The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-02-06

THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
| SOUTHERN PROPOSITION To BE MADE-PRO-
BABLE REJECTION BY THE RADICALS-UL-
IRA MEASURES TO BE E~NACTED-THE TE-
NuRE-oF-OFFICE BnLL-IrS OBJECT-PRE-
sIDENT JOHNSON ON TRIAL-THE "TEST
OATH" To BE ENFORCED IN H LOCAL
CoURTS-NEBRASEA AM COLORADO
Wdshingt0n, February 81 am authorized
10 say that a proposition will be shortly
made, in form, by the Legislature of North
Carolina, aud submitted to Congress, offer
ing as a tinality the adoption OF the consti-
t~utional amendment, with the substitution
for the second and third sections provisions
guaranteeing impartial suffrage and repre-
sentation according to the voting popula-
ton.
/ need not add that the proposition, in
my Judgment, will be rejected by the Ra-
ideals, the purpose of the leaders of that
party being to p~rotract indefinitely any set
Element. The signs of the times unmis-
takably point to far more stringent mea-
sures than any yet proposed, and the means
to be employed are holder and Infinitely
more reckless than the public seem willing
to believe. Many members of Congress
who have had, up to within the past week,
hopes of a final adjustment upon some
satisfactory basis, now u~ndisgulsedly ex-
press themselves without hope, and admit
that their calculations, based upon the III
innate resistance of that class of Republl-
cans whose votes have on some occasions
been cast against ultra measures, have
turned out to be utterly iallaclous. NO
better proof of this could be furnished
than the votes in the House upon an
amendment to the "tenure-of-ottlce" bill
yesterday. 1t prohibits the President from
removing a Cabinet officer without the
consent of the Senate. 1t was at first sub
stantially defeated, but the party lash was
applied, and upon a reconsideration 1t was
adopted, and the bill, with it Incorporated
as a provision, passed by q strict party uote.
1t will 90 to the Senate, be tecbiy opposed
by the more moderate Republicans who
will finally yield, and by the time II NJ
back with the Presidents objections the
party will have become a unit, and the bill
become a law by til" vote Of two-thirds OF
both Houses.
Under existing circumstances, this bill
is of vital consequence. No man doubts
that the purpose of making the Cabinet
independent is 10 tie the hands of the Pre-
sident in view of his election from the po-
sition he occupies. In truth, the whole
legislation of this Congress has been but a
piece of network with which to environ
the Executive preparatory to the utter de-
molition of his authority, and placing inhis
stead a "Lord Protector" already Sc
lected. The restraints of the Constitution
are utterly condemned even by such pre-
tended Conservatives as Raymond, and
that instrument held to have been, in fact,
abolished by the results Of the war. He
who imagines, therefore, that the funda-
mental law presents the slightest barrierto
the destructive course marked out by the
revolutionists, INDUCES in a delusion which
is directly at variance with every word
and every act Of the dominant party.
1t is a fact which cannot be too soon
fully understood by the people, and duly
pondered upon, that Andre,p johnson IS at
this moment Upon his trial ; that the wit
nesses, such as Detective Baker, are upon
the stand that his case has been pre-
Judged, and that he is liable at any mo-
ment to be dragged to the bar of the House
and deposed.-Speciai Correspondence Of
the Baltimore Gazette.