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Show GENERAL MEPniAM TEST1F1E3 AS TOCOEURd'ALENE AFFAIRS His Only I ti millou-i Were to Proceed to Idaho and I'ut iJown lll-,lllT--tlon. At t he e.vji mi nation of lieneni! Mer-riam Mer-riam at the Cot-ur d'Alenc investigation investiga-tion by the military committee of the house he re vie wed i n de tai I his instructions. instruc-tions. In a t(rh- ram from Secretary Alger of May :;!, he had referred to General M'-rri.un's "original instructions." instruc-tions." (lein-ral Merriam testified that he had never rc-i-ived any "original iri-.lrui;tii!.V' Ley I 'die direction to proceed to Idaho to put down the insurrection. in-surrection. I!r hail applied lo the department de-partment t-.vio.- for the "original instructions," in-structions," but tiu-y had tmt been furnished and lie had i-uinc to the conclusion con-clusion that Secretary Alger was ;i error. In reply to a scries of questions, General Merriam test! tied that martial law was declared by the governor of Idaho, tipon whose request the United States troops were furnished, and that the section of the revised statutes requiring re-quiring the president to proclaim a state of insurrection did not apply. Some of the federal troops, he testified, were in Idaho and some on their way there before martial law was declared, May lie had telegraphed (May 2) to the war department that he would extirci.se martial law if action was not disapproved by the department. Up to the time of his arrival 118 arrests ar-rests had been made. Mr. Robertson sought to gain an admission that some of these arrests were made prior to the governor's procla ma I ion, but General Merriam denied this emphatically, producing his telegrams to show that iv hen he ordered the arrests he stated martial law was declared. When he had directed that arrests should be made by deputies he had not conceded that troops could not make the arrests directly and without warrants under martial law. "Von convened no military court to try those prisoners? '' "I did not. The state courts were open." ''Yon took no pains to determine whether information had been lodged against the men arrested?" "1 did not." "You then lent soldiers to deputies who made arrests'?'' "I did not. 1 sent soldiers to protect deputies and to receive and safeguard prisoners." "Do you think there can be civil officers of-ficers under martial law?" "I do. emphatically." "Deputies exercising the functions of military officers?" "Yes, under the direction of the governor." gov-ernor." General Merriam in reeponse to a question as to whether he now considered consid-ered the people of Shoshone county capable of self-government, said he was not in possession of sufficient information in-formation to give an opinion. |