Belief 8 - Reading 6 of 14, The Reconstruction Convention

Use the links above to navigate this simulation.

Belief 8 - Reading 6 of 14

Navigate within this Belief: Reading 5 << >> Reading 7

Additional Beliefs: Belief 1 Belief 2 Belief 3 Belief 4 Belief 5 Belief 6 Belief 7 Belief 8

MILITARY OCCUPATION

Harper's Weekly, September 9, 1865, page 562 (Editorial)

Although it will be a long time before the military force of the United States can be altogether removed from the unorganized States, yet it is very essential that its presence there should be subordinated to the civil power as fast as a truly loyal civil power is established. The precedent would seem to be the relation which exists between the two authorities in the territories of the United States. There is always military force enough there to second the civil arm in maintaining order, which, in a normal state of affairs, is properly the military function.

In the present condition of the unorganized States, however, when there is no authority of any kind but that of the United States, and when the Provisional Governors are appointed not to govern the State, but to take steps to prove whether the State is sufficiently pacified safely to undertake its own government, the case is different. The military Governor is the chief officer charged with public order, and he governs by military authority. If the former practice and present prejudice of the State lead to palpable injustice, it is his duty to apply a summary remedy.

Thus courts have been instituted in which the testimony of colored witnesses is taken and respected. And wherever a plain offense is brought to the notice of an upright and generous military officer he will, under military rules, undoubtedly correct it, and in the speediest way. Military processes are direct and effective. To military force the law’s delay is unknown.

And from this very fact springs an obvious danger. The swiftness of military justice is fascinating—but the law’s delay in the long-run better secures justice. Military rule is despotic rule. It is often inevitable and necessary. It is better than anarchy. It is a rising step from anarchy to tranquil order. But the effort should constantly be to dispense with it, and to prevent the development of a taste for it. Thus, while in the unorganized States it is impossible immediately to establish a civil order, it is very important that the military authority should be reasonably and steadily, not whimsically, enforced. Then all experiments for a safe return to the normal condition should be honestly tried, as they are now to be tried. If, for instance, the citizens who have been in insurrection against the government of the whole people, show by the spirit of their deliberations and by the character of the laws they propose, that the people can, with a proper regard for the security of the whole, permit them to resume their local Government, the military rule can be rapidly relaxed. If, on the other hand, they plainly show that they can not be safely trusted, the military rule will be continued. The essential point is not State rights but National rights: not State sovereignty but National sovereignty: not a local authority but the security of the government of the people.

It is not the fault of the loyal people of the country if a prolongation of the military presence in the unorganized States becomes necessary. They proffer the opportunity of a truly loyal and honorable reorganization. If the inhabitants to whom the offer is made decline, those inhabitants are responsible. It will then be for the country to determine whether it will still maintain a military system, with its palpable peril and expense, or whether it will establish civil order upon the basis of the whole free population.

Harper's Weekly, September 9, 1865, page 562 (Editorial)

This site is brought to you by…