Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-01-28
The National Administration and the Coz
Stjtufjan,

We believe it is the general Judgment of
the country on the acts of the present Ad-
1ninistratien, that they have been, in the
main, judiciouS and vell-timed The only
doubt about some OF them seems to be as to
their constitutionality. 1t has been some
tunes objected to our form of government.
1hat II was faulty in having a written consti-
tutloh winch could not adapt itself to the
neeus OF the times as they arose But we
tnink 1t is rather theoretic than practical
opJeetion lor IN point of fact there has been
hardly Leading measure of any Administra-
'io. lhat mas not been attacked as unconsti-
tulioi,al, ana winch was not carried out new
ertheless. Purchase of Louisiana EMBARGO
Removal of the Deposits, Annexation Of
| Texas, not to speak of others less imnortsnt
on the constitutionality of all these, power
tul parties have appealed to the country. and
| invariably the decision has been against them
The will of the people for the time BEING
has always carried it. In the present in
stance, we purposely refrain from any allu-
| sion to the moral aspects of the question.
We prefer to leave the issue to experience
| and common sense.
! We would not be understood as speaking
! lightly of the respect due to constitutional
forms, all the more essential under a Govern
ment like ours and in times like these But
where undue respect for the form will lose us
the substance, and where the substance, as in
this case, is nothing less than the country it
| self, to be over-scrupuous would be unwise
Who are most tender in their solcitude that
we keep sacred the letter of the law in order
that its spirit may not keep us alive? Mr.
jefferson Davis and those who, in the free
States, would have been his associates. but
must content themselves with being his politi-
| cal qlI6JTaIeroS. If Davis had succeeded.
would he have had any scruples of constitu-
| tional delicacy? And if he has not succeed
ed, Is 1t not mainly owing to measures which
his disappointed partisan denounce as uncon-
stitutional?
We cannot bring ourselves to think that
MIR. Lincoln has done anything that would
furnish a precedent dangerous to our Eber-
ties, or in any way overstepped the Just i'm
its of his constitutional discretion. If his
course has been unusual, it was because the
danger was equally so. 1t cannot be so truly
said that he has strained his prerogative, as
! that the imperous necessity has exercised its
own. Surely the trainers of the Constitution
never dreamed that they were making
straight waistcoat, in which the nation was to
| lie helpless while traitors were left free to
do their will. In times like these, men sell
dom settle precisely the principles on which
| they shall act, but rather adjust those on
which they hare acted to the lines of prece-
dent as well as they can after the event
This is what the English Parliament did in
the Act of Settlement. Congress, after all,
will only be called on for the official draft of
an enactment, the terms of which have been
already decided by agencies beyond their
control. Even while they are debating the
current Is sweeping them on toward new re-
lations of policy At worst, Il new precedent
is pretty sure of pardon, if it successfully
meets a new occasion. 1t is harmless pleas
antry to call Mr.. Lincoln "Abraham the
First; we remember when a similar title was
applied to President jackson; and it will not
be easy, we suspect, to persuade a people
who have more liberty than they know what
to do with, that they are the victims of des-
potic tyranny.
Mr.. Lincoln probably thought it more con-
venent, to say the least, to have a country
left without a constitution, than constitution
without country. We have no doubt we
shall save both for if we take care of the
one the other will take care of itself Sensi-
bic men, and it is the sensible men in any
country who at last shape its policy, will be
apt to doubt whether it is true conservatism,
alter the fire is got under, to insist on keeping
up the flaw in the chimney by which it made
It's way into the house Radicalism may be
fSIy dangerous LILLY, anu 50 is caiOulel,
but not when it is the only means of saving
the life of the patient. Names are of great
influence in ordinary times, when they are
backed by the ais ine,tie Of life long prejudice,
but they have little power in comparison
with a sense of interest; and though, in
peaceful times, it may be highly respectable
to be conservative merely for the sake of be
ing so, though without very clear notions of
anything in particular to be conserved, what
we want now is the prompt decision that will
not hesitate between the bale of silk and the
ship when leak is to be stopped If we
succeed III saving the great landmarks of
freedom, there will be no difficulty in settling
our constitutional boundaries again. We
have no sympathy to spare for the pretended
anxieties Of men who, only two years gone,
were willing that Jefferson Davis should break
all the ten commandments together, and
would now impeach Mr. Lincoln for scratch
on the surface Of the tables where they are
engraved.
REUNION IN HEAvEN.-How short is the ear