American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-02-27
USURPATION.

luz IeSlueut, DE lHe COustilutlOui ls
made a coordinate but not co>equal
branch of the Government So, also, i:
the Supreme Court. But Congress, OF
the Legislative branch, is wisely made
he-chief and superior branch. The ex.
ecutiye and the Judiciary are "che ks
and balances" only. The Constitution
in giving Congress power to remove the
President by impeachment, and to re-
organize the Supreme Court by increas-
ing the number of Judges, establishes
the necessary final supremacy Of the Leg
stature. To suppose three absolutely
co equal branches is to suppose three
supreme departments ofthe Goverament,
which is absurd Under certain careful
reservations, therefore, the Legislature is,
as in the nature Of a popular system it
should be, constitutionally supreme.
The President is the Executive. He
is the hand of the Government. His
function is to execute the laws which arc
enacted by Congress He is therefore
made Commander Of the army and Ravy
because the excetion of the laws may
sometimes require force. But he can
lawfully use the army and navy only in
the enforcement of the laws, and there
are no laws until Congress makes them
The Executive has no legislative power
whatever. But the check upon the Leg
islature by the Executive which the
Constitution provides is the Veto. Yet
that is not final obstruction. If law
be vetoed by the President it is iavalid,
unless it be passed over the veto by a
vote of two,thrds of Congress. 1t then
becomes as imperative a law as if the
President had approved it; and his oath
binds him to its faithful execution. That
is one Of the ways in which the supre-
macy Of the Legislature over the Exec
utive is coustitutionally asserted.
When the rebellion was suppressed by
the arms of the United States it lett
every rebel State without any lawful
civil authority, as President johnson
truly declare at the time. Every such
State was held by the national military
and as Commander,in- Chief
upon the field the President was authors
izod to established military governments
to keep the peace. But there gould be
no Political move uent. no initialian of a
civil government without a law Of the
United States, and the Legislature or
Congress alone was constitutionally COM
petent to pass such a law By disre-
garding this fact, by initiating ciyil gov
upon his own responsibility
and without the least reference to Cons
gress, and then insisting that such gov
ernments were as valid as those of Ohio
or New York, the President indisputably
usurped the function of Congress, and
neither he nor any of hls adherents have
ever been able to show the slightest con
stitutional authority for his action This
is the plain usurpation of the President
He had no more authority to reorganize
the rebel States of his own motion than
he would have for issuing an edct from
the White House, removing the Gever-
nor Of New Jersey, and claiming for it
the force and sanctity oflaw.
But he did this twenty months ago,we
are told and why DO VIC now first hear of
usurpation i? We do not now hear of it
for the first time. 1t was as clear then
as it is now. But the express terms Of
the Presidents proclamations and the
words of the first Message in December,
1865, by which he referred the whole
subject to Congress, and his declarations
that he regarded his action as expert.
persuaded the country that his
were merely provisi7 nal and
were taken from the necessity of imme,
date action and from considerat on of
public safety. If the President had said
in his proc lamations that when any State
had conformed to the terms he Imposed
it should be at once by that fact restored
to all its functions in the Union the very
first act of the present Congress would
doubtless have been his impeachment.
Moreover, when his usurpation began
it was reg rded not only in the light OF
his own declaration that i was a proyis-
ional, experimental movement, arising
from the public situation, like sudden
suspension of the hobeas corpus, and like
that wholly referable to the ratification
of Congress, but it was viewed also from
tn. point of his conduct through the war
and his speeches upon his accession to the
Presidency In word the sane confidence
which the country had reposed in the
occasional arbitrary acts of Mr.. Lincoln
"a confidence founded in entire faith
in his patriotic loyalty-was naturally