The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-27

but we we're glad 10 learn of even this
slight recognition of the public virtues
of Washington. 1t is the duty of General
Grant To initiate the man whose character
he makes a public show of revering. He
holds the same Office, is charged with the
same duties, and as this visit took place
while he was pressing Congress to pass the
Ku-klux bill and clothe him with extraordi-
nary powers, he might have proitably spent
the hours of that day in musing on the steps
taken by Washington for suppressing the
great insurrection in Western PENNSYLVANIA
which was infinitely more defiant aud for
midable than the Ku.klux, even as described
in the fabulous majority report of the Senate
Committee of Investigation, as any one may
be satisfied by comparing their report with
Hfmiltons on the Whisky Insurrection.
The was nothing which Washington moro
sedalously Stunned than the exercise, or even
the appearance of exercising arbitrary power
To be sure, Washington had not any such
authority as is conferred on General Grant by
the Ku-klux bill, and we are very sure that
he would never have asked for it, as Grant
has, nor exercised it if it had been conferred
upon him. He was slow to employ even the
power he possessed under q moderate and
constitutional law, declining a resort to force
till every means of Cancellation had been ex-
hausted. The difference in the laws is worth
passing notice, although General Grant hos
most to learn from ths spirit in which the
earlier law was executed. The KU-klux bill
makes General Grant the sole Judge
as to when an exigency has arisen which
justifes the employment of force.
This is power which our early Legislators
would not confer even upon Washington,
although he was not candidate for rs-elec-
tien, as Gems sral Grant is. The President Of
that day would no more have ventured to em-
ploy the military, on his own sole warrant, to
enforce the Federal laws than to suppress do
mestic violence in State. In neither case
was he permitted to act On his own initiative
and Judge for himself when the exigency had
arisen. Before he could send troops to put
down domestic violence, he must be applied
to for assistance by the State autho-
rites. And he could not employ
soldiers to enforce the laws until one
of the Federal judges hadioer5ifed that it was
necessary. The unconstitutional Ku-klux
bill permits General Grant to do both without
the concurrence of any other judgment than
his own; and not only to use the army and
militia whenever he peases, but to suspend
the habeas corpus and proclaim martial Law
without any other restriction than his own
good pleasure. To show how differently re-
sistance to the laws was met under Washing
ton, we will make q brief quotation from his
first proclamation relating to the whisky in
surrection;-
At that early period (the parest and bright
est in our annalsl, when the trainers of the
Constitution, who best understood it, held
the most prominent and influential positions
in the Government, they would as soon have
''brooked the eternal devil as arbitrary
power, even in the hands of patriot like
Washington. The President indeed held the
sword, but he could not draw it from the
scabbard until another and more disinter-
ested judge had declared it necessary. Some
body else must decide the exigency had
arisen-in foreign war, Congress; in sup
pressing domestic violence in a State, its
Federal laws, ederalF Judge.
The hand that grasped the hilt of
the sword was powerless and paralyzed
until some other voice than the President S
said, "Draw ~ If combinations were formed
to resist the execution of the laws of Con-
gress, the President could not use soldier
until Federal judge had first certified that
the combinations were too powerful to be re-
sisted by the Marshal and his posse. So inn
| portant was it deemed to foreclose the Presi-
dent from using the military power to pro-
mote his personal Objects. But servile,
partisan, lck-spittle Congress has conferred
upon General Grant authority not merely to
use military force, but to declare martial
| law and suspend the habeas corpus, with no
other Judge of the necessity than himself,
expecting and desiring him to employ this
tremendous power to seoare his own re-elec-
| ton.
The point to which we desire to call the
| particular attention Of General Grant is the
unfeigned reluctance of Washington to use
even the restrained authority put in his hands
by Congress Even after Judge Wilson had
certified the necessity, and Washington had
issued his proclamation, he spent nearly two
months in efforts at Cancellation before put
ting the militia under marching orders. He
sent commissioners to the disaffected district
with offers of full pardon and oblivion if the
insurgents wonld abandon their opposition tc
the law. And when at last he reluctantly sci
the troops in motion, he sent with them mes
sengers bearing the olive branch, and the
whole difficulty was settled without firing
shot. Would that We had any ground fol
hoping that General Grant will act in a SINH
lar spirit