The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-03-06
r,yIcnrucss In High Places.
From The Nation

r.,vlcnSuess In High Places.
From Tie Nation.
The Washington correspondent OF the
T.;',y,ir remarks, commenting on the Frcnch
arp,s affair, That at is said by independent
Krnllhcans and Democrats that there has
l,.ra nj! through this Administration grow
ia., :cudcncy TO disregard law and condnc'
,t,, Affairs Of the Government independents!
-, il, restraints" If the independent Re
,,gh,icans and Democrats say this they say
..,,acfhing which, il not wholly true, has
,,rr,; deal Of truth in it. 1t may te that
f1.rr has not been on the part"oi the Al.
,YIni.,ln,on growing tendency TO disregard
,hr law. but there has certainly been SteaG!
tendency. Tho Government at washington
came out Of the war with habits Of lawlcss-
ucss contracted, and perhaps unavoidaoiy
contracted, during the war. Four years
,r "miiitary necessity" and suspended
trlrgs co,;,tts, and steady denInciations
~. ,Ac courts for real or suspected inter
,r~,,,cc with military operations, no matter
how necessary they may be for the successful
conduct of those operations and the salvation
q. The country. play sad havoc both with
:,,.lllar and official respect for that old fash
,,nrd barrier against "sh0rt cuts "-the law
,y,lc land. There is no use i'll crying over
.a;.. /. forms one Of the objections OF goin9
- war. II furnishes q reason for dreadlne
md rcrr.linng from war as long as possible.
i.,, il does not, any more than the loss OF life
or destruction Of property, furnish reason
f,r not going to war at all under any cir
,.l,..~tancyS. as some Democrats seem Il
r.iuE. Hu; il is the duty of all good citizens
varn war !. over to do what they can tt
,yi:.., officials back 10 the ancient ways, and
revive in cverybody's mind as fast rs posi-
n's LAT reverence for legal cnactmcnts and
yI;rjal decisions without which no political
s.,tr!n ever has lasted or ever can last long.
Ii was tho duty Of the Republican party,
= ihr party in power and the party which
.arric,i on the war, TO have addressed itself
:, this business with even more zeal than to
Tie business Of paving oil the national debt.
Il is hard for a candid man to say that it did
50. ON tie contrary, it is very difficult TO
,irnv that it encouraged the Administration
20 persist in its lawlcss military way of look
iu2 IT It's duties. The Impeachment trial, q
strictly lcrrl! proceeding, was conducted as il
.ucil a thing as law was unknown, and As if
up man need look any further than his own
,r".;>t for rules Of conduct Of any eXigency
ci !il;.; and any one who then talked Of law
=, something binding on his conscience was
tp-t deceased, was n victim Of this outburs,
Il mob fury. and Mr.. Fcssenden's death was
certainly fastened by ii.
one of the very first acts OF the present
Administration was to add to the Supreme
court two new Judges, chosen arowedly be.
,s,l>c ihnv were known to hold certain fixed
u,ilinns on matter in litigation between
!.%atc uarties before tie court, and with the
view and intention Of having Judgment al.
ready givcn in that litigation reversed by the
.it IT their votes. What made the matter
aH the worse was that that judgment bore
lard on certain great corporations whose
cu,u-rl one Of the new judges had been, and
iha the relief it granted wsS granted to cred
it's under contracts which had for several
: >,.r- lcru deliberately violated. 1t would
IT, unuoSsitlc To uut into an article in ancwS-
re,icr all the moral objections there were to
Il performance. Among the political OF
rciions 10 ii were tlicse: That 1t W q
directly calculated to destroy the conidenc
oC the country in all subsequent decisions CT
t',a court, or, i'll other worl,s, to do:troy the
u,ui.lar respect for tho wno.e OF that enor.
nous branch of American Jurisprudence
which j. embodied in judicia! decisions thai
it WIS really IN interference by the EXecu
Tive atonc-au interference, too, such as
lnvn!ty in lis worst days has never at
t,uItrd-hctwecn private suitors about :
laa;Icr OF property, the President having
u-cd hi, authority to affect the result Ct
the suit almost as directly as il he hac
sent military force to prevent the exccu'
ton Of a writ or to intilnidate the judges
um The bench; finally, that it was a direc'
and open talnpcring with the Constitu
ton Of the Supreme Court, on grounds o.
what seemed to the President public policy
and in preparation for what he thought ;
probable contingency (the necessity for legs
tender. in some other warj--he Ill fact con
stiiuling himself sole judge Of The whole mat
Ter. The affair reused Il good deal of indig
nation: hut the Republican party, ae party
wnkcd at it. We are glad to see that tlls
independent Republicans have taken VI
this great usurpation in their rl2t form adopt
ed at Jefferson City, and trust that 1t vii
not be overlooked in Cincinnati
A President who has successfully exer
ciSsd his discretion in this way was hardl,
TO DC in q modest frame Of mind, and wa
not likely to be filed with q very profount
respect for law or law-givcrs. But Congress
IN from doing anything to bring him bacl
TO healthier and more constitutional Tiep
Of his duties. then armed him with authorit.
such as has never been bestowed on con
etitutional ruler in any age or country b.
giving him power to suspend the HG0sd
c0r;pis over half Of the Union.