Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-01-30
The National Administration and the Con-
SfitufiOn.

/
J From the North American Review for JauuarT /
We believe it is the general judgment of
the country on the acts of the present Ad-
ministratiOn, that they have been, in the
main, judieious and well-timed The only
doubt about some of them seems to be as to
their constitutionality. 1t has been some
times objected to our form of government,
that it was faulty in having written consti-
| tuition which could not adapt itself to the
| needs of the times as they arose. But we
| think il is rather theoretie than a practical
| objection, for in point of fact there has been
hardly leading measure of any Administra-
| ton that has not been attacked as unconsti-
tutional, and which was not carried out new
ertheless. Purchase of Louisiana, Embargo,
Removal of the Deposits, Annexation of
Texas, not to speak of others less important
ON the cOnstitutionality of all these, power
full 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 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-scrupulous would be unwise.
Who are most tender in their solicitude 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-
I al Ln1 HI
would he have had any scruples of constitu-
tional delicacy? And if he has not succeed
ed, is it not mainly owing to measures which
his disappointed partisan denounce as uncon-
stitutional
| We cannot bring ourselves to think that
Mr.. Lincoln has done anything that would
| furnish precedent dangerous to our liber-
ties, or in any way overstepped the Just lin
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 imperiOus necessity has exercised its
own. Surely the trainers of the Constitution
never dreamed that they were making a
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 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, new precedent
is pretty sure of pardon, if it successfully
meets new occasion. 1t is a 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-
| venient, to say the least, to have a country
left without constitution, than a constitution
without a 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-
| BILE 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,
after the fire is got under to insist ON keeping
| up the flaw in the chimney by which it made
its way into the house. Radicalism may be
a very dangerous thing, and so is calomel,
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 pis 1iertig of lifelong prejudice,
but they have little power in comparison
with 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 in 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
ali the ten commandments together, and
would now impeach Mr. Lincoln for a scratch
on the surface of the tables where they are
engraved.
REUNION IN HEAyEN.-How short is the ear
ly history of a family A few short years,
and those who are now embraced in a family
circle, will be scattered. The children, now
the objects offender solicitude, will have grown
UP and gone forth to their respective stations
| in the world A few years more, and chill
dren and parents will have passed from this
| earthly stage. Their name will be no longer
heard in their dwelling Their domestic loves
and anxieties, happiness and sorrows, will be
lost and forgotten history. Every heart in
which it was written will be Wondering in the
dust. And is this all? Is this the whole sat
| isfaction which is provided for some of the
strongest feelings of our hearts? How can
such transitory beings, with whom our con-
nection is so brief, engage all the love We can
| feel? Why should not our feelings towards
them be as feeble and unsatisfying as they?
| But, blessed be to God ! this is not all. Of
this he has given us perfect assurance in the
| Gospel of His Son. Though to the eve ofun-
enlightened nature the ties of domestic love
seem scattered into dust, the spiritual eye of
faith perceives that they have been loOsened
on earth only to be resumed under far happier
circumstances in the region of everlasting
love and bliss. Though the history of fami
ly may seem to be forgotten when the last
member of it it laid in the grave, the memo
~ of it still lives in immortal souls; and when
the circle is wholly dissolved on earth, it is