The Portland daily press., 1866-08-30
The Threatened Conflict.

larger audience the other night, and we are
particularly sorry that the Democratic State
Committee have decided not to avail them
selves of his services in other sections of the
State. If Mr.. Blair could only repeat his
fire-eating speech of Saturday in every town
hall in the State, we could double the Repub-
lican vote of 1864. The most obnoxious par
agraph in the whole speech was thus reported
in the Argus: -.-
The radicals now have 12O members in the
House and complete control of both branches.
But they will not have 120 members in the
40th Congress. Not man among them ex-
poets it. The Democrats and National Repub-
iicans North and South will affiliate and elect
majority OF the House in the 10th Congress.
The radicals will continue the policy of exclu-
sion; the President will recognize the MAORI
ty as the legal Congress; the radicals will Or
ganize themselves in another Congress and
Will lmpeach the President. We shall thus
have two Congresses and the contest will re-
suit in a war here at the North-neighbor
against neighbor, street against street, here in
your own city.
The fact that we have 1853 members in the
present House of Representatives, serves to
indicate the care with which Mr.. Blair's esti-
mates are made and the value of his asser-
tions respecting the prospective elections. It
| is possible that the Republicans may lose one
Representative in Connecticut, three in New
York, one in Pennsylvania, three in Indiana,
two in Illinois, one in Michigan. one in Wis
consin, two in Missouri and one in Kentucky
fifteen in all. We have no disposition to
| misstate the probabilities. The detection of
| the President MAY cost us Is seats in the next
| Congress But in that case, we shall still
have left 1873 members, which will be 1b more
than majority of full House.
Under these circumstances the President
will not dare to put his threat in execution.
1t is well, however, for the country to under
stand precisely what it is that Andrew john
son is prepared to do; it is well that this in
famous plot has been so early divulged No
body now denies or pretends to deny, that
if the johnson detection had been larger, if
by any possibility the Rebelcopperhead alli-
ance could claim 122 seats, the President is
prepared to recognize THEM as the Congress-
True, the Clerk will have no authority for en-
tering the names of Southern claimants upon
the roll. The majority of the constituted
House will not allow these names to be enter
ed and called until the organization is COM
pleted and their claims can be properly con-
sidered. each house." says the Constitution,
| "shall be the judge of the qualifications of its
own members" The President had as much
| right to invest the Philadelphia convention
with the authority of a Congress, as he would
have to recognize minority of the constitute
ed House and number of men whose names
will not and cannot legally be upon the rolls
Yet that is what the President is prepared to
do.
| We repeat that under such circumstances
1t would become the immediate duty of our
Representatives to impeach the PRESIDENT
The Argus regards this proposition with ap-
parent horror, and uses Inappropriate Ian
guage with rather more than its customary
looseness. "It is usurpation," cries the Ar
gus, sit is despotism! it is subversion of the
government established by the fathersr' This
is the old story of the wolf and the lamb
Against the usurpation of the President, there
would be no legal remedy save by impeach-
ment. The representatives of the free COM
munities of the North would neither submit
taInely to an Infringement of their rights, nor
resort to violence. They would proceed firm
ly to rescue their legal rights by legal means.
And if the President should refuse to submit
to the laws, then upon his head and upon the
heads of his advisers be the consequences
For the people of the North will never sub
nit to be tricked out of their just rights
ton will represent our fixed opinions, and the
rights which they justly claim no man living
shall take from them!
Voters of Maine! this danger is not imagi-
nary. The existence of the plot is confessed.
An American citizen, elevated by your votes
to the Vice Presidency and transferred to the
Presidency by the act of an assassin, has
dared to hint his intention of setting him
self above the laws! Whether such words as
'despotism" and "usurpatjon" come with a
good grace from his supporters, we leave you
to decide. But though real, the danger is not
imminent. 1t can hardly happen that we shall
lose 80 seats in the next Congress, and unless
we do the whole plot falls to the ground Here
in Maine we shall not lose single district
But we owe it to our friends in other States
to give them an encouraging omen of success.
We must all turn out on the tenth of Sept.
and give our Major General of Volunteers a
vote which will make the President think
twice before he takes the irreyocable step
which leads to civil war.