National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-05-01

W duUtHGE. uCI 10 du ChCVubNNC
officer, is responsible not to the legislative,
but, first, TO the President as the chief e1-
ecutive, and ultimately to the people.
Therefore, he will submit to no imperti-
nent inquiries into his Department by the
Senate. ~.
There was no shooting of Parthian
arrow in that. 1t was the cool. calm
and deliberate reasoning Of the General,
sustained by jackson and the whole De-
mocrscy, The Globe was the national or
gan; the authoritative exponent of the
creed Of the party. 1t says. February 4,
1857, on commenting on the Wise investi-
cation: -.....
'Ths Wise proceeding in regard TO the Gov
| erpment is precisely the same in principle
as if an individual were called up to the bar
| of the court, and told by the presiding judge !:
You are a gWilty man; ne sciH not say in what
respect, but you are corrupt; and, 10 establish
this charge, ace call apoR you TO lay before the
court erery act of yotsr life, and every item OF
erery transaction in Ipliiei yoH hare been e'I-
aged $ This is worse than the way
in which old women were tried as witches.
They were sewed up in bag, and thrown
into the sea. IL they foated, they were
weighed down and sunk by force; their guilt
being established by floating. If they. sunk of
themselves, they drowned themselves; and Sc
the ordeal ended"
1t had previously, in 1884, in support of
Postmaster General Barry's defiance Of the
Senate committee, denounced 'fhe Sen
ate's impeaching inquisitors" in requesting
certain information as guilty of ga mon
"strous outrage upon the Constitution, the
"nghts of the people, the rights Of the
peoples representatives,, and the rights OF
"the executive departments % Subse.
quently Amos Kendall, Barry's successor
as Postmaster General, carried this Demo
cratic doctrine of the independence of the
coordinate branches of the Government in
their separate spheres to the extent of open
resistance in the celebrated case of Stock
ton and Stokes vs.. the Post Office Depart
ment, to the mandamus of the judiciary
ordering him TO obey the law.
At the very next term, in 1889, before
the celebrated Harlan committee, of which
Mr.. Wise was member, we find the same
doctrine, in almost the same language, laid
down by Collector Hoyt, of New York.
In memorial TO the committee he reminds
them that
'Under the free Constitution and equal laws
of the United States lie was not obliged to
submit to any such examination for the pur-
pose OF furnishing evidence against himself; ;
and that such course Of procedure, illegal and
oppressive in any tribunal, was particularly so
in a committee Of the House OF Representa-
tives, to which body the Constitution has re-
ferred the exclusive power of impeaching your
memOrialists and other public officers for OIL
cial malconduct.'
He only submits to avoid clamor and
Misrepresentation.
Again, the Globe February 10, 1880 in
dignantly denounces those unconstitutional
proceedings. 1t says, in supporting Hoyt's
memorial:
ain the account which Mr.. Prescott gives
us, in his recent history OF Ferdinand and Iss-
bella, of the origin and founding of the InIui-
sition, we may find the model of these proceed
ings. The unfortunate man (says the elo-
| quent historian) was kept, for some time, in
| ignorance even Of the nature Of the charges
| preferred against him d; and, At length, instead
OF the original process, was favored only with
extracts from the dispositions Of witnesses, so
garbled as to conceal every possible clue to
| their name and quality
Instead of affording him the protection ac-
corded by every other judicature, and espe-
cially demanded in his forlorn situation, 1t
used the most insidious arts to circumvent and
| to crush him. He had no remedy against
malice or Misrepresentation on the part of his
| accusers or the witnesses against him, who
| might DC his bittercst enemies, since they were
never revealed to nor confronted with the
/ prisoner, nor subjected TO across-examination,
which can best expose error or willful collision
| in the evidence"
And much more in a similar view. AL
those investigations were unconstitutional.
If the Senate investigated it was violent
infraction of the constitutional rights of the
House; if the House Investigated it was a
violation of the rights of the Executive,
unconstitutional and inquisitorial, &c parte,
and having parallel only in the machin-
cry of the Spanish Inquisition.
These extracts might he multiplied al
most indefinitely. under all subsequent
Democratic Administrations Pierce
and Buchanar-all OF whom figured
prominently in the scenes attending the
corruptions of Jackson's and Van Buren's!
The principles upon which they are based
are deliberately defended in Folks last
message, and among the latest acts of Blu
chanan' S is his protest TO the Covode COM
uittee of 1860, denying the power of the
House ITO investigate whether the Presi-
"dent OF the United States, or any other
"oilicer of the Government, has, by
money, patronage or other improper
means, sought to influence the action OF
Congress, or any committee thereof, for
cor against the passage of any bill per,
"taining to the rights of any State or Ter
"ritoIy," or to investigate "whether any
i, "oflicer or officers of the Government
"have, by combination or otherwise, pre-
vented or defeated, or attempted to pre-
event or defeat. the execution Of any law
"now upon the Statute Book, and whether
"ihe President has failed or refused to
compel the execution Of any law there
"of."
These were not the shooting of Par
THAN arrow" but the deliberate and set
tied principles or doctrines Of the Democ.
racy, extending through the whole period
of its long misrule! No special pleading
of Henry A. Wise or any one else can
alter the fact. If Jackson's letter was one
of the causes of Van Buren's defeat in
1910, the Democracy, in its long subse-
quent success, strangely thrived upon Its
doctrines.
NEW MANAGEMENT.