once in a while be relieved of some superannuated or corrupt incumbent without going through the tedious, expensive and uncertain process of impeachment; besides the prospect of future appointment would be an incentive to good behavior.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.-AMENDMENTS TO.-POWERS AND DUTIES OF OFFICERS UNDER.-CITIZENSHIP.-LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. -ATTEMPT TO SELL BRITISH SUBJECTS.

held

THE Constitution of the United States is to the American Nation what Magna Charta is to the British Empire. It is the sheet anchor of American freedom and nationality. Upon it rest the foundations of the Republic. The laws, treaties, and institutions of the Nation are all dependent upon it. Each department of the various branches of the Government submissive to it. It balances the power, regulates the extent and sphere of action of the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the Government. It keeps in motion and regulates the action of the several States that gravitate around the common centre, where abide the life and perpetuity of the Republic. It possesses within itself the elements of its own preservation. It is susceptible of amendment, addition, and even of repeal or abrogation of its own parts. But this must be accomplished by the methods prescribed within itself; and when attempted to be done otherwise, is void. (The Constitution, with all its amendments, will be found in the Appendix of this volume.)

The Federal Constitution was adopted September 17th, 1787, by the Convention assembled pursuant to resolution of the Continental Congress, and was ratified by the requisite number of States January 21st, 1788, and by all the States May 29th, 1790. The first

Congress under it met on the first Monday in March, (4th,) 1789. At this session the first ten amendments to the Constitution were proposed, and duly ratified by the States in due course of time. The eleventh amendment was proposed in 1794, the twelfth in 1803, and both, duly ratified by the States, became a part of the Constitution. From this period down to the breaking out of the Rebellion, in 1861, no amendment had been added. Since that period the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments have been adopted.

The Constitution was adopted by the people of the United States, and no act of any State can divest the people of the Union formed by them, or of the guarantees and protection of it. Its adoption by the people bound the State Governments, and held them responsible and amenable to the laws and treaties made in conformity with its provisions.

"The Constitution was ordained and established, not by the States in their sovereign capacity, but emphatically, as the preamble declares, by the people of the United States. Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheaton's Reports, 324." "It required not the affirmance, and could not be negatived by the State Governments. When adopted it was of completed obligation, and bound the State Sovereignties. McCullough v. Maryland, 4 Wheaton's Reports, 404."

The Government of the United States is a body corporate, and cannot be dissolved by the act of any less number of its people than that that formed it. It is capable of attaining the objects for which it was created, and has the power to use all necessary means to maintain the supremacy of the laws, and the perpetuity of the Nation by legislative or other measures.

Section ten, of Article first, says: "No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation." Yet

Southern statesmen have said that they could constitutionally, as "Sovereign States," peaceably leave the Union and "confederate" as they saw fit. It is difficult to conceive how language could be framed more effectually to prohibit specific acts, than is this language of the Constitution.

A subject of great National interest during the Administration of President Johnson was as to the powers guaranteed to the Executive by the Constitution; and the latitude assumed by him (Johnson) at one time seriously threatened the safety of the country, and induced Congress to more fully define, and to some extcnt, prescribe Executive authority.

Article second, of the Constitution, relating to the office of President, his duties and powers, would seem to be sufficiently specific, and was all-sufficient to guide the actions of the Executive department through the earlier periods of the Government. But the exigencies of the times, since the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, and the new issues and demands upon the various branches of the Government, have developed new phases, upon which the Executive assumed authority totally at variance with all precedent, and subversive of the laws and Constitution of the Republic.

Indeed, so complicated and varied are his functions, so closely allied with and almost inseparable from the other branches of the Government, that it is difficult to conceive how legislation can confine the Executive within any very limited sphere of action upon subjects not specifically defined by the Constitution. The present incumbent, (1868) Andrew Johnson, has assumed so many new positions-Legislative, Executive, and Judicial-has gone so far beyond his powers, as defined by the Constitution, that serious

alarm for the safety of the country, from his unlimited. assumption of powers, was not without foundation. His assumption of the Legislative duties of the Republic in the matter of reconstructing the rebel States, was an arrogance unparalleled in the history of Republican Government. His positive refusal to execute laws of Congress, stating as his reason his opinion that they were unconstitutional, was a judicial assumption, dangerous to the Nation, and destructive of the liberties. of the people. His wholesale pardoning of the leaders of the Rebellion, thus fitting them to accomplish by legislation what they failed to accomplish by arms, was equally reprehensible and dangerous. The unlimited use of the veto power against every important legislative act of Congress, his assumption of the exclusive power of appointment and removal, during the session of the Senate, are features new and novel in the American Government.

Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, says, (speaking of the Executive):

"And he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall.appoint Embassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointment is not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law. * * The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions, which shall expire at the end of their next session.”

Citizenship in the Republic is a subject of vital interest, but one which has been grossly abused by State Constitutions and State laws, which have, in many instances, ignored all the rights of the American citizen by proscribing his suffrage to the laws and limits of