4. r. dartrirrsoN 4 popoieT, IN IMPORTANT PAPER I Psotest of Leading Republicans . renter " Dictatorial -MioitrpaUc•ns A IMphOi Senotoi Wade, of Mite, molitopesentotivo 47014,4 - 0-3farytand., Add Asp Lineobs'e trsiopatioa of Power to tb &proton= and scorn of the Anoint of the United Stem To Tan sorpozrEns opi.ncie oatnosstsitt. We ince read without surprise but not without indignation, the , proclamation of the President of the Sth of July, 1864. The supporters of the administration an responsible to the country for its con - d and it is Abel; right =Canty to check the encroachments of the Execu tive on the authority of Coiagreis, and to require it to confine itself to its proper sphere. • It is impossible to pass in silence this proclamation without neglecting that du i and, having taken as much:rsvotisi bility as any others in supporting the idmiin istration, we arenot disposed to fail in the ether duty of asserting the rights of Con gress. The President did not sign the bill " to guarantee to certain States whose gov ernments haiie been usurtied a republican form of government," passed by the sup. porters of his administration in both Houses of Congress after mature delibera tion. Thebill did not, therefore, become a law, and it is, therefore, nothing. The proclamation is neither an approt al nor a_veto of the bill; -it is, therefore f a document unknown to the laws and Con stitution-of the United States: - So far as it contains an apology for udt signing the bill, it is a political manifesto against the friends of the goiernment. 'So far as it proposes to execute the bill which is not a law, it is a grave Execu tive Usurpation. It is fitting that the facts necessary to ,enable the Mends of the' administration to appreciate the apology and the usurpa tion be spread before - - Tho proclamations:us:. and whereas the said bill was presents' to the Presi. Mean of the United States for his approval less than ens hoer before the sins die adtjaarnateat of said session, and was not signed by him— If that be accurate, still this bill was presented with other bills which were aigned. Within that hour, the time for the nine die adjournment was three times postpon ed by . the votes of both Rouses; and the least intimation of a desire for more time by the President to consider this bill would have secured a farther pcstpone meat. Yet the Committee sent to ascertainif the President had any further communi cation for the House of Representatives reported that he had none; and the friends of the bill who had anxio_ualy wait. ed on him to ascertain its fate, had aim dy been informed that the President bad resolved :not to sign it. ' The time of presentation, therefore,had nothing to do with his failure to approve it. The brill bad been disCassed for more than a month in the House ofßepiesenta tives, which it passed on the 4th of May.; it was reported to the Senate on the 27th of May without material amendment, and passed the Senate absolutely as it came from the House on the 2d of July. Ignorance of ita contents is out of the question. Indeed, at-his request a draft of a bill substantially the same in all material points, and identical-in taints ol4eisted_to b 7 the proclamation, bad been lard befOte him for his consideration in the winter of 1862-1863. There is, therefore, no reason to imp . - Rose the provisions of the _ h ill took the Prdent by surprise. _ On the contrary, we hale `renown to be neve them to have been so well known that this method oat preventing the bill from becoming a law without the consti tutional responsibility of a veto, had been resolved on king before the bill poised the Senate. We are informed by a gentleman anti. tied to entire confidence, that before the 224 of June in New Orleans it was stated by a member of Generarßank's staff, in' the presence of other gentlemen in official position, that Senator Doolittle bad writ ten a letter to the department that the House re-construction bill would be staved off is. 'the Senate to a period too late in the session to require the President to ve to it in order to defeat it, and that Mr. Lincoln would retain the bill, if necessary, and thereby defeat it. The experience of Senator Wade,in his various efforts to get the bill considered in the Senate, .was 'quite in accordance with that plan, and the fide of • the bill was accurately predicted' by letters re. ceived from New Orkins before it bed peened the Senate. Had the proehunation stopped there, it 'ould have 'been only one other defeat of the will of the people by an Ezeoutiyo per vensioa of the Meditation. Bit it . goes further. The .rsosident nye: , whereas, the sits Ma coati! nit. Sin= other ittbripk &plan Yo n, rartaLitirs the elates to irsbefflon to their proper nonetted relation in the 13111012. whichplan thesenso .ramo upon that autdect, an ir=its blneweits tow betas Us pecias d tbsur eonsideratlon • ' By what auttority of titte' Constitution? Iti,wlMtforms The result to be dealer ed by W hom t With sat effect