you. Fo sale, no charge. vlOn.Gtf ~~ PHYSICIANS. F. A. JEELEFF, Physician and Surgeon, DECEIT UK, LYDLEV.I. OFFICE—On Second Street, over Bollman’s Store. vßn!stf. ANDREW SORG, Physician and Surgeon, OFFICE—On Second Street over Spencer & Meibers’ Hardware Store. vßn42tf. S. C. AYERS, M.D., —RESIDENT— Eye and Ear Surgeon, FORT WAYNE, INDIANA. OFFICE—No, 80 Calhoun Street. vlln9tf. AUCTIONEER. C. M. FRANCE Would announce to the public that he is a regularly licensed auctioneer, and will attend all Public Sales, whenever requested, upon addressing him at Wilshire, Ohio. HOTELS. MIESSE HOUSE 9 Third St., Opposite the Court Bowse, DECATUR, IJVD., I. J, MIESSE,::::::::::: Proprietor. This House is entirely new, neatly furnished, and is prepared to accommodate the public in the best style. Board by the day or week. vlln9tf. MONROE HOUSE. MONROEVILLE, INDIANA. L. WALKER,:::::::: Proprietor, This House is prepared to accommodate the travelling public in the best style, and at reasonable rates. nSvlltf. MAIN STREET EXCHANGE. A. FREEMAN, Proprietor. West Mam Street, near the Public Square. FOB.T WACrJCE, IND. vllnllyl. IIEDEKB HOUSE On Barr, between Columbia and Main Sts. PORT WAYNE, IND. ELI KEARNS, - . . -Proprietor. Office of Auburn and Decatur Stage lines. Also good stabling in connection with the House. vllnllyl. MAYER HOUSE. J. LES HAN, Proprietor. Corner Calhoun and Wayne Sts., FORT.WAYME, vllnllyl. Indiana. MONROEVILLE EXCHANGE. MONROEVILLE, IND. B. G. OOTBRDALB,.. ... .Proprietor. so:-—■ — Mr. Coverdale is also-a Notary Public, Real Estate and Insurance Agent. vllnllyl.

Leets.

DECATUR, IND., FRIDAY, AUG. 2, 1867.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE. Vetoing the Supplementary Reconstruction Bill. To the Home of Eepresentatives of the United States:— I return herewith the bill entitled, “An act‘ supplementary to an act, entitled, an act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,” passed on the 2d of March, 1867, and the act supplemenatiy thereto, passed on the 23d of March, 1867, Mid the reasons which prevent me from giving it my approval. This is one of the series of measures passed by Congress, during the last four months, on the subject of re-construction. The message returning the act of the 2d of March last, states at length my objections to the passage of that bill.— They apply equally well to the bill now before me, and I am content merely to refer to them and to reiterate my conviction that they are sound and unswerable. There are some points peculiar to this bill, which I will proceed at once to consider. The first section purports to declare the true intent and meaning in some particulars of the two prior acts upon this subject, and it is declared that the intent of these two acts was, first, that the existing governments in the ten rebel States were not loyal State governments, and, second, that thereafter said governments to be continued were to be continued subject in all respects to the military commanders of the respective districts, and to the paramount authority of Congress. Congress may by declaratory act fix upon a prior act a construction altogether at variance with its apparent meaning, and from the time at least, when said construction is fixed, the original act will be constructed and mean exactly what it is stated to mean by the declaratory statute. There will be then, from the time this bill may become a law, no doubt, no question, as to the relation in which the governments in those States called in the original act, the provisional governments stand towards the United States, as these relations stood before the declaratory act. These governments, it is true, were made subject to absolute military authority in many important respects, but not in all the language of the act being subject to the military authority of the United States as hereinafter prescribed by the 6th section of the original act. These governments were made in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States. Now by this declaratory act it appears that Congress did not, by the original act, intend to limit the military authority to any particulars or subjects therein prescribed, but meant to make it universal. Thus in all these ten States this military government is now declared to have unlimited authority; it is no longer confined to the preservation of the public peace, the administration of crimnallaws, the registration of voters, and the superintendence of elections, but in all respects it is asserted to be paramount to the existing civil governments, etc.— It is impossible to conceive any state of society more intolerable than this and yet it is to this condition that 12,000,000 of Americans are reduced by Congress of the United States. Over every part of the immense territory occupied by the* American citizens the Government thoretically is in full operation. It binds all the people there and should protect them; yet they are denied every one of its sacred guarantees and of what avail will it be to any one of these Southern people when they are seized by a file of soldiers' to ask for the cause of arrest or the production of the warrant—of what avail to ask for the privilege of bail when in military custody, which knows no such things as bail—of what avail to demand

