Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-07-21


the concluding part of his procamati ,n that he is
nevertheless fully satisfied with the system for
restoration contained in the bill, as one very proper
plan Jor the loyal people Of amy State choosing
TO adopt H. and that he is, and at all times shall
be, prepared to give the Executive aid and assist
snce to any such people, as soon as the military
resistance to the United States shall have been
suppressed in any such State, and the people
thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their
obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, in which cases Military Governors
will be appointed, with directions to proceed ac-
cording to the bill"
So the people ofany State choosing to adopt this
plan, including its unconstitutional assumption of
power, as tie President views it, are invited to do
SO with the promise of Executive aid and assist
ance " And this too aohile the plan has no oahdi-
ty Uhaterer as laO, for the President refuses
to sign the bill. So we have the anomaly pre-
sented to the world of "a very proper plan"
involving an unconstitutional fcature-a plan which
has no legal validity, because lacking the Presi
dents official approval in the only way pre-
scrbed by the Constitution and yet one under
which the people of certain States are invited to
act, and under which the President sayshe will him
self act SO far as to appoint Military Governors in
certain circumstances, with directions to proceed
according to The bill" And all this is 10 be done
while the bill remains, in point OF law, dead let
ter having failed to receive the signature of the
President. Or perhaps it would be more exact to
say that tho President assumes to himself the pre-
rogative of determining how far and in what re-
spects he will recognise the right of the National
Legislature to control his action in these premises
He denies their right to prescribe laws" for his
governance under this head but he will take their
"hills" as sefimposed rules for his own guidance
and apply them to the matter III hand SO far as he
thinks them appropriate
Upon the principles involved in such an attempt
to do by proclamation, on his own mere motion,
what the President declines to do by law Of Con-
gress, that leading Republican paper, the Cincin-
natl Gazette, remarks very forcibly, as follows:
Our dispatches Monday gave proclamation by the
President, on the bill passed by Congress- to provide for
the reconstruction OF State Governments which failed to
become law for want of The Presidents signature. As
this proclamation up to hia time uncontradcted
conclude that 1t is genuine.
bill to make it law, because he is ", he was
in December last when he propounded his plan of
sructos, unprepsred to commit himself nfexbly to any
single plan Of restoration, yet he publishes it for the
formation Of the loyal people of the rebel States and if
they prefer it to his plan, they may try it, and he will at
proper time give them military governors to put it in
operation
1t is true that laws are lnhvxble plans Generally
this is held to be their chief virtue Therein their
only safety All magistrates whose duty it to that
the laws faithfully executed have necessarily to com.
NIT themselves to nfexbe PLAN Inhe1ble laws en-
acted by the constitutional power held be only
safeguard of the rights Of the citizen To such laws they
oil desire to De ntxby committed instead OF to flexible
| or arbitrary edicts.
The President states also that he is also unpepared
to declare that the Free State constitutions and govern
mens already adopted ana installed Arkansas aud
sara shall be set aside and held for nausht thereby
repelipg and Encouraging the loyal citizens
1.-The Free State Governments Of Louisiana and Arkan
are only kept alive by military nursing. The time
must when they shall try to shift for themselves
When majority of The enrolled inhabitants shall have
taken the OATH prescribed by the bill, aud when
orty Of the swearing majority shall have voted to sustain
the Free State Government will be quite they
can be trusted to themselves and will be the be.t test of
their capacity to sustain their Government Aud
assured that this quite the loyal people of the
rebel districts desire b. left to their State Govern
mept In the time they need government of n6ex
BILE law.
1.-The Pre- siden states that he is also to
declare constitutional competency in Congress TO abolh
slavery in he States, but the time sincerely
hoping and exp ctiug that constitutional amendment
aboishng slavery throughout the nation be adopted
1.-THE bill provided that the State Constitution should
prohibit slavery as condition preliminary to their ecog-
milton, the done by the Presidents plan of re-
construction Furthermore it is to apply to States where
slavery is already declared abolished by the Presidents
emancipation proclamation
at hardly be unconstitutional for Congress to do by
law thing which il ia constitutional for the President to
do without law And If the emancipation proclamation is
valid Congressional provision that slavery shall not again
be reesbbsbed not the abolition Of slavery, but the
protection Of hberya power which the Constitution
pressy coners on Congress
"The amendment to the Constitution aboshing slavery
through the nation not condition of the emanc
patton proclamation, of the amnesty reconstruction
plan II not expected at that time and, although
may be hoped for hardly be expected
and reasonable probability
"If the emancipation proclamation hiss made all men in
certain States legally Free Congress has the constitutional
power ard the imperative duty protect them in their
freedom II it has not made them legally free what sta
tus has it put them in
If that territory is now free, Congress bss power
which has exercised from the formation of the Govern
men to require that it shall remain free If Congress
has not the power 10 require to be kept Free then the
Executive, whose power extends only to executing the
laws, has not II the emancipation proclamation has not
abolished slavery aud if the President has not the power
which be proclaimed in his amnesty proclamation to
qure the reconstructed State Governments to prohibit
slavery then certainly thoss documents cannot be c ed
inconvenenily phexible
The alternative plans which the President presents to
the people the De- Townsends mixture Of dub
properties and the other the real old Doctor Jacob
ownsends preparation, by flexible method, which
tracts the virtues Of the plant and all noxous pro-
peres-seem to aord convenient choice TO the patient
although fraction O military