The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1867-09-27
Britain are fhase

"Iie, the King, "has obstructed the
administrator Of justice by refusing his
assent to laws for establishing Judiciary
poa0er.
He has affected to render the military
independent Of. and superior to. civil pow
er.
He has combined with others to subject
US to Jurisdiction foreign to oar Consti-
triton.
For quratering large bodies of armed
troops among US.
For protecting them, by mock trial,
from punishment.
For imposing taxes upon US without our
consent
For dePriving US, in many cases, Of the
benefits of trial by jury
We have set up against these provisions
OF gssa -eslsl ~ 80 shes declarations
Of the military Reconstruction bills. which
embody complete military despotism in
all the States in the South. The system
thus ordained by Congress and put into
operation by executives appointment, is in
plain conflict with the Constitution. 1t
directly, in theory and practice abrogates
and annuls every one Of the constitutional
limitations herein quoted. 1t sets aside
trial by jury suppresses freedom of
speech and the press it dispenses with
grand juries it subjects the civil to the
military authority, and in a special case
it overrides the decisions and annuls the
process of the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of the United States.
The President has thought it his duty
to confne his action, so far, to the enforce
ment of the process of the court. The
history of the country furnishes no exam
pie of moderation at all equal to that which
has characterized the Executive in this Won
derlul history.
The whole reconstruction scheme is
equal, in reasonable essence aud political
crime, to the late rebellion itself. 1t is a
complete perversion of the legal powers of
the legislature, and their employment in a
grand revolutionary movement which not
only contemplates the overthrow of the
constitutional system, but the deposition of
the President, the suppression of the Su-
preme Court, and the transfer Of all the ac-
tive agencies of the Government to the
will of Congress.
And what is the theory of this m monstrous
treason against the Government Of the Con-
stitution
Mr. Stevens tells US it is revolution
revolution by parties acting outside of tie
Constitution. 1t is force-it is open-hand-
ed force, made insolent by the extent and
power of it combinations. If this be true
the question arises to what extent heavy
responsibility rests upon the President
for not meeting the issue by the exercise of
the high powers which are devolved upon
him TO preserve. protect and defend the
Constitution. We have seen for two
bold hands around the vital system of the
Government; aud as this work Of strang-
ling has been openly carried on, the hands
of every patriotic political agent of the old
.
by the conspiratOrs.
1t is the duty of the Supreme Court, as
Judge Marshall says, "to say what the
law is; )" it is the duty of the President to
'preserve, protect, and defend the Consti-
tuition" The one is the judge of the law
and the Constitution in their application to
7. rsons the other is the judge Of those
public events and combinations which
threaten the overthrow of the Constitution
and the supremacy of the law.
The time has come when the President
should feel the force of this distinction,
and, in view of the wide spread conspira
cy which now seeks the utter sd5version
of our great free system of government-a
conspiracy which has already erected ma
ked military despotism over one-third ol
the States Of the Union which is mar
shaling its forces for the deposition of our
Chief Magistrate which openly sustains
every act of arbitrary authority of it's tools
and minions; which proscsibes the whites
/ of the entire South, and foists into power
the ignorant blacks-we insist, it is the
duty of the President to employ all the au.
thority of the Executive Department to
''preSeree, protect, and defend the Consti.
tuition"
CoTToN BoARD.-Our cotton Factors or.
ganized regular Board yesterday, and a,
dOpted series of regulations to govern the