Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-10-12
The IDresldent's QuestiOns Ms 10 the
Legality of the Present Con.

to the country we very much fear, and
SHALL therefore, be glad to realize that this
fear is groundless.
On the authority of Washington dis
patches to the Philadelphia (Pa) Ledger--a
journal that is neither sensational nor po-
litical-the country is given to understand
that the President has just called upon the
Attorney General of the United States to
consider five questions relating to the Con-
stitutionality ofthe present Congress and his
duty 10 relation thereto. In the first question
the President wants to know whether the
present Congress, composed of Northern
members alone, Is such Congress as the
Constitution requires, or is it an illegal aud
unconstitutional assembly? In the second
question, the President wants to know
whether existing circumstances would jus
tify the President in sending his next an
nual message to an illegal and unconstitu-
tional assemblage, pretending to be the
Congress Of the United States. In the
third question the President wants to know
whether that clause in section five of the
first article of the Constitution of the Unit
ed States, which makes each House the
Judge of the election returns and qualifica-
tions of its own members, give to the pres
ent Congress the right to exclude the men,
bers from ten States, or to impose dishon-
orable or unconstitutional terms on their
admission. In the fourth question, the
President wants to know whether his oath
of office requires him to enforce those pro-
visions of the Constitution which give to
each State an equal right of representation
in Congress. In the fifth question the
President wants to know what steps the
Constitution and his oath of Office re-
quire him to take in order to secure the as
semblage OF Constitutional Congress.
These questions appear to drive to one
conclusion, and that is that the present
Congress, by reason ofexcluding ten States
from representation, is not a Constitutional
Congress. The Constitution is absolute in
its command that "the House of Repre-
sentatives shall be composed of members
chosen every second year by the people of
the several States"-that is, by the people
of each State. See section two of article
one. The last clause of article fifth is pos
tive in its assertion that mo State, aCitliom
It's consent, shall be deprived of its equal
suffrage in the Senate"
1t is very clear, it seems to us that none
of the States in the Union can rightfully
exclude any other State from its equal
voice in the Federal Government. The
Constitution appears to put that beyond the
reach of doubt, and to make it obliga-
tory upon the President to see that all the
States are allowed thus to exercise that
voice therein. Attorney General STAN
Berry is q man whose caution is of that
character that 1t approximates timidity.
He will be slow to give decision that will
be prejudicial to Congress, especially in
view of the result of the elections just
held. II he shall, therefore, decide this
Congress unconstitutional because it arbi
trarily excludes ten States from represen-
tation, it will be becauseit is a case of such
plainness that it admits of no other de-
cision.
Now, that the Republicans are secure in
their ascendency for the present, the jour
mails of that party will do much to pro-
mote the peace and let of the country
by advocating the absolute necessity of ad
mitting the Southern States to resume their
right of representation Immediately on the
assembling OF Congress. Certainly, if they
shall bring their "pressure to bear on the
Republican members of Congress, this
great end will be accomplished and the
work Of restoration rendered complete.
They have victory. Let them be just and
magnanimous. then, and the country will
settle down into happy state of quietude.
Since the foregoing was committed to
type, the telegraph has brought us from
Washington dispatch denying that the
President has propounded to Attorney
General STANBERY any such questions as
the correspondent of the Ledger alleges.
The authorship of this latter dispatch is
not given. What it asserts may be true,
and it may not be true. This is immaterial.
Substantially such questions as the Ledger's
correspondent has given to the public will
be raised by the President. They have al
ready been raised by him; they have been
raised by Hon. THOMAS EWING and other
distinguished iurists. Having been thus
raised, they must be settled in some
authoritative way. The result of an elec-
tion does not settle them. Recourse will,
undoubtedly, be had to the opinion Of the
Attorney General, and probably the de-
cision of the Supreme Court of the United
States will, in the end, be invoked upon it,
unless Congress shall render this unneces-
sary for the present by admitting the
Southern States to their representation
when it shall convene in December. If
the.Attorney General should give it as his
opinion that this Congress is an unconsti-
tutiOnal body while the Southern States |
are denied representation, would the North |
ern members feel justified in disregarding |
that opinion and insisting on keeping the !
Southern States out of the Union
Is it Not Strange?
If Congress is so impregnably in the
right, why is it that the mere report that |
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