Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-17

spontaneous outburst Of vehement indig-
nation, representing the feelings of the
great popular heart; and were given on
the very day the bill was reported, though
its substance had been autographed the
day before:
From the New York Times. Jan. IS.
If Hunnicutt or Bradley were TO organ
ize revolutionary junta and call il gov
eminent, il would have the same title 10
recognition at Washington that the present
provisional governmental Virginia or Geor-
gia will have under the law. The only
authority that will be visible or recognized,
as between the South and the Union, if this
project becomes a law, will be the military
authority. 1t viii be central military
authority, too. The discretionary power
now welded By the district commanders is
to cease; and the Generalsin.C Chief, sitting
in his Office at Washington, is to be the
absolute master of the South. He is to be
dictator. The administration Of the recon-
struction law, and Of all laws, will be under
his exclusive supervision. His nod will
appoint or remove. He may knock down
Governor, Judges, SheriffS and every civil
functionary in a State, az unceremoniously
as he would knock down ninepins, and may
play mischief generally, with none to call
him to account. Provided only, the States
prove themselves reconstructed by adopting
constitutions filed with "loyal safeguards
and by sending TO Washington Senators and
Representatives with the mark of the Radi-
cal Cain upon their brows-the General,ina
Chief may do or undo, obey law or break it,
respect white mems rights or disregard them,
according tohis sovereign will and pleasure
What signifies the constitutional designa.
ton Of The President as Commander-in-
Chief? He may command, but the new
bill enioins Indifference to his orders. In
relation to the army and the South, he will
be laid upon the shelf until the dictator
ship make room for constitutional govern
ment-if that ever happen.
To call all this reconstruction, is per-
version of terms. To imagine that it will
promote peace at the South, or in any de-
gree contribute to the restoration Of the
Union, were transparent folly. What it
really amounts to is a confession that Con.
gress has sunk so deep into difficulties Of
its own making that it sees no lawful
method of deliyeranee-and like all such
bodies, in similar dilemmas, flies to mill
tary despotism for relief.
From the New York Evening Post, Jan. Is.
The new amendment to the reconstruc.
ton acts, which have been so often amended
before, proposes to put aside the Supreme
Court as an interpreter of the laws, and
the President as the executor of them, in
order that Congress may absorb into itself
all the functions of government
While it proposes to forbid the Judiciary
to pronounce an opinion on certain sub
jects, it also declares the number of votes
in bench by which any opinion is to be
held as valid. In other words, the de,
eisions Of the highest judicial tribunal will
be made TO take their complexion from the
politics of the legislative department.
By the organic law, the President of the
United States is made the COMMANDMENT
Chief of the army and navy of the United
States. Gen. Grant is ordered to begin
with an act of INSTRUMENTATION toward his
chief whose authority he is to disregard,
and assume the character of military die
tator in ten at least of the States of the
Union.
II ne CohsehtS ~ dcCepJ lHe uupleaSanL
position, he will incur all the odium of all
the odious laws that Congress has passed or
may pass, and become, both South and
North, as hateful to the popular sympathy
as he is now agreeable. 1t is a Skillfully
contrived affair, worthy of the ingenuity
of the most ingenious Yankee, but it is not
cunning enough or strong enough for the
mighty prey for which il is set. General
Grant has too much good sense to thrust
his head in it blindly, or to be coaxed into
it by the apparent fattery. He will refuse
a power that can only be exercised to the
damage of the country and its institutions,
or that will connect his powerful name
with plans of revolution.