Year: 1867

In present circumstances Congress Is the
great police power of the Government. As an
influential Senator says, Congress In session is
equal to dozen major-Renerals. Had Congress
been sitting Judge Kelley would never have
been assaulted in Mobile.n At present the
President, overawed by the fear of July ses.
sion, ventures on no open demonstration against
the Military Reconstruction act. What mis-
underhand efforts are we can easily judge from
the tone of bis friends and their struggles TO
thwart it. II will be recollected that Congress
ordered a session in July, and one will take
place unless so many absent themselves as to
leave no quorum. Now, let no quorum appear
let Mr.. Johnson see such Indifference on the
part of Congress and such trust in himself as
will lead its members to stay at home, and we
shall soon have such executive interference at
the South as will substantially defeat the whole
policy OF the Military act. No intelligent man
can doubt as to the disposition of the President.
The instances of his interference hitherto the
opinions of the Attorney General furnished to
order, and intended as the basis of future ope-
rations, all plainly demonstrate where Mr.. john
sons heart is. Doubtless even these indications
of his real wish would have been withheld, and
the North kept wholly in the dark, had this
been possible; but IL was necessary 10 give
his friends, North and South, some clue to his
plan; otherwise they might so fully cooperate
with military reconstruction, and he so far CON-
mittcd 70 1t, as to make retreat difficult, If not
impossible.


We are far from regarding The Military act as
perfect, or a 6naity. Except as O gain and
pledge of future still more stringent action, we





to prolong the confusion and embarrass the
Republican party, we should rejoice In the post
ponement OF session, sure that in that long
five months monopoly OF power, the President
would play such tricks before high heaven and
the people, as would bring their representatives
together in December in such mood OF positive
and angry radicallsm as the nation has not yet
seen.


Let Mr.. johnson remove General Sheridan,
and he doubles the chances of con6scation
forty acres for each laborer, and constitutional
amendment securing suffrage and universal
education. Jefferson Davis wrote Lncolns
proclamation of emancipation. Southern armies
forced the anti-slavery amendment on the Gov
ernment. Congress may meet in July and
complete its own measure, "hivng up wisdomr
as event after event shows its defects; or men,
bers may desert their places, be recreant to
duty, and tempt Executive violence aud usur-
pat on until an indignant people force them
back to their places with orders to sweep the
South, like athreshing floor, clean of everything
which lifts its head ABOVE the one dea level of
unquestioning submission to the sword OF the


The friend of the South, who longs that she
may have rest; the business man, waiting anxl-
ously for quiet waters, that he may spread his
sails; the patriot, who breads any prolongation
of this critical state of national affaIrs-are all
pleaders with Congress that it assemble and
watch its own work. Let not lookers-on sneer-
inely ''guess" that we should have an extra
session If members were paid by the day; but
paid salary by the year, they mind their own
private affairs, and let the nation stagger on
under its burden OF a traitor head. The people
will note carefully who report themselves ut the
Capitol on July 4,and they will hold the absent to
strict account. Let no mem Der hope for mercy
who balks us. There is no serving by substI
tute In this warfare. Congress can delegate its
power to no deputy. The great council OF the
nation at all times, and nov its great police
power, it cannot surrender the Government into
any hands. Charge the delay, the peril, and
the blood of the next four years to the loiterers
at home, Ii their absence defeats the session in
July.


The Presidential election grows nearer and
nearer. The two great parties in the game are
Andrew Johnson and the Republicans The
Democrats stand aside, biding their time; to
submit in silence If the Republicans kno their
opportunity, to sweep the board for clean can
dioate IT, by any chance. johnson wins-not
Tor himself, but for some less known traitor. AS
the interval shortens the President grows more
urgent. His success lies in defeating Congress
at the South. The summer OF 1866 will be
repeated if he has Washington to himself from
July to December How near that mistake of
1865 brought us to grave disaster we all know.
Every Congressman knows this, and will be
held responsible for conduct be6tting such
knowledge. There is a negligence so gross that
the law deems it equivalent to dishonesty. Any
member of Congress who, with the experience
OF 1867 behind him, exposes us to another such
summer will be guilty of that ''gross negll-
gence" which the Roman lawyers define as
"the not Growing what all men know" We
hold every loiterer at home who prevents July
session guilty OF that Fraud which the law at
tributes to such negligence.


- WENDELL PHILLIPS.