The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-03-11
THE PATENT PLAN.

The comfortable radical plan of carrying
measures through the Congress is about to
have another illustration in the Senate. When
it was necessary to get two-thirds of each
house, in order to nullify the presidential
veto, members were quietly ejected-some on
the pretenee that they were not "loyal,
whatever that may be-; some on the pretext
that they had been informally elected. Under
ordinary circumstances, and with any other
party than the Republican party, these de-
vices would have been spurned as not only in
decent but destructive of the theory of free
government and popular representation. AT
no other time, and by no other party, would
there have been bold and shameless search
for expedients and devices through which an
accidental majority might suppress the rights
of the minority, and secure to themselves a
imitless heritage of power. From that time
to the present the whole policy of the Repub-
lican party has been strictly accordant with
the plan by which they acquired their initial
preponderance. From the exclusion of States
which were sure to vote against them, to the
exclusion of representatives and senators
whose voices might make their projects inef-
fectual, was an easy transition. With instru-
ments thus fashioned in their hands, the
temptation was irresistible to construct ere
construction" on the same plan; and of this
sort of reconstruction" devised for party adj
vantage, the impeachment and removal of
the President are natural incidents, and the
suppression of an adverse public opinion is
the logical sequence.
But it seems that, as to the impeachment
of the President there is some fear that GER
tain senators may prove recusant and recalci-
trant. Some of the radical members of the
High Court of Impeachment are suspected of
lingering decency and furtive regard for
their constitutional obligations. The defec-
ton due to such causes may defeat the pro-
ject; may prevent Wade from occupying the
presidential chair; may keep Andrew john
son in the White House. Votes are wanted,
therefore, to supply the anticipated losses.
Two-thirds must be had. But how to do it !?
There are no more senators on whom the
plan of expulsion can be tried, except
Vickers, of Maryland, concerning whom Mr..
Schenck has impaired some valuable inform
alton as to his conduct pendente beIlo. Against
him 'disloyalty" may be proved, and if it
can be shown that he ever lent half a dollar
to a Confederate soldier, or demonstrated
against Schenck's patriotic brutalities, he will
surely be compelled to walk from the Senate
doors in the path of his predecessor. But
the expulsory expedient is here at an end. 1t
is requisite now to invent votes, since votes
can no longer be destroyed. With this view
two senators are to be admitted from Ala
bema-a State which, on the radical theory,
is not in the Union-a State, on radical
theory, without governmental State the
people of which have rejected the radical
plan of reconstruction, in the manner indi-
Gated by the reconstruction acts themselves
No matter for all this The Senate has O
right to judge of the qualifications of its own
members, and if this confers the power of
excluding any one whom the radicals want to
keep out, why should it not, likewise, confer
the power of admitting any one whom the
radicals desire TO let in?