Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-02-20


of law. have lived to see it gov
eminent of personal will. Congress
has dwindled from power to dictate
law and the policy of the government
to a. commission to audit accounts
and to appropriate moneys to enable
the executive to execute his will and
not ours
Senator Wade of Ohio said about
the same time:
When the foundation of this gov
eminent is sought to be swept away
by executive usurpation, it will not
do to turn around to me and say that
this come from president whom I
hepled to elect" i
General ]. w. Cox recalled years
afterward that in that same month
he dined in Washington with Henry
Winter Davis and General Schenck.
"The berating of Lincoln" by these
two, wrote Cox, was something to
take ones breath away. l was ut
terly dismayed."
Criticism and Abuse.
Even in the darkest days of the
military operations of the Civil War.
Lincoln was criticised and abused no
more savagely than in the last months
of his life when the downfall Of the
Confederacy was assured He was
headed straight for a collision with
the Republican Congressional leaders
when he died. Lincoln wanted his
own way in bringing the Southern
States back into the Union; the Re-
publican Congressional leaders want
ed another way. Lincoln's policy
was founded on the constitutional
theory which had so strengthened his
hands when the Civil War began, that
a state could not secede. Consequent
ly, when the Confederacy collapsed,
Union. but in the position of territory
under temporary military rule. 1t
followed. according to Lincoln's the
| DRY, that reconstruction was the bust
ness of the executive and that the
Southern States could be reorganized
by military order.
Lodges Prototypes.
The Republican leaders in Con.
gress, Sumner, Wade, Stevens and
Davis. bitterly contested Lincoln's
policy, holding that the Southern
States were really out of the Union,
although they had hitherto denied
[ their constitutional right to secede.
This new position was taken in order
that Congress might dictate the terms
of the Southern States readmission
into the Union. The question of inn
mediate negro suffrage was of course
| one of the chief differences between
Congress and the president. But
Lincoln's policy exposed him to the
charge of 'autocracy and ignoring
Congress, just as Wilson's policy in
T negotiating the peace treaty of YER
sailles has exposed him to the charge
of autocracy and ignoring the Sen
ate." Ben Wade said of Lincoln:
IF the president Of the United
States. operating through his major
generals, can initiate a state govern
ment, and can bring it here and force
us to receive as associates
on this floor these mere mockeries,
these men Of straw who represent
nobody your republic is at an end"
Striking Parallel.
A parallel wonderfully striking in
some ways can now be drawn between
Lincoln and Wilson At the close of
a great victorious war. Lincoln sought
alone to reconstruct the Union; Will
son, at the end of another great and
victorious war, sought to reconstruct
the world. Lincoln adhered strictly
to his constitutional conception of
executive power in reconstruction. yet
he bitterly offended the Congressional
politicians who demanded for them
selves control of the reconstruction
process; Wilson has adhered strictly
to his constitutional rights as chief
executive, in treaty making, yet he
too offended senators and came into
collision with Senatorial pride and
power. Both presidents were de-
nounced, probably with equal Sc
verify. as autocrats and usurpers for
attempting to impose their will upon
the country regardless of division
in public sentiment and of Congress
sional opposition.
LncOln's Enemies Failed.
The sequel in Lincoln's case is a
matter of historical record. His OPP
ponents - Sumner. Stevens, Wade,
Davis-triumphed the moment the
president was struck down by Wilkes
Booths bullet In President Andrew
johnson they met weak antagonist.
in the battle for the support of public
opinion in the North, although John
sons reconstruction policy was es-
sentially that of Lincoln. Johnson was