[Nettime-bold] America's Disgraceful History Of Military "Trials"

["Steve McAlexander" <mcalexander@veriomail.com>]

America's Disgraceful History Of Military "Trials"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo9.html

November 15, 2001

by Thomas J.  DiLorenzo  [mailto:TDilo@aol.com]

The latest assault on the civil liberties of the American people in the
name of fighting terrorism is President Bush's recent decision to use
U.S.  military tribunals to try foreigners accused of terrorist attacks
and
to decide on sentences, including the death penalty.  This is a horrible

idea with a horrible precedent: the largest mass execution in U.S.
history.

In 1851 the Santee Sioux Indians in Minnesota sold twenty-four million
acres of land to the federal government for $1.4 million.  By August of
1862 thousands of white settlers continued to pour into the Indian lands

even though none of the money had been paid to the Santee Sioux.  There
was
a crop failure that year, and the Indians were starving.
The Lincoln administration refused to pay them the money they were owed,

breaking yet another Indian treaty, and the starving Sioux revolted.

A short "war" ensued, with Lincoln putting one of his favorite generals,

General John Pope, in charge of federal forces in Minnesota.  Pope
announced that "It is my purpose to utterly exterminate the Sioux
.  .  .  .  They are to be treated as maniacs or wild beasts, and by no
means as people with whom treaties or compromise can be made."
(Similar statements were being made at the time by General William
Tecumseh
Sherman, who said that to all Southern secessionists, "why, death is
mercy").

The Santee Sioux were overwhelmed by the federal army by October of
1862,
at which time General Pope held hundreds of Indian men, women, and
children
who were considered to be prisoners of war.  The men were all herded
into
forts where military "trials" were held, each of which lasted about ten
minutes according to David A.  Nichols in Lincoln and the Indians.  They

were all found guilty of murder and sentenced to death even though the
lack
of hard evidence was manifest and they were not given any semblance of a

proper defense.  Most were condemned to death by virtue o the fact that
they were merely present during a battle, during a declared (by the
Indians) war.

Minnesota political authorities wanted the federal army to immediately
execute all 303 of the condemned men.
Lincoln, however, was concerned that such a mass execution of so many
men
who had so obviously been railroaded would be looked upon in a bad light
by
the European powers who, at the time, were threatening to support the
Confederate cause in the War for Southern Independence.  His compromise
was
to pare the list of condemned down to 39, with a promise to the
Minnesota
political establishment that the federal army would eventually kill or
remove every last Indian from the state.  As a sweetener to the deal
Lincoln also offered Minnesota $2 million in federal funds.

On December 26, 1862, Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution
in
American history in which the guilt of the executed could not be
positively
determined beyond reasonable doubt.  (The cartel of "Lincoln scholars"
actually praises Lincoln for this act, claiming that it is yet another
example of his humanitarianism and his "culture of life." He may well
have
killed 39 innocent people, they say, but it could have been much worse).

This is not to suggest that the Bush administration, with its decision
to
use military tribunals instead of civil courts to try suspected
terrorists,
will exercise the kind of tyrannical behavior that occurred during the
Lincoln administration, but it could.  Military men who are influenced
by
the passions of war are not suitable as unbiased judges.
The administration should use the current crisis as an opportunity to
speed
up our sclerotic legal system and prosecute accused terrorists under the

normal rules of trials that are consistent with the U.S.  Constitution.

November 15, 2001

Thomas J.  DiLorenzo [mailto:TDilo@aol.com] is professor of economics at

Loyola College in Maryland.  His book, The Real Lincoln: A New Look at
Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, will be published
in
February.

Thomas DiLorenzo Archives
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo-arch.html

Copyright 2001 LewRockwell.com
http://www.lewrockwell.com/


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Quit now for Great
American Smokeout
http://us.click.yahoo.com/B0gGED/9pSDAA/ySSFAA/aQSolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

American Patriot Friends Network (APFN)
http://www.apfn.org
APFN EMAIL LIST SUBSCRIBE/UNSCBSCRIBE IN SUBJECT LINE TO: apfn@apfn.org
APFN YahooGroups:
Subscribe:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apfn/join
Unsubscribe:  apfn-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
APFN CONTENTS: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/apfncont.htm
APFN MSG BOARD: http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html

APFN SITE MAP:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/sitemap.htm

Public Education System vs Christian Home Schooling
Home School News, Info. & Links
http://www.ordination.org/homeschool.htm

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask
not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands of those
who feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you. May posterity forget
that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/



_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold