New-York tribune., 1868-02-03
CONGRESS ND ITS FOKS

The n. !. Times, with reference TO the House
bills cOnfidng to Gen. Grant the execution of
the Reconstruction measures and debarring in
reference Herewith by the Supreme Court
says:
Tho measures in question are supported on tho
they are necessary 10 the country. because tho
pending scheme Of reconstruction may bo defeated
pq'ty because If that scheme Is defeated the party
VIII lose the votes Of the Southern States We have seen
as yet evidence In support Of other allegation on
the contrary have had the strongest assurances from
the highest aud best authorities, that reconstruction Is
gong satisfactorily and with certainty Of signal and
complete success Senator Wilson has told ms so Gen
Committee, which has direct control aud supervision Of
the whole business has told us agents OF the Freed
neLs Bureau have confirmed these assurances; and
have contradiction Of them from any quarter Why,
then are these new and extraordinary measures
sary. either to the Republican party the countryl
"We tried days since to get direct and inteigl.
bic reply 70 this inquiry from TIE TRIBUNE; but instead
OF such reply, got simply fresh discharge OF the
bal rockets by when that Journal usually iumnaes the
topics 1t Pretends to discuss and when they had
ploded' al our efforts failed 70 extract any further
spouse whatever"
AnSwer By The Tribune.
]. That Reconstruction is now going forward
satisfactorily in the South, is measuiably true /;
yet it is none the less true that it is so pro-
ceeding in defiance of the most implacable and
industrious hostility from tho President the
Rebels, and the Democratic party. Whatever
these can do to embarTass and defeat it is be-
ing and viii be done; and tho results of last
years elections have greatly strengthened their
hopes of triumph next Fall, which will forever
crush out the Blacks and put the Unionists
hopelessly under foot. For, with the Blacks dis
franchised, those who deplore the failure of "Tho
Lost Cause" become majority in every South
eTn State, and repeat in each the lesson already
taught us by Maryland and Kentucky.
IoI, r
the inveterate, unscrupulous, untiring enemy
of the Reconstruction policy of Congress, which
his Attorney General officially declares uncon-
stitutiODal, it has seemed just and necessary by
Congress that its execution should be confded
to the loyal and law-abiding Gencral-in-
Chief rather than to President who lies
awake nights to devise and mature schemes
which have for their direct object the defeat
and overthrow Of that policy. They see that
the President does not take care that the laws
I" be faithfully executed" as the Constitution
requires him to do; so they seek to devolve that
duty on an officer who will execute it, 1t
seems TO us that the President, if conscien-
tiOusly averse to doing what these laws require
of him, should be glad to have the duty taken
off his hands.
III. As to the Supreme Court, we hold it
settled by its own repeated decisions, as well
as by the reason of the case, that questions
essentially political like those involved in Re-
construction, are outside of its jurisdiction,
and pertain to that of Congress. So it repeat
! edly declared through Chief-Justice Marshall J.;
so it emphaticaly pronounced through Chief
Justice Taney in the Rhode Island case.
Mr.. Jefferson himself held that he had
transcended the Constitution in purchasing
louisiana and yet we cannot doubt that
Mr.. Jefferson would have resisted any at
tempt Of the Supreme Court to annul that
purchase by judicial mandate. That
Court has vast, momentous powers intrust-
ed to it by the Constitution; but the power OF
admitting new States into the Union, or of re-
storing those which have put themselves out OF
gear by rebellion, is clearly not among them
That belongs to Congress, as Secretary Seward
in behalf of President Johnson. tclegraphed to
Gov. Marvin of Florida in 1855. And Con-
gress--in view of the danger that majority Of
the Justices composing the Supreme Court are
inclined to usurp it's bound to take care that
they do not. The Constitution Cart, LII. 2