Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-04-24
THE "oRDER IN toUNcIL," AGAIN.

our views this subject and hose by that very
able and udcious paper, the National Intelgence
to arise from the fact that We Judge the Presidents act
authority in Mexico by different standards The Intelligent
Ger considers it of legislation, and finds authority
for it in the constitution. We regard it a of
military exacon, enforced by right of war; and warranted
by the laws of nations TO contemporary the President
appears only civil officer, with functions defined and
powers limited while him in this case as Com
mander-n Chief Of the Army and Navy, exercising military
authority against enemies and beyond the limits Of the Uni
ted States. "-Balmore American.
1t will, we trust, be considered by the " Ameri-
can" further mark of our most respectful con-
sideration that endeavor to show on what grounds
its view of the authority Of the Executive to act
he has done, IN calling Council around him, and
by the assumed right of Conqueror, &c., devsing
Procaiming, and putting in force system Of reve-
nue. within the limits Of Mexico, appears to to be
wholly incompatible with that which we are obliged
to take of the Laws of the land.
| That the President should have done this thing,
and found persons willing to approve and uphold
what he has done, is no matter of surprise. He
might do more extraordinary things, and be APP
plauded for it, not by friends and fatterers merely,
but by those who look much more to the conve-
nience than to the constitutonaity of any act of the
Government A state of is on many accounts
to be deprecated but on none more than the impu-
nifty which it affords to violations of public and pri-
vate right, which the laws no longer suffice to en-
force and defend. Besides which, says the author
whom shall presently quote as the great expoun-
der of the Constitution, T" War is in fact the true
nurse Of Executive ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. In war a
| ply sca force is to be created, and it is the Exc
cutve will which is to direct it. In war the pub
lie treasures to be unlocked, and it is the Exc
cutve hand which is to dispense them. In war
| the honors and emoluments of Office are to be
multiplied, and it is the Executive patronage IN
der which they are to be enjoyed 1t is in war,
finally, that laurels are to be gathered, and it is
the Executive brow they are to encircle. The
strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses
of the human breast-ambition avarice, vanity
the honorable or venia love of fame-are all in
conspiracy against the desire and duty Of peace.
BY how much greater is the facility of Executive
usurpation during war, by SO much more imperative
is the duty of the press and still more Of the CO.
ordinate branches of the Government, to expose
and contend against it wherever it rears its head
i Be this our excuse with the readers of this paper
for recurring the late Order" Of the President
the very plausibiity of which requires that its le
gality should be thoroughly probed.
| The trainers of the Constitution, when they came
to their great work, placed before them the Govern
ment of Great Britain, then the freest in the world
not SO much as model as an object of comparison
and contrast with that which they were about to
build up. They had to construct Representative
Republic, il is true but they did not disdain Il
avail themselves of such of the materials appear
ed to be sound of that Government of a differen
order under which they were born, and which they
had lately cast off.
i No one can compare for a moment the feature.
of the present Government Of the United State!
with those of the British Government without per
ceiving the points Of resemblance between the two
not in regard to the Executive alone, but also thu
Legislative and Judicial departments of the Govern
ment. 1t is a resemblance only, however, and no
a likeness. Our President is far from being King
though the Constitution has given him some powers
belonging to the British Crown, and among then
one which no King dare to exercise, THE Veto upor
acts of the Legislature !; and our Congress has many
features of the Parliament Of Great Britain, will
more substantial power than that has, or ever had.
The great distinction between the hereditary
Office of King in the Monarchy, and our electv,
office of President, is that our President has no in
herent prerogative powers, whilst the Kingly
{ Office is made up of them. The President Of the
United States is the creature Of the Constitution
and can legally exercise no power but what thu
Constitution has conferred upon him. i" The title
/ Prerogafiue, it is presumed, Csays Tucker or
e Blackstone, was annhilated in America with
the Kingly Government. 1t will, however, be o
use to the student to observe how many of the
flowers Of the Crown, which were formerly styled
: Prerogatves, have been rejected as nuisances by
our own Constitutions or, where necessarily re-
tanned, have been confded to safer hands than
those Of a hereditary Executive Magistrate" In
addition to which it is worthy of remark that in nc
part of the elaborate exposition lin " the Federal
ist" of the Constitution by its great founders, is
there TO be discovered any color for the pretence
that the Executive possesses powers unrevealed
by that instrument not expressly conferred by it.
The most important powers Of Government,
which in the British Constitution sole Prerogd-
ives ofMe King, are, by our Constitution, placed
IN the hands Of Congress. We need not enume-