The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-02

Johnson has discovered that the Supplement
tary act Of theaspeoial session is in certain
respects susceptible Of an Interpretation favor
able TO his pretensions. BY some looseness of
language, a pretext is alleged to be afforded
for the opinion that the act does not confer on
General Grant the plenary powers with which
public opinion has endowed him. The pre-
vailing idea is that, 1nder the law, the General
has absolute authority over the work of re-
construction-that he is, in fact, its admins
traitor, clothed with all the powers and attri-
butes essential to its Efficiency The Presi-
dent, however, with Mr.. Buchanan's Attorney
General at his back insists that an exact rem
dering of the terms of the law limits Grants
power to the single question of removals, and
does not authorize him to instruct the district
commanders; that this, one of the vital points
of reconstruction, remains subject to the order
of the President alone.
Evidently the difficulty thus raised by Mr..
johnson is a mere device to defeat the pur-
pose of the law, and for the time to gain a
faotious advantage over Congress. MIR. John
son does not pretend, nor can any man pre-
tend, that the version he gives to the law hsr-
monies with the intentions of Congress.
There is no room for difference of opinion as
to what these intentions were. 1t is not de-
MED in any quarter that Congress designed to
confer absolute authority on General Grant--to
invest him with suspensOry power over the
whole matter-to make him the res esponsible
administrator and the final Judge in all affairs
pertaining to the reconstruction plan. These
being the admitted purposes of Congress
these the admitted ideas conveyed by broad
and general consideration of the statute-Mr.
Johnson has no right to go beyond or behind
them, and to profit by slight verbal omissions
or vagueness which Congress, in its haste,
may have committed. A Five Points lawyer
would be expected to resort to tricks of this
kind. The professional knave who studies
law only that he may Illustrate its provisions
would be at liberty to profit by the most
trivial blunder in the wording of an act. But
Mr.. Johnson, as the President, is not privi-
legged to govern the country according to the
notions of the Tombs lawyers, or to fight
Congress with weapons furnished by petit
foggers. His duty is to accept the law ac-
cording to its manifest purpose-to accept
the declared and well-understoOd objects of
Congress as the key to the Interpretation of
its enactments-and to disregard all flaws that
are at variance with their general scope and
aim.
The fact that Mr.. Johnson refuses to recog-
nize this conception of his duty, and prefers
instead to obey the promptings of merceDary
adheTents and unscrupulous pettifoggers is
proof that he can no longer be entrusted with
the administration of the law. The function
ary who examines the law simply that he may
bring it to naught, by that circumstance de-
monstrates his unftness for his Office. And
the Executive who assails authority which
Congress intended to make independent of
him, and employs the accidental advantages of
a constitutional position to pick holes in mea-
sures formed to provide for the safety and
unity of the republic, provokes the exercise
of harsher means of restraint than have yet
been employed against him.