The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-31
The Use or Mr.. JohnsOn,s Folly.

washington ana JnaJ OF hlng CnarleS ana
his Parliament. 1t would not be worth while,
even If the two cases resembled each other in
detail more closely than they do; for these
elaborate historical parallels only serve to dis
tract the attention from the great points at
issue, and amuse more than they instruct
In the real nature of the struggle however,
there is a remarkable resemblance, and one
from which we may, if we choose, derive les
sons Of the greatest value. Fortunately for
us-still more fortunately for our Chief Magis-
trate-they differ widely in some respects
Charles l would hardly have lost his head or
James IL his crown If there had been fixed
point Of time when his term of power would
expire by its own limitation.
II is a most fortunate thing for the country
that this struggle for power between the Exc
cutive and the legislature has been connected
with and complicated by violent dissension
upon the political issues Immediately before
Ms. SO superfcially do most people think
upon the fundamental principles of politics, so
great are the attractions of strong govern
ment such as the war gave us, and so ready
are we in general to let things take care of
themselves, that probably nothing less intense
than apolitical quarrel could have brought our
community either to see in what direction we
were drifting, or to desire to Withstand the
current. AS it was, the dispute upon the i'm
mediate practical issues went on for months,
all the time growing hotter and fercer, before
1t began to be generally seen that something
more vital even than reconstruction was at
stake, and that the President had been exer-
Oising dangerous degree of power, which
only his own bad faith and bad temper had at
last overtbrown.
The question over which we have been con-
tending all these months is one worth the
delay, expense, and bad blood which it has
ocoasioned. For it lies at the very founda-
tion of any political system to determine what
is the ruling power in the last resort. When
our Constitution was established, Monies
quieu's theory of the coordination of the
three departments of government was &C
oepted as fundamental principle, and incor-
porated in the new organic law. 1t was a
great step in that day thus to vindicate the
independence of the judiciary and the legisla-
ture, and by this free the fountains of law and
justice from the absolute control of the mo-
march. But no theory could prevent the
three departments from trying their strength
against one another or decide that in that
case the weakest should not 60 the wall. If
the Supreme Court should give decision ad-
verse to the moral sense of the nation, not
even the memory of Jay and Marshall could
help it from being overridden by the popular
will. And if the President should choose to
measure his strength with Congress, it
would very soon appear that, of the three de-
partments, the legislature possesses the
power, and that, possessing the power, it will
be master first or last.
The real value of the doctrine of the equality
of the departments is two-fold The first is
historical, that it freed, as we have said above,
the legislature and the judiciary from the
control of the executive, in which, in past
ages, they have always been. In the next
place, it lays down rule in accordance with
which the powers of government may be best
i1aA t1,a f1nn Of fhn fhraa do
partments are skilfully and clearly defined,
there will be no temptation in ordinary times
to overstep the prescribed bounds and one
could hardly decide off-hand that the power
which condemns man to jail or that which
pardOns him out is not the strongest power
in the State. To superficial view the Legis-
lature appears the weakest of the three its
power is latent, but 1t is there, ready to be
called into actual exercise: and he is either
very brave or a very foolish man who ven
lures, in the light of historical experience,
to provoke it,
The ignominious overthrow of the President
by Congress is not therefore, political revo
luton, but the effect of a rapid development
of the natural tendencies of the Constitution.
1t is precisely the change which is going on in
England, only that here a weak, shallow, and
obstinate President has caused it to be much
more violent and rapid than it has been there.
Let another George III or ~ come upon the
throne, and we shall be very likely to see the
power of Parliament exalted even more tri-
umphantly than that of Congress has been.
Even if it were revolution, however, we
should not for that reason deprecate it. A
constitution which does not accommodate itself
to the changing needs of those who live under
it, had better perish; and if the opinions and
necessities of the public have undergone a re-
vOlution, the Constitution should do the same.
II 1t is revolution, we are peculiarly for
tunate-all the more so on the heels of a tre-
mendous war-to have ii accomplished peace
ably.
But the truth is that this victory of Con-
gress does not work revolution, but prevent
one. ALI through the war the Democratic
newspapers Were telling us that we were suf-
tering the President to establish centralized
absolutism. They were right: and that would
have been real revolution, not merely de-
stroylng the balance of power in the depart
ments OF government, but placing them again
upon the basis that existed before their in
dependence was acknowledged in theory.
That danger is past, and now the same news
papers are making the same outcry at the
usurpations ofCongress. Are they right now,
as they were then 2 II the peril is a real one,
the factiousness of their criticism should MOI
blind us to its truth.
In the first place, the power which Congress
is now, as we admit, exercising in an extraor
dinary degree, is, as we have shown. a rea
and essential power of a legislature in free
State The possession of power is certainl,
no excuse for using it badly nor does powe
necessarily imply right; that Congress caI
override the Executive does not prove that it car
do so legally. But legislation is the undoubte,