Year: 1868

and the wisdom that Is peculiar to him.


self. Laughter He had said, in his


proclamation, which he issued immedi-


ately after the surrender of Lee and


Johnston, that this rebellion had, in its
progress, swept away all civil Govern


ment in rebel States, and that the Gov


ernment of the United States owed it as


duty to that section of the country to


establish local State Governments there


and he: Andrew Johnson being the


United States) undertook to do it,


Laughter And he did it-"in q


horn" Great laughter, and cries OF


And he did it with a horn."l Yes,


both, / accept the amendment. Shouts


of laughter. He did it both ways. The


President of the United States, as such,
clearly had no authority over the sub
ject. Our people, when they framed
our Government, were jealous Of the EX-
ecutive power-that is, the kingly pow
er. Our forefathers were Englishmen.
They remembered well the contests that
had stained the soil of England with


blood, in the struggle to wrest rights and
principles from the crown and deposite
them for safe use and practical exer-
else with the Parliament of England;
and when they framed our Constitution,
they determimined to limit and circum-
/ SCIlbc dllu pluu tlOWH uOWn billS ell
croaching Executive power within very
narrow limits. There is no danger of
oppression of the people by Congress-
The danger is always of oppression and
usurpation coming from that power
! which is centralized in one mans bo-
som. There is no danger that Congress,
rent asunder as it is, and ever will be, by
cliques and factions will ever consent to
oppress the people, because they can
never agree, among themselves which
clique shall be the oppressors. Laugh
! ter MIR. Fessenden will have his little
circle of friends; Judge Trumbull will
have his; Judge Howe will have his
And so there are a dozen of cliques in
the Senate, and the danger is that they
wont be able to get together and do some
| things that ought to be done some time.
| lGreat laughter and applause Not so


with the President of the United States.
| That great rash act of his which brought
on his impeachment-the removal of
the Secretary of War, for no offense eX-
cept for differing from him in opinion,
and differing from him in this particu-
lar, that the Secretary of War thought
/ fit to act according to the Constitution,
and with the party and with the friends


who placed him in power-that rash act
of the President of the United States was
no deliberation with any ybOdy. No Cab
met officer knew anything about it.
| Neither Seward nor his chum Randall
| that the thing was to be done. 1t was
/ the result of o consultation between An
| drew johnson and his dimijohn alone.
| [Great applause and laughter. and
| when the purpose was formed it was
executed by an order written at his own


table, at night. No other mon had to
| be got to sign it, no ambitious clique had
to lie cOnciliated. [Applause.]
! This have alluded to only to illus
trate the fact and the theory that free
| dom is il no danger of overthrow from a
Congress or Parliament or any other
multitudinous deliberate body. 1t is al
ways in danger of encroachment and
overthrow from power which is CONSOLE
dated and may be exercised upon the
| volitiOn Of a single man. So our faith
ers, when they framed the Constitution,
laid upon that office the firmest and the
strongest bond. The President of the


United States shall be the Commander
| in-Chief of the army and navy; he may
grant pardons and reprieves; he may re-
ceive Ambassadors and other Foreign
Minister'S; he may commission officers
of the United States when properly ap-
| pointed, and he shall see that the laws
be faithfully executed. These are the
powers which are vested in the Presi-
dent, independent of Congress and CO.
operation with Congress. Now, it is
manifest that none of these powers in
| clude that of reconstructing State Gov
eminent, and when Andrew johnson
undertook to do so he committed a usur-
patton upon the rights of the people and
upon the Constitution of the United
States, which would have brought a
monarch of England to the block. There
! was no pretense OF color of law in his
whole proceedings. He called consti-
tutional Convention to frame Govern
ments, declared the qualifications of vo-
tiers, and the qualifications of those who
should be elected to the Convention
But suppose those voted who were not
qualified-suppose those came to the
Convention who were not entitled to a
seat under his prociamation-wha was
the consequence? He could not pun
ish, for the simple reason that he douid
not make law. His whole proceedings
were unauthorized, and necessarily and
consequently void. But as to the pow
er of the President, need not push
step further or discuss it at length, be-


cause even the Democracy themselves
concede he has no power; and as far as
discussion of this question as part of
our platform is concerned, it is sufficient
to rest it there. Tney admit this point.


The question then recurs, where is
the power of the General Government
to frame Governments in these rebel
States? And, in the first place the gen.
eral proposition may be laid down that
if the power is in the Government of
the United States at all, and is not con


10 fI,.. Anr.t
some other officer of the Government
then it is surely vested in Congress; be-
cause the Constitution provides that
Congress shall have power to make all
laws necessary and proper to carry into
execution the power conferred upon
Congress and all other powers conferred
upon the United States, or any depart
ment or officer thereof; consequently, if
the power of framing these State Gov
ernments reposes in the General Gov
ernment, and not in the people of Geor-
gia and, as it is conceded, every man
can settle the question for himself by
thirty minutes reading, that the Con-
stitution does not locate this power in
the President, or any ether specific OIL
Ger, or in the courts, then it follows ne
cessarily that this power of the Govern
ment is to- be exercised through the
power of Congress, to make laws to car
nv that power into execution.


But l do not propose to rest here upon
this mere general proposition, although
it is entirely conclusive. There are 9TH
er provisions of the Constitution, and
other distinct grounds upon which this
power may be safely rested.


The Constitution provides that Con-
gress may admit new States" Now,
what is the meaning of admitting a
:" new State"-and what is a State TO be
admitted? Half the confusion that the
public labor under, regarding this sub
iecL. has arisen from the fact that the
word State" in the Constitution is used
with various mea lings. Sometimes it
is used in u geographical sense, and
sometimes in political sense. For in
stance. when the Constitution provides