Walla Walla Statesman

An Infamous Decision.

The infamous 'opinion' just given by Attorney General Hoar, asserting the legality of military trials of citizens, says the Cincinnati Enquirer, vindicates the faith reposed in him by his party and the Administration. He was selected as a fit and capable instrument for the execution and defense of the dirty jobs demanded by the exigencies of radicalism, and he has given ample proof that his 'heart is in his work.' The plain, unmistakable constitutional guarantee of jury trial, and the solemn decision of the Supreme Court, concurred in by all the Judges, sustaining that guarantee in the Indiana 'conspiracy cases,' are alike ignored in the cause of military usurpation with the narrow, petty, uncandid ingenuity of a police court pettifogger. The cheerful readiness with which this task was accepted and performed has encouraged the Yankee Attorney's master to impose upon him another, viz: to write up an argument in support of the theory that Georgia has not been reconstructed.' The object in view is thus revealed by the New York Tribune :

" If Mr. Hoar should decide that the State is not a State in the Union, according to the reconstruction laws of Congress, then, it is thought, the President will have the same power there that he has in Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, and will recognize Georgia as having only a Provisional Government.'

So it appears to be an article of faith in the advanced radical creed, that the existence of the State Government, and the rights of the people represented in them, are subjects upon which the Attorney General is competent to 'decide;' and an opinion of his, prepared to order, to meet a supposed political emergency, is to be accepted by the President as authority for overturning the entire institutions of the State, and putting its population under martial law. If this can be done with Georgia it may also be done with Ohio or New York. The legitimate authority of the Federal Government is subject to the same restrictions south of the Potomac as north of it: and if the limits set by the Constitution may be overstepped on one side of the line, why may they not be disregarded on the other? To destroy the State Government of Ohio by military force would be to commit treason in "levying war" upon one of the United States. The rule will equally apply to Georgia, and the fact that the perpetrators of the crime may wear the uniform of the Federal army, would increase rather than diminish their guilt. There was a ruler in Venice once, it may be remembered, who tried this experiment of making war upon the Government of which he was himself the head. We commend the result of his treason to the attention of General Grant and his superserviceable and conscienceless Attorney General.