Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-17
From the New York Herald. Jan. 10.

Stevens has plainly declared that all the
| reconstruction acts are made outside the
constitution. This is saying that right.
| fully they have no force. Congress, acting
outside the law that gives it its authority
is no longer Congress. Its utterances are
not law, and it is duty to the nation to
| resist it. Where must the resistance begin ?
Congress, by this law, puts itself and its
creatures in direct conflict with the consti-
tuition and the President, as the Executive
of that constitution. The same duty that
required the Executive to defend the con-
stitution as against Southern Rebels re-
quires him to assert its supremacy when
menaced from other quarters. 1t did not
REQUIRE the Intervention of the Supreme
Court to tell what must be done when Fort
Sumter was fred on. This law presumes
to put Gen. Grant in command of the new
district, deriving his authority directly
from Congress. Gen. Grant is an officer of
the United States army, of which the
President is the Commander-in-C Chief Gen.
Grant can take no orders from any source
save the Executive, and he will be recre-
ant to his duty if he does not SO declare.
The President must go on in the exercise
OIL Ills I1Slltul GAtCub1NC DUMti5 III Tie
United States, North or South and if Con-
gress, establishing its new reconstruction
machine, forces a conflict, that conflict
will be of Radical making, and the Presi-
dent will have behind him those maiorities
Of the Northern people that so lately made
themselves heard against Radical extrem-
ity in California, Connecticut, Ohio, Penn
sylvania, and our own great Empire State.
From the Baltimore Gazette. Jan. l3.
As we took occasion to remark when the
infamous scheme was first preached in Con.
gress, it is trifing with the sense of the
country to discuss this usurpation in con-
nection with the constitution and laws of
the United States. If the people are pre-
pared to submit to the total and final sub
version of constitutional government and
civil liberty, then enslavement and ruin
are now near at hand. II they would save
themselves they must manifest now, or
never, the patriotism and the resolution
that have ever distinguished men who are
fit TO be free.
From the Albany New York; Argus, Jan. l3.
The destructives at Washington have at
last determined 10 extiuguish the ten
STATES OIL lAtt dhQ W NIttt III lHbIT
stead a vast dictatorship in the hands of
Gen. Grant. Thus Radicalism, "built in
an eclipse and freighted with curses" has
passed on its destined course to darkness
and despotism, and hate and hell.
The Federal Union under the constitution
has ceased to exist. The military domi-
nation of the South overshadows and
blights what was left of liberty at the
North. The original counterpoise of our
system is destroyed, and an oligarchy con-
trolls what was once a republic.
Gen. Grants despotism is TO extend over
a country az large as all Europe, and to
embrace population threshold that of our
colonies at the time of the revolution.
Throughout this vast domain, and over all
these people, the sword is to rule; and the
law is TO be Frustrated. And Gen.
Grant. who is 10 be crowned "a dictator,
what of him viii he accept this in
vestiture? 1t is a poisoned robe which
will cling to his fostering sides, if he does.
He has been silent, and moderate and
prudent, and men have looked to him with
come hope. Will he make himself the
point of attack, the target of hate, the
central figure in this infamous usurpation?
Will ne make his fellow-c citizens forget his
battles 70. the Union, in his victory over
the constitution, his prostration of civil
liberty? = viii henow, in the service
of faction, demand 'fhe unconditional
surrender of all that is vital in the consti-
tuition, of all that makes communities free
and houored, aud Of the attributes of inde-
pendepce in the Executive and the Judici-
airy 1t were better for him that he
his sword in his own body than
that he should WELD it in such a cause. 1t
is treason against liberty and every true
voice should be raised to denounce It, and
every hand to strike il down
The following extracts from two lead-
ing and influential Republican journals
Of New York, viii indicate how the mea-
sure is received by the Radicals, who
have lingering sense Of patriotism left
II will be observed that all these express
sions are Of the same date, and are a