The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-07
WAR OR PEACE BETWEEN GRANT AND
CONGRESS.

and the Radicals of Congress on the tenure
of office act can no longer be disguised. The
failure of the two houses to indicate at once,
and in some decisive manner, their purpose
to relieve the incoming President of the
letters of this law, bears a sinister signi6-
canoe towards him which he would be the
| purest of simpletons not to understand. 1t
is a fact that places Congress in an attitude OF
reserved hostility to the next administration;
and to persist in this attitude would be equiva-
lent to vote of want of confidence in the
new President. Indeed, if Gen. Grant COM
| prehends its import, as doubtless he does he
must see that for Congress to continue in
| force the tenure of Office act would be in the
nature Of declaration of war and move
ment in force against his presidential position
II, then, the act is not repealed, he will have
before him but one alternative, to surrender
at discretion or fight for the essential pre-
| negatives off supreme executive. That this is
the real state of the question between Grant
and Congress is frankly confessed by some of
the leading journals of tho Republican party:
journals which agree in deprecating collision
between the incoming President and any
portion of the party, but which do not agree in
advocating the repeal of the act as a means
of preventing such a collision. The New
York Evening Post, for example, says:
When the tenure of Office bill was passed, few
thought OF defending IL on principle. lt was
plain attack upon authority which had been
exercised without question from the formation of
the government II strained the legislative power
to the utmost if il did not directly violate the
n mi IN affau
claimed for IT wss the asserted necessity of TAX
ing powers from man who would be sure to
abuse them. IL was a war measure against An.
drew johnson, ard no one ventured TO advocate
it in itself. desirable modification Of our form
of government.
The same journal bears witness to Gen.
Grants decided and undisguised hostility to
the act in these words:
He has made no concealment of his disapproval
Of it; on the contrary, in conversation with diff.
ferent persons, be has given what seems to US
good arguments against it. He says, for instance,
that in the army he sometimes found occasion to
remove an officer, not for any fault, bat because
he wished for the good Of the service to put bet.
ter man IN bis place. Now, said he, if 10 every
such case had been forced to assign publicly to
the Senate ny reasons, should often have need.
lessly hurt good mans feelings, and for no use
ful public end whatever.
he remarked in conversation that the tenure of
tf1ce act would not be needed hereafter; bat
that in his opinion it jusiiable and necessary
uuder The administration of president like Nc.
johnson. who had turned against the party which
eeced him, ard against the policy on which be
was chosen. Now, we DO not think him right,
here. We believe that the tenure of 01i,s act
was misc hievous, and only that. The greater part
even Of the Republican party now see that che act
wrought confusion in the public service aud re-
lleVed TIE ITesident Of his just respOns .ity for
this confusion and corruption.
But, though Grant is egregiously wrong in
believing that the act was iustifable and
necessary under the administration of Presi-
dent like Mr.. johnson, who had turned
against the party which elected him, and
against the policy on which he was ele ted"
his remark to this effect shows that he looks
upon it as an extreme expedient adopted by
Congress in its war with the outgoing Presi-
dent, and that lie is prepared TO look upon it,
if unrepealed after the occasion which induced |
it shall have passed, as a warlike measure to |
be used against the incoming President. |
" Can it be-" says the Post, "that after the |
people have chosen this man to hold the |
executive power, any member of Congress
will be in favor of Withholding an important |
part of that power from him?" Unless all |
history tells lying tale, nothing is more pro-
bable and natural than the affirmative of this
1t is true, as Wendell Phillips
says IN late article against the restoration of
he power usurped by the tenure of Office act,
hat in republics the legislative always tends
% encroach upon the executive authority.
This tendency is inherent in all legislative
assemblies whether in monarchical or repub-
lean countries. But it is not true, as Wen
lell Phillips asserts, that legislative usurpa-
ion marks and measures the progress of
liberty. Indeed, of all despotisms the most
emorseless and horrible is that in which
personal responsibility and danger are di-
-ided, and in a great degree dssipated,
mong multitude of tyrants. And let no one
'elieve that usurped power is not sweet to
hese Radical congressman and senators who
re urged to lay it down as a peace-offering at
he feet of Grant. 1t is safe to assume, as a
eneral rule, that no human creature ever
renounces what gives strength,
'eauty or anything, that is to say,
7hich is equivalent to power. You might as
ell expect the miser to devote his boards to
harity and the public veal, or the inveterate
oquette 10 relinQuish her GROWING charm in
oxen of humility and selfdenial, as expect
he authors Of the tenure of Office act to re-
ace their career of usurpation in this or any
Iher particular. Nothing but sense of
ompulsion will ever cause them to COM
renee such retreat They may descend
ON their position of universal and irrespon-
BILE supremacy under the impulse of a vivid
Dprehension that if they obstinately delayto
D SO they will be kicked down. No other
viii move them, depend upon it,
ut whether Gen. Grant is a man to employ
is potent logic is another question. He Z
ust show, somehow, his readiness and abil- ;
= to apply it, or his doom will be executive 6
pherhood. 1t will require even something I
ore perhaps than the boldness and resolu.
on Of Jackson to enable the next President 1;
lift himself above the impotence for either :
'od or evil to which Radical aggression has >
duced Johnson. :
"Peace and economy" says the journal .