The New York herald., 1867-03-03
Brace of vetees-A Gloomy Prospect for
President johnson.

Brace of vetoes-A Gloomy Prospect for
Presideat Johnson.
The ides Of March are upon US, and they are
"big with the fate of Cesar and of Rome.n
Andrew Johnson, with the veto power Of the
Executive, is like boy with his first shotgun.
He blazes away at everything. Two vetoes in
6ne day beats even Captain Tyler. These two
veto measures are, moreover, the longest Of
which we have any recollection, and the
strongest If we admitted the premises upon
which they are built The underpinning, how
ever, especially Of this reconstruction veto, is
rickety. A blow or two Of the hammer will
displace II and bring down the whole super
structure. Let US see.
The bill in question declares that there are
no legal governments in the ten excluded rebel
States. Mr.. johnson does not meet this issue.
He evades 1t. He says there are de tacto gov
ernments in said States exercising all the usual
functions Of State establishments, and that
under them law and order prevail. But this
will not do. Are those governments legal !
No. They were set up by the President, sub
ject to the decision Of Congress, and Congress
having rejected them they 60 for nothing. Mr..
johnson, in certain dispatches in the outset Of
this business to some of his Provisional Gov
ernors, told them that al these proceedings
were merely provisional and subject to the
will of Congress- The States concerned,
therefore, by the will of Congress stand to-day
as they stood when Mr.. johnson took them in
hand. They are without legal governments.
In the face Of this all-important fact Mr..
Johnson says this bill is without precedent,
without authority and utterly in conflict with
the constitution, and that it proposes to estab-
lish over the excluded States an absolute mill
tary despotism. But what are the facts? The
proposed despotism is not more absolute than
that exercised in 1865 by the President himself
over those States He set aside their then
existing State organizations; he appointed his
Provisional Governors; he told them what they
were to do in setting up new governments, who
were to be voters and who were to be excluded
from the polls, and what his State Conventions
and Legislatures must do, and he kept them
under martial law until his instructions were
obeyed. All this, too, without any authority
from the law-muking power. Congress, there
fore, in setting an this Illegal work aside, finds
it necessary to begin at the beginning.
Still ignoring these fixed facts Mr.. johnson
proceeds to patriotic denunciatfon of martial
law in time of peace. and quotes the opinions
Of the Judges of the Supreme Court in the Mil
ligan case to'show that herein this bill is out
unconstitutional But are those out
side States restored to the relations of peace :
Congress says no. This bill designates them
As "the rebel States of Virginia, North Caro-
ina," &c. They stanA as they stood, there
lore, the day after the surrender Of the last of
heir rebel armies, as States which have for
'eited their rights by reb ellion, and subjecs to
the sovereign law-making power Of the nation,
As TO the terms and the processes by which
they are to be restored. The whole argument
Of Mr. johnson rests upon the fake theory that
he and not Congress has tho power over these
questions Of war and peace
Yet, again, he is shocked at the despotic bill
Of attainder which this meas ure proposes to
establish against nine millionB of people, dis
franchising them by hundreds of thousands and
degrading them to the most abject slavery.
Here we shall answer Johnson with johnson.
On the 21st Of April, 1865 (sis days after he
was sworn in as President BY. Chief Justice
Jhase,) Mr.. johnson, in speech t@a delega-
ion Of citizens from Indiana, alluding TO the |
var for the Union, said -" Why all this car |
lage and devastation? II is that treason might |
o put down and traitors punished Therefore |
say that traitors should take . back |
eat in the work Of restoration. II there
70 but five thousand men in Tennessee, loyal |
o the constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to |
ustice, these true and faithful men should con-
rol the work of reorganization and reforma-
ion absolutely. / say that the traitor has |
ceased to be citizen, and in joining the re-
,ellion has become public enemy. lie for
cited his right to vote with loyal men when |
he renounced his citizenship and sought to
destroy the government. My judgment is that
he should be subjected to severe ordeal be-
fore he is restored TO citizenship Thus spoke
President johnson In 1865, and thus speaks
this Congressional bill Of 1867.
But this extraordinary veto message has
still another extraordinary objection to this
bill. We do not mean that in regard to,negro
suffrage, which is the old story, but that in
reference TO the amendment abolishing slavery.
Mr.. johnson says that if his Southern State
establishments are illegal that amendment
lacks the required number to make 1t good,
and SO slavery is not abolished. 1t seems to
US very strange that Mr.. johnson has not yet
been able to get this simple fact into his head,
that II is the States adhering to the Union, and
not those deserting the Union, which make up
the government Of the United States. With
an eloquent stump speech for Southern con-
sumption in behalf Of the admission Of loyal
members into Congress from the outside States
as he has reconstructed them, Mr.. johnson SUBJ
mits his objections and his warnings against
e. !, 10 hn nf