Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-09-03
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.


lican press, to relieve their friends OF the
House of Representatives from just response
bility for their recent attempts 70 revolution
ice the Government in several OF It's vitality
essential features. They boldly allege that
the nroviso of Mr.. Pennington on which Con-
grass adjourned on the 18th ultimo, again met
on the 2lst, and for which the Republican
party coDtended until Saturday last, (when Mr.
Campbell brought in a very different one, in
Decd was simply negative proposition; one
forbidding the President to use the army of
the United States for the enforcement of the
(so-callcd) black laws of the Territorial Legis.
lature of Kansas. A baser and moro palpable
fraud on public credulity than is involved in
this position Of theirs, was never essayed.
The proviso, in question, is as follows, viz
"PrOUtded, however, and it is hereby de-
clared, that no part of the military force of
the United States for the support of which APP
propriations are made by this act shall be en-
ployed in aid Of the enforcement of any enact
ment of the body claiming to be the Terrific
rial Legislature of Kansas, until such enact
ments shall have been affirmed and approved
by Congress but this proviso shall not be so
construed as to prevent the President from
employing an adequate military force, but it
shall be his duty to employ such force to pre-
vent the invasion Of said Territory by armed
bands of non-residents, or any other body of
non-residents, acting, or claiming to act, rs q
posse comitatUs of any officer in said Territory
in the enforcement of any such enactment, and
to protect the persons and property therein,
and upon the national highways leading to
said Territory from all unlawful searches, and
it shall be his further duty to take efficient
measures to compel the return of and with
hold all arms of the United States distributed
in or to said Territory in pursuance Of any
law of the United authorizing the distribution
of arms to the States and Territories"
The reader will perceive that it involved
two or three distinct unconstitutional PROPOSE
tons:
Thus, while it proposed to leave the obnox-
ious (politicaD laws of Kansas operative-and
so far they have only been nominaiiy opera
tive-it forbade the President from executing
them On the day before yesterday we quoted
from the National InteYigencer thorough
exposure of the unconstitutionality of the at
tempt on the part of the House involved in
this proviso, to take from the President his
power and duty as the Commapder-in.Ch Chief of
the army of the United States expressly lodged
in his Office by the Constitution, and not in
the House of Representatives. We therefore
need say nothing more on that particular head
2. 1t commands that the President shall not
cause laws to be executed, the validity Of
which the Republicans of the House keep alive
by refusing to repeal them!
Now, the Constitution makes it the impera-
tive duty of the President to execute all fed.
eraD laws alike, and had the House succeeded
in forcing the Senate to accede to tho enact
ment of this prOviso, the Executive would
have been compelled, by his oath of Office, to
have regarded the direction of Congress, that
he shall not do what the Constitution saws he
shall do, as so much idle wind In other
words, this feature Of the proviso was a revo
lutionary attempt to compel the Executive to
refrain from the execution of laws that hap
pened to be distasteful to a momentary ma
jOrity of members of single branch of Con.
gress
3. This proviso declares that the President
shall use the army to keep open the highways
to Kansas, whether through States or Terri
tories. Now, the Constitution provides that
he (the President) shall use the army of the
United States in our domestic affairs, only as q
posse to aid the civil authorities. But here
we have the Republican party essaying to
clothe the present Chief Magistrate (whom
they profess to regard as tyrant and usurper
TOR the interest Of slavery cxtension) with
power to substitute martial law for the civil
law when and where he pleascs Under it,
1T would be bis duty to drive courts, sherifs,
jurles, militia, and all that might essay to
carry out State laws with which it intcrfered,
at the points Of the bayonets of United States
troops. 1t amounts in this particular to an
effort to revolutiopize the Government as clear
and palpable as could be cssayed. Up to this
time the troops of the Federal Government
have been used in domestic troubles only as
adjuncts to the civil power, resting wholly
under the control Of the officers of the law in
such cases. This is in keeping with the re-
quirements Of tho Constitution in this par
ticular. The Republicans of Congress, how
ever, in proposing to substitute them for the
civil authority in the Territory and in States
adjacent to 1t, proposed, palpably and EN-.
phatically, to revolutionize the Government
in this connection.
a. The proviso directs that tho troops
shall be used to prevent the marshal and
sherif's from embracing in their posse any per.
sons not citizens Of the Territory. In so doing
1t strikes down principle of the common law,
as old as the employment of possess to enforce
judgments, writs, &c and without which, in
stead Of being aids in their enforcement, they
(possees) would BIO positive hindrances only.
Under it, it becomes the duty of the com
mandcr Of troop Of dragons in the Territory
to resolve himself into 4 sort of court martial,
to determine the validity of the claim of every
man in the Territory to be resident thereof.
Under the common law, the law officer may
summon the FIRST man he meets to aid him in