Delaware State journal and statesman., 1865-09-01
PREsIDENT1AL PARDoNs.


disposed to put up with almost any stretch
of power, so he ii was necessary, and would
aid in saving the constitution and the country
Like man whose house is on fire, or one
whose ship is contending with the winds
and waves, we were not disposed to higgle
over the measures used to save us,
Our great anxiety was to rescue the Re
public-to save the Ship of State
Now that the war is over, except to guard
our rescued country, and punish the men who
sought to destroy it, we resume our wonted
jealousy of the prerogatives of power, and
especially of encroachments on the part of
the Executive of the nation.
When the President told us that il was ne
eessary to suspend the Habeas Corpus, pro
claim martial law, and 10 order draft, it
was enough for the truly patriotic to know
that, engaged as we were in fearful struggle
for national preservation and the rights of
universal man, the means called for were
needed and the proposed stretch Of Execu-
tive power really demanded We submitted
to those measures in the midst of war with
eheerfulness. which we would not tolerate
mitted to them then, only, because of ell.
preme military necessity. But now that this
necessity is removed, and the cloud of war
lifted from the land, and the bright bow Il
peace spans the heavens, we will not fol
moment tolerate any arbitrary measures on
the part of the National Executive, or the
least advance in the exercise of power, or the
prerogatiyes of his office, beyond the strict
est constitutional limits
When the President takes slronG measures
to save the country, we excuse him-yea ap-
plaud the act. But when lie takes strong
measures in time of peace-when he exer.
cises power in wanionness or carelessness
and much more, if he evidently intends to
WELD II with high hand, we bid him pause
We arraign him at once at the bar of public
opinion, and if that does not answer, we
hold him responsible to the law of his coun.
try, as strictly and impartially as we would
= the poorest man in the Republic. And
even the more, strictly, by as much rs
, he has more power to do harm and his ex,
l ample is the more injurious,
That we are not heating the air, or talking
for rhetorical effect, is certain. That there
p is danger from Executive encroachmcnt is
as certain as the fact that we have govern.
n ment. Gradually hut surely the President
n is drawing to himself and absorbing the
= powers of the other departments In many
. respects and to all intents and purposes, he
wields the power of the three great depart.
ments OF government, Executive Legisla.
= tive and Judicial. Already we have moi
only Treasury Department, Patent Office
r and Department of the Interior hut have
:, recently organized a Freedman's Bureau, q
" Department for Rebel Archives, and last o
~ ALL we are TO have Bureau for Parlons
'u All these offices are hut branches of Exec
Ia utiVe power and influence. The officers anc
70 managers are, to great extent, the crca
e tures of his appointment, and subject to his
IL control.
Add to this his appointing power, and the
b, enormous patronage ut his disposal, the fact
:, that he is Commander-in Chief of the Army
% and Navy, and the other emoluments and
8 dignitles that attach to his office, and sur
l. round his person, as the chosen ruler of the
II most enlightened and powerful nation of thu
age, and we see at once, that there is MOI
Potentate on earth, who possesses 50 muel
s' power as our Republican President. Now
III is it safe to entrnst SO much power 10 one
man Is there not great danger of still fur
lg ther increase of its prerogatives and iufu
at ence Are not the temptations 10 its abus,
ID far greater in government like ours than il
l. a monarchy
II ia hiUh tiFnH hot 1,a ,ini ~
II, the country were looking into these things
CO 1t Is time that the intelligent voters We're in
quiring whether they are not virtually elect
Ing sovereign, and accumulating power il
- hands that may some day take from them, i
may be, the then empty right of voting 70
IL their own rulers
We are no alarmist. These are not tn
vaccinations of a morbid Imagination. The
are stern realities-actual dangers
90 Not that our rulers have intended to usur
y, power that did not belong to them NJ
o' but that most of them have been intelligen
ne honest and patriotic men And as for o,
NJ martyr President - we do moi impute Ii
shadow of any such intention 10 him An
ed President johnson, whatever his faults ma
or, be, and he himself doubtless does not pr
i'd fess to be perfect is we believe, honest An
but patriotic, and man of marked ability
dis. II is not the fault Of any of these men,
ty- much rs the course Of events, Il combinati,
h. of many causes that has led 10 the danet
tlv 1t is the drifting of the current that h
nj borne the good Ship of State so near Il roc
upon which she may yet split to wit, Il
overshadowing weight of Executive pow
ng- and influence.
IVY Yet the danger is us real, the evil as gre4
gu as though it were intended. 1t is anoth,
'hn and significant example of the truth of Il
maxim, that Eternal vigilance is the pri
of Of Liberty" There could he no better illr
,ew tration of this, and the whole matter Of E
lu- ecutiye encroachments, than the subject
,ev our present remarks.
isb The power to grant pardons is derived fro
the following clause in the Constitution -
HE (the President) shall have power
our grant reprieves and pardons for ofenc
yer. against the United States except in cases
n impeachment. "-(ART. II, SEC. -
Little did the trainers of the Constitute
o,d think when they put this clause into it, wi
\ ~ it would grow into Little did they drea
day inc and fearrnl "ii "li
tlch the government
And much less, did they imagine thai ~
lay, momentous national questions would he &c
rhe trolled chiefly if not solely by the Exc,
the tive--that whole communities would bo do
i've with and tried by the President alone.