viheri . ascertained? Tait to be bribe approistof the peep!, le, *shout tlsimproral:Of Copgresa *Wee; will Of the eat!;Pl Preifident, cm his opinion of O the rbs'. approval, execute it as law P Orm,thie merely a device to avoid the, serious responsibfifty of defeating a law on *Wks* many hearts reposed for. se aunty ?!; ,But the reasons now assigned for not. approving the bill are full of ominous sig nificance. The President next proceeds : Now. therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, nresiikte of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known, that, while I ant (as I was in December last, when by proclamation I propounded a plan for restoration) en. Prelim/1, by • ibrmal apprtvar of this In, to bOintlex tidy committed to any stare phitof restoration— That is to say, the President is resolv ed that the people shall not by law take any securities from the rebel States against a renewal of the rebellion before restor ing_their power to govern us. Ms wisdom and prudence are to be our sufficient guarantees ! Re further says : while I am also unprepared to declare that the Free Btate.Conßitutions and Governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana 'Smith° set aside and held for naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the tonal citizens who have set up the same as to farther effor t— That is to say, the Presidentersists in recognizing those shadows ofGovern , ments in Arkansas and Louisiana, which Congress formally declared should not bo recognized—whose Representatives and Senators were repelled by formal Notes of both Houses of Congress—Whith it was declared formally - shotdd have no elector al vote for President and,Vice Presid‘nt. They are the mere' niesturei Of bit! ill. They cannot live a day without his sup port. They ate mere oligarchies, impos ed 'on the petiplabl Militaryorders under thefOrms. of election, at which generals, provost-marshali, soldiers and camp fol lowers were the chief actors, assisted urg b e i a landfill of_ resident citizens, and on to preinature action by pivote letters thePtesident ' 2 in neither Lanigan's - iiiii - Arkaesas,lie- - tore Bank's defeat, did the United States control half the territory or half the pop dilation. In Louisiana, General Banks' proclamation candidly declared : ‘The fundamental law of the State is martial law." ' On that foundation of freedom, be area. ted what the President calla " the free Constitution and Government of Louis iana" Bat of this State, whose fundamental law was martial law, only sixteen parish es out of forty-eight parishes were held by the United States ; and in five of the six teen we held only our amps. The eleven parishes *e substantially held bad 233,185 inhabitants; the residue of the State not held by us, 575,617. At the farce called an election, the offi cers of General Banks returned that 11,. 348 ballots were cast ; but whether any or by whom the people of the United States have no legal assurance,. but it is probable that 4,000 were cast by soldiers or employees of the United States, mili tary or municipal, but none according to any law, State or National, and 7.000 bal lots represent the State of Louisiana. Such is the free Constitution and Gov ernment, of Louisiana • and like it is that of Arkansas. Nothini but the (allure of a military expedition elarived us of a like one in the swamps of Florida; and be fore the Presidential election, like ones may be organized in every rebel State where the United States have a camp. Thejtivogdent by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the rebel States at the dictation of his personal ambition. If those votes tarn the balance in his (a ver, is it to be supposed that his compet itor, defeated by such means, will acqui esce ? If the rebel majority assert their supre macy in those States, and send votes which elect an enemy of the government, will w , e not repel his claims? And is not that civil war for the Presi- dency, inaugurated by the votes of rebel States ? Seriously impressed with these dangers, Congre.ss, ",the proper constitutional an thonty,"..formalfy declared that there are no State Governments in the rebel States, and provided for their erection at a prop er time ; and both the Senate and House of Representatives rejected the Senators and Representatives chosen under the an thoriq of what the President calls the free Constitution and Government of Ar kansas. Thu President's proclamation "bolds for usught" this judgment, and discards the authority of the Supreme Court, and stridee headlong , towards the anarchy his proclamation of the Bth of. December unut prated. . If electors for President be allowed to be choien in either of those States, a sin later light will be cast on the motives whichindnced the President to "bold for nanghi" the will of Congress rather that . • • 'MONTROSE, P/., THUS DAY, 44.1:1G.,180:1864. hia government in Louisiana and Arkan• Batt 'The judgment df Congress which the President defies was the exercise