trial by a jury, a process for witnesses, a copy of the indictment, the privilege of counsel, or that greater privilege the Writ of Habeas Corpus? The veto of the original bill of March 2d, was. based on two different grounds,—the interference of Congress on duties strictly pertaining to reserved powers of the States and establishment of military tribunals for the trial of citizens in times of peace. The impartial reader of that message will understand all it contained, with respect to military despotism, and martiallaw has reference especially tofear, however conferred on the District' Commanders to displace the' Crimnal Courts and assume any jurisdiction to try and punish by military boards. Most potentially the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was martial law and military despotism. The act now before me not only declares that the intent not only was to confer such military authority over all the other courts of the State, and over all officers of the State Leffislature, Executive and Judicial.— Not content with the general grant of Congress, the second section of this bill, especially gives to each military commander power to suspend, or relieve from office or from the performance of official duties and exercise of official powers in any officer or person holding, or professing to hold or exercise any civil or military office, in such district under any power, elective appointment, or devised from, or granted by, or claimed under any so-called State, or the government thereof a power that, hitherto, all the departments, of the Federal Government, acting in concert or seperately, have not dared to exercise, is here attempted to be conferred on a subordinate military officer, to him as a military officer of the Federal Government, is given the power supported by a sufficient military force, to remove every civil officer of the United States. What next? The district commander who has thus displaced civil officers is authorized to fill vacancy by the detaching an officer or a soldier from the army, by the appointment of some other person. This military officer, whether an officer or a soldier is to perform the duties of such officer or person so suspended or removed ; in other words, an officer or soldier of the army is transferred into a civil officer, and he may be a governor, a legislator or a judge. However unfit he may deem himself, he must obey the order. The officer, if detailed, must go on the supreme bench of the State with the same prompt obedience as if detailed to act in court martial. The soldier, if detailed to act as justice of the peace, must obey as quickly as if detailed for picket duty. What is the character of the military or civil officer? This bill declares that he shall perform the duties of the civil offices to which he is detailed. It is true, however, that he does not lose his position in the military service; he fs still an officer or soldier; he is still sub. ject to the rules and regulations which governs the army; he must yield due respect and obedience towards his superiors. The clear intent of this section is, that any officer or soldier detailed to fill a civil office must execute his duties according to the laws of the State. If he is appointed Governor of the State, he is to execute the duties as provided by the laws of the State, and for the time being, his military character is to be suspended in his new civil capacities; if he is appointed as State Treasurer he must at once assume the custody and disbursement of the funds, of the State, and perform those duties precisely according to the laws of the State, for he is entrusted - with no other offiicial power. Holding the office of Treasurer, and entrusted with funds, it happens he

is required by the laws of the State to enter into bond with security, and take an oath of office : yet from the beginning of the bill to the end, there is no provision of any bond, or oath of office, or for any single qualification required under State law, such as residence, citizenship or anything else. The only oath is that provided for in the 9th section, by the terms of which every one detailed or appointed to any civil office in a State is required to take an oath of office provided for by law for officers of the United States. Thus an officer of the army of the United States, detailed to fill a civil office in one of their States, gives no official bond and takes no official oath for the performance of his new duties, but as a civil officer of the State only takes the same oath which he had already taken as a military officer of the United States. He is at least a military officer performing civil duties, and the authority under which he acts is federal authority only, and the irresistible results is that the federal government by the agency of its own officers in effect, assumes the civil government of the State. A singular contrdiction is there apparent here. Congress declares these local State governments to be illegal. Governments shall be carried on by federal officers who are to perform the duties imposed on its own officers by the illegal State authority. It certainly would be a novel spectacle, if Congress should attempt to carry on legal State government by the agency of its own officers. It is yet more strange, that Congres to sustain or to cary on illegal state government by some federal agency. In the connection, I must point attention to the 10th and 11th sections of the bills which provide that none of the officers or appointees of this military commanders shall be found by his action or by an opinion of any civil officer of the United States, and that all the provisions of the act shall be constructed liberally to the end; that all the interests thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out. It seems Congress supposed the bill might require construction, and they therefore applied this rule. But where is the construction to come from ? Certainly no one can be in want of construction more than a soldier or an officer detailed for civil service, perhaps the most important in a State, with duties which he is altogether unfamiliar. This bill says he shall not be bouiid in his action by the opinion of any civil officer of the United States. The duties of the office are altogether civil. But when he asks for obedience he only can ask the opinion of another military officer, who, perhaps, understands as little of his duties as he does himself; and to his action he is answerable to the military authorities alone; strictly no opinion of any civil officer than a Judge has a binding force. But the military appointees Would not be bound even by a judicial opinion. They might very well say, even when their ac. tion is in conflict with the Supreme Court of the Uuited States, that court is composed of civil officers of the United States are not bound to conform our action to any such authority. This bill and act to which it is supplemental are all founded upon the assumption that these ten communities are not States, and their ten governments are not legal. Throughout the legislation upon this subject they are called rebel States, and in this particular they are denominated socalled, and the vice of illegality is declared to prevade all of them. The allegations of consistency bind a legislative body as well as the individuals who compose it and it is now too late that these ten communities are not States. Declarations to the contrary made in these three acts are contradicted again and again by repeated acts

