Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-03-13

a statesman, ana TO gaze upon hln rcVcr-
emily, with worshiplul thoughts of the sue
cesSion. No wonder, then, that the great
joss of the White House became elased
beyond even bis usual elastic measure, aud
commenced preparations for an out and-0ut
revolution, in due form
/ Congress thus far had succeeded in baE-
ling him IN his main purpose of luceiug 10
/ the seeded States, according to his plan:
/ but, nevertheless, they HlBSt be brought Ia
4 on his plan, OF he could not claim his por-
ton OF the compact, OF unite sufficient forces
| to elect, himself, il made nominee New
| obstacles had grownaround him. Congress,
4 though 1t had never dared 20 face him bold.
I Il, had been very peslllent, and had enyel-
! Oped his policy with variety Of restraining
measures. The worst of these acts was,
! that one which supplanted his Governors
4 by military Timarchs, and the passage of a
! law which forbade him to remove the Min
/ lister of War The last was the chief OBJ
stace Of all; for it had now became evident
TO Mr.. johnson, that he would have to
make some sort Of d c9up q c5qt in order to
break through the meshes which Congress
/ had woven around HIM; and he could not
4 hope to succeed in a c0gp q etat, unless he
] could rely upon the military power as his
/ base Of operations.
{
4 toward that end. The first was the yuspen-
\ sion Of Mr.. Stanton, during the recess of
! the Senate; the next was an endeaYor to Sc
duce General Grant into a conspiracy 10
! prevent his reinstatement; next came the
/ effort to bribe Generals Sherman and George
/ III. Thomas into completely with his purpos-
! es by the highest order OF breyets, and final
/ ly followed the frnitless effort to tamper
/ with the loyalty of General Emory, In order
{ that through him, at least, he might count
4 upon the support of the regular forces ofthe
/ District of Columbia. Previous to the last
\ two acts, however, and while he was yet
under the impression that his OveTtures to
Sherman or Thomas would be accepted,
/ Mr. johnson ventured upon the boldest act
of all. He had failed in his eudeayor to get
rid Of Mr.. Stanton because Of the nou-con
/ currence Of the Senate; but get rid of him
he must, or reIinquish utterly the whole
scheme, aud all the hopes centeTed on it,
for which he had Waded in so far. He had
already tried very extreme measures to Of
feet this, without Ineuuing the ultimate
vengeance Of the Legislature; and as all had
been without avail, he must trust once
more TO luck and venture, not only 10 set
aside the Tenure-ol-0Hice law as uuconsti-
tuhonal, but actually to trample out that
portion OF the Constitution which prohibits
the appointment Of d civil officer during the
session, without the advice and consent Of
the Senate He therefore boldly sent a re-
>cipt Of removal to Secretary Stanton, and
at the same time named General Lorenzo
Thomas as Secretary al iatertm In his place.
We do not care to dwell upon the obvious
insubordination and disl0yalty Of this act.
We take it for granted, that every man of
reasonable intelligence must know, without
assistance from a lawyer, that neither the
President nor any citizen may disobey law
of Congress- upon the ground that he does
not believe it to be constitutional; aud every
one must also know, that such action upon
the part of the President, is an assumption
Of imperial powers, which cannot be too
rapidly reluked or punished This ais0be
dience Of the Ienure-of Office law, claims
for the President the right to interpret and
disObey all laws-a pretentjon, (which, to
use the language OF Hon. Robert J.. VI Nalker
in advising Lorenzo Thomas that the Presl-
dent had involved him in an uuwarrauted
proceeding, would allow the President to
set aside all the laws OF Congress since the
foundation Of the Government, on the
ground that they were unconstitutional.
This pretentiou, usurpiug, as il does, the
functions Of the Supreme Court, consoli-
dates within the Presidential Office all the
attributes Of Government po.ll tl0ll
which It would be quite logical, as some
heated partizans already have advised, for
Mr.. johnson to disperse and abolish Con-
grcss, until il should suit his imperial pleas
ure that II re-assemble.
Indeed this is just the point to which
| Congress saw that things were coming when
| il aroused itself last week, and voted meas
ures OF imFeachment. or course, q vast
excitement ran through the country with
electric ire; but 2 response Of uumisiakable
approval flashed back from every ncighbor-
hood, and Congress knew that it had done
an act. which the Nation would sustain. Ia
fact, deep breadth ot relief may be said to
have been drawn throughout the land; for
people Of all classes had become tired Of
distraction, and wanted order, at cost Of any
sacrifice. They recognized the settled pur-
pose Of 3r johnson to be the prevention
Of the paciiicatioD Of the country, at all haz-
ardss until after the next Presidential cleo
| tion; and they hailed with common feeling
Of relief the termination Of such anarchy.
through a movement which proved the Wig
or Of the Government. The People now
/ know that Mr.. johnson will be tried; they
believe he viii surely be convicted; and they
I are easy on the subject, because they have
4 seen, that after having been abandoned by
/ aii the military, down TO the last clerk in the
GSa66 Wae6 81 bgffs fs Be hl94oha5cFaJ hrs RF party an these
/ things taken together, give the solution why
/ gold, which Is the barometer Of public con
/ tidence, has fallen in this market, and why
4 our Government bonds have not been sensi-
/ bly, affected 10 foreign markets. As soon
/ as Mr.. johnson is disposed Of those bonds
will rapidly increase in value, for we shall
4 then have given the world the last proof
! that can be made Of the wondrous scope
and steadness Of our institutions. Thus
/! far, we have proven all parts OF the prob
/ lem Of self-g0v6rnment, bat enc. W e have
/ shcWn that republican Institutions are capa-
/ BE Of withstlndiDg the strain OF party splr-
] it. We have next demonstrated their ca
/ pacity to triumph overt distractions of q
/ Formidable civil war We have exhibited
! further the sublime foftitude of enduring,
political perturbation, the renewal Of pop
1 uar President by the assassin knife; and
/ it but remains for us to show, that we can,
/ with equal tranquility. submit 10 the eXpul-
sion Of an uufaithtul Chief Magistrate-by
the law The possibility of all these things
baye been denied hythe princess and aIleto-
Gratis Of Europe; but when the last proof OF
the republican problem is made, 10 the quiet
deposition Of Andrew johnson from his
lofts place, a blow viii have hcen stIucl; the
principle Of monarchy in Europe which
wii be worse than the march Of au invading
army This sublime proof is, alone, result
enough TO justify all the responsibility which
the present crisis requires US 10 take
TIRes Spirit # the Iilnes.
-s a