of an authorityy exclusively vested in Congress by the Constitution to determine what is. the established government in a State, and in its own nature and by the highest judicial authority , binding on all other de partments of the government ' The Supreme Court his formally do <dared that under the fourtksection of the fifth'article of the Constitution, requiring the United Statedto guarantee to every State a republican form of government "it' rests with Congresito illOcide what farm of government is theilltablished one in a State ;" and "when Senators and Reli. resentativs of a State are admitted into the councils of the Union, the authority of the government under hich they are appointed, as well as its republican char acter, is recognized by the proper Consti tutional authority, and its decision ' is binding on every other department of the government, and could not be questioned in a judicial tribunal. It is true that the contest in this case did not last long en ough tit bring the matter to this issue; and as no Senators or Representatives were elected under the authority of the government of which Mr. Dorr was the head, Congress was not called upon to de cide the controversy. Yet the right to decide it is placed there." Even the President's proclamation of the Bth of December, formally declares that " whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive." And that is not the less true because wholly inconsistent with the President's assumption in that proclamation of a right to institute and recognize State gov ernments in the rebel States, nor because the President is unable to perceive that his recognition is a nullity if it be not conclusive on Congress. Under the Constitution, the right to Senators and Representatives is insepara ble from a Suite government. If there be a State government, the right is absolute. If there be no State government, there can be no Senators or Representatives chosen. The two Houses of Congregs are ex pressly declared to be the sole judges of their own members. When, therefore, Senators and Rep resentatives are admitted, the State gov ernment,under whose authority they were chosen, is conclusively established; when they are rejected, its existence is as con clusively rejected and denied ; and to this judgment the President, is bound to sub mit. The President proceeds to express his unwillingness " to declare a constitutional competency in Congress to abolish slave rpn States" as another reason for not signing the bill. But the bill nowhere proposed to abol ish slavery in the States. The bill did provide that all slaves in the rebel States should be manumitted. But as the President. - had already sign ed three bills manumitting several classes of slaves in States, it is not conceived pos sible that be entertained any scruples touching thatprovision of the bill respect ing which he is silent. He had already assumed a right by proc lamation to free much the larger number of slaves in the rebel States, under the au thority given him by Congress to use mil itary power to suppress the rebellion ; and it is quite inconceivable that the President should think that Congress could vest in him a discretion it could not exercise itself. It is the more unintelligible from the fact that, except in respect to a small part of Virginia and Louisiana, the bill coveted only what the proclamation covered—ad. ded a Congressional title and judicial rem edies by law to the disputed title under the proclamation, and perfected the work the President professed to be so anxious to accomplish. Slavery as an institution can be abol ished only by a change of the Constitu tion of the United States or of the law of the State; and this is the principle of the bill. It required the new Constitution of the State to provide for that prohibition; and the President, in the face of his own proc lamation, does not venture to object to insisting on that condition—yet be de feated the only provision imposing it But when he describes himself , in spit e of this great blow at emancipation as " sincerely hoping and expecting tilt a constitutional amendment abblishing slav ery throughout the nation may be adopt ; ed,' we curiously inquire on , what his pectations rest, after the vote of the House of Representatives at rocent session, and it) the face of the political complexion of more than enough ofthe States to pre vent the possibility of its adoption within atfy reasonable time ; and why be did not indulge his sincere hopes with so large an installment of the Me:Worm his approv al of the bill wotild have scoured: After this assignment of his reason for preventing the bill from becoming a law, the Presideit proceeds to decisrelds par= pose 0 acetate kft a lev,:by Al! pielecry &Mimic? power, He' me Nevertheless, Tara tally saddled witionto *item the restoration contliinedin the 011,sur pan Off!, nroVer plantotthe kryal people Of aby Biala choosing to adopt t ; and that I am, and anti timer stud! be, proposal to givo