The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-24
what is the True Issue Between the
President and COngress9

Side questions, however important and inte-
resting in themselves, only serve to distract
the mind and to confuse its conceptions. Thus
the President in his last veto message dwells
q great deal upon that vexed problem of politi
cal metaphysics, as to whether the Rebel States
ara really States or not. 1t seems to US that
this is entirely foreign to the true issue. The
only question that is properly raised in this
connection by the several Reconstruction acts,
ia whether the present so-called State Govern
n,ents Of the late Rebel States are legal or
nOti If they are legal and constitutional
governments, standing upon as good basis
as the State Governments Of the loyal States,
then, of course, the Reconstruction acts are
liable to many of the objections urged against
them; but if, on the other hand, these so-called
State Governments have no valid constitutional
basis, but are the mere offspring of usurpation
on the part of the President, then they have
no claim to existence, and their removal is the
highest duty of Congress. The question is
narrowed down to the legality of the present
so.oalled State Governments of the late Rebel
States, the President maintaining that they are
legal, while Congress and the country hold that
they are not.
Now, the Presidents case is too weak to
allow of his meeting this question boldly upon
its naked merits. He does not attempt to do
it. He proceeds by process of indirection,
and assumes that if Congress overthrOws his
State Governments it makes itself responsible
for the doctrine of State suicide, with all its
consequences. ....
But just here every intelligent mind will at
once recur to the Presidents own action with
reference to the Rebel State Governments at
the close of the war. The overthrow of the
Rebel armies restored the power and authority
of the Union over the entire South. In each
of the Rebel States there was at that time
fully organized and active State Government,
complete in all its departments, its officers
elected by the people, and its authority un-
questioned within its own limits.
Now let us ask the question, Were these
Rebel State Governments legal, or were they
illegal If they were legal, then they were
entitled to proceed unimpeded in their opera
tions. They were unquestionably the choice
tive sense, as meaning the governing class
If they were illegal, then the Rebel States had
been for some four years without legal or con-
stitutonal governments. What their legal status
was during this time, whether State can exist
for years without a legal Government, whether
the State is something independent of its
organization-all these are questions we leave
to the political metaphysicians President
Johnson took the position that the Rebel State
Governments were illegal, and as the head oi
the army forbade them any longer to exercise
their functions. He did by these illega
organizations just what Congress proposes tc
do by his illegal organizations. And if the
overthrow of an illegal State Government by
act of Congress involves the endorsement o
the doctrine of State suicide, it is difficult t.
see why the overthrow o an illegal State Gov
ernment by the President does not involve tn
same consequences. The difficulties and in
onsstencies which the President proposes 70
Congress are equally obstacles in his owl
path. The doctrines of his veto message ar
as repugnant to the action Of Andrew johnson
in 1866 as they are to that of Congress in 1867
But there is one conclusion of great valu
which may be drawn from President John
sons overthrow of the Rebel State Govern
ments at the close of the war. 1t establishe
a common Starting-point for the President ant
for Congress. Each and all agree that til
Rebel State Governments at the close Of the aOa
,oere illegal, and that they aUere justly overthrOWn
There we all stand together-radicals and con
servatives, Congress and the President. w
may therefore throw out of view all that wen
before. If the General Government was in
consistent during the war, sometimes actin
apparently upon one theory and sometime
upon another, we may let that all pass. Tn
only practical question that remains is
Who, when the Rebel State Government
were overthrown, had the authority, unde
the Constitution, to organize new Cover
ments to take their places This
the sole question at issue. Everythir
outside of it is impertinent. The Preside
assumed that he had this authority, and
Congress was not in session, he proceeded
exercise it; and before that body could G
together he had got so far in the work that
had State Governments ready-made in eve
one of the Rebel States. But when Congre
assembled, in December, 1865, at its regul
annual session, it refused to concede t
legality of the Presidents work. 1t contend
that the creation of State Governments was
a part of the constitutional duties of the Exec
tive. Il proceeded upon the assumption I'll
H., A. a..