The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-01-28
The Great Issue between the President and
the People.

people, as represcntedin Congress, does not
necessarily involve the legal effect of the Re-
bellon upon the status of the Rebel States,
inasmuch as both parties agree that at the
close of the Rebellion there were no State
Governments in those States. Nor does it
involve the question Of the legality and right
fulness of imposing conditions upon the late
Rebel communities as a precedent to their
admission to political power in the Union,
since both parties agree that conditions may
be imposed Nor does it involve the question
of the right Of State, with legal State
Government, aud whose relations have not
been disturbed by the Rebellion, to be repre-
sented in the Government of the Union, for
both parties concede that right. The true
issue comprehends vastly more than these
questions. COmprehensively stated. 1t is
this:-ShGlI the Legislative pOo0er Of the GoO-
ernment remain aohere the Constitution ttreS
it, Nth the people as represented IN Con-
greSs, or shall IL be eIerc ;Sed by the PreSt-
dent at his discretion and pleasure? And
this issue arises in connection with the most
important subject of legislation which has
engaged the attention OF the American people
since they became a nation, viz, the settle
ment of the vast and far-reaching questions
growing out of our late fearful war. The
issue, it will be seen, goes to the very essence
of our republican form of government, and
embraces the vital element of the Federal
Constitution.
The popular struggle for liberty during the
last three hundred years may be said to have
eliminated in the establishment in the Consti-
tuition OF the United States of the principle,
that to the people belongs the right to make
their own ld1D8. This is the fundamental idea
Of that instrument. In every part of it the as
sumption is constantly made that the people
are supreme. Congress is established as the
great popular branch of the Government,
elected directly by the people, specially re-
presenting the people, responsible to nobody
but the people, and invested with sole legis-
lative powers. So carefully is the supremacy
of this branch of the Government secured,
thai everyofficer of the Government is directly
responsible to it for official misconduct, and
liable to impeachment and removal, while
Congress itself is responsible only to the
people whose immediate agent and represen-
tative it is. No officer Of the Government
has right to act without the authority OF
Laec, and Congress alone is the law-maklng
power.
The President is simply the Executive.
His functions are limited and clearly defined.
Whatever he does he must do upon the
authority of law. He can initiate nothing,
originate nothing. Outside of the law, he
has no more power than the humblest citizen.
He cannot make law, nor impart to anything
the binding force of law. He cannot, like an
emperor, issue an edict or promulgate a
decree. Any attempt to do so, and to give it
the character of law, is mere usurpation &.
His simple function is to execute, not his own
will or his own policy, but that Of the people
as expressed through their representatives in
Congress assembled.
With this clear conception of the constitu
tional functions of Congress and the Presi-
dent before us, we are at once qualified to
decide that President Johnson's entire work
of reconstruction, or, in other words, what he
calls his "policy," as far as it has been prose-
cuted, is an indisputable usurpation of legis-
lative powers; and that, too, on most dan
gerous and gigantic scale. 1t is a sweeping
overthrow Of the Constitution. Where in
the Constitution, or in the statute books, IS
there any law, or shadow of law, authorizing
President johnson to appoint Governors, to
call Constitutional Conventions, to prescribe
rules and regulations for the conduct Of cleo
tiOns, to define the qualifications OF electors
in a word to create so-caled State Govern
ments, and give them an assumed status in
the Union? This work, in its essential char
acter, is purely legislative, and not at all
executive. And it is legislative work OF
the most important character with
which no ordinary legislation can for
moment be compared, and yet one
man, by his own ipSe dirit, assumes to give
1t validity. Were we to some day find in our
public journals decree from Andrew John
son. establishing a new system of internal
revenue, and particularly prescribing all its
features, creating new classes OF offices, fix.
ing the pay OF the incumbents, their duties
the length Of time for which thew were tc
hold, and the full details of such a system
men OF all parties would hold up their hands
in horror and "usurpation r' But such a
decree would be usurpation no more real
and Tar less sweeping and dangerous, than
the attempt OF fAndrew johnson to create State
Governments in the late Rebel communities
to give them standing in the Union, and tc
settle by his own will and on his own terms tn,
vast and momentOus issues growing out o