ths.Enccotitepldtpd assolotanco, to anrountfpft• pleas soon as tiro military resistance to the united States shall hats been summed molar such Statn.a 2l 4 the people thereof shall have adliclently returned to MU obedient:lto the Constitution and the laws of the United Rotas ; Which casco Military Governors Do Oppointed, with diroothmo to' proceed according to tits A more studied outrage on the legisla tive authoritg of W e peoplehas never been peryetratiik pealed abill Lthe President refused to approve it, and then by procla mation puts as much of it in force as , he sees tit, and proposes to execute those parts by alders ,unknowt to the laws of the United Stateii and - not subject to the confirmation of the Senate I The bill directed the appointment of Provisional Governors by and with the advice and consent of the Senata. The President., after defeating the law, proposes to appoint without law, and without the advice and consent of the Senate, Military Governors for the rebel States! He has already , exercised this eictatori al usurpation in Louisiana, and he defeat ed the bill to prevent ite limitation. Henceforth we must regard the follow ing precedent as the Presidential law of the rebel States., • &moms Msitirox,_ Wisawrwron, March 15,_1954 f /fie Eteeelleng,ifichad Hahn . Governor V.Xotristaito: Until further orders, you are herein , invested with the powers exercised hitherto by the Rutter, Governor of Yours, Annuls.* Locate. This Michael Hahn is' no officer of the United States, the President, without law, without the advice and consent of the Senate, t by a private note not even counter signed by the Sec'y of State, makes him dictator of LOuisiana ! The bill provided for the civil adminis tration of the laws of the State—till it should be in a fit temper to govern itself, repealing all laws recognizing slavery, and making all men equal before the law. These beneficent provisions the Presid ent has annulled. People will die, and marry and transfer property, and buy and sell—and to these acts of civil life courts and officers of the law are necessary.— Congress legislated for these necessary things, and the President deprives them of theprotection of the law The President's purpose to instruct his Military Govefnore to proceed accord. ing to the bill"—a' makeshift to calm the disappointment its defeat has occasioned, is not merely a grave usurpation but a transparent delusion. He cannot " proceed according to the bill" after preventing it from becoming a law. Whatever is done will be at his will and pleasure, by persons responsible to no law, and more interested to secure the in terests and execute the will of the Presid ent than of the people • and the will of Congress ri to be " held for nought," "un less the loyal people of the rebel States choose to adopt it." If they should graciously prefer the stringent bill to the easy proclamation, still the registration will be made under no legal sanction ;it will give no assur ance that a majority of the people of the States have taken the oath ; if administer ed, it will be without legal authority, and void ; no indictment will lie for false swear ing at the election, or for admitting bad or rejecting good votes; it will be the' farce of Louisiana and Arkansas acted over again, under the forms of this bill, but not by authority of law. Bat when we come to the guarantees of future peace which Congress meant to enact, the forms, as well as the substance of the bill, must yield to the President's will that none should be imposed. It was the solemn resolve of Congress to protect the loyal men of the nation against three great dangers, (1) the re turn to power of the guilty leaders to the rebellion, (2) the continuance of slavery, and (3) the burden of the rebel debt. Congress required assent to those pro visions by the Convention of the States ; and if refused, it was to be dissolved. The President " holds for naught" that resolve of Congress, because he is unwill ing "to be inflexibly committed to any one plan of restoration," and the people of the United States are not to be allowed to protect themselves unless their enemies agree to it. The order to proceed according to the bill is therefore merely at the will of the rebel States ; and they have the option to reject it, accept the proclamation of the Bth of December, and demand the Presid ent's recognition! Mark the contrast! The bill requires a majority. the proclamation is satisfied with one-tenth; the bill requires one oath, the proclamation, another; the bill -mart ains voters by registering, the proclama tion by guess ; the bill exacts adherence to visting territorial limits, theproclema don admire of others ; the bill governs the rebel States by law, equalizing all be fore it; the proclamation commits them to the lawless discretion of military Gover nors and provost marshals.; the bill for bids electors for President, the proclama tion and defeat -of the bill threaten us with civil war for the admission or exclus ion of such votes ; the bill exactedexclus ion of dangerous enemies from power and the relief'of the nation from the rebel debt, and the prohibition of slavery. for. P. ; • 13. • .3(1 r ;i . ; ;.:, :.