The Portland daily press., 1866-04-03
Is it Peace or Warp

When Mr.. Garrett Davis, speaking in his |
place as United States Senator, coolly sug-
gested coup Getat to the President, the |
country listened with very great Indifference.
People remembered how Mr.. Davis came near
expulsion from the Senate two years ago,
and was only allowed to remain because it
was believed that through age and infrmity he
was no longer responsible for his garrulous
utterances of treason. When the Chicago
Times, once suppressed by General Burnside,
declared that "if the Rump Congress shall
not speedily abandon its seditious practices, it
will become the solemn duty of President
johnson to constitute himself the CromWeh
of the. time and to dissolve the Rump by militia
ry power" men looked in one anothers races
and laughed. Even the World, which suggested
without naming violence, by perslstently styl-
ing the present Congress "the Rump," attract
ed little attention by this peculiar feature of
its political tactics. 1t was remarked in the
early stages of the Kansas troubles, that the
Northern immigrants were slow to believe
that their Southern fellow citizens actually
meant mischief; that they would fight, upon
occasion, has since been pretty well ascer-
tanned. -''- .0
If there is to be supplement to the South
ern rebellion, it would be as well to under
stand it in season. If there are misguided
men in this country who have not learned the
lesson of the four years of war just ended, it
would be well for them to study the temper of
the American people. The World of last
Thursday lays down these three propositions:
I. The Radicals are in most deadly earnest.
There can be no doubt that the President is.
If they pass unconstitutional laws over his
veto, he aciM not feel bound to execute them.
IL. But when the President refuses to en-
force laws which the Radicals have passed,
they will attempt his removal, relying upon
| the same two-thirds which overruled the We
to to convict on impeachment lE-Sl-ul-
I'LL While twenty-five Senators having
clear right to seats are excluded, the Presi-
dent might fairly question the competency of
the court. That he has majority of the peo
ple-meaning thereby the people Of the whole
country-on his side, there can be no doubt;
and he acouM therefore be supported 'by pre-
ponderance Of physical force.
Are they the friends of Andrew johnson,
who urge him to the brink of such a precipice
as thisp The American people may listen
with half lazy, half scornful smile, to won
derful amount of lawless talk: but suppose
the talk becomes acti Suppose instead Of cali
ing us "mudsills" and threatening to dismem-
Der the country, Southern malcontents choose
to open with artillery upon Fort Sumterl-s
Readers still remember what happened then.
If President of the United States should
''refuse" to execute the laws, should break his
official oath faithfully to execute the Office of
President" it will be of no avail for such a
man to plead in extenuation oil his offence.
that other part of his oath, in which he enga-
ges to 'defend the Constitution" The ques-
ton OF constitutionality is by the supposition
decided against him by two-thirds of both
Houses Of Congress. Until that decision is
reversed by the Supreme Court, the duty of
the President is simply to execute the law
And If, swollen with insolence and adulation,
any President shonld attempt to set himself
above the laws, he will be impeached and re-
moved from his office.
We do not say that Andrew johnson will
commit this folly. We do saw that the men
who try to push him into this guilt of infamy.
are not his friends The American nennle
will be slow to believe that one of their own
number meditates the assumption of despotic
authority. The first step in that direction,
sufficiently marked to indicate Individually the
purpose, would be the signal for such an up
rising as followed the fash of the gun that
yhite-haired man trained upon the fort in
Charleston harbor. -Four years afterwards
that old man had lived to see the Southern
Confederacy trampled out of existence. and
sent a pistol shot crashing through his own
Drain. Those men who plot treason now, NAV
ponder his example. If President, lawfully
impeached and removed from Office, should at
tempt to resist the law, there will be but one
opinion at the North. The laws must be en-
forced; whether they touch high or low, they
must be maintained; and if Southern rebels
and their Northern allies seek to improve the
opportunity by inaugurating supplementary
rebellion, then in Gods name let it come now
| and be settled permanently, once and forever,
By the men of this generation.