Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1868-01-28

NI0Uy Vi luC IlS HND4AS'Au HSnSl'HE S4S - N'->
North, so far as heard from, continue to de-
precate the course which Congress has taken
within the last few days:
From the New York Commercial Advertiser.
Congress is deliberately at work destroying
the executive and judicial arms Of the Gov
ernmept The executive authority was Wi ped
out by the last Congress. The present Cons
gress strikes at the judiciary. When the
bill to strangle the Supreme Court, which
was rushed through the House, passes in the
Senate, it will encounter veto, and then, by
a two thirds vote, be passed over the head Of
the President.
From the Providence OR. IL Journal.
We have had quite enough of this kind of
legislation already in the quarrel between
Congress and the President, and we shall re-
grct exceedingly to see it repeated in any
possible collision between Congress and the
Supreme Court Let nothing, we say, be at
tempted in Congress, in relation to the Su~
preme Court, that shall in the least degree
bear the character of hasty or passionate leg
islation.
From the New York Evening Post.
The President is just as much the Presi-
dent as Congress is Congress, Or the Supreme
Court is the Supreme Court. '
BY virtue of his office the President is made
.scommandcrin,c chief Of the army any navy
of the United States; in that capacity he Is
the head of the military arm OF the eXecu-
tive, as he is already in his capacity as Pres
ident head of the civil arni. All military Of
ficers as we'll as all civil officers engaged in
the execution Of the laws are subordinate to
him; he appoints them, commissions them,
and gives them orders and it would be mu-
tiny in any subordinate to refuse obedience
to his orders once clearly promulgated.
Has Congress the power given it anywhere
to change this fundamental disposition of
things? Can it by mere enactment divest
the President of the powers vested IN him,
make another man ommauder-in-chief, and
order him to execute the laws at his own dis
cretion, or subject only to the supervision and
control of Congress? If SO, what becomes
of the constitutional limitations What
meaning is there in the positive, specific, un
mistakable clauses vesting the several powers
of the Government? Or is Congress, in
spite of this language, an omnipotent parlia-
ment, in reality like that of Great Britain
representing alone the nation, and entitled to
override all other powers when its convic-
tions of the public interests shall SO require .
IF that be the truth, let US know it at once,
and pride ourselves no longer on the superi,
ority of our political system to the absolut
isms of Europe, which have wrought so much
mischief.
REPUBLICAN VIEW oFTnE RECoNsTRUC-
TIoN BiLL.-The New York Post, republican,
referring to the new reconstruction bill pend
ing in Congress, remarks:
Jealous, unhcsitating, reckless partisans
support the new bill as they would support
anything that their party might proclaim, but
We have yet to hear the approval Of it by
single moderate person, republican or demo-
crat. They say the attempt to strip the
President of powers "vested" in him by the
constitution, and confer them upon another
officer is clearly revolutionary. Even if it
were not. it is novel and dangerous, and
should only be done with the greatest caution
and delibGration. No emergency exists to
compel or justify it. Mr.. johnson has done
nothing Objectionable since Congress met,
except the dismissal of General Pope, whom
he has replaced by General Meade, who is
Just as decided and energetic as General Pope;
and the conventions arc held without moles>
tation
1t is useless for General Garfcd.to argue
that the President is ''the subordinate Of Con-
gress" He is not; he is the coordinate of
Congress; the integrity Of his function is
Just as necessary as that of Congress, and to
destroy this relation of equilibrium is to
destroy the peculiar feature Of our policy
which has given it strength and success. The
vast majority of the people have been taught
for half century to look upon this division
of powers as we state them and it would take
them long while to unoarn u doctrine which
they indentify with the stability of the nation.
1t is older than the republican supremacy,
and will outlast it if the opposite doctrine be
insisted on.