Year: 1867




support of his policy of reconstruction, and
we hear nothing of him but what comes by
second hand. He could not avoid sending
IN an annual message to Congress without
breach in the routine of his official duties
which he had not the courage or originality
to make; but, save and except the message,
he has been close of speech as an oyster, and
we have to judge more from other sources
than declarations to his constituents of his
intentions. 1t would seem as though the
Southern managers, having secured Johnson
/ by plying him with Democratic whisky and
having him exhibited drunk throughout the
North, and irrevocably committed him to
their cause, have shut down upon his grog,
and intend keeping him where they have got
him, and to let him say nothing publicly
which will expose their designs. We hear
of no more serenades and maudlin speeches
made from garden walls, or of fulsome dec
larations of policy addressed to smiling dele
cations of rebels and copperheads. Whatev-
er the President says upon National affairs is
spoken to the elect of his creed in the strict
est confidence and apparently with the per-
feet understanding that if his conversations
are reported beyond the select circles for
which they are intended, or in any manner
leak out and become public property, he is
| at liberty to deny them, and his denial is not
to be gainsayed. 1t tmust be rather annoying
| to high-toned and high born chlvalrous gen.
tlemen to have the lie direct showed down
their throats by the ex-tailor because he is
now President and has them in his power,
but he having them thus, for the good of
their cause and their own safety they submit.
Fortunately we are not left to Johnsons ut
| terances for guide to the knowledge of his
present intentions. He has been very busy
at work since his defeat in November, and
has left in the record of his acts clear trail
by which men may determine his ultimate
| objects. He still intends to pursue his at
tempt to foist his rebel State Governments
into the Union, and to reinstate them in their
old place of power. The old order of things
is to be re-established in the South, and un-
der the egis of State rights and Executive
protection the patriarchal system is to take a
new lease of life and greatness. Already we
hear that, under the order of the President
suspending the Civil Rights Act in North
Carolina, negroes are daily whipped in pub
lie, and sold at sheriff s sale into slavery to
the highest bidder; and the planting interest
IS all aglow with satisfaction at the promised
return of the good old days when they own
ed their gangs of hands and had them under
strict Southern discipline. Planters regard
Johnson's setting aside General Sickles' or
der preventing the whipping and sale of ne
groes in his Department, as virtually return
ing the blacks to slavery, and if Johnson's
order in the premises were final the planters
would be right. Luckily for the negro-and
for the master, too, we think-the President
has not got the saying of the last word in
the matter. He may make his orders now,
and for the present excite the hopes of the
slaveocracy and depress those Of the blacks,
but there is power behind the throne, lodg-
ed by the people and the Constitution in the
hands of Congress, which is ample to finally
remedy all the disorders in the South of reb-
el and Executive creation. Those who think
they see in the one-man-power of the Presi-
dent compact and harmonious force, which
is capable of resisting and overcoming the
bulky and unwieldly power of Congress, are
mistaken, and have not read Alright all the
precedents of history. 1t is only when the
Legislative Department of Government is
divided and distracted, and its force dissipat-
ed by its internal dissensions, and it has
ceased to represent the people, that even the
Executive is able to overcome it. A compact
and courageous Legislature wields immense
power, and when backed, as it always should
be, it is irresistible. Charles l., of England,
and Louis WI, of France, met such Legis-
latures, and in resisting them met their doom.
Indeed the science of modern kingcraft and
| of all other Governments not absolutely des-
potic, consists in bowing to the final decision
of the people, as expressed through their
Legislatures, and he who seeks, by 1nterpos-
ing his feeble body, to stay the rising tides of
the popular demands in government, is swept
away or beaten down into the quicksands OF
his egotism. There was never assembled a
more united legislative body than the present
Congress, and never did the legislature of a
country have heartier endorsement from its
people. 1t has all the elements-unanimity
of counsels and popular support-it only re-
mains to be seen if its members have the
courage to give effect to its power. The Ex-
ecutive may be more prompt in determining
and carrying out his measures, but the ris
inertie of Congress is sufficient to crush and
grind to powder all obstacles which stand in
its path. 1t is certain that Johnson means to
obstruct its reconstruction of the disorganiz-
ed States. Let it meet his interference as
becomes its dignity. Let it not fritter away
its'time and strength in skirmishing around
/ the main question with iInmaterial matters.
1t is tedious way to kill an evil by Topping
at its branches-rather strike at its root at
once. The one stumbling block now in the
way of a perfect reconstruction of the South
Is treason in the White House. Let Con-
gress remove that obstacle, and the rest OF
the process of reconstruction is plain and
Easy OF accomplishment. Congress should
take lesson from its foe, and be up and
earnestly at work upon its purposes. Let ii
remove the President, call on the Legislature.
OF the loyal States now represented in Con.
gress TO ratifY the Amendments and ,,.ho