The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-07-04
From the Philadelphia Evening ~;Bell-Everett) Jour
nal, of Thursday.
The Censure of the President.

We invite attention to the letter of the Sec
rotary of the Navy, which we print to day on
our first page. 1t shows very clearly two
facts-to wit, that the proceedings instituted
in the House of Representatives, on motion Of
Mr.. Sherman, were conducted in a most unfair
manner as regards the high officials whose &C
ton in the exercise of their constitutional au-
inquiry; and, secondly, that the pretended in
vestigation, instead Of being designed to elicit
truth, with a view to correcting supposed abu-
ses OF administration, was really intended for
no other purpose than to excite public indig-
nation against two eminent functionaries of
the Government, as one means, among many
such, of making votes fer the "Republican'
party In the coming Presidential election
The fact Is, as every unprecedented and discern
ing man must see, that the present "Republi-
can" majority in the House of Representa-
tives have employed their power during this
session of Congress, chiefly in er parte inqui-
sitions into the conduct of the President and
his Cabinet, in which the inquisitorial COM
mittees were packed with the enemies of the
accused parties, whose action was so shaped as
to elicit every fact that was likely to discredit
the Administration, while every fact that
would have been exculpatory, was suppressed.
And all this was done, too, with the foreknowl-
edge, that whatever the result of the inquest
might be, the parties originating it had the
power, by a final vote in the House, to pass
and record a sentence of condemnation, and
with a foregone purpose to give the proceeding
that damning issue. The event, as exhibited
in the resolutions passed yesterday, in censure
of the President and the Secretary of the Ma
Wy, have consummated the design of the con-
-spirators, and the journals of Congress are
again disgraced with a denunciatory judge
ment, pronounced against the Executive of
the nation, by a partisan majority in one
branch of the Federal Legislature, against
every principle of Constitutional right and
power and every rule of ordinary judicial pro-
priety and justice. Comment on this shame
full abuse of the power of a majority in a sin
gle chamber of Congress is unnecessary. 1t
is a striking example of abuse in those who
have set themselves up as the special reform
ers of abuses. Those who will audaciously
transSress all established limitations of legis-
lative jurisdiction, and usurp functions denied
to them by the fundamental law of the Gov
eminent, for the purpose of exercising a ma
lignant and dishonorable censorship. over a
coordinate department of the Administration,
are not fit to be trusted with too much power.
Moreover, the people will doubtless see that
the whole aim of the "Covode" and other like
COMMITTEES has been to bring the President
and his constitutional advisers into public con-
tempt, merely to provoke a counter current of
feeling in favor of the "Republican" party,
and, perceiying this fact, we trust that the
only and real purpose of a shameful scheme of
persecution will fail of realization.