Year: 1869




than Grant will be if he continues to submit


quietly to the entangling contrivances which


the party majorities in bouth houses of Con
gress now seem bent on throwing about him


The question is still open whether he is to bt


master in his own house, or only the chic


lackey there wearing the livery of q congres
| sional caucus. Thus far circumstances are


more indicative of the latter than of the
former result The Radical politicians ap
pear to have temporized with him for a while
| for the purpose of testing both his temper
and his acumen. They have found him un.
expectedly plant in the one and about as des.
titute in the other as an oyster is of eyes.
They wound him down from his elevation in
respect to the tenure Of Office repeal by the
thread of a trickish piece of legislation with
as much facility as a boy winds down his kite
when he doesn't care to let it sail and fiutter
any longer. He is now aware, doubtless,
that he signed the conference bill modifying
the tenure of Office act under a total misap-
prehension of its real purport and effect. He
approved it on the ground that, for practical
purposes touching removals and substitutions,
it amounted to an indirect repeal of the act,
whereas, in legal construction, it is reasser-
ton of the power Of the Senate to revise and
annul the action of the President in the mat
ter of discharging and suspending obnoxious
officials


Well, what is he to do ? Will he 60 against
this construction and carry out his view of
what the law ought to be-? If so, he might
as well have disregarded the tenure of Office
act as it stood in the beginning. And if SO,
how will the proceeding comport with his
express promise to execute all the laws just as
he finds them, whether they meet his approval
or disapproval And if so, what is to decide
the issue Of such a collision between the ex-
ecutive and the Legislative authority2 The
judiciary or the strong arm2 Should a sus-
pended officer excluded from his place with
out the Senate's consent appeal to the judi
ciary, there can hardly be doubt that, as
far as the legal effect of the terms of the law
is concerned, the question would be decided
against the President. But suppose the con-
stitutionality of the law is tried on behalf of
the President before the Supreme Court,





that, as this court is now constituted it would
pronounce unconstitutional and void all the
legislation by which the Radical politicians
in Congress tied the hands of johnson and
are now seeking to tie the hands of Grant.
But let no one suppose that the latter even
with auspices of the present judiciary in his
favor, will extricate himself easily from the
meshes of these politicians as long
as they shall be united in some common
scheme for making him the puppet of Con-
gress. The same pettiiogging audacity which
found means of shutting the mouth of the
Supreme Court with regard to the constitu-
tionality of the reconstruction laws would
not hesitate to try the same method of main
aiming an unconstitutional tenure of Office
aw. Where, then, is the actual solution of
he still problematical relations between
irant and Congress, or rather between Grant |
nd the senatorial oIgarchs, to be looked for |
seems to us that the question must turn
{ last upon square trial of comparative
luck and audacity-that either Grant or the |
congressional caucus which hopes to make |
i'm its seryiceable tool must at length un-
surrender. The preponderance /
rival authorities has always been thus de-
ided in revolutionary times, and if these
ines are not revolutionary there never
'ere such. Congress is a revolutionary as
embly. Grant is q revolutionary President.
he genius of the government no longer re-
ldes in the Constitution; it is identical with
ne supreme spirit of revolution. Senator
prague no doubt had this idea dimly in mind
hen he declared his belief that the present
ondition and construction of the two houses
Congress will produce revolution" Had
is words covered the extent of his meaning
Q would doubtless have said that only revo-
ltionary agency of some sort, with more or
SIS shock to the country, could resolve the
roblem OF the revolutionary situation. And
9 believes that in this final conflict Congress
i'll be precipitated from the bad eminence of
8 usurped power But is Grant the man to
feet such en- overthrow? Time alone can
lswer. Meanwhile, his apparent pliancy to
e manipulations of the Radical politicians
ould scarcely indicate that he has in him the
uff for such work.