Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-10-20
The Power of the President.


public to the actions of the Executive De-
partment of the General Government. The
weakness an timidity, if not treachery. of
Buchanan. apparently went SO far toward
the overthrow of the Republic. and the great
power which the rebellion forced into the
hands of Lincoln for its suppression. so ex-
alted temporarily the Presidential authority.
that We have fallen into the habit of overes-
timating the importance which properly be-
longs to the Office. The President, like any
other officer under our Government, is but a
servant of the people. No fealty is sworn to
him individually. and no "Grace of God" ex-
ats him above the will of his masters. While
he is. under the Constitution, Commander
in-Chief of the army and navy. his power as
such extends only to lawful objects. 1t is
true of the office of President. as of any other
public Office. that an incompetent or unfaith-
full incumbent may be the cause of great pub
lie inconvenience, and even calamities, yet it
cannot be that the permanence of our repre-
sentative system of Government is staked
upon the wisdom and integrity of our Chief
Magistrate. The basis of our free institu-
tions is the intelligence and integrity of the
people, and so long as this foundation remains
all injuries which may happen to the upper
parts of the supersructure are capable of
speedy repair. We have already proved, in
the case of James Buchanan, that the incom-
potency of one President was insufficient for
our overthrow, and it now remains to be
demonstrated that the unfaithfulness of john
son cannot subvert our form of Government;
and as under Buchanan irmness and wisdom
should have checked insurrection, so, now,
decision and independence in Congress should
curb Executive usurpation. The issue may
cost us another war, but if Congress is
prompt and to the mark in its duty, the war
would not this time, last ''sixty days.
The public mind is excited intensely, and all
eyes are turned on Johnson, and will remain
concentrated on him until the meeting of
Congress in December. The evidence of his
hostility to Congress is complete, and there
is no act of treachery or violence against it,
which has any chance of success, that he is
not prepared to consummate. He is in a
fury. and is blinded by passion. and the only
hold upon him is the control which the lead
ers OF the rebellion have mysteriously secur-
ed. and which they will use for the benefit Of
treason. If they should have the wisdom to
see that the great popular uprising of the
North in favor of Congress is not to be re-
sisted, then their tool in the White House
will growlingly subside, and harmlessly
await such doom as the representatives of
the people assembled in Congress shall see fit
to mete out to him. But should the rebel
leaders decide that the hour to renew their
strike for Southern independence had come,
then the meeting of Congress will be the sig
nal for the clash of arms. The friends of
johnson announce that he is desperate man
and ready for any desperate measure which
gives promise of helping him out his pres
ent emergency, and they threaten that he
will inform Congress. when it assemblies.
that it is a rump affair, and that he will no
longer recognize them as a legitimate part of
the Government, but will run the govern
mental machine on his own responsibility
and without their aid. Should he attempt
to pursue this course, as he has failed in his
revolutionary design of electing. through the
Executive patronage. enough Northern Con-
gressmen to unite with the Southern mem
bers and form separate Congress of his own
in opposition to the regular one. he would
find himself in u strait about appropriations,
for he would have no Congress which he
could recognize during the rest of his legal
term Of office. the next Congress. which is
elected this Fall, being as obnoxious to the
Presidents policy as the present one. But
perhaps he thinks. with Caesar, that the arm
which wields the sword can always reach
the treasury. In whatever plans the Presi-
dent and his Southern allies have formed
thus far, they have seemed to ignore the first
element of success in our Government-the
will of the people, constitutionally expressed
and herein is their failure. Should their
courage be sufficient to attempt any of the
hazardous measures which are laid to them,
and which all parties believe they have in
| contemplation, they will be met by the pop
ular will and completely baffled. Congress
will be sufficient for the emergency, and will
meet any attempt of the President to set them
aside, by his impeachment and expulsion from
office; and defunctPresident will have no
more authority than dead kiHS. 1t cannot
be that after J5nnson's impeachment the Of
fcers of our army and navy will feel them
selves any longer bound to obey him as a
Commander-in-chie They are loyal men.
| and have proved their loyalty upon the bat
| tle-felds of a terrible war, and have ALWAYS
obeyed legal authority promptly and cheer
fully, and without doubt will do so again.
We do not see that there is any occasion for
them, or any of them, to now injure their
usefulness in their professions and render
their relations to their present superiors un-
pleasant by any declarations at this time, of
what they will do in an emergency which
may never arise. As for the rank and file,
the enlisted soldiers and sailors of the regu-
lar army and navy, there is no reason to be-
lieve that they will prove less true to their
country than at the breaking out of the re-
bellion. when, we have the authority of Lin
coin, not one of them deserted their country s
cause.
THE San Francisco Bulletin says that the
"people of Mokelumne Hill are in white