Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-13


for it. Il is now 10 be used 10 their In
Jury.
As the Constitution doesnt give on
gress the power to suspend the President
by a law passed despite his veto, it needs
no argument to show that the power
cannot exist. But neither CHARLES the
First nor LOUIS the Sixteenth found his
plea to the Jurisdiction Of the tribunal
that tried him, Of any avail II
was as little regarded as those not long
since ~overruied by military commissions
Want Of constitutional power isa barrier
that the power OF a body representation
or welding the masses brushes ike an
egg-shell.
The President has always pronounced
all who participated in the late war on
the Southern side, to be guilty of trea-
son and rebellion. II so, they were
criminals, who should have been either
pardoned or tried. 1t was hardly ht for
the President and his officers TO admit
TO their presence, and consult WITH aud
recognize as gentlemen, u~npardonedi
and indicted, though noteonvicted trait
ors. Moreover, you can find no one, yet
u~npardoned, who cannot point to some
one whose pardon is an injustice TO others.
One Confederate Senator is p%ardoned,
and Others are not; one General, aud
another not; the President of the Con-
iederacy languishes in prison the Vice
President is at large. Mr.. BUCHANAN's
Secretary Of the Treasury, afterwards q
Confederate General, has never been
disturbed. Senator HUNTER has always
been at large. Mr.. TRENHOLM, Confed-
crate Secretary Of Treasury, is p%ardoned.
! Mr.. MALLORY, Confederate Secretary OF
the Navy is not. Naturally, the Presi-
dent has made only a few friends
oy his sparing and apparently csprieious
exercise of the p%ardoning power and
he has certainly failed to conciiiate in
! any degree the Radicals. Consequently
he justifes them in insisting that al
who are not smnestied or pardoned
shall be tried and that the conhsca-
ton laws. which stand u~nrepealed, shall
@Ak+ $50
be enforced. It was in the Presidents
power to close all agitation on those sub
jects, long ago, by a general amn.sy
The courts would then have settled all
Questions under the confscstion laws
Il Is not too late now.
II Congress ~sUspends him, be leaves
those who have relied upon his gener-
osity and mercy to their fate. 1t is 70 be
hoped that satisfied Of the uselessness Of
any attempt to soften and cODciilate the
Dsstructiyes, he will defy them, by a
general Act Of Grace. He should have
known long ago, that TO temporize with
q popular assembly like Congress, was to
make il his master. II he were TO be.
now suspended, the army would side
with Congress, General GRANT foremost
Of all; and the people Of the Northern
States would sustain their representa-
tives. lie viii be feeder than 9 child,
when it comes to an open rupture with
Congress, aud he seeks to resist force 10y
force.
CHARLES THE FIRST had at first more
than half the Kingdom, nearly all the
mobiles and the soldiery, with his divine
right, to back him, and the immense
prestige of royalty, and the old English
feeling of loyalty to the Crown. LOUIS
XVI had not only the priesthood and the
nobility, but whole Provinces on his side,
and the kingdoms of Europe. Yet the
power OF each shrivelled up like a scroll
before the fiery energy Of the popular
assembly aud in each case the republi-
can chiefs and armies crushed the Crown,
directed, in each case, by a central des-
potism, stern and remorseless as fate.
We do not imagine that the President,
if he is suspended, will attempt to resist
at all. If he should, Congress will de-
nounce and outlaw him as 4 traitor.
What will follow afterwards, We a only
Judge from the few cases of this kind that
have occurred before. There is 10 10y
atty to the Crown, no long line Of royal
ancestors, no nobility, no army whose
officers owe their rank to him, to sustain
him against the popular body. He has
but the Constitution, to the continual
aud incessant violation whereof the peo-
pie have become so accustomed as 10
longer TO have for it any feeling Of
respect. 1t is now no palladium Of
Liberty, and few are 50 poor
as TO do it reverence. II is found
TO be easy for the popular vii! to change
its very nature and annihilste its most
solemn guarantees. According to the
new doctrines, anything whatever can
be put into it by amendment. It might
be made to legalize polygamy, or to de-
clare, IS FOURIER held, that property is
theft. Il is not worth, to-day, the paper
it is written on. The popular will is the
Constitution, henceforward and it will
not be long before such Estates" as
Colorado and Nebraska can impose a
constitution on New York and Pennsyl
vanls. The New York Herald says, and
with this we conclude:
The radicals, in these chickering's and
divisions, are only ~re-enacting history.
1t was the same with the Giroudists and
Jacobins in France, with the ~IndepeHd-
ents and Presbyterians in England, and
back in the Roman republic from the
days OF the Gracchi down TO Augustus.
But this higgling ami pettif0gging will
not do at this time. The radicals can
0 back out Of the Impeachment after
the violent charges they have made, and
the people will demand that the trial Of
the president shall be proceeded with at
once and a decision arrived at without
delay. Ifthe verdict should be 90 guilty"
as there appears no doubt it must be,
they will elect a successor in accordance
with the constitution, and that successor
will in all probability be Gen. Grant
No radical ~squsbbling can prevent this
result.