The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-09-12

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ment-how much It has cost the country by
stealings, and how many persons have made
themselves millionaires through the fat jobs
and contracts, with the names Of the parties,
and he will then be contributing facts worth
knowing He should add to the list the names
of all Gideon Welles' relatives, as well as his
own, who have had fat jobs. We know that
one of Mr.. welles' relatives. had the benefit Of
two and half per cent commission for some
time; but the public. desire to know how many
more there are Of the same kind who have not
been smoked out Come, Mr.. Fox, now your
hand ia in, let US have chapter on those facts.
The Military Power OF the President.
When nation strips for battle law is one
of the garments that it casts aside; and hence
the powers given to the President specially for
the prosecution of the late war made his will
superior to law, enabled him to act from that
will, and constituted him the Judge of the ne
cessity for such action. He was practically
made a dictator. 1t is a recognized fact, a
great deal older than the language in which we
express it, that desperate diseases require des-
perate remedies An attempt on the life Of
nation, made in defiance of all law, could not
of course be controlled in the ordinary course
of law and law was set aside. Law Is made
for the protection and welfare of the citizen !;
and the welfare Of any citizen, or Of any. class
of citizens, is of course secondary to the exist
ence of the State And this consideration JUS
titled in every mans mind the power given to
the President even to the suspension of the
habeas corpus-a power that imperilled the
civil rights of every for the sake Of the civil
rights of all. The suspension Of the habeas
corpus was the promise and agreement of every
man that he would not let the assertion Of his
individual rights, even Of his right to personal
liberty, stand in the way of the government in
is efforts to save the country. This made the
President dictator in simple fact, and no one
objected to it, or snarled at 1t, but the copper
heads and aiders and abettors of the enemy.
All this is agreeable to what has happened
many times before in the history Of republics
Though it may seem paradoxical, it is true that
republics are at times required to exercise a
more positively despotic power than is ever
seen in monarchy; and the fact that they can
exercise it and then return to the moderation
of their natural form ofgovernment is the grand
est test of the perfect operation Of the republi-
can system. In a monarchy the centralized
power that is its greatest vice-that Expresses
the people--is always sufficient without extra
ordinary means, to crush revolt. 1t seldom
needs to set aside law, though this is partly be-
cause it has not accorded laws that insure pOpu-
lar rights. But republics have always resorted
to despOtic power in times of danger, and per-
haps always must Rome, in her early days,
bestowed dictatorial power on several occa-
tus. The English commonwealth would have
persisted in miserable discords if Cromwell had
not seized the dictatorial power, and the French
revolution would have been remembered only
as q series of marvellous brutalities If the ap-
pontment of dictator in the First Consul had
not saved it." But the difficulty in the major
ity of such cases has been that the people did
not know how to return to the former c0ndi-
ton They did not know how to restore the
original operations of the government when the
dictator had accomplished what he was ap-
pointed for aud hence, in too many cases. the
dictator has ruined the country he was elevated
to save.
But this is a point in which we have an adj
vantage over former governments-an advan-
tage that we owe TO the great progress of physi-
cal science-to the press-the telegraph-steam
communication-the world Of modern inven-
tions-and the consequent enlightenment and
general intelligence of the people. We know
how to return to the original natural order of
our government, and have practically done so
In most matters. But the laws by which we
made the President dictator are still in force.
The habeas corpus is still suspended, and if the
President chooses to see military necessity
anywhere no one can dispute his power. It Is
singular that there should be party in our
midst in favor of keeping this up, and indis-
posed TO let the military necessity" die out II
Is SINGULAR that there should be party which
opposes the President in his evident desire to
relinquish his dictatorial powers-that opposes
the return TO the natural order. And It Is sim
gular that this party should be the very one
that has made the most noise about freedom
meaning Niger freedom. This party advocates
the retention Of the military necessity only for
the Southern States, so that they can control
those States. But this Is absurd. There are
no rebels now, and the law for one part Of the
country Is the law for the other, and thus we
see the great party Of niger freedom-these
friends ofhumanity these progressive fellows
clamoring, intriguing, fighting and snarling to
keep down our republican safeguards, and to
retain the dictatorship with which the country
invested the President for special purpose.