The Portland daily press., 1869-03-05

the American people to know that Gen. Grants
administration will have earnest patriotism to
inspire it, and honesty, economy, justice and
peace for its leading purposes.
Andrew Johnson's Farewell Address.
This document is so long that we cannot find
space for the whole of it, and as for criticism
that may as well be left to Nasty. The address
bears no more striking resemblance to the cor
responding document issued by the Father of
his country than the personel character of the
seventeenth President bears to that of the first.
After string ofharmless and not too glittering
generalities the ex-President gloriies Andrew
johnson for refusing to avail himself of the
immense military establishment of the United
States, at the time of his Inauguration, to per-
petuate his tenure of power indefinitely and
to make himself dictator. The confession that
he could conceive such thing is as shameful
an acknowledgement of morbid ambition and
traitorous instincts as his idea that such line
of conduct could have been successful is of
weakness and of ignorance of the sturdy pat
riotism of the American people. 1t is indeed
singular that a retiring Chief Magistrate ap-
peals to US for favorable consideration on the
ground that he has not seen fit to destroy our
liberties. Not less singular is it that he
should attempt, in arraigning the peoples rep
resentatives for their obstinacy in opposing
his reactionary policy, to draw parallel be-
tween their action and that of Sylla lin con-
versation with a reporter the other day while
he was incubating this parallel he disclosed
the existence of an uncertainty in his own
mind as to whether the party's name was not
"Silly'') the Roman usurper, who represented
only himself in his plundering and confsca-
tion.
Mr.. johnson is so exasperated at the obstin-
acy of Congress in overruling his vetoes ac-
cording to the constitutional provisions cloth
ing it with that power, that he passes immedi-
ately from his customary eulogy upon our Or
ganic law to pointing out its defective charac-
ter, in that it permits an obstinate, unreason-
able and rash two thirds Of large popular as
sembly to defeat the purposes of one judicious
man. He therefore recommends that vetoed
bills, instead of going back to Congress, shall
be submitted to the arbitrament of the Su-
preme Court. Then comes formal bill of in
dictment OF Congress in the nature of paro-
dy upon the Declaration of Independence,
thus:
They have prevented the return of peace
and the restoration Of the Union,
the purposes, promises and pledges by which
the army was marshalled, treason rebuked
and rebellion crushed, made the liberties of
the people, and the rights and powers of the
President, objects of constant attack;
his constitutional power of supreme command
of the army and navy.
They have destroyed the strength and eff
cheney of the Executive department by max
ing subordinate officers independent of and
able to defy their chief
They have attempted to place the President
under the power of a bold, defiant and treach-
erous Cabinet officer.
They have robbed the Executive of the pre-
rogative of pardon, rendered null and void the
acts of clemency granted to thousands of per-
sons under the provisions of the Constitu ton
and committed gross usurpations by legisla-
tive attempts to exercise this power in favor of
party adherents.
They have conspired to change the system
of our government by preferring charges
against the President in the form of articles of
impeachment, and contemplating, before
hearing or trial, that he should be placed in
durance, and, when it became their pleasure
to pronounce his sentence, driven from place
and power ih disgrace.
They have in time of peace increasedIthe
national debt by reckless expenditure of the
PuUllC mOucyS, anu JuuS duQcN 10 btle DurQ6uS
which already weigh upon the people
They have permitted the nation to suffer the
evils of deranged currency, to the enhance
ment in price of all the necessaries of life.
They have maintained a large standing army
for the enforcement of their measures of op-
preston.
They have engaged in class legislation. and
built and encouraged monopolies, that the few
might be enriched at the expense of the many.
They have failed to act upon important trea-
ties, thereby endangering our peaceful rela-
tions with foreign powers.
Their course of usurpation has not been linn
tied to inroads upon the Executive depart
ment BY unconstitutional and oppressive
enactmsnts the people of ten States of the
Union have been reduced to condition more
intolerable than that from which the patriots
of the Revolution rebelled.
The action of Congress with respect to the
Supreme Court and its neglect to bring jeff
Davis to trial are all made the subject of Wig
orous comment
The joint resolution submitting the 18th con-
sttutional amendment to the State Legisla-
lures not having been submitted to Mr.. John
son for his veto, it being held unnecessary TO
do so, he avails himself Of this address "to
the people of the United States" to exnress
his emphatic disapproval:
Among 9hose rights is that of the ,oo,lo oe
each State to declare the Qualification oS tl %
own State electors 1t is now assumed tIat
Congress ican control this vital right. wbinh
can never be taken away from the States with.
out impairirg the principle of the governments
itself. 1t is necessary to the existence of the |
State, as well as to the protection of the lib |
critics of the people, for the right to select the
elector in whom the political power of the |
State shall be lodged, involves the right of the
State to govern itself, and when deprived of |
this prerogative, States will have no power |
worth retaining. All will be gone, and they |
will be subjected to the arbitrary will of Con- |
gress. The government will then be central |
ized; IL net by the adoption, through partizan |
influence, of an amendment directly in con- |
met with the original design of the Constitu-
uon. This proves how necessary it is that the |
people should require the administration of |
tne tnree great Departments of the govern
W.a.;s " pe strictly within the limits of the
n. Oonsei.u1on. Their boundaries have been ac-
o4ia1eiy ueuneo and neither should be allow
Gu u 'respass on the other nor ahova all IN |
encroach upon the reserved rights Of tbe rsoo
pie ana tne states. The troubles NJ A. IT,.
four years will prove to the nat;on h,en eue Iae'
If they produce so desirable a result ,,Iqes,
those wbo became young men amid the so1 Upon
of cannon and the din OF arms. and rh Stle sound sound
ly returned to the FARMS the factories onS t
schools of the land, and on whom will devoino no
the solemn duty of perpetuateing the union
of the States, in defence of which hundreds
of thousands of their comrades expired, and
hundreds of millions of national obligations
were incurred. A manly people will not ne
glect the training necessary to resist aggress-
ion, but they should be jealous lest the civil
be made subordinate to the military element.