The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-15
NuI,,fcation by the President.

.. NullifcatiOn by the EEesi"O"''
Tn soems that President Johnson is disposed 10
ruI,ifv the Reconstructon law passed by Con
eress. We say nullvg, for that is really wh"'
his decision that the military commanders
have no authority to remove the so-oalleu ''a'0
oA,oers Of the late Rebel States amounts TO-
The nratonse that it is merely his construction
Of the law will not avail. The great P0'~ Oh
contention in regard'to the Reconstruction law
while its passage was pending, related 10
inst this matter of the so-called state uoVerh-
nents-Mr. Johnson having created these
s ooolrat Governments without the authority
~ iav and by usurpation of legislative
f,nct;ons soueht to uphold them as valid and
constitutional. It was the key-point OF his
whole dpolicy." So long as these illegal
Governments could be maintained as govern
ments in fact, with nothing to oppose or
supersede them, Mr.. Johnson's position was,
from necessity, growing stronger and stronger
every day. Despite the nlegality OF these
State organizations, they were performing the
functions of government, and were daily
ACQUIRING power from their de factO operations.
Had they been left in undisputed possession OF
the field, their recognition by the General
Government would only have been question
of time.
The Congressional policy of reconstruction
contemplated the undOing of Mr.. Johnson's
entire illegal and unconstitutional work. 1t
proposed to 90 back and commence the process
from the foundation, just where Mr.. Johnson's
work of usurpation began. 1t treated his
pocket Governments as of no sort of legality,
the Conventions he had called as only so many
mass meetings, and the Constitutions he had
ordained as only so much waste paper.
This was the scope of the Congressional
plan of reconstruction as embodied in the law
which Mr.. Johnson now proposes to set aside.
Congress so understood it, as all its debates
will show. The country so understood it, as
reference to the uniform tone of the press of
both parties will show; and MIR. Johnson him
self so understood it, as his recorded opinions
in his veto messages most incontrovertibly
prove. 1t is, therefore, the sheerest hypo-
crisy for him to pretend now that the law did
not clearly express this vital point. The veto
messages were extravagant, uncandid, falla-
cious documents, but their entire bitterness of
spirit was due to the fact that Mr. Johnson
saw that the acts of Congress which they
vainly strove to defeat completely overturned
and repudiated his entire work of usurpation,
with its illegal Conventions, its aristocratic
Constitutions, and its pocket Governments.
That was exactly where the shoe pinched.
1t is too late in the day for Mr. Johnson to
attempt to go back upon this record. His veto
messages were no ofT-hand productiens--no
unpremeditated swinging -round-the-circ per-
formances. They were official utterances Of
opinion, carefully thought out, premeditated,
all their bearings duly considered, discussed
in Cabinet, and sent forth under the sanction
of the Presidents oath of office. Others are
not bound by them, but he certainly is
Others may discard them, but he cannot. Ut
terly inconsistent as Mr.. Johnson's politica
career has been, swinging from one extreme
to another, he certainly cannot even yet desir,
to publicly stultify himself in his oficia
action.
1t would be difficult to properly characterize
this effort of Mr.. Johnson to substitute his ,oil
for the law of the land. 1t reopens the entir
contest which so shook the country last year
1t is another step in the path of executiv
usurpation, and, as such, deserves the repro
baton of thinking men of all parties. It is Al
attempt to thwart the will of the nation, as de
clared in the most solemn and emphati
manner