The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-07

as mere matters of course that CONSUMPTION, con.
hscstion, loss Of personal liberty. the subsection
l OF States 10 military rule and Acknowledgement
with the extension of the right of suffrage merely
to accomplish party ends, would receive the pass
| i've submission II not the scquiescence of the
| seopie OF the republic IL has been clearly de-
| monstrated by recent occurrences that encroach.
| ments upon the Constitution cannot be prevented
| by the president, however devoted and deter.
mined be may be. Unless the people interpose,
| mere u no power under the Constitution 10 check
| dominant majority Of two thirds Of the Congress
| OF the United ststes. An appeal TO the nation is
attended with too much delay to meet the emer-
gency, while If left free to act the people would
correct in time such evils as might follow legisa
tive usurpstion. There Is danger that the same
| power which disregards the Constitu lou will de
Drive them of the right to change their rulers ex.
! cept by revolution. We have already seen the
jurisdiction of the judiciary circumscribed
| when it was apprehended that the courts
| would declare against laws having for their
| sole object the supremacy of party; while the
| veto power, lodged 10 the executive by the con.
| stitution for the interest and protection Of the
people, and exercised by Washington aud his
| successors, has been rendered mug atory by par
| tiZan majority of two.thirds in each branch of
| the National Legislature. The constitution evil
| IDENTIFY contemplates that when q bill is returned
| with the presidents objections, il will be calmly
/ recousidered by Congress. Such, however, has
| not been the practice under the present party
| rules. IL has become evident that men who pass
| bills under psrtizan influence are not likely,
/ through patriotic motives, to admit their error
| and thereby weaken their own organiz atoms by
| solemnly coDfessing it under official oath. Pride
| of opinion, If nothing else, has prevented the
| calm and dispsssionste reconsideration of bill
| disapproved by the executive. Much as | ven-
craze the constitution, it must be admitted that
| this condition OF affairs has developed defect
| which. under the aggressive tendency of the
Legislative Department of the government,
| may readily work its overthrow. Il may, how
n wit diafu har.
mOny Of the instrument. The veto power is
| generally exercised upon constitutional grounds,
and whenever IL is so applied, and the bill re-
turned with the executives for withhold.
| ing his signature, it ought to be Immediately
certified TO the Supreme Court for its decision.
II its consttutioDality shall be declared by that
tribunal, il should then become a law; but II the
decision is other wse il should fall without power
in Congress to reenact. In cases upon which the
veto rests upon hasty and inconsderste legisla-
ton. and in which no constitutional question is
involved, would not change the fundamental
law, for 10 such cases no permanent evil can be
incorporated in the federal system. Il is obvious
that, without such amendment, the government,
as it existed under the Constitution prior to the
rebellion, may be wholly subverted aud over
thrown by two-thirds majority in Congress. 1t
is not therefore, difficult to how easily and
rapidly the people lose-shsll not say have
lost-their liberties by an unchecked and uncon
trollable majority in the law-msking power, and
whenever deprived of their rights, how powerless
they are to regain them.
Let us turn for a moment to the history of the
majority in Congress, which has acted in sucA
utter disregard OF the Constitution. while public
attention has been carefully and constantly turned
to the past and expiated sins of the South, and
the servants of the people in high places have
boldly outraged their trust broken their osths of
obedience and undermined the very foundations
OF liberty, justice and good government. When
the rebellion was being suppressed by the volun
teer services of patriot soldiers amid dangers Of
the battlefield, these men crept, without ques-
tion into place and power IN the national coun-
CHS. After all danger had passed, when no
armed foe remained, when a penitent people
low red their heads to the flag and renewed
their allegiance to the government of the
United States, then it was that pretended patr-
OTIS appeared before the nation and began TO pirate
about the thousands of lives and millions of
treasure sacrificed in the suppression of the
bellion. They have since persistently sought to
nfiame the pref 1dice engendered between the
sections to retsrd the restoration of peace and
harmony, and by every means to keep open and
expOsed TO the poisonous breath of party passion
the terrible wounds of a four years. war. They
have prevented the return of peace and the res
tOratiOn OF the Union in every way, rendered
delusive the purposes. promises and pledges by
which the army was msrshalled. treason rebuked
end rebellion crushed, and made the liberties of
the people and the rights and powers of the pres
ident. objects of constant attack. They have
wrested from the president his constitutional
power of supreme command OF the army and
navy. They have destroyed the strength Of the
executive department by making subordinate
officers independent of and able to defy their
chief magistrate. They have attempted to place
the president under the power Of bold, defiant
and treacherous cabinet officer; they have 70 obed
the executive of the prerogative of pardon, rem.
dered null and void acts of clemency granted to
thousands of persons under the provisions of the
constitution, and committed gross usurpetion
by Legislative attempts to exercise this
power in favor of party adherents. They have
conspired to change the system of our govern
ment by preferring charges against the president
In the form OF articles of impeachment, and con-
templsting before hearing or trial that he should
be placed under arrest, held in durance, aud
when it became their pleasure to pronsunce his
sentence, driven from place and power in dis.
grace. They have 10 time of peace increased the
national debt by reckless expenditure of public
moneys and added to the burdens which already
weigh upon the people. They have permitted the
nation TO suffer the evils of deranged currency,
the enhancement In price OF all the necessaries of
life. They have maintained a large standing army
for the enforcement of their measures of oppres
sion. They have engaged 10 class legislation built
and encouraged mon0poles, that the few might
be enriched at the expenses OF the many. They
have failed TO act upon important treaties, there
by eDdangering our peaceful relations with foreign
powers. Their course of usurpatOn has not been
united TO inrosds upon the executive department
by unconstitutional and oppressive enactm ents.
The people of the States of the Union have been
reduced 10 a condition more intolerable than that
from which patriots of revolutions rebelled. Mil.
lions Of American citizens can now say of their
oppressors with more truth than our fathers did
OF the Brltish bayoBets that they have forbid
den governments to pass laws Of immediate
and pressing importance unless suspended until
their assent should be obtained; that they have
refused te pass other laws for the accommodation
of large districts of people, unless the people
would relinqush the right of representation in the
Legislature-a right inestimable TO them and for
midable to tyraDts only; that they have made
judges dependent their will alone for tenure OF
Offices and the amount and payment of their sala.
ries; that they have erected a multitude of new
Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers TO
bsrsss our people and eat out their subsistence
that they have attempted to render the military
independent and superior to the civil power, COM
bined with others TO subject Us to jurisdiction
| foreign 10 our Constitution and unsckno vledged
| by our laws; quartered large bodies of armed
| troops among US. and protected them by mock
| trial from punishment for any murders which
| they should commit our Inhabitants; imposed
| taxes upon us without our consent; deprived us
| IN many cases Of trial by jury; taken away
charters, excited domestic insurrection among US,
| abolished our most valuable laws, altered funda
| mentally the forms of our government. sus
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