The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-08-19
An Exposure Of and Protest
Against them from an Un'
expected Quarter.
Manifesto from BE-. Wade, Chair
man of the Senate Committee,
and b. Winter Davis, Chair
man of the House Com
mittee on the Rebel
lious States.
The People Called Upon to econ
slider the Remedy for these
USurpationS, and Having
Found it. to FearleSSly
Execute 1t.

EACCuSc IL
TO THE SUPPORTERS OF THE
GOVERNMENT.
We have read without surprise, but not
without indignation, the proclamation OF
the President of the 9Th of July, 1864.
The supporters of the ADMINISTRATION are
responsible to the country for its conduct,
and it is their right and duty to check the
encroachments of the executive on the
authority of Congress and to require it to
confine itself to its proper sphere.
It is impossible to pass in silence this
proclamation without neglecting that duty ;
and having taken as much responsibility as
any others in supporting the administra-
ton, we are not disposed to fail in the
other duty of asserting the rights of Con-
gress.
The President did not sign the bill /" to
guarantee to certain States whose govern
ments have been usurped, a republican
form of government. passed by the sup
porters of his administration in both
houses of Congress, after mature deliber-
alton.
The bill did not therefore become law,
and it is therefore nothing.
The proclamation is neither an approval
nor a veto of the bill it is, therefore, a
document unknown to the laws and con-
stitution of the United States
So far as it contains an apology for not
signing the bill, it is political manifesto
against the friends of the government.
So far as it proposes to execute the bill
which is not law it is a grave Executive
usurpatiOn.
1t is fitting that the facts necessary to
enable the friends of the administration to
appreciate the apology and the usurpation
be spread before them.
The proclamation says:
And whereas the said bill was presented to
the President of the United States for his ap-
rOval less than one hour before the SINE die
adjournment of said session, end was not
signed by him
If that be accurate, still this bill was
presented with other bills that were
signed.
Within that hour the time for the sine
die adjournment was three times post
poned by the votes of both Houses; and
the least iCtimatiOn of a desire for more
time by the President to consider this bill
would have secured further postpone
ment.
Yet the committee sent to ascertain if
the President had any further commune
cation for the House of Representatives
reported that he had none and thefriends
of the bill. who had anxiOusly waited on
him to ascertain its fate, had already been
informed that the President had resolved
not to sign it.
The time of presentation, therefore, had
nothing to do with his failure to approve
The bill had been discussed and consid-
cred for more than month in the House
of Representatives, which it passed on the
4th of May; it was reported to tie Senate
on the eth of May without material
amendment, and passed the Senate absO
lutely as it came from the House on the
I'd of July.
Ignorance of It's contents is ont of the
question 49,,
Indeed, at bis request, draft Of a bill
substantially the same in all material
points, and identical in the points objected
to by the proclamation, had been laid be-
fore him for his consideration in the winter
of 1S62-63.
There is, therefore, no reason to suppose
the provisions of the bill took the Presi-
dent by surprise.
On the contrary, We have reason to be-
lieve them to have been so well known that
this method of preventing the bill from
becoming law without the constitutional
responsibility of veto had been resolved
upon long before the bill passed the SEN
ate.
We are informed by gentleman enti-
tied to entire confidence, that before the
22d of June, in New Orleans, it was stat
ed by a member of Gen. Banks staff, in
the presence of other gentlemen in official
position, that Senator Doolittle had writ
ten letter to the Department that the
House Reconstruction Bill would be STAYED
off in the Senate to period too late in
the session to require the President to veto
it in order to defeat it, and that Mr.. Lin
coin would retain the bill if necessary, and
thereby defeat it. -.
The experience of Senator Wade in his
various efforts to get the bill considered in
the Senate, was quite in accordance with
that plan; and the fate of the bill was &C
curately predicted by letters received from
New Orleans before it had passed the Sem
ate.
Had the proclamation stopped there it
would have been only one other defeat OF
the will of the people by an Executive
perverslon of the constitution.
But it goes further. The President
says:
And whereas the said bill contains. among
other things, plan for restoring the States iu
rebellion to their proper practical relation in
the Union, which plan expresses the sense of