Undertaking to create military governors of States, we reverse the policy of the Republic, as solemnly declared by Jefferson, and subject the civil to the military authority. If this has been done in patriotic ardor, without due consideration, in a moment of error or alarm, it only remains, that, according to Jefferson, we should “hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.” There is nothing new under the sun, and the military governors we are beginning to appoint find a prototype in the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. After the execution of the King and the establishment of the Commonwealth, the Protector conceived the idea of parcelling the kingdom into military districts, of which there were _eleven_, being precisely the number now proposed, under favor of success, among us. Of this system a great authority, Mr. Hallam, speaks thus:-- “To govern according to law may sometimes be an usurper’s wish, but can seldom be in his power. The Protector abandoned all thought of it. Dividing the kingdom into districts, he placed at the head of each a major-general, as _a sort of military magistrate_, responsible for the subjection of his prefecture. These were _eleven in number_, men bitterly hostile to the royalist party, and insolent towards all civil authority.”[177] Carlyle, in his Life of Cromwell, gives a glimpse of this military government. “The beginning of a universal scheme of Major-Generals, the Lord Protector and his Council of State having well considered and found it the feasiblest,--‘if not _good_, yet best.’ … ‘It is an arbitrary government,’ murmur many. Yes, arbitrary, but beneficial. _These are powers unknown to the English Constitution, I believe; but they are very necessary for the Puritan English nation at this time._”[178] Perhaps no better words could be found in explanation of the Cromwellian policy adopted by our President. A contemporary republican, Lieutenant-General Ludlow, whose “Memoirs” add to the authentic history of those interesting times, characterizes these military magistrates as so many “bashaws.” Here are some of his words:-- “The major-generals carried things with unheard-of insolence in their several precincts, decimating to extremity whom they pleased, and interrupting the proceedings at law upon petitions of those who pretended themselves aggrieved; _threatening such as would not yield a ready submission to their orders with transportation to Jamaica, or some other plantations in the West Indies_.”[179] Again, says the same contemporary writer,--