The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-03-06

,
Such is the demoTalizing conflict, such
is the costly farce at Washington which
now overshadows and supersed.s all the
practical functions of the government
It is enough to bring the blush of shame
upon the cheek of the honest citizen at
the bare recital of the facts and cause him
to deplore the long interval which delays
judgment from the people. Such a
spectacle of conflicting elements Of fanati-
cism, passion aud follN is as rcpuguunt to
an Intelligent and thinking people as the
fierce intestine convulsions which trans.
formed the French republic into military
despotism, and because the repulsive ex-
hibition is suggestive of similar opnclu
sion. If the appointed time for the Pres
idential election were at hand, involving
the election of new Congress, wo should
have such Judgment from the American
people in vindicaIion of their sovereign au-
thority, as would doubtless be warning
to President and Congress for generations
to come,
Mr.. johnson would discover in the SUI
ming up that men are judged by facts and
results, and this radical Congress-, weigh
ed in the balances and found wanting
would he ruled out.
MIR. johnson, while wrangling with
Congress upon this thing, that thing aud
the other, has had his eye too much upon
the Democratic party, aud all to no pur.
pose while the two houses of Congress,
in their efforts to cripple and tie up the
hands Of an intractabe Executive, have
made "a record which calls for their own
impeachment and removal from power -
The people cannot Immediately reach
these wraugliug and disorderlg servants
at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue -
When the time comes there may, perhaps,
be no occasion for anything but sympa-
thy for the misfortunes of Mr.. johnson,
so far as the individual may be concern.
ed ; but the rights of the Executive Do.
partment will none the less demand a
hearing. But still the question recurs,
will the government Of the constitution
survive all these shocks and be reinstated
harmonious in all its parts, or are repub
lican institutions mere, as everywhere else
save in that little republic of San NJ 'rino
destined 10 prove failure For an in.
telligent answer to this momenteus ques
ton every voter in the land should pre-
pare himself, in view Of the approaching
elections for the next President and the
next Congress. 1t is the remedy reserved
to the people, and iutelligently applied il
will still be in season for an effective cure
Remember the sturdy old Roman who
when apparently all was lost, still did no
despair of the republic; but if the peopl,
choose to leave it to the chapter of acci
dents their government is gone, ant
French imperialism or Mexican anarch,
will follow, as the night follows the setting
sun.
WHAT CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT
FORGET.
Both Congress and the President seen
to have forgotten that the cruel war il
over which silenced laws and made it ne
cessary for the coordinate powers Of tn,
government to "encrgze their functions
to an extraordinary degree aud sometimes
to transcend them. The nation is nj
longer on war footing, but on peac,
footing, as all ought to have been con
WINGED by the disbanding of the nationa
armies after the suppression of the rebel
lion. Yet Andrew johnson has acted al
if he thought that the mantle of Abraham
Lincoln bad fallen upon him, and that he
might continue to WELD the same excep
tional authority which the people entrust
ed to his lamented predecessor amid thu
darkness and perplexity of national peril
And Congress in its eagerness to check tbt
abuse of executive power by the Prcsi
dent, has itself yielded to the temptation
of exceeding the limits of its own legiti
mate sphere. 1t has enacted laws which
to say the least, rest upon a very dubiou:
constitutional basis.
The Inevitable result has been de
plorablc conflict ofauthori!y between Pres
ident aud Congress, which tends to delay
reconstruction, to supply fresh fuel FOL
sectional d'scord, to impede industry anc
commercial and manufacturing enterprise
to aggravate individual distress, and t
cast dscredit upon our claims as a mode
government at the very moment when for
eign nations are beginning to recognize
the United States as great leading pow
er. Demagogues and spectators ma,
temporarily reap unrighteous personal ad
vantages from this abnormal state o
things, but it is at he expense of the vas
majority of American citizens, and al
must ultimately suffer from the disas
trous consequences of the fact that Con
gress and the President have forgotten
when war ended and peace began.
REPUTATION THE SURE RESULT.
Reputation looms in the future as til,
inevitable consequence of the pew tur
moils into which the politicians of botl
sides are pluuging the country Mac
with party hates, the radicals on one side
and the President and his advisers on til,
o'her, take no care for the necessities o
the nation, heed not tho fact that the peo
Pile are depressed with the weight of take
that the country is staggering under th'
evils incident to the actual destruction O
its financial equilibrium. Indifferent tt
the obvious facts of the nations condition
that it needs to be set on its feet, anc
needs The assistance of wise laws and mod
L a.