Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1867-02-23
The Muddle.

oiesseO state until the Union Members stInen
their backbones enough to carry to its legiti-
mate conclusion the issue rendered them by
the President in the political canvass of last
Fall. If the combinations of Johnson and
the other secessionists had succeeded. and
the people of the loyal States had elected to
the Congress, which meets on the fourth OF
March next, enough copperheads to have
united with the rebel Members and have out
numbered the Unionists in the lower House,
the present Congress would never have held
its session, and Johnson would have kicked
it of the verge of the Government with as lit
tie ceremony as he has kicked out of office the
appointees of Lincoln who have refused to
sacrifice their integrity for bread and butter.
1t is poor rule which will not work both
ways; and the very fact that on the issue
rendered by the President the verdict of the
people was against him, really left him at
the mercy of Congress to depose him on i'm
peAchment, and thus harmonize the Govern
ment. The President had declared war upon
Congress, and only waited to receive, in the
Fall elections, enough encouragement from
detection in the Union ranks, to support his
| policy with arms, and precipitate the nation
into revolution and bloodshed. Such was
his policy last Fall, ard nothing but the firm
front presented by the loyal masses of the
North saved our country from the horrors of
another civil war. The President did not go
4 into the canvass of last Fall to honestly sub
nit to the people the decision of question
Of policy on which he and Congress honestly
differed, but which he and it were mutually
willing to submit for settlement to the loyal
people themselves. His course since the
verdict WAS rendered. has proved that he has
no respect for the popular opinion of the
country, and only sought to use it, if po.si-
BILE, in carrying out objects which he had al
ready determined upon. and he now pursues
those objects as inflexibly as though the peo-
pie had never condemned them. Such con-
tumacy is beyond all precedent. Never be-
fore. in the history Of popular Government,
has the judgment of the people been treated
with such contempt, and so scornfully re-
vsrsed by Chief Magistrate. Even in mon-
archies, when the people speak their voice is
hearkened to, and when they command they
are obeyed. There is not sovereign in Eu-
rope at this day who could keep his throne
single month, if he should resist and beard
the will of his subjects as Johnson has that
OF the American people. Johnson's stub
bornness is foolish and dangerous, and, if
persisted in and allowed, can only lead to
civil war. Congress owes to the nation the
pacifcation of the country, and its recon-
struction on such . just and loyal basis as
will render future civil war impossible. Such
a pacifcation cannot be done in one Act, nor
can all the Acts which Congress can possibly
pass give order. safety and good government
to the South while a President, who is hos
tile to Congress and to loyalty. has the car
rying of those laws into execution. Had
Congress done its whole duty, it would have
removed Johnson. on impeachment, before
the holidays. Its default has crippled Its
|
sion. With a loyal successor to Johnson
Congress would have had only to have passed
its laws for reconstruction in the usual way,
that is, by the vote of the majority of each
House. With him still obstructing Congress
it has been driven to the necessity of only
passing such laws as could be agreed upon
and carried over his veto. The work of re-
construction could have been continued down
to the last hours of the session with a loyal
President; now the last ten days which are
the busiest and most valuable of the session,
are lost to the country through Johnson's
power to pocket bills. 1t is some consolation
to know that light begins to dawn upon the
minds of the Members, and that they COM
mence to perceive what the country saw long
ago, that no faith whatever is to be placed in
the professions of the President, and that the
grand stumbling block in the way of recon-
struction is the '.bad man in the Executive
Chair" His removal is necessary for the
peace of the country. and We are fortunate
that Constitutional method is provided for
SO imperative measure. The idea that he
should be permitted to continue to disturb
the country for two years longer is prepos-
ferrous. The Union party would never think
no party would ever think of continuing
him in Office after his Constitutional term had
expired, and it is just as Constitutional a
method of closing his official career to re-
move him now on impeachment for his offic-
ial crimes, as to allow it to expire on the 4th
of March, 1869, for want of reelection. II,
instead of wasting time in hedging round the
obstruction in their way, the Union Members
of Congress had directed their efforts to re-
moving the obstruction ITSELF they would not
have found themselves, at the end of the ses-
sion, in their present deplorable muddle 1t
is to be hoped that the new Congress will
take warning from this example.
CANDIDATES for State offices are becoming
as thick as "tosds after shower" Every
petty politician who thinks he has influence
enough to carry his own precinct at the pri-
mary election, imagines that he is entitled to
a prominent position on the State ticket.
At least half dozen new candidates for gu
bernatorial honors have sprung up like mush-
rooms during the past week. Ifpretentious
) aspirations and soaring smbition are the only
requisites for good public officers, the people
will have no lack of numbers to choose from
at the next election. Caleb T. Fay. a toler-
ably respectable gentleman residing in San