The New Orleans crescent., 1869-02-13

HuRRYIHa ON THE HOUR.

electoral votes, and the recriminations which |
have followed, were limited in their signifi- |
cance to the questions and disagreements |
which Immediately gave rise to them.
Whether the vote of Georgia or of Louisiana |
should be counted against the President elect |
was, practically, matter of no instant ac- |
count; and considering the contemptuous |
disregard of the dominant party for logic and |
consistency, it was, theoretically a matter OF
as little ultimate consequence. But the really |
important fact, underlying the recriminatory
resolutions pending in the two houses, and
the fussy turbulence of Butler and the bilious
rhetoric of Bingham, is that the unscrupulous
spirit of usurpation which heretofore planted
the heels Of Congress, as body composed OF
a concurrent House and Senate, upon
the other departments of government, is now
developing itself in the ambition to bring the
Senate under the feet of the House, and to
make the latter the supreme authority In the
country. Such development was perfectly ma
tural and in some sense inevitable. In
periods when extraordinary and violent meas
ures had swept away all the traditional or
constitutional limits of power, revolutionary
force was never known to suspend its action
and rest content with an existing situation
Once let loose, and active, and victorious, it
seems to operate like blind and fatal i'm
pulse, respecting no more the particular aims
of revolutionists than the particular aims OF
reactionists. 1t does not res. with the faction,
the assembly, the parliament, or the Congress,
which has successfully invoked the aid of re-
volution, to say whether it shall continue
to be revolutionary or not. The genius
of revolution is not its servant, but
its master, and, like an inexorable
destiny, hurries it on. Invisibly this irresist-
ible power has been preparing new parox-
ysm of violence in the usurping Congress at
Washington. Consciously or unconsciously,
Butler and Bingham, Wade and Colfax, and
the rest who participated in the recent
stormy scene between the two houses, are
moving on to the solution of the problem
where the principle of absolute might shall
| finally reside. 1t is sad farce to hear MIR.
Bingham denouncing the resolution of Butler
as Revolutionary, Gas a resolution of an
archy," "as being as unwarrantable as any
act of secession" Pray, Mr.. Bingham, what
have been the complexion and tendency of
the most distinctive features of the legislation
known as the congressional policy for these
four years past? The whole Congress has been
intrenching itself in supreme power under
the banner of revolution. 1t has challenged
anarchy by trampling upon the constitutional
conditions of union, peace and order. 1t has
done things more unwarranted, in either ma
tural or constitutional law, than any act of
secession. Where, then, is the occasion, Mr..
Bingham, for astonishment and CONSERVATION
that Butler and the Butterflies should propose
to "kick the Senate of the United States ??
The chief occupation of Congress, the two
houses concurring, for four years has been to
kick the executive, to kick the Judiciary, and
to kick the States. Outside of the congres.
sional halls nothing remains to be kicked,
and we really cannot see how the sublime
proceeding is to go on unless one house shall
kick the other house. And do you think
Mr.. Bingham, that this pedalian performance
which, with you and your coadjutors, has SC
long been the sole vindication of sovereign
authority and orthodox loyalty is now to b
arrested by weak tenderness for senatorial
dignity and sensibility? Forbid it, ye view
less spirits that wait on human mischief y,
malign arbiters that have thus far awarded
the victory in every battle to superlative auda
city; We internal demons that up to thi
moment have been founts of perennial inspi
ration to the architects of the republics undo
ingl And one word more, Mr.. Bingham
The military boot has been the vicariou
agency through which the two houses of Con
gress, in their joint capacity, have done tn
most of their kicking. Indeed, without tn
fact, or the presumption, of this service OF
the part of the military boot, Congress woul'
have been as flaccid and impuissant, amid th
distractions and distempers of these evil days
as tattered sail futtering over a wrecke'
hulk in tropical tornado.
And now mark the coming sequel In
revolutionary period, when contest for as
cendancy is waged between two co-ordinat
legislative bodies, the popular branch, SO
called, will, by reason of its greater numbe
! and its larger Identification with the mob ele
ment, usually prevail The Senate, then, il
case of decisive battle between the tw
houses, would be almost certain to go under
supposing the military boot were neutral t
the conflict by no means a necessary SUP
position, should the boot be on foot ODE
dent to the will of an ambitious head but
for the arguments sake, let it stand. We'll
this brings us to the virtual usurpation of a
the powers of the government by singl
house of Congress. We have seen that th
military power has served as kickin
instrumentality of Congress, and cor
sequently has been, until this time
in the nature of things unkickablt
But the battle having been fought out betwee
the two houses, the revolutionary farce ca
have but one other development The geniu
of revolution, the triumphant branch of Cor
gress being only intent on conserving th
: status quo of its usurpation, will pass int
the military instrumentality. The law
the situation will necessitate a collisio