The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-04-17
Z THE DICTATORSHIP.

oASASAt SSss~Ao
GRANT the authority of Dictator may
be at once dismissed. The more odious
features OF the force bill, outrageous
and revolutionary in all its provisions,
were stricken out in the House Of Rep
resentatives ealy to be restored in all
their enormity IN the Senate. The bill
as it has passed that body, which IN
the. plan OF our Government was in
tended 70 be most stable, and to check
the hasty and inconsiderate action OF
the more numerous and popular branch
of the National Legislature, is more
grossly at variance with the Constitu-
ton of the United States, and more d.
rectly subversive of the rights OF the
people than the House of Representa-
tives agreed to pass. The Senate has
outstripped the. House in headlong IA
naticism, and American liberty has re-
csived its severest blow at the hand Of
its most trusted defenders. '
AS it passed the Senate, the so-called
Ku-Klux bill gives the President power,
at his sole discretion, to declare martial
law in any of the States of the Union;
to suspend the privilege Of the writ Of
habsas corpus to arrest people without
legal process, and, in such time as may
suit his convenience, arraign them for
trial in the United States Courts, for Of
lenses which, until now, have been cog
nizable in the State Courts alone. In
cases where the United States Attor-
ney sees fit to demand it. the Jurors are
to be required to take the iroE-clad test
oath. Almost any trunped-up case, in
which two or more citizens are accused
Of agreeing together to violate a law,
may be made to appear to be such a
Combination or conspiracy" as comes
within the scope of the act, and may be
made the pretense for shameless usur-
patton of power. The House of Rep
resentatives has, as yet failed to agree
to the amendments made by the Senate,
and a committee Of conference has been
appointed. but there is not much to be
hoped for from its action, and the law
will probably remain as the Senate has
determined. .-s.f..ft
1t is singular fact, and one which
of itself should have caused some hest
tation, that this is the first time in the
history of the country that such abso-
lutte power has been conferred upon the
President by law. During the seven
years revolutionary war, during two
foreign wars, during the four years Of
civil war, no such, power was given to
the President as is now conferred in
time Of comparative quiet, and six
years after the official proclamation Of
national peace, Is It because General
GRANT is more trustworthy than Gen
eral WASHINGTON or any other Of our
former Presidents? Is it because he
enjoys to fuller extent than any other
the confidence Of the people? 1s it
because his private character is so ex-
allied, 80 noble, so unsel6sh, so infinitely
purer and more magnanimous than was
ever before known, that the people
should throw down all the legal bar
riers against despotism, aud trust their
dearest rights in his hands?
To all these questions the answer
must be No! General GRANT is
neither good nor great man. He
has very lately been rebuked by men,
bers of his own party for grave viola
ton of the Constitution of the United
States and the disregard Of his official
oath, and there are~ery few intelligent
men in the whole country, even in the
party that elected him to his high
office, who have an honest belief in his
personal integrity or a high opinion Of
his craftsmanship. 1t took Rome
three hundred years to die" but in less
than one hundred years the American
Republic has attained that depth of
political degradation, and that disre-
gard of liberty and popular right that
was sufficient in former times to enable q
military chieftain to make himself En-
peror of Rome. The ambition of our
CESAR has all the "sterner stuff,
which, according to MARX ANTONY,
his prototype had not, II =