Year: 1871

The Presidents Message on Southern


Disordcrs-specinI Legislation Recon-


n,ended.


The President has at last done that which
he should have done at the meeting Of the pre-
sent session Of Congress. He has sent up to
the two houses message recommending, as
imperatively demanded, legislation on certain
matters. He says that in some of the States
(meaning the Southern States) life and pro-
perty are insecure and the carrying Of the
mails and the collection of the revenue dan
gerons that he Is satisfied that the power to
correct these evils is beyond the control of the
State authorities concerned, and that he Is
doubtful whether bis authority to act In the
premises under existing laws is sufficient for
the emergencies suggested. He therefore
urges such legislation as will authorize him
freely to &C. in the protection of life, liberty
and property in all parts of the United States,
and suggests that the extraordinary executive
powers which may thus be conferred upon him
shall by the law be limited to the interval
between the final adjournment of the present
session and the reassembling Of the two houses
at the next session of Congress.


The message is to the point and to the pur-
pose; but if General Grant on the organization
of this Congress on the 4th of March had in
formed the two houses as to the measures of
legislation in his judgment urgently required,
and as to other measures which might be
safely postponed, the work suggested might
have been done and the session closed week
or fortnight ago. In the absence Of any
specific recommendations from the Executive,
on the other hand the two houses have been
blundering along in the dark, and the members
identified with the administration, for lack of
better employment, have been wrangling
among themselves and widening the demorali-
cations of the republican party. In realizing
the fact that he has been too modest by half in
this matter, and that it is sound policy as well
as his duty to communicate frankly and
promptly his views upon public affairs to Con-
gress, General Grant, 1t is to be hoped, will
not stand upon any foolish reservations of non-
Intervention hereafter touching the legislation
Of Congress. The two houses expect him.
and the country expects him, from time to
time" as the constitution requires, to ''give
the Congress information of the state Of the
Union" and to recommend to their con-
sideration such measures as he shall
judge necessary and expedient." The
constitution says not that he may,
but that she shalr do this. Hence we may
say General Grant, in failing to send up
message to Congress con the state Of the
Union" at the organization of this session
failed in his duty. He did not like, perhaps,
tc interfere or seem to interfere with the free
action of Congress; hut it is his business to
interfere, as the law of his Office requires.


Better late, however, than never, though it
is best to act promptly where duty is con-
cerned. Doubtless law will now be passed
covering the necessities suggested by this
special message. In his information that in
some of the States ''lifs and property are inse-
cure" General Grant, doubtless, means
especially the States of North and South
Carolina; the danger suggested in the carrying
OF the mails applies to the late case in
Kentucky, in which, from the mobbing of the
negro mail carrier, the mails on that route
have been suspended. AS TO the dangers con-
nected with the collection of the revenue, the
President means those contraband whiskey
distillers and their confederates who, in
North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama
and elsewhere, not only defy the internal
revenue officers, but kill them or drive them
away. In all these lawless doings General
Grant unquectonably means that the Southern
Ku Klux Klans are chiefly the guilty parties,
from his reference to the evidence before the
Senate, and the legislation limited at is some
thing in the shape Of the law Of Washngton's
time for the suppression of the Pennsylvania
whiskey insurrection. We suppose, too, that
some such bill as that proposed by Senator
Pomeroy will be passed, authorizing the Presi-
dent, in any district where he may deem it
necessary, to suspend the habeas corpus, to
declare martial law, and to employ the army
and navy against the lawless bands indicated.


Beyond this legislation General Grant has
nothing to recommend as necessary at the
present session. In other words, he suggests
no legislation at present on the tariff or the in
ternal revenue-the very subjects upon which
the whole people are most deeply interested.
He is 10 no hurry about St. Domingo, and
here he is right St. Domingo can wait
little longer. Lastly, it would appear that he
expects nothing from the Joint High Commits
sion or from the Darien exploring expedition
requiring the detention of Congress. Perhaps
he expects that the ''Joint High diplomats on
the Alabama claims and on the fishing line
will fight it out in dining and wining, eff it