The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-22


Instrument from any and eueru assa;lant
Do make myself understoodfn
Perfectly, sir"
Well, now, to proceed in this conncc.
tion little farther. Congress, or at least
the present Congress, claims to be the only
national representative Of the will of the
people. Yet the President is elected as
directly by the people, and is therefore as
directly their representative as Congress is.
But Congress claims to be nearer to the
people than the President. Yet, while
members Of tho House of Representatives
arc chosen every two years, senators are
! elected once in six years, the President is
chosen every four years. The President is
chosen ofteuer by two years than senators
are chosen-a fact which seems virtually
| to equaliZe the respective nearness Of the
Executive and the Legislature to citizens at
large. This point is not of so much i'm
portance as it would be if the functions OF
the Executive were less arbitrarily de-
dned, or, let us say, more subject to the
| ductuating demands Of popular sentiment
than to the stable requirements Of the
Constitution. If it be said that member
of Congress is nearer to particular con-
stituency, or that senator is nearer to q
| particular State than the President, be-
cause each has been selected to represent
the citizens or dominant party of that par
ticular constituency or State, it may be
said Of the President that he is selected
by broader constituency than either
that is, by the people or dominant ma
jority in the Union, who, in selecting him,
are presumed to subordinate local conside-
rations to those of the general welfare. a
Presidents office, after all is said, is one
that, in crisis like the present, should be
held superior 10 everything except his Jealty
| to the lu,o."
"Then you regard the Supreme Court
as equally independent of legislation by
Congress?
"Unquestionably 1t IS. The Supreme
Court is as much separate and distinct
branch Of the Government as Congress or
the Executive. What right has Congress
to usurp the prerogative of the people in
this case more than in the other 7"
pardon me--am | right in suggesting
!, that no clause in the Constitution actually
!, prescribes what number Of judges shall
decide case in the Supreme Court"
"The provision was not necessary.
me-honored usage-nay, the regulation
Of the court itself-was and is sufficient.
A majority of judges have always pre-
vailed in all courts in Epgland, France,
and elsewhere, as we'll as in the United
States. This is an attempt to strip the
Judicial branch Of the Government Of a
right which it is competent to define and
maintain"
cit is your opinion, then, that a ma
jority Of the court can decide against the
validity of the pending bill, and ignore it
if it should pass both Houses ?''
"That is my conviction"
cit may be superhuou to presume that
the President is in no wise at faultrespect-
ing the partisan object of both the bills
which have been alluded tor"
"Quite superduous. As explained at
the commencement, this so-called recon-
struction bill is destined, if carried into
effect, so to increase and consolidate the
military tyranny which has already come
nigh to ruin the southern States, that no
body of legislators not run nearly wild
with party idea could think of forcing it
through. The vast cotton interest, which
used TO pay an enormous revenue to the
Government, instead Of having been rccu-
perated since the war, has nearly died out.
In the place of the revenue which it
yielded and which helped to tighten the
| taxes of northern citizens, there is now an
almost absolute blank on the books Of the
Internal Revenue Department, and the
Government not only has to bear this
| loss, but eXpend an amount more than
equal to it to support deliberate
crushing system upon the patriotism
and enterprise Of the southern people.
Here is policy ofrepression which chokes
| up the fountains Of revenue in the South,
| is continually making paupers there among
both the white and black populations, and
compels the Government to fall back upon
! the North for three-fourthS of its current
revenues, and pledge it's credit for addi-
tional means. One-half the country having
! spent its substance to fight the other half
back into the Union, tinds itself, now that
/ it has accomplished its object, the scape-
goat Of d political party which, for its own
Interests, prevents the defeated section
from taking its rightful place again under
the shelter of the Constitution. This is not
all. The measures of that party will, IN
my Judgment, tend to repreSs for an indeh-
mite period such development Of the re-
! sources of the South as had been accom-
plished before the war. 1t is grinding out
and discouraging the property holding and
intelligent class of citizens, to place all
power, the whole conduct of affairs, in the
hands of the negroes and the few native
whites and northern adventurers who
would share it with them. Look at Ten
nessee, the reconstructed and model
State. There are fifty thousand negroes,
and twenty thousand whites who vote with
them, making seventy thousand in all enti-
tied to the suffrage. These represent
negro population of say two hundred and
seventy five thousand. But there are one
hundred and thirty thousand white citi-
Zens, representing a white population of
more than eight hundred thousand-the
property owners, the business and profess
sional community of the Statewide are
practically excluded from participation in
the government. How does that work?
CHOW" continued Mr.. johnson, with q
good deal Of vigor, every one knows, or
ought to know by this time, what my posi-
ton was and is in regard to secession. l
had to sacrifice something myself to vim
dictate my conviction that it was wrong
and inadmissable; but consider the ex-
tremists who have violated their own
express declaration of the object of the
war, and who are dishonoring the Consti-
tuition every day they proceed with this
damnihg policy toward the South con-
slider these men, Isay, far more Inconsistent
than, and quite as reasonable as, any rebel
,oho fought in the southern armies. The
men who tried to take the South out OF