• 4: •i •, . !., . . • tens- n- - .10 - r 7. ever, eo that the apppreisjog, ufthexel4l-, ion will !livable our, resources , to, henr.o.r . pay the ',national debt; free - the' Masses from the; old' domination 'to'the rebel leadeis, and eradicate-tl4 taus° of the war ; the proclamationAccuresfneitherof these gaimAties., • •,. • It is s;l9at respecting the rehpl 4E14 and the . political exclusion of rebel "leaders; leaving slavery exactly ithereit wall by at the outbreak of the rebellion and adds no...guaranty .evea of the freedom of the slaves he undertook to manumit. It is summed up in an 111910 oatNyvith out a sanction an therefore void: The oath is to support all proclamations of the President daring the( rebellion hav ing reference to slaves., Any Government is to be accepted at the hands of one-tenth e the people not contravening 'Skit 'Oast Now that oath neither secures the abo lition of slavery tior adds- security to the freedom of the slaves the- President de clared free. It 'does not secure Abolition of alitvery ; for the proclamation of freedom merely professed to free certain slam while it re cognized the Institution. - Every Constitution of the rebel States at the outbreak _of the rebellion,may be adopted without the change of a,letter • for none of them contravene thatproclama: Lion ; none of them establish slavery. It adds no security to the freedom of the slaves. For their title is the proclamation of freedom. If it be unconstitutional, an oath to sup port it is void. Whether constitutional or not, the oath is without authority of law, and therefore void. If it be valid and fobserved, it exacta no enactment by the. State, either in law or Consitiution, to 'add a State guaranty to the proclamation title ; and the right of a slave to. freedom is an open qiiestion be fore the State courts on the relative with ority of the State law and the proclama tion. ' If the oath binds the one-tenth who take it, it is not exacted' f the other nine. tenths who succeed to the control of the State G9vernment, so that ilia annulled instantly by the act ief recognition. What-the State courts would say of the proclamation, who can doubt. But the master would not go into court he would seize his slave. What the Supreme Court would- say, who can tell ? When and how is the question to get there. No habeas corpus lies for bim in a Unit ed States court, and the President defeat ed with this bill its extension of that writ to this case. Such are the fruits of this rash and fatal act of the President—a blow at the friends of his Administration, at the rights of humanity, and at the principles &repub lican government. The President has greatly presumed on the forbearance which the supporters of his Admisistration have so long practic ed, in view of the arduous. conflict in which we are engaged, and the reckless ferocity of our political opponents. But he must understand that our sup port is of a cause and not of a man ; that the authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected • that the whole body of the Union men & Congress will not submit to be impeached by him of rash and unconstitutional legislation ; and if he wishes our support, he must confine himself to his executive duties—to obey and execute, not make the laws—to sup press by arms armed rebellion, and leave political re-organization to Congress. If the supporters of the Government fail to insist on this they become responsi ble for the usurp ation which they feat° rebuke, and are justly liable to the indigo nation of the people whose rights and security, committed to their keeping, they sacrifice. Let them consider the remedy for these usurpations, and, having found it, fear lessly execute it. B. F. WAD; Chairman Senate Committee. H. WINTER DAVIS, Chairman Committee House of Rep. sentatires on the Rebellious States. ilgr'Old Abe's story about " swappi i n4 horses when crossing a stream," is lilt to prove rather an unfortunate one for him. The Fremont men ridicule it with out mercy. At their recent monster do. monstration. in St. Louis no less than a dozen of the emblems were devoted to the horse swapping question. One of them, which was peculiarly happy, "rep resented Lincoln as a worthless old horse ridden by the Goddess of . Liberty, and crossing.a stormy , river,, visibly exhaust., ed. At,his side, and a little ahead, was proud Arabian horse, swimming with ease. Near the Goddess was the Spirit of Ruin, crying , out in a stentorian voice, Donk swap horses" 'The candidates oil the Demotiratie State Ticket in Wham, ban addressed t, 43 ,, the Chivernor of Wit' state it *eat that, he use biejefitteace Ali the Prat& cen t 6 permit the'ledi e rut volenteers retail! toile 'to participate in the Cleo' tion: , Present° tbleja aaeihtsr s deuce of “ cieppeitekl ,Ogigisity 4 timeassoi