The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-17
The Revolutionary Programme...

n sent to all employees OF the government IN
Eder Executive order addressed to the heads
of departments, is one ct the most vitality
Il important that can arise out OF our complex
and peculiar system OF government, ana one
which there is reason to apprehend has not
been studied with adequate care. That proc
, lamation is based upon an exaggerated esfi-
mate of Executive power under the Constr
tuition. which, if insisted upon, cannot fail
eventually to ovel throw the legislative branch
of the government and establish an absolute
despotism 1t is issued as a preliminary
measure antecedent to the autumn elections,
and if they shall prove favorable to Democrat
ic ascendancy, will be followed by startling
and despotic usurpations. When the Presl-
dent. in his speeches before the elections
last year, denounced Congress as "an illegal
body hanging upon the verge of the govern
ment, calling itself Congress, but which
was only Congress of part of the States; ;"
when he shamed his Office and proclaimed
his own baseness by the declaration that he
could have made himself dictator; when he
called upon the people of Cleveland to hang
Thad. Stevens and Wendell Phillips; when
he promised the citizens of Pittsburg that it
they sustained the radical Congress they
should have another civil war and mon
archy; when his prime minister asked the peo-
pie of Michigan, in his consenting presence,
'whether they would have Andrew john
son for President or king" the country was
startled by the manifest purpose of these de-
.clarations The people were alarmed; they
saw that the government had fallen into the
hands of a lawless and ambitious man, who
was wicked enough to accomplish his pur-
pose by the foulest means. They ayerted
the danger at the ballot-box by overwhelm
ing radical majorities. and they placed it in
the power of Congress, and made it the duty
of Congress to remove the dangerous Execu-
tive by impeachment under the Constitu-
ton.
Instead of pursuing this necessary course,
Congress allowed itself to be drawn into
conciliatory measures, wherein the baseness
! of some men and the ambition of Others con-
tributed to the perpetuation of bad Presi-
dents power. That which was plain enough
to the simplest-minded woodman on the
remote frontier, to the workman at his
bench, or the child that had learned to
read, the Congress of the United States clos
ed its eyes upon, and that was, that public
opinion c"u!d not restrain, and legal enact
ments could not bind the President. He
had never recognized any social bond, and
was by nature despot and contemner of the
law. In both houses they were warned
the voices of Sumner and Wade. of Chandler,
of Stevens, of Boutwell,, of Williams, fell un-
needed upon listless ears. The people cried
out "impeach !" but their sleeping sentinels
would not hear. Now the rebellion is
renewed; now the same purposes are
defantly set forth in a proclamation, the
full meaning of which will only be known if
Pennsylvania or New York 60 Democratic
in the next elections. Success in either Of
these States will be followed by discontin-
uance of all further proceedings under the
reconstruction laws; renewal of the deelar-
atoms contained in the Presidents mes
sage demanding the admission Of congress
sional delegates, on the. ground that the
Southern States are already fully seerganiz-
ed and censtitutionally equal with the rest
of the States, and the forcible expulsion Of
Congress lift shall fail to comply with the
Presidents imperious commands.
To enable him to command tine absolute
obedience of the personnel of tine executive
branch of the government, civil and miFita-
ry, the President has issued pIOe1aaaation
reciting his constitutional powers, by which
he construes himself to be the sole Exeeu-
tive; the head of the civil and commander
in-chief of the military officers, trora all Of
whom implicit and unquestioned obedience
is demanded.
The proclamation alleges that the acts of
Gen. Sickles, as military commander and
his subordinate in carrying out the provls-
ions of the Reconstruction laws passed by
Congress, have interposed impetIiments and
Instructions to the Constitution and laws Of
the United States in North and South Caro-
lima, and that reasonable and we'll founded
apprehensions exist that such iIl-alvised
and unlawful! proceedings may be again at
tempted there or elsewhere" and makes it the
duty of the President under such efFcum-
stances to call upon the land and naval
forces" to secure the faithful execution of
the Constitution and laws. AIT officers, civ
il and military, are reminded that they VIII
support and defend the Constitution against
all enemies, foreign or domestic, and Will
bear true faith and allegiance to the same
The numerous whereases are SO arranged as
to form an ingenious network of cnrsssr1lc-
ton, which places all power In the hands OF
the President, makes linn the thinking head
of the whole executive machine, reduces the
whole army and navy and civil service into
unquestioning slaves of his will. without pow
err of thought or exercise of Judgment This
extraordinary and unprecedented document
has been accompanied by remarkable cir
cuar from the Attorney Generals Office to
the tail of which is appended o request Tor
an acknow ledgment of the receipt thereof It
is to be sent to all the military and civil OF
ficers of the government, and the quality OF
the official will be determined by the char
acter of his answer. 1t is especially anpor-
tant for the future developen,sssus OF the.
Presidents revolutionary programme that he
should poll the army, and he is also anxious
to ascertain the exact number of governments
employees of all sorts in each district that he
can rely upon to stand by him in ruEsaing the
machinery of the government when he de
ciares Congress illegal and makes hiRseH
dictator.
No such act of despotism was ever at
tempted by Louis Napoleon during the corp
d. etat of 1851. In his case De Mosny tele
graphed to the government employees that
the revolution was fa1 accomph, and rs
members of the National Assembly were In
prison, and took his chances of the bread
and-butter brigade with tolerable Certain
ty-
This early disclosure of the Presidents in
tentions ought to suffice for the awakening
of the country to a living sense of its Gsan
ger. We are rapidly gliding into the storm
of another revolution, of which the Presi-
dent is chief conspirator, and in which our
late enemies expect to use against US the
arms, treasure and power of the United