Idaho semi-weekly world. (Idaho City, Boise County, Idaho Territory) 1867-1868, 1868-02-08
1genli atjeeklp aWnrld.
q IRON the st. Louis Republican, -
Neither Congress Nor Conventfon.

members Of the Cabinet upon the Pres
ident, who give dictatorial power to tn
-General-in-Ch Chief, who remodel the 'Su
preme Court of the land and destroyit
prestige, are neither the people of til
United States in Congress assembled
nor are they National Convention
Though their body originates in thu
Federal Constitution, and their actions
are limited by the provisions of the ma
tional compact, yet they act as if the3
were a self-constituted power and indie
pendent of all constitutional law. Nor
are theya National Convention, for they
have not been elected by the people as
members of such a body. They are ey'
erything except what by the Constitu
ton they should be, and they are ih
nothing what the people elected them
to be. They are body ruled by no
law, and acting without the consent Of
the people. They neither draw author
ity for their enactments from an open
privilege given them by the Constitu-
ton, nor from an outspoken mandate
received from the nation. Above all
law, like the Roman Emperors, without
any Injunction from the people, like q
usurper, they pervert the sense of our
republican institutions, and rule for
their own benefit and for the exclusive
promotion of their purposes as party.
They make the position they hold the
instrument for the preservation of their
power; they upset the whole govern
mental fabric for the benefit of their
partisan purposes. They are, in one
word, a revolutionary body. The scheme
Of impeaching the President. frivolous
and scandalous as it was, did not pos
sess the revolutionary character of their
latest enactments. The Constitution at
/. least provided for such an occurrence
Ubiquitous in it's purpose, and without
even vestige of material foundation,
it was, nevertheless, in terms, permit
ted by the Federal compact But what
they now propose is downright usurpa-
ton, whereby they hope to reach the
same ends which for long time they
made the people believe they could
gain by impeachment. They virtually
annihilate the last remnant of Presiden-
tial power. They first destroyed the
veto, the negative power of the Presi-
dent, and now they go to work to des-
troy his positive privileges. They want
q President of their own, and they seek
to make a General that officer Afraid
they may still be baffied in their scheme
by the only power in the land whose
constitutional prerogatives they have
not yet altogether ruined, they now in
tend to quench the last spark Of indie
pendence in the United States Supreme
Court, and make that tribunal the tool
of all their scandalous usurpations
Not satisfied with having put as many
Of their partisans on the Supreme Bench
as they possibly could, they tremble
lest some Of them may not be willing
to sacrifice their judicial honor, and by |
requiring two-thirds majority, in all
cases where. the cpRstitutionality Of
their usurpations is in question, they
virtually make the minority Of that
court the deciding power, thinking that,
at all events, and in all cases, they may
at least depend upon three subservient
members of the court out of the eight.
If out Of eight members three declare
,aay act OF these usurpers constitution
al, then it must be deemed to be So
Where is, the despot in the whole world
who ever dared to thus prostitute the !.
judicial courts Of his own country. True,
by all their usuFpations they cannot
ruin the South more radically than they
have done. In this respect it is a. mat
ter Of Indifference what they do or omit
to do. But now they are running the
spirit and the working of our repubi-
can institutions in the North also, and
the question il how to prevent them
from finally reaching their purpose. /
Let all the friends of constitutional
liberty stand by the law, and let these
revolutionary destroyers Of their coun-
try's honor and happiness show their
ultimate designs in their naked wicked
ness. But when the moment Of judg-
ing their schemes by the election Of a
new President comes, let that be the
Of their last judgment.