The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1867-12-13

| could not % expected 10 care UuCu ~
mere ptcauiary obligations. Violation c
such pledge as We made on the 22l o
July, 1861, will assursdly diminish tb
market value Of our other promises. Be
sides, if We now acknowledge that tn
national debt was created, not to holt
States 10 the Union 90 taxpayers, as 81
were led to suppose, but to expell then
from it aud hand them over to be gov
erned by negroes, the moral duty to pay
it may seem much less clear. say j
may seem so, for do not admit that /
is, or that any other argument in favor o
Reputation can be entertained as sound
but from its influence on some classes o
minds evil may be apPFsbended. The
financial honor of this great commeTcia
nation, largely indebted, aud with q re-
publican form OF government administer
ed by the SCENTS of the popular choice, i:
a thing of such delicate texture, asd the
destruction of it would be followed by
such uDmistakabls calamity, that every
true patriot must desire to avoid whatever
might expose it to the slightest danger.
The grea; interests ofths country require
immediate relief from these enactments
Business in the South is psraIy zsd by g
sense of general insecurity, by terror
of con6scation, and a dread Of negro su.
premacy. The Southern trade, from
which the North would have derived Sc
great a profit under government of law,
still lsnguishes, and can never be revived
until it ceases to be ie;tered by arbitrary
power, which makes ell its operations un.
sale.
That rich country, the richest in natu,
raj resources that the world ever saw, il
worse than lost, if it be not soon placed
uuder the protection Of q free constitution
Instead of being, as it ought TO be, q
source Of wealth and power, 1t will be-
come au intolerabIe burthen upon the RESI-
of the nation. Another reason for re
tracing our steps will doubt ess be seen
by Congress in the late manifestations o.
public opinion upon this subject. We
live in a country where popular opinion
will always enforce itself sooner or later
1t is vain to thiak of opposing with any
thing short of legal authority, backed by
overwhelming force.
1t cannot have escaped your attention
that from the day on which Congre Sc
fairly aud formerly presented the propo-
sltion to govern the Southern States By
military force, With 4 view TO tue ultimate
establishment of negro supremacy, every
expression of general sentiment has been
more or less adverse TO it. The affec
tons Of this generation cannot be detach-
ed from the institutions of their ancestors
Their determination to preserve the in
heritance of free government q their OWL
hands, and transmit it undivided aud uu
impaired, to their own posterity, is too
strong to be successfully opposed. Eve
~ weaker passion will disappear before
the love OF liberty and law, tor which the
American people are distinguished above
all others in the world. How lar the duty
of the President to preserve protect and de
fsnd the constitution requires him to go in
opposing and unconstitutional act of Con
gress is very serious and important ques
tioDjon which l have deiberated much and
teIt extremely anxious to reach a proper
conclusion. Where an act has been
passed according to the forms of the con
stLulion by the supreme legislative body
of the country, Executive resistance TO
it, especially in times of high party sx
element, would be likely 10 produce g
violent collision between the respective
adberents of the TWO branches of the
government. This would be simply civil
war, and civil war must be resorted to
only as the last remedy for the worst oil
evils. Whatever might lead to provoke
it should be most carefully avoided.
A faithful and conscientious magistrate
will concede very much to honest error,
and something even to perverse malice
before he will endanger the public peace,
and he will not adopt forcible measures,
or such as might lead to to force, as long
as the chances which are peaceabie rem air
open to him or TO his constituents. It Ii
true that cases may occur in which the
executive would be compelled to stand OF
his rights and maintain them, regardless
OF cOnse quences.
II Congress should pass an act which
ts not only 10 payable couaicr with the
constitution, but will certainly, if carried
out, produce immediate and irTsparable
injury to the organic structure of the
government. And if there BE- neither
judicial remedy for the wrongs it infIcts
nor power in the power in the people &c
protect themselves without the official
aid of their elected defenders, if, for il
stance, the Leglslatve department should
pass an act, even through all forms o.
| law, to abolish co ordinate department
| of gOveInmsnt-inS such case the Pres
iden must take the high responsiblliIi OF
oil his Office and save the life of the ma
lion at al hazards.
| The so-caiied reconstruction acts
though se plaialy unconstitutional IS any
that can be imagined, were MOI beloved &C
/ be within the class last mentioned, as the
people were not wholly disarmsd of th'
power of self defense. In all of the
NoFthsrn Ssatss thsy still bold in thei
hands the sacred right OF the ballot, and
it Was safe TO believe that 10 due time they
would come to the rescue Of their oWr
Institutions. Il gives me plea -u,s to adj
that the appeal of our common eonstita
suts was not taken 10 vain, and thas con
6deuce in their wisdom and virtue seem
not to have bean misplaced.
The President next aIiudes to the fraud
on the Treasury of the United StaiOe, an,
attributes ail the wrongs in this respect 1,
the tenure of Office Of bill, passed by tn
last Congress. OF course be argues tina
be ought to have supreme control of al
the patronage, aod complains that be ha
to consult the Ssnats in these matters
Whether Congress will feel disposed 81
! PaF,aaI shaf sek or NAT n foP f,sfl1rs FaVeIS