Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1867-03-15
THE LAST VETO.

In place of any comments of our own,
we offer the following from the Chica-
so lritunes .
The tone OF the veto message Of the
Reconstruction bill is both angry and
insulting. Ii could not well be more so
il Mr.. Johnson were rs supreme in the
government as Alexander is i'm Russia or
Napoleon in France. He is guilty of
the discourtesy and the insolence of
charging Congress with deliberate,
and wiliul violation OF the constitution.
The reasons set forth for the bill in the
preamble lie calls an excuse" He de-
clares that it seems scarcely possible
one should seriously believe certain pro-
visions of the bill 10 be consistent with
the constitution; and he concludes his
message by direct charge that Con
gres. in its legislation is Cooking solely
to the attainment of political ends"
and that it fails to consider the rights il
transgrcsscs, the law it violates, or the
institutions which it impcrils.n The
reasoning of the message is as t,llaciGus
rs its tone is malicious. The President
Swings around the cicrle" in hisargu
ment, as conspicuOusly As he did in his
pilgrimage to the grave of Douglas. lie
sets out with a fulse-assumptiol, and on
that false assumption are really founded
all his objections to the measure.
That assumption is that the bogus
governments which he set up in the
South, without the shadow OF authority,
arc legal, regular, and valid, ani. as tru-
ly governments as those existing in
Illinois or New York that the political
status of the Southern States is precise
ly the same as it would be had there
r,t nj .,.x.tI -
Arguing from this assumption, which
the people by unprecedented majorities
have declared to be false, he goes on to
show that Congress has no right to es-
tablish military rule for the enforce
ment of law and order in the Southern
States. He dwells at length upon the
cruelties of military rule, purpOsely ig-
Enoring the fact that he himself has the
appointment of all the commanding
officers and supreme authority over
them as the constitutional head of the
army. He says the power will certain
ly be abused. ii so he will himself be
responsible for it's abuse. But all power
is liable to be abused, and to say that no
authority should be given to Govern
ment that may be abused, is equivalent
to saying that there should be no gov
eminent whatever. The attempt to APP
ply the stump speech Of the Judge in
the Milligan case TO the establishment
of military law in the South, is too rid
iculously absurd to deceive any one.
1t has no application, since it relates
solely to military trials in loyal States,
under regular governments, and to a
case in which Congress itself had pre-
scribed the mode Of trial bya civil
court.
A giaring Inconsistency in Mr.. John
som message is, that he condemns the
very methods by which he himself set
up his bastard Southern Governments.
He held the South under military rule
until they had complied with the con-
ditions which he imposed upon them
by the arbitrary proclamation of his
personal wishes. More than this, after
they had complied with the terms
which he demanded without 4 shadow
OF legal authority, Ire still held them
and does o-day hold them in a condi-
I'tion OF vassalaYe. He suspends the
officers elected by their people at pleas
ure, and is as absolute ruler over those
ten States Ms he was before their so-call-
cd Governments were organized at his
dictation. Neither Congress nor the
people ever acknowledged Mr.. Johnson's
right to exercise the power he usurped !;
they never in any manner recognized
THE legality OF his proceedings, of the
validity OF his bogus Governments.
On the contrary, both have decided and
declared that the question of recon
struction belongs solely tothe iawmal-
ing power; that as the Congress is
invested by the Constitution with pow
err TO declare war. rs it is supreme i'm de-
cia.ing peace and fixing its conditions.
tThc question of governments in the
Southern States, therefore, when Con-
gress passed this act, stood precisely
where it did at the surrender of the