, 1866-09-14

friends. General Harding will be:tffumph-
ant]y elected fn this district IN spite Of the
nice little schemes Of Mr.. Browning. He
may find iaw ,purehasahle articles In the
market. but he cannot buy the people K
THE PRESIDENTIAL COUP
D'ETAT- :, !
-. .....
Semi Official: Statement from the
New York Times
WHICH CONGRESS WHLTNEP PRES
IDENT REORGANIZE7
He Viii Send His Message TO the 6 Nu-
merfcal Quorum.''


meIlcal 4uOrum.D
4 Conflict of Arms Threatened.
From the New Yvrk Times, Editorial, Sent. 1s,h.1
The following law passed BY Congress
md approved by President Lincoln, In 1863,
stands upon ths statute book
q 4 a.eS, sis6tsea hnndTed sad si1iy.!5res. rs s
.ta'airt: = ts sgaied IS sr ats 1 atti.g s n g.
grtss asstxottd, That from and after ,he ID day -
Of March, eighteen hundred and sixty. three, tho
t!ses Of the Congress of the United States shall Le
TYP hnndred and tosty.one;. and The e1sht ad-
osie e Ino9 Hhs + sisa fons T.
xpe1oses Hsas Ns3ss sHa Nhoas Island
By law Congress thus consists Of I'll 1uesu-
be1s and ey law. also. . majority Of tho
whole number, or III members constitute i
quorum. Suppose that members elected
from the Southern States should meet In De-
Northern members who believe ID tLcir Tisht
to representation, and who would meet With
them, to constitutes q quorum; and supposa
Tue Northern members who DO not believe the
sonth s;, entitled s1i 9 70 repFesentatton and who
by themselves, constituting kss than
quorum Of the whole number. The Pitts
b1rgh chronsele begins to see the possibility
81 s4sh an occu. fsnee and it also secs that
recognizing one or the other Of the:c bodies
IS the valid, constitutional House Of Repre-
scntattves. lie must send his message to the
one OF the other He must sign bills PASSED
os lhs one or tne othcF ns must treat one
With the power. Of making laws, aud
the other. rs having no such au-
thority. And under The circumstances
otsamtd, there enn be rsry lute
he sat, aat r<.ft M :ssn ssnsoa ep.a;'r ,.M 1er On
n:e u.e numerical quoEum-the body which
contains majority Of all the m-nibrr.-as
the only body authorized by the Constitution
to make laws for the United States. liz viii
probably send bis message to that body: lie
will sign the bills they pass. if concurred in
by the Senate, and he will not recognize. tho
acts Of the other as valid In nny res,xyt.
Inc Senate, on the contrary, VIII recognize
majority Of members from all the States 6w
tea, even II they arc q minority VI tl,c whole
as the real Congress, and a. clothed with ali
the powers Of flceislation.
Here; certainly: Is danger Of d collision OF
authority: e1aIad We hase forssscn It, and havo
forcsccn 1t, and hare been preparing: for It.
They have not concealed tl1vlf purpose, in
such ai event, to appeal to tarrc. anil roi,se
Inc country Ia another contllrt Of arms. 1t
was with direct reference 10 such a contin-
gency thut General d. F. Butler was last
winter made oi,niahler-fn.Cticf OF the
militia Of Massachusetts. It was for the
purpose Of preparing. for this, that u bill was
brought inio Congress last winter, catlin. On
al! Tie Aorthcrn States 10 reone,tltzt, tlisci-
plt1le and arm their militia. and prupos-
ihE to tAke from tile President e.s,tsot ug
The arms and munitions Of war belonging to
the United Statcs, and to distribute them
nM'eng TIE dMsefnots u thu Northern States.
Congress that they intended to be ready ts,r
such Il conflict If authority wien It Should
Aft>e,-ttat the ntsyDts uf the South shui,ld
BE- prepared and armed for it also,- and that
the President and his Cabinet. and everybody
In Congress who stood by him, should be
driven heailnng intn The Potomac. and il wa. :
foresight ut this contingency, and a tlrsper-
atc desire to attach the Cotnman.li.I. General
Of the Armies of the Cui,ed States to their
srlenlc, that prompted Thadtteus Stevens in
country, to nominate General Grant 50 osten-
tuti"usty for the Presidency, antt to invent
and circulate ~ inuastriu,lsly inventions
and rlmors Of his hostility to the views aud
policy CT President johnson. Their nlachi-
natinEs failed. General Grant maintained.
and sti1l maintains, his personal in,lepen-
Ience. He is reserved, by those singular and
unmatched personal qualities which hold him
a1uot from all faeiiuus or se.litiuus schemcs,
for the supreme hour Of trial which may
await our beloved Republic And stranger
things hare happened in human history than
would he the salvation Of the nation from
the rcrils Of new civil war. by :. spon-
taneous com1nttal offts drstinies t"llis con-
troll.
The Pittsburgh Chronicle calls on the 7;n,es
to declare itselE.'' in view Of this state Of
things. We nre in favor Of a.vrf;ng the l,it4tey.
We counsel measures nhfcll will render such
a collision of authority impossible. We call
on Congress to, admit loyal n1etihers from
loyal States-mcnlbers from the South WHO
Gun lake the oath prescribed bv 1aw-to their
seals and their share in the Government. We
hold this to be just, right, ard III every sense
the dictate of wise statestnanship. Southern
men demand the admission ofan the members
they may send-and Northern men demand
| the exclusion of them all. We would take tho
middle conrse-commendcd alike by its JUS
| tice. its cSpcdfency, aud its conformity with
the Constitution. In the face of such action
no conflict of authority could possibly arise.
The President could not hesitate to rccos-
| nize Congress which admitted the right 0f
| representation, and received every member
who, In the Judgment Of each house WAS
"dn1y elected, returned and qualified fur
| q seat therein There might BE- somc inc''n-
| yeuicnccs attendant upon such course; hit
they arc less than nothing compared with
the gigantic and terrible perils 1t would
nvcrt-
| We submit whether It would not be wiser
thus to avert conflict, instead Of taking
hea1long into its tlreadfni iAsues. We Ger
tainly do not held the present Congress to
nc UNCONSTITUTIONAL, irasmAch as majority
part in it's action; nor docs the President
regard 1t rs UNCONSTITUTIONAL, as Is clearly
proved by the fact that he sent his messages
to it, signed the bills it passed, and recog-
nized Its validity in every way. And when
the President talks about "putting down
afsunion in tie Sorth," although in
our opinion he talks very unwisely,
we think he means merely that he. wants
those men excluded from Congress who Gl-
vor disunion BY DENYING the right Of repre-
seutation to the Southern States, and cx-
c1uding their members. loyal and disloya1
alike, from seats In Congress. lfthe Chront-
Gle thinks he means anything more aud
something worse, We think II il nlistakcn-
But whatever tue purposes or plaus Of tho
President may be, the best why to thwart
the,n If they nre bad, and to aid them If
they arc good, l. So to act us to give neither
him, nor any State, nor any party, any
gruund to complain Of Injustice, or Of o de-
parturc from the plain requirements Of the
Constitution.