The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-18
LEGISLATION ALSO TO BE ABOLISHED.

With fatal progression Congress ap-
proaches the final catastrophe of the radical
plot. Its proceedings, heretofore. IN pursu-
ance of this plot, have been directed. with
unrelenting pertinaeity towards the practical
abolition of the constitutional executive and
Judiciary of the United States. II Stanton is to
succeed IN keeping the war Office, with the
recognition and support of Gen. Grant; and
| fboth the secretary of war and the general of
the army continue TO ascribe more mandatory
virtue to a resolution of the Senate tLan to
the orders of the President, then the consti-
tutional executive is in effect already abol-
ished, and the Supreme Court, as an arbiter
to determine the limitations of either Legislative
authority or executive authority, has ceased
to have an actual and operative existence.
But all this is not enough to appease the in
sane ambition of Congress, or to satisfy the
severe exigencies of the radical faction. The
pending reconstruction bill, making it unlaw-
full for the President to assert his prerogatives
as constitutional commander-in. chief, and IN
lawful for the judicial power of the United
States to decide adversely to the declarations
of this enactment, and unlawful for any per-
son, private or public, civil or military, to in
terfere with the execution of the orders OF
the general Of the army made in the exercise
of the supreme and plenary authority con-
ceded by the series of congressional measures
with reference to reconstruction, develops a
wholesale scheme of abolition that does not
spare even Congress itself. 1t is a suicidal
project of legislation. Nevertheless its pas
sage is hardly to be doubted. Its authors re-
of history, whose successive atrocities con-
Quoted them to an ultimate complication so
desperate as to admit of no escape from the
headsmsn except in self-destruction. 1t is
not only outside of the Constitution; it is also
outside of legislative usurpation. 1t can be
in no sense a law. 1t can signify nothing less
than the abdication of the law-making func-
ton, and the surrender of the entire govern
ment, consisting, under constitutional theory,
of legislature, judiciary, and an executive,
equal, coordinate, and in their proper spheres
supreme, into the hands of a military chief
History does not record more atrocious be-
trayal of great public trust confded to a
poses. But such is the price which the radi-
cal leaders are ready to pay for the co-opera-
ton of Gen. Grant in their efforts to secure
their future ascendency. They see no other
means of averting the impending overthrow
of their party. They would rather surren-
der to Grant than be defeated by
the opposing party All their poliH-
cal hopes depend upon the fidelity,
as well as the efficiency with which the gen.
eral of the army may enter into their auda-
cious programme of revolution. As reward
for this prospective service they offer him.
first, military dictatorship and next the
civil presidency if he can obtain it with the
revolutionary expedients placed at his dispo-
sal. To such straits are they driven that they |
are compelled to offer to pay in advance the |
only portion of the reward which they have in
hand. That is to say, they must, in the first
step of the projected bargain, place them
selves at the mercy of Gen. Grants conscience,
views of self-interest, political
opinions and personal sympathies and antipa-
fhies.
The passage of the bill referred to may be |
aiken for granted, if it is not at this moment
\ fact. Nor is there any doubt of its re-
adoption over the Presidents veto. 1t only
remains to be seen whether Gen. Grant has
he disposition or the power to fulfill the role
If military usurper and despot, and of chief
adical tool, which the project assigns to him.
whatever may be the upshot, it
S quite plain that radical legislation has
brought the country to just this pass, that
nothing prevents the disintegration of the
government, but the principle of brute force
IN the one hand and the virtue of forbear-
nee on another hand. For without consti-
utional authority at a common center, there
s no longer a basis of common allegiance
or the people or of coordination and subordi-
lation of functions on the part of civil or
military officers. Thus it is that in its last
eduction, radical policy comes inevitably to
me of two results-a central despotism or
universal anarchy.