the soldiarq." VOLUME- NtXßiEi32 The th m it ution. ...., - Tr'the - Podsigeiii 4 the4reiit'l r Anhae often-break tip**ltingle night; TM klat before they may have.seemed -, firmi and solid, but , when morningeomea 4 0 1 bing - is seen fume jostling and - crumbling fran , codas. The Republican party is falling to pieces in very much the mane There is no great breach in iterranks; ne sundering (into two or more hostile, pit compact ,finitions but there ia ,sprocess of disorganization i apd decomposition at. work, like that seen n the icedeld, whi c h enddenly loses -- its coherence, and floating under• warmer aktinrioon melts sway ea disappears forever. Every one has an experience of his own to relate; , and eon tell how his old friends; who have been the most thorough-going in their support of Mr. Lincoln, , have` 'at last yielded to the " login of events," and are ready'to renounce the President and all his works. These changes are not made at the beck of any leader. They are in no sense fact'. ons. They are'notproduied by sympathy 'with any popular ezeittemt orpas.— The simpte.explatiations is that the pm le—ncl man for himself—find that no dependence can 'be placed in the mum. ces of those in office, and that having had all and more than they asked for, they have done and can do nothing to restore the Union. The long-suffering path:cos which has endured one disappointment after another is at last worn out, and the most h opeful are giving away to despair.' The war is apparently no nearer its end than it was three years ago ; the people of the South are more defiant and des perste then ever; our fictitious prosperity is rapidly collapsing, while bankruptcy, anarchy and ruin stare us in the face. It is no wonder, then, that men are every where emancipating themselves from their prejudices, and anxiously searching for the truth. Those who have been the most credulous, and have blindly believed just what they were told to believe, are be coming skeptical, and the most thought less are beginning to think. -These indica tions of mental activity are, it seems to• us, of vastly more importance than any dissensions among the leaders of the Re. publican party. Commanding such a patronage as this war puts into his hands, Mr. Lincoln need not feel very much dis couraged, although Mr. Sumner berates him in private, or Senator Harris flies from his obscene jests, or even though Metiers. Wide and Davis rend him with their protest; but when , the people begin to abandon him of their own accord, his fate is sealed. The same causes which be- , gan the movement will continue it; and he will soon be left with no supporters but office-holders and shoddy -contractors.. Sash a spontaneous popular movement is one of the revolutions that never go back ward ; and it has already advanced far enough to ensure his defeat. Whatever other evils the future may have in store, for us, the re-election of A. Lincoln is not, one of them. Wine Starke county Democrat pub. Halted at Clinton, Ohio, says : " A preacher in this city, last Sabbath,. took for his text the 12th verse of the 14th chapter of Hebrews. It reads is-fol lows : "Follow peace wit hall men, and holi ness, without which no man shall see the, Lord." The reverend gentleman read this verse as follows " Follow holiness, without which no MX can see the Lord 1" The words, " peace with all men," were , not acceptable, and hence were omitted." - So it seems that the abolitionpreachers are going to take the same liberty with: the Word of God that Old Abe does with, the Constitution. Captain Charles E. Robinson, for some time past acting in the capacity of Com missary of Subsistence of volunteers in this city, was recently tried by court-mar . tial, found guilty of dishonest practices and conduit unbecoming an officer, and dismissed from the service of the United States with forfeiture of pay. (Had be• any due?) The dishonest practice char ged against the captain was the secret trknefer to a "loyal" firm in this city, of 100 barrels of flour belonging to the gov ernment. Whether innocent or guilty, we have reason to believe that parties mush letter known in this commimity. should share the penalty. " Mae at last sets all things even," and justice may yet demand a flirther investigation in this case.-Harrisburg Patriot. fiddling was going on *Ai Washington, and Chambersburg watt, on fire, the following false and insulting di& patch was, after due inspection at' the war department, sent oat from Waehbgtos to qpilet and deceive the pnblio: ,"No uneasiness , whatever is felt by the government brielaticm to afftdrs'in Penn, Sylvania. The preparations made, togeth , ' er with the militia of that State, are am, pie to jgive the invaders a severe punish. _There were no "preparations," and Ow- Om militia raised bid taken away t, so the rebels escaped unharmed: • Now."the government" will lie, =MZZ!III A „ k ~,f, - 11‘ 0 li 0 Ilith'P , 1 Dismissed from Service.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers