Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-01-28
from the New York Herald.] y" 81
A Bill to Dissolve Civil Society and to
Abolish the Executive,

from the New York Herald.] 81
A Bill to Dissolve Civil Society and to
Abolish the Executive.
The new Reconstruction bill, so-called, re
ported by Mr.. Bingham from the Committee on
Reconstruction, and now pending before Con
gress, shows how language can be perverted in
| its application to partisan measures. This bill
has title the very reverse of its character and
object. It's proper title would be, ga bill te
dissolve civil society and to abolish the Execu.
tive"
| First, it declares that in the Southern States
there are no civil State governments, and tina
the so-called civil governments in the States
respectively shall not be recognized as valid OF
| legal State governments either by the executive
| or judicial power or authority OF the United
| States The sweeping revolutionary measure
dissoves all civil society, makes all laws invalid
| leaves the people without municipal or loca
| laws for the protection Of property, life and
| liberty, and reduces over ten millions OF people
| to disorganized condition worse than that Of
the barbarian tribes of Africa or the South Sea
islands. What chaos what frightful condi
ton for the South and Southern people to be
placed in But the Southerners will not be the
only sufferers. Northern debtors, Northern
merchants and capitalists who have invested in
the South or who have debts owing to them
there are cut off from all legal means of recover
ing their property. 1t is virtual reputation on
a large scale. Contracts are rendered void and
abrogated. All business must be suspended
confidence will be destroyed and the whole
South, already at the point of starvation, will be
turned into wilderness Such is the infamous
bill which radical Congress has the hardihood
to call reconstruction law. It is the grimmest
joke and most cruel sarcasm ever attempted
The authority of the President, which the
people Of the United States from the founda-
ton of the government, have regarded as con-
additionally vested in him, is abolished Con-
gresS presumes to say that he shall not be Com
mander-ln Chief of the Army, though the con
nous act declares THE General of the Army
of the United States (Grant) is hereby author
lied and required to enjoin, by special orders,
upon all officers in command in the several
military departments within said several States,
the performance OF all acts authorized by said
several laws above recited, and to remove by his
orders from command any or all of said com
manders, and detail other officers of the United
States army, not below the rank of colonel to
perform all the duties and exercise all the
powers authorized by said several acts Thus
Grant is made Commander in Chief in place Of
the President, and the constitutional functions
of the President are abolished.
But this is not all. The third section of the
bill says that the General Of the Army may
remove any or all civil officers and appoint Others
power is placed strictly over the civil and execu
tive power of the President both in the matter
of removal from and appointment to purely civil
Offices This is going further even than the
Jacobin Convention of France in the assumption
of despotic authority and subjugation of every
other branch OF government. Indeed. the con-
duet of Congress is more criminal, for it pretends
to be acting within the limits of its legislative
capacity, while the French Convention was
honest enough to avow primary powers above
all constitutions.
To cap the climax of this revolutionary meas
ure, it is made unlawful for the President of the
United States to enforce the civil law, and it is
provided that 'any interference by any person
(by the Presdent) with intent to prevent by
force the execution of the orders of the General
of the Army shall be held to be high misde-
meanor, and the party guilty thereof shall, up
on conviction, be fined not exceeding FIVE thou
sand dollars and imprisoned not less than two
years. A penalty is imposed upon the Presi-
dent, as upon some burglar or othervile criminal,
for any attempt to execute his constitutional
functions as the Executive and Commander-in-
Chief. Usurpation and revolution cannot &c
further short of arrcsting and deposng the
President and declaring the Office absolutely
abolished. The radicals in Congress have reach
ed that limit, and the next step is Directory,
after the model of the French Directory, and a
military despotism over the whole country,
North as well as South. This would be exactly
suited to the ideas Of Ben. Wade, Thad. Stevens
and others of the Mountain faction who boldly
declare the constitution is destroyed.