New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-03-07

he cat, blised, it is evident that the public
business would be subject to perpetual Inter
ruption frAp the caprices and crotchets q ten
thousand petty 0Alcef5 who, in their Ignorance
of law, might honestly suppose every enact
ment to be unconstitutional which added to
their duties or abridged their privileges If the
President is entitled to violate law with I'M
punity, on the ground that he honestly believed
it to be unconstitutional, why has not every vii
lage postmaster the same rightl The superior
position of the President, his presumably
greater education, his wider experience aud
his larger facilities for obtaining legal advice,
all add to his responsibility, and make him
more culpable, i'll case he misinterprets the
Constitution, than collector, assessor, or
postmaster would be. Yet no one pretends to
claim impunity for these petty officials, if
they violate the law. They must take their
official heads in their hands if they undertake
to interpret the Constitution in advance of the
courts. But the President, forsOOth, has some
quasi-regal privilege, which makes his ignor-
ance, stupidity, or mental obliquity an excuse
for any misdemeanor.
1t ought not to be necessary for us to point
out that no one attempts to put III such plea
on behalf of private individuals. Even ignor-
ance of the statute itself is not allowed rs a
defense to n citizen much less is he permitted
to Justify himself for the breach of a valid
law by proving that he believed it to be void.
In some peculiar cases the fact might be made
ground for mitigating the sentence, but
never for dispensing entirely with punishment.
Is there, then, any reason for showing greater
leniency in this respect toward public officers
than toward private citizens We are
certainly unable to perceive any. Under
republican institutions office does not
confer any sacredneSs upon its posses
sor. His responsibilities are increased, not
diminished. His transgressions are less ex-
cusable, not more so, by virtue of his position.
And if he merely forfeits his Office for an act
which, i'll private citizen, would be punished
with fine or imprisonment, he has not the
slightest claim upon public sympathy, no mat
ter how sincere may have been his belief in
the rectitude of his conduct No one is SO dan
gerous to the State as the man who sincerely
believes it right for him to violate its laws.
A lunatic needs to be removed from office more
promptly than thief. Mr.. johnson has Git
must be conceded for the purpose of this argu-
ment) deliberately broken law for the pur-
pose of testing whether it is u law at all or
not. He says it is unconstitutional, and, there
fore, no law. He therefore does an act which
the statute declares TO be misdemeanor; and
the Constitution itself provides that for com
hitting misdemeanor he may he removed
from office This is the inevitable result Of
the Presidents own acts. 1t is the natural and
legitimate decision of the issue Which he vol
UNFAIRLY raised. TO complain of it, and whine
over impeachment az persecution, is as UNI
manly as it would be for a soldier to complain
that his enemies had wounded him in fair bat
tie. The man who challenges fight, whether
in war or politics, must expect TO receive blows
as well as to give them.