Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-09-12
tFrom the N. Y. Tribune.l

The PreStdemt OH tne ttnr tAths
The President who evades the law tram
pies upon it, For his refusal to execute the
law in its plain intent there can be no ex
cuse even ignorance cannot be pleaded in
his case, for ignorance is incapacity, and that
is an impeachable offense. Mr.. johnson may
therefore take his choice of explanations,
with the certainty that he can make none
that the country will accept When we find
in the long course of his official action, year
after year, nothing but direct opposition to
the laws, the conclusion is inevitable that he
is criminal or incapable, and in very respect |
for the Presidency the people will not per-
NIT il to be filled by law-breaker or ain i'm
beetle. We may think it wiser to wait and
endure as we have endured; but, wise or
imprudent no man can doubt the great fact
that the indignant spirit of the nation will
not long tolerate the monstrous anomaly Of
a President whose sole business is TO defeat
their will. The issue between the President
and the people is upon the immediate exc
cution Of the laws, and cannot be postponed
till 1869. We want Peace noaO, not two
years hence; and if the nation cannot OBJ
tain it through the President, it is unmistak
ably resolved to get it over him.
Unfortunately for the majority
of the people, who would much
prefer TO find him obedient, the Presi-
dent prefers to resist. He seems re-
solved to force them to measures which
they are still desirous to avoid. His new
organ the Boston Post, tells us that :" he
- fias determined 10 be master of the sltua-
g ton; that he has exhausted every effort
g ut harmony and cancellation, and is re-
g solved to resist to the utmost. Mr.. john
g son declared to party of friends to-day
''that, having exhausted every effort at
g conciliation, he should now unflinchingly
g enforce every Constitutional power to save
g the country from impending ruin; that
g the simple issue was Constitutional Gov
! g ernment or Military despotisni, and he
had fully resolved upon the course he
'sments of his office" And it actually as
sures us that 'the President has taken the
.. War Path in earnest" is it any wonder
that these semi-of1icial declarations of pa
pers which are known to have the confidence
of The President, and which enjoy monop-
oily of his news, should have aroused the
people To IL sense of new danger? Without
| them the removals of Stanton,and Sheridan,
and Scliles would be enough to prove that
Mr.. johnson is not yet ready to abandon
his hopes Of defeating the will Of the pen-
pic. Politically, we may DC iikened TO a
| people strickened by a pestience or by some
other great and general calamity, of which
the limits are underlined and the end where
of no man knowcth truly We know to
what sore and bloody straits n bad
Government, long continued and too
tardily circumventcd, brought us; and
now, that we have President with
all the political vices of Mr.. Buchanan,
we have too much reason to fear that
1867 will be at least as bad as 1861.
That vague, ill-brgoticn and hybrid monster
baptized IN, Policy" to which no man,
moi even its brgettcl, can attach Il fixed form
and purpose. is the natural parent of pro-
geny of minor doubts, otugly and switt-run-
ming rumors, of threatening portents, and of
continually shifting panics. This is the mis-
chief which one man in other lands and in
other times has been able to do, but from
which this Republic during nearly the centu-
ry of its existence has been exempted; for
Mr. johnson is our first thoroughly bad
President. In those estates lately in rebel
lion,'' in which lusty hopes of bloody coup
tietut are beginning to develop themselves
in MARYLAND, which, if not Il Rebel State, at
least swarms with rebel spirits-we are told
that the enemies of peace and order have TIA
ken heart of grace. They anticipate nothing
. less than the declaration of martial law
throughout the United States. Congress is
10 be prevented from assembling next No
yembcr ly force Of arms. The President, in
short, is to assume supreme authority.
These hopes and rumors may be partly un-
. founded but the bitter question is, how they
came 10 be entertained and promulgated at
. all? The Governor of Il State might give an
impr sson that he intended TO pardon
all the thieves; but could he do Sc
, without some act of speech unworthy o
, the dignity or the equity OF hi
1 office When the President ha
arrayed himself with the full imprcssiyenes
c and power of his place against the loya
: masses, we no not blame the unregcnerate
' political sinners of the sonth for supposing,
e vaguely enough perhaps, that he has gon
V over to their side. They would be less o
c more than men if they We're not Instant,
o encouraged and melted to fresh acts of per
: sistent disobedicnce. The grief of genuin
n and unsullicd loyalty must be the joy Q
J. treason,
O In this emergency. we wish to hear moth
+ ing of the purity of the Presidents. inten
|. tions. We must judge public men by thei
termined by results The irresponsible an,
1t ill-tempered exercise of power is phase {
i. politics to which in this country we hav
il never been accustomed, and God forbid tha
we should ever become so! The quarrel {
the President is with the people, throug
their representatives, and in this struggle
le is to be determined whether Presidents sia
N be our servants or whether we shall De theirs
Let the reader turn to the Constitution, an
Y, then study the simple and weii-aenhea aut,e :
he of the Executive Let him then conside
a. the extraordinary assumptions OF Presider
g t;al authority which have conyulsed th
at country. snd ask himself, whatever may
nd the motives of Mr.. johnson, if officii
!, ecccntricities Ito use the mildest of word
n. NAV not sometimes rise to the bad dignil
lie of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Nv --
to Hon. George Bancroft, has been treatt
er with unexampled courtesy by the Prussis
II. Government. Upon the invitation OF Xii