Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-12-02


ent arbitrary proceedings are bringing
upon him for the advancement of any
one but himself. He is farfrom being
the sort of man to bring himself into
trouble for the sake of placing another
in power and then sitting down with
Macbeth's Responding reflection to
comfort him:
upon my head he placed a fruitIess crown,
And put q barren seeptre in my grip;
Thence TO be wrenched with am unlineal
No son Of mine succeeding. II IL be so,
For Banquo,s issue have fiiled my soul.
To make them kings, the seed of Bonquo
kings"
Our Macbeth works for no Banquo
but for himself. -
Ii is true that there are great con-
stitutional obstacles to this course,
but where has Grant or the Radical
party once failed where the provisions
of the constitution were their only
obstacle.
The one consideration which makes
the people instinctively shrink from
the contemplation of this possible
juncture is the feeling that if this
browning usurpation be attempted war
is the only remedy, and the calamities
ofwar have been so cruelty experienced
by us in our late struggle that any pos
sible result is contemplated in prefer
ence to that. If the alternative be
between war or submission, the lat
ter we believe would be chosen.
But thank God war is not the only
alternative for those who are not pre-
pared to submit. The august founders
of our constitution were wiser than
their descendants they sought their
presidents for security from the his
tory of their mother country which
they knew SO well, and in their provis-
ions against tyrany AID usurpation they
only continued the craftsmanship with
which Hamdben and Pym extorted
usuFped powers from the hands of the
Stewards. ..
1t was not for nothing that the orig
ination of all money bills was reserved
to the popular branch Of our legisla-
ture, the House of Representatives.
They knew that from the operation
of such laws the sword had in olden
times been caused to fall from the
paralysed hands Of tyranny and they
also knew that what had happened
might come around again, and as last
resort the House of Representatives,
holding the weapon which had been
found irresistible in the hands of the
English Commons from which it was
copied, will always be able to disarm
usurped powers however strongly
backed.
/ The executive may command armies
and navies but the House has only to
refuse supplies and not man can be
paid or fed or clothed. it may invent
countless Offices and shower Them on
its satellites; but the minious can gel
neither pelf or pay while Congress
holds the purse strings.
This is then the bulwark which ouI
ancestors have erected for us against
/ the -usurpation of despotic powers by
any one. THE MONEY POWER REsTRIC.
TED TO THE POPULAR BRANCH OF
/ CONGRESS. And our representative;
need only posses the knowledge Of
their power and the courage of the sit
uation to defy stronger enemies of ouI
liberty than this:
"Cutpurse of the empire and the realm;
/ Who from shelf the precious diadem steal
| An put ii in his Docket"
! We cannot better close this subject
than with a paragraph from De Llome't
treatise on the English constitution
relating to the efficacy of this money
I'power in opposition to executive ag'
gression.
He has just closed his chapter OF
the extent of the royal prerogative
and proceeds as follows:
I'm reading the foregoing enumera.
ton of the powers with which the laws
of England have intrusted the king
we are at a lost to reconcile them with
the idea of monarchy, which, we are
told, is limited. The king not only
unites in himself all the branches Of
the executive power, he not only dis
poses, without control, of the whole
military power in the State-but he is
moreover, it seems, master of the Law
itself, since he calls up, and dismisses,
at his will, the legislative bodies. We
find him, therefore, at first sight, in
vested with all the prerogatives that
ever were claimed by the most absolute
monarchs; and we are at a loss to find
that liberty which the English seem SC
confident they possess.
But the representatives of the peo-
pie still have-and that is saying
enough-they still have in their hands
now that the constitution is fully cs-
tablished, the same powerful weapon
which has enabled their ancestors tC
establish it. 1t is still from their LIB,
erty alone that the kings can Obtain
subsidies, and in these days, wher
everything is rated by pecuniary est
mation-when gold is become the great
moving spring of affaiTs-it may bi
falsely affirmed, that he who depends
on the will Of other men, with regard
to so important an article, is (whatevel
his power may be in other respects) IL
a state of real dependence.
The king OF England, therefore, hal
the prerogatiye of commanding armies
and equiping feets-but without thl
concurrence of his parliament he can
not maintain them. He can bestov
places and employment-but withou
his parliament he cannot pay the sala.
ries attending on them. He can de
clare war-but withouthis parliament
it is impossible for him to carry it on
In word, the royal prerogative, des
titute as it is of the power Of imposing
taxes, is like vast, body, which can.
not of itself accomplish its motions
or, if you please, it is like ship com
pletely equipped, but from which the
parliament can at pleasure draw of
the water, and leave 1t aground
and also set it afoat again, by granting
subsidies"