March 20, 1861; The New York Herald
From our Washington intelligence, as well as from the necessities of the administration, it is probable an extra session of Congress will be called by the President. We are in favor of calling an extra session, not to pass a Force bill, but to devise some plan by which the Union may be reconstructed, or harmonious relations between the North and South established. The best thing the new Congress when assembled can do is to adopt the permanent constitution of the Confederate States, and submit it to the other States for adoption by the constitutional number of three-fourths of the whole. This would settle the question and restore peace and harmony to a troubled nation, while at the same time every statesman and every man of common sense must admit that the new constitution is a decided improvement on the old, and there is nothing in it to prohibit the admission of free States, as South Carolina desired–the annexation only requiring a two-thirds vote of Congress.
The convention which Mr. Lincoln proposes is now too late. The seven States which have seceded could not be represented, and the action of a convention in which they would have no voice would not be binding on them. There is no other alternative, therefore, left than to take the constitution as amended by the Confederate States and adopt their amendments. Most of these amendments were proposed in the Convention which adopted the old constitution, and experience has proved that they ought to have been then agreed to. The old constitution, without the eleven amendments subsequently adopted, would have been very imperfect. The Bill of Rights embodied in those amendments, and suggested chiefly by Jefferson, is more important than any provisions in the original constitution. The amendments now adopted by the Confederate States are of great practical value, and seem absolutely necessary for the proper working of our complicated system of government. Whatever is new will be admitted by the most violent abolitionists to be an improvement upon our present constitution, and what relates to slavery is not new, but the old defined, explained and made practical.
Extending the President’s term to six years, without his being re-eligible, is undoubtedly an improvement, both preventing the intrigues and corrupting influences of a President for re-election, as in the case of Pierce, and at the same time saving the country from being subjected too frequently to the exhausting process of political agitation. The stability of the government will be greatly increased, and the office, being for six years, will invite the legitimate ambition of a better class of men than the candidates who have sought it in recent years. It is well known that it was only in compliment to Washington, the chief magistrate was made re-eligible. There is another improvement which ought to have been made–a change in the mode of electing the President, either by Congressional districts, by the State legislatures, or by a majority of the popular vote. The College of Electors ought to be abolished and the system of caucusing and party conventions cut off.
The office seeking, which is the bane and the reproach of the United States, is effectually cut off by the section