Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1866-04-03
TuE own, R1GHTs BTTT,

I, President JOHNSON has again illustrated
his title tothe gratitude and confidence of the
whole country. He has returned "with his
objections to the House in which it orisina-
ted" the Civil Rights Bill. He has, in his
able message, reviewed in detail. the prov-
5lons OF the measure, and, with an iron and
irresistible logic, has shown their antagonism
with the Constitution. Anxious as he has
shown himself to be from the assumption of
the duties of his high office to discharge them
with full fidelity to the nation he has rejected
the vast powers which this bill proposed to
confer upon him, and has thus made the soil
citations and inducements of ambition Weld
to the sterner and holier demands of patriot
ISM. With that sense of justice which has
characterized him in dealing with the disor-
ders OF the diSjOinted times, he protests against
the wanton wrong of imposing upon the peo-
pie OF eleven States, now without a voice in
Congress, laws affecting aud intended to affect
their highest interests Legislation to bind
entire States, whilst there is a denial to them
of the right of representation, strikes at the
very fundamentals of republican government
and lacks none Of the attributes of complete
sdespotism.
The President insists too upon the dual
form of government-that it is one in which
the States are entitled to the exercise of
wide range of powers specially reserved to
themselves, in the formation of the general
government, which is their creature; and
that the moment those reserved rights are
invaded, there is as much violation of the
principles of the political organism, as would
be the resistance of any of the grants of pow
ers most explicitly and Enthusiastically made to
the Federal organization.
This bill aims at a usurpation of these re-
tanned powers, and, if executed, would destroy
that admirably devised adjustment of checks
and balances which the Constitution in its
almost inspired wisdom was designed to pre-
serve in order, on the one hand, that the evil
OF Capitalization, and on the other, the dan
ger of too feeble a bond OF union might not
defeat the great scheme of the founders of the
Republic, which was to give to the States
those powers which were needed to manage
their domestic and internal concerns and to
the United States, those powers which were
essential to the control and direction of the
great interests-both internal and external
which belonged to all the States in common.
Keeping these proper distinctions always in
view, the President has resolved to be lust to
all parties, and hence he has withheld his ap-
proVal Of a measure calculated to confound
and overthrow them. We trust that the co.
gent, the unanswerable argument with which
he has supported these views may have its
effect upon the Congress, and that We NAV be
rescued from the peril which. since the close
OF the war, has so constantly threatened us,
OF radical and lamentable change in the
form of the government The tendencies
are all in that direction and .: that way lies
madness"
We publish the message elsewhere. We
hope that every reader of this paper will care
fully read it for himself, and ponder we'll the
statesmanlike treatment of the subject which
it contains.