Year: 1864

| From tho N. Y. Round Table.


The marvellous capacity of the Constitu


ton to meet every strait is no reason 70


the wild application of its real powers, o


for calling into play other powers not real


as If the means were of little moment.


is, in fact, the very reason why the consti


tuition should be held Of priceless account


and the utmost pains be taken to keep i


invioate. A loose notion widely prevail.


that it is necessity alone which justifies


many of the strong acts and policies Of tht


government, and that this supposed neces
sity may warrant anythn g,'either now or ir
| time to come. Were not this mere Chi


mera. were it an actual principle, it would


be fatal. To adopt it would be simply tc
sweep down every safeguard, and keep the
way ever open to tyranny or anarchy


Outside Of the constitution there is no ne
cessity which any body has right to sec
or know, or dream Of So far as related ia
this republic, the Constitution is just as alb
solutely the supreme law of the solar sys-
tenn. Break in upon it, and chaos is upon
you. There is one necessity, and only one
which can be recognized-military necessi.
ty. But that is inside Of the constitution.
In giving government the right to suppress
instructions and to make war, the consti-
tuition, in the absence Of all Limitation, in,
vests government with all the war powers
known to military usage; and those pow.
crs may be exercised to any extent nccesi.
ty may demand. The military necessity
has no independent authority of its own
it acts solely because it is authorized by the
constitution. The President Of the United
States, in his capacity as commander in
chief of the army and navy, is responsible
for its right conduct. If unwarrantable
deeds are committed or permitted by him
in his name, he makes himself just as liza.
BILE to impeachment and punishment as he
would by any malfeasance Of a civil nature.
Thus, under our constitutional system,
there is no such thing as arbitrary military
powcr-no more than arbitrary civil power.
The one power may be, in certain circum-
stances, vastly more extended than the
other, but both alike are bound to constitu.
tional responsibility. But war powers can
not outlast the war itself. To base mill
tary necessity on state of peace would
be an absurdity. When men speculate,
then, about the reduction Of the states now
in rebellion to the condition of territories,
" Oc udltltalueu dlteT ttIc IcUtl dIIlS u0Nc
been laid down, and until certain condi.
tions not required by the constitution are
complied with, they talk without reason.
They may insist ever so strongly that there
will be necessity for it, but that does not
help them. The authority of the constitu.
ton is superior to any mans idea Of neces
sity. And it is very certain that the Con-
stitution, though in time of war it may
convert states or parts of states into militia
ry departments and govern them as militia
ry necessity may demand, cannot without
violence to its vital principle govern states
in that way in time Of peace. Not only is
all such power absent from the constitution,
but it is expressly debarred by the consti-
sutton, in the clause which binds the Unit
ed States to guarantee to every State in
this Union republican form government"
A government imposed by any power apart
from the peopleis not republican. TO seek
to avoid this guarantee by first pretending
to transform the states into territories, and
then claiming that the guarantee does not
apply to territories, is to every sane man a
mockery. When the Union is made to
juggle like that for Its life, it had better die
ut once.