Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1868-03-19


not to rest until they have overturned
our present form Of government. Con-
stitutional rights aud guarantees have
ceased long since TO be any obstacle
In their pathway. National incon-
venicnce and national suffering they
have come TO consider as 'trifes light
rs air" in comparison with the success
Of their infamous schemes. Controll-
Sng by the tyranny of large majority
In both houses, although, in the light
Of the elections last fall they have
been condemned by a majority of the
voters of the North, they aspire to
become the masters of the nation.
Step by step they have cleared one
obstacle after another out of their
pathway. The constitutional doctrine
of State Rights was the first object
Of their assault, and they have sue
ceeded by means of unconstitutional
legislation in prostrating this barrier,
and reducing States TO mere municipal
dependencies Of the Federal head
nay, in the case of the ten Southern
States, to mere tributaries TO the pow
er and will of Congress. But then a
new obstacle confronted them in the
ahape of Executive vigor and decision.
President johnson, comprehending
thoroughly the aim and object of the
congressional conspiracy, three him
self like lion across their path. He
has boldly attempted TO defend his
department again st the usurpations of
the Rump, and the excited traitors and
disunicuists ofthis "fragmentary body,
hanging on the verge OF the Govern.
x rnent, are now moving down in solid
phalanx upon this last entrenchment,
behind which stands the defender of
constitutional government. This once
carried, and the citadel will be in the
hands of the enemy.
The Radical press, ever since the
advent Of johnson into power and
their discovery that he could not be
used to carry out their base purposes,
have been ringing the changes on Ex-
ecutive usurpation. Lincoln clothed
himself with the robes of dictator,
and, through his Secretary of State,
rung men into bastiles, despoiled them
of their property, and, in the language
of the Supreme Court in the Milligan
case, "played the despot with high
hand" and yet not a line then about
Erecutive usurpdfion. This country,
in fact, has always been in more dan
ger from the many headed tyranny Of
legislative despotism than from the
power of one man-and so the astute
writers in the Federalist always appre-
hended. Hamilton, In speaking of the
Executive department, says:
1.-THE same rule which teaches the propriety Of
partition between the various branches Of power
sssches likewise that this partition ought to be so
'eoutrved as to render the one independent Of the
other. To what purpose separate the executive
or the Judiciary from the legislative, il both the
executive and the judiciary constituted a.
10 be at the absolute devotion Of the legislative
thing to be subordinate to the iai0s another
xs be dependent on ths iegisiafive body. The ten
dency Of the Legislative authority 10 absorb every
other has been fully displayed and illustrated. In
governments purely republican, the tendency Ia al
most irresistible. The representatives Of the peo
pie in popular assembly seem sometimes to fancy
that they the people tn emselves, and strongly
least sign Of opposition from any other quarter"
But little did those great and emf
nently patriotic men who laid the
foundation of this Government ina
N gine that the time would ever come
when the legislative department,
spurning all constitutional right and
trampling down ever constitutional
limitation and check, would crush out
the rights Of ten States in Union, es-
tablish military government, give
over nearly one-half of this Union TO
the reign Of martial law, arrogate to
itself the right TO strip the Executive
of all his constitutional prerogatives,
threaten and bully the Supreme Court,
and declare itself openly and defiant
ly the arbiter of the nations will.
The man must be instensely stupid
and destitute of forecast, who cannot
read clearly the Interpretation of the
signs around him. A pamphlet is now
being scattered broadcast over the
country, bearing the ear-marks of
that notorious incen diary and traitor
on every page, advocating the wiping-
out of tho Exective Office, "and the
Establishment instead Of an Erecutiue
Dictdtory, selected BY Congress from
their oUn body" Capitalists and plu-
tocrats, engaged in the narrow and
corrupting business Of money getting,
affect 10 sneer at these warnings, and
by their example and indifference
cause many honest, well-meaning peo.
pie TO close their eyes to the perils
that threaten the interests of the Gov
ernment and the country. They are
She same senseless, stupid, stolid class,
who encouraged the people 10 believe
that the late civil war was war for
The restoration Of the Union, and the
preservation of the Constitution, who
believed in the existence Of the most
uplimited and underlined despotism in
<te Government during war. They
nre the men who induced hundreds Of
thousands to throw away their lives,
and permitted, nay, eulogized sys.
>tm Of financial robbery, extortion,
ND corruption, such as never had
<>rallel in the history Of the world.
These men are mere book and ledger
rspn, whose course of reading never
fcfs beyond thequotations of thesto
uArket and the money articles in
<heir favorite journal, who vibrate
fIom their counting rooms or parlors
~ fheir Offices, and from their parlors
N heir Office or counting rooms, and
the hours of whose existence are spent
~ Mis- tread.mill drodgery, without