THE PRESIDENTS INTENTIONS
The conduct of the
President justifies the alarm which we have expressed. He means mischief, and he will be
restrained only by his fears. A man in his position, who simultaneously defies his
opponents and surrounds himself with those who are known to be his devoted adherents, is a
man who intends to resist. His word, even if he gave it, could not be trusted. The law
does not restrain him, for he denies the authority which makes it. The real situation at
present is that the President asserts his will against the will of the people in Congress,
and will probably try forcible conclusions with them.The steps are easily seen. Congress passes a reconstruction law. It
is full of holes, and the Attorney-General drives a six-columned opinion through it.
Congress reassembles, and, although it has had the fullest experience of the treachery of
the President and of its own inaccuracy, mends its law and then ties up its own hands for
four months, as if there could be no defect in its supplementary law and the President
were now to be the most long-suffering of saints. The moment Congress is gone and safely
out of the way for the third of a year, the President and his accomplices discover the
weakness of the law. This once plainly seen, the President acts. The Secretary of War is
suspended. The Department General dearest to the people is removed and sent to fight the
Indians. A proclamation, enjoining obedience to the civil authority, follow, and then
comes the amnesty. The civil authority proclamation was incomplete without the amnesty.
The amnesty is pointless without a farther measure.
This measure, of course, is the reopening
of the registry for all the amnestied class. The amnestied persons indeed can be
registered only in direct contravention of the act of Congress. But what is easier than
for a Commander to look at the amnesty, and at the proclamation, and to say that he can
exclude from the registry those who are eligible? The President will have done nothing
about it. The Commander will simply have exercised the discretion which General Grant
advised General Sheridan to use. The State Convention will be held, the constitution
framed, and Congress will decline to receive it. The President will insist, and upon the
persistence of Congress will in turn decline to recognize that body.
Or, again, suppose the President directs
the reopening of the registries, and the admission of those whom his amnesty restores.
That would be a violation of the law of Congress. The President would be at once impeached
and removed. But he knows that as well as any one, and, if he issued an order to reopen
the lists, the conclusion would be inevitable either that he did not mean to permit
Congress to meet at the Capitol to impeach him, or that he meant to resist the process. If
he means nothing at all, why does he invite impeachment? If he invites impeachment, is it
merely that he may be removed from office?
In what precise way actual violence might
arise it is, however, idle to wonder. The point is to see that violence is, under the
circumstances, highly probable, and that the country should be prepared for it. The time
finds the President desperate and surrounded with evil counselors. The elections are
interpreted in favor of his hostility to Congress. The Democrats carry California; the
Republican vote is reduced in Maine; a Republican delegate to Congress is defeated in
Montana. "It is approval of your policy," shouts the chorus to the President.
And if equal suffrage should be defeated in Ohio; if the Copperhead candidate should be
elected in Pennsylvania; if New York should falter at the polls, and even in Massachusetts
the issue of prohibition should confuse our ranksthe same chorus would shout to the
President that the people had repented, and that any extreme action upon his part would be
supported by them.
Meanwhile we have no more
doubt that the loyal people of the United States intend to secure the results of the war
than we have that they fought it unconditionally to the end. The President will no more
balk them than Beauregards shot at Sumter balked them, or the Democratic shout for
surrender at Chicago discouraged them. Let us only fully understand the situation. Let us
see that the President deliberately defies Congress, and assumes to make his arbitrary
will, which he calls the Constitution, the government of the country, and he will learn,
as he did a year ago, what the people really think and feel. It is useless, therefore, to
suppose that he "would hardly dare" to go so far. He will dare any thing if his
courage is sustained, and that is sustained by Democratic successes. The Democratic Party
despises him, but it gladly uses him. Its revenge upon him for his vehement Unionism
during the war is to try to make him the instrument to restore the spirit of the rebellion
to power. The way to peace is now what it has been since the open rebellion of the slave
power against the Government, and that is the total defeat of the party which cherishes
the traditions of that power. And if peace has been for two years delayed it is only
because the treachery of the Executive has constantly stimulated the hopes of that party.
Had the President been faithful to the principle which elected him that principle would
have reorganized the Union. He may still further delay, but he can not defeat, its final
triumph.
Articles Related to Overt
Obstruction of Congress:
Congress
February 2, 1867, page 67
February 16, 1867, page 99
March 16, 1867, page 163
How Long?
June 29, 1867, page 402
Reconstruction and Obstruction
July 6, 1867, page 418
The Summer Session
July 6, 1867, page 418
The Fortieth Congress
July 17, 1867, page 467
Thanks to the District Commanders
July 27, 1867, page 467
Impeachment Postponed
July 27, 1867, page 467
A Desperate Man
August 13, 1867, page 546
The Secretary of War
August 24, 1867, page 530
Samson Agonistes at Washington (cartoon)
August 24, 1867, page 544
The Stanton Imbroglio (illustrated satire)
August 24, 1867, page 542
Secretary Grant
August 31, 1867, page 546
Southern Reconstruction
August 31, 1867, page 547
The Political Situation
September 7, 1867, page 562
General Thomas
September 7, 1867, page 563
Southern Reconstruction
September 7, 1867, page 563
The General and the President
September 14, 1867, page 578
General Sickles Also
September 14, 1867, page 579
Southern Reconstruction
September 21, 1867, page 595
The Presidents Intentions
September 28, 1867, page 610
Impeachment
October 5, 1867, page 626
The Main Question
October 5, 1867, pages 626-627
Suspension during Impeachment
October 19, 1867, page 658
"Disregarding" The Law
November 2, 1867, page 691
Impeachment
December 14, 1867, page 786
General Grants Testimony
December 14, 1867, page 786
The Presidents Message
December 14, 1867, page 787
General Grants Letter
January 1, 1868, page 2
Secretary Stantons Restoration
January 25, 1868, page 51
Reconstruction Measures
January 25, 1868, page 51
The President, Mr. Stanton and General Grant
February 1, 1868, page 66
Romeo (Seward) to Mercutio (Johnson) (cartoon)
February 1, 1868, page 76
The War Office
February 1, 1868, page 77
Secretarys Room in the War Department (illus)
February 1, 1868, page 77
The New Reconstruction Bill
February 8, 1868, page 83
|