of legislation by Congress from the year 1861 to the year 1867, during that period while the States were actual in rebellion, and after that rebellion was brought to a close they have again and again been recognized as States of the Union. Representatives have been appointed to them; they have been divided into judical districts for the holding of districts and circuit courts of the United States, of the Union only can be distracted. The last act on this subject was passed July 23, 1866, by which every one of the ten States were arranged into districts and circuits, and they have been called on by Congress to act through the Legislatures upon it least two amendments to the Constitution of the United States as States. They have ratified an amendment which required the vote of 27 out of 36 States composing the Union. When the requisite 27 votes were given by seven of these States, it was proclaimed to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and slavery was declared to exist no longer within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. If these seven States were not legal States of the Union, it folio ws as an inevitebles censequence that, in some of the States, slavery yet exists. It does not exists in these seven states, for they have also abolished in their own State constitutions, but Kentucky not having done so, it could still remain in that State. But in truth, if this assumption that these States have no legal State governments be true then the abolition of slavery by these illegal State governments amounts to nothing, for Congress now denies these States the power to abolish slavery, by denying to them the power to erect a legal state goveroment or legislature, or to frame a constitution for any purpose, even for the purpose of the abolition of slavery. As to the other constitutional amendment having reference to suffrage, it happens that the States have not accepted, it consequently has never proclaimed, or even understood by Congress, to be part of the Constitution. The Senate of the United States has also repeatedly given its sanction to the appointment of judges and district attorneys for every one of these States, yet if they are not legal States, not one of these judges is authorized to hold a conrt; so; too, both Houses of Congress have passed appropriation biils to pay all these judges, attorneys and officers of the United States for exereising their functions in those States. Again, in the machinery of the internal revenue laws, all these States are described, not as territories, but as States. So much for continuous legislative recognition, the instances stated however, fall far short of all that might be enumerated. Executive recognition, as is well known, has been frequent and unwavering. The same may be said as to judicial recognition throughout the Supreme Court of the United States. That august tribunal, from first, in the administation of its duties in public and upon the circuit, has never failed to recognize these the communities as legal States of the Union. The case in that case in that Court upon an appeal and writ of error from these States when the rebellion began, have not been dismissed on any idea of the cessation of jurisdiction. They were carefully continued from term to term until the rebellion was entirely subdued aud peace established. They were calledap for argument and consideration as if no insurrection had intervened, new cases occurring since the rebellion, have come from these States before that court by writ of error, and appeal, and even by original suit.— These cases are entertained by that tribunal in the exercise acknowledged by the jurisdiction which could not attach itself to them if they had come from any political

body other than a State of the Union; finally in the allotment of their circuits made by the judges at the December term in 1865, everyone of these states are put on the same footing of loyalty with as all other states, Virginia and North Carolina being a part of the Fourth Circuit, are allotted to the Chief Justice. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi constitute the Fifth Circuit and are allotted to the late Mr. Justice Waj-ne. Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas are allotted to the Sixth Judicial Circuit, in which there is a vacancy on the bench. The Chief Justice in the exercises of his duty has recently held a Circuit Court in North Carolina. If North Carolina is not a State of his Union, the Chief Justice had no authority to hold a Court there, and every judgment and decree delivered by him in that Court, was coram non Judice and void. Another ground on which these Reconstruction Acts are attempted to be sustained is, that these ten States are con-. quered territory; that the Constitutional relation in which they stood as States towards the Federal Government prior to the rebellion has given place to a new relation, — that tbis territory is conquered territory, and their citizens conquered people, and in this new relation Congress can govern them by military power. A title by Congress stands on clear grounds ; it is a title acquired by war; it applies only to territory ; as for goods or moveable things regularly captured in war, called booty, or if taken by individual soldiers, called plunder, it docs not apply. There is not a foot of land in any of these ten States which the United States holds by conquest, and only such land as did not belong to either of these States, or any individual owner.— I mean such lands as did belong to the pretended government, called the Confederate States. These lands we may pretend to hold by conquest; as to all other lands or territory, whether belonging to the States or individuals, the Federal Government has now no more title or right to than it had before the rebellion. Our own forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom houscsand other federal property situated in these States, we now hold, not by title of. conqueror, but by an old title acquired by purchase or condemnation for public use, with compensation to former owners. We have not conquered these places we have simply repressed them. If we require more sites for custom houses, or other property for public uses, we must acquire the title for them by purchase or appropriation in regular mode. At this moment the United States is in the acquisition of sites for national cemeteries in those States, and acquires title in the same way the federal courts sit in court houses owned or leased by the United States, not in court houses of the State. The United States pays each of these States for the use of its jails, and finally the United States levies its direct taxes and its internal revenue upon the property in those States, including the productions of the land within their territorial limits, and not by way of contribution in the character of a conquered, but in the regular way of taxation under the same laws which apply to all the other States of the Union, from the first to the last during the Rebellion and since the title of each of these States to lands and public buildings owned by them has never been acquired by the Uuited States even under a title of confiscation, and not afoot has ever been taxed under the federal law. In conclusion, I must respectfully call the attention of Congress to the consideration of one more question arising under this bill. It rests in the military commander subject only to approval of the general of the army of the United States, an unlimited power to remove from office any civil or military officer in each of those ten States, and further power subject to the same approval to detail or appoint any military officer or soldier of the United States to perform the duties of the officer so removed, and fill all vacancies occurring in those States by the (concluded on fourth page.)

No. 17.