New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-04-06
HAVE WE A GOVERNMENT

House oil Representatives, "! JIMMY i'"'"
Dawson, we were encountered by another de-
bate in the Senate upon tho question whether
the Constitution should be so amended as to
prohibit Slavery. 1t is very extraordinary
document-this same Constitution of ours; fol
il is the learned opinion of sundry sharp politi
clans that it establishes everything which il
does not in terms prohibit. This method Of
augmentation would soon make melancholy
muddle of any possible fundamental instrument
As the Constitution does not prohibit swindling
for instance, it is a logical ssquitw that swim
ding is constitutional As the Constitution does
not define in minute detail every possible
variety of duty which the President may be
called upon to perform, it follows that,
when a red-hot Rebellion is raging IL
the land, our Chief Executive is tc
be stationed in Washington by the SUI
irages of the States, there merely TO draw his
salary with an undertaking punctuality. lie
has nothing to do with camps and Major-Gen'
erals. He is not expected to entertain so USE
less and absurd thing as policy. He is to
live in the White House, and regulate the cooks
and porters thereof. Upon his public days, he
is TO be lay figure, to be gazed upon, to have
his hand mechanically shaken. and his personal
beauty passed upon by mob of free and easy
guests Merely an inert center, around which
the Federal orrcry revolves, the least display
of real personality, the least bold assumption
of responsibility upon his part, is angrily depre-
Gated by the Opposition as gross usurpatlon.
And as il is with the President, 80 is it with the
Cabinet. The Secretaries are to be only the
ceremonial priests of our political Grand Llama,
doing merely a clerkiy work, and never yentur-
ing upon an original act. And as il is with the
Cabinet, so is il with the Congress. The cOun-
try may he going to wreck; but no laws are to
be made for which precedent cannot be found.
Poor President unhappy Cabinet contemptl-
bic Congress There would seem TO be no
power TO save Us vested in anybody
And yet, il is singular, not to say bewilder-
ing circumstance, that in the dear delightful,
happy days which hayesone BY, apparently for
ever, ingenious gentlemen found any amount Of
slavery in the Constitution; aud Presidents
were expected TO be extremely active in is be-
half; and Cabinets gave orders for rliling the
mai-bags and for refusing passports to black
Americans about 20 travel; and Congress ex-
erled all its ingenuity in framing laws for the
CAPTURE and rendition OF runaway personal
goods; and District-Attorneys were swift to in
dict in the Federal Courts all those who declined
10 Join the man-hunting posse eomitaius. Do
not all of us remember those times of lucid in
depreciation, when TO make a speech in behalf
of simple humanity in Faneiil Hall was con.
strued into leyying war high .reasonously upon
the United States; and bum.baihfls, in behalf
of the American eagle, hailed men TO prison for
the utterance OF involuntary woyds of sympathy
and indignation; and the pulpits of God re-
sounded with polemical denunciations of Gods
Higher Lawl All there was a plenty Of
Slavery in the Constitution then Every sec
ton, every clause, every article, was presumed,
in some occult way, TO sanction the institution.
All the CLOSES of commentators had Pro-Slay-
cry tint; all the readings Of the Judges were
upon the South sidei all the popular
gable asserted that there was something
more in the instrument than was apparent
to feshly eyes, and that the said some
thing was law Of despotism and gospel Of
inhumanity! But now the same swift and
Jealous eIpounderS Of the law gaze fondly upon
the purged document, and find that the Con.
stitution not only makes no reference to Slsy-
cry, but that it sanctions it by the very fact
that no such reference is made. They 60 still
further. They discover that It would be OK.
tremely dangerous for Democracy to admit
itself to be q Democracy that is, in writing,
however it may make such pretensions in loose
and general speech They discover that, while
the theory is so eminently lovely, the practice
Is particularly dangerous. They discover that
the doctrine Of human equality is particularly
beautiful, with the prudent limitation Of deny.
ing it to amoiety Of the human race. Exquis.
tie Democracy Charming equality Did
ever reasonable abstracts dwlndle into such
ridiculous concrete before And it was, never.
theless, to the reconcilement OF these absurd.
ties that the practical talent Of the nation ad-
dressed itself. The gigantic intellect Of Web
ster. wasted itself in Herculean efforts to re-
concile these contradictions, and gave US but a
brilliant lawyerwhen We might have had states
man-like Senator. The nobler impulses Of Mr..
Clay sheart-that great human heart which moth.
ing but Slavery could have so peryerted-were
squandered in polished sophistrics in the same
importunate cause. The massive, logical mind
of Calhoun, not to be resisted in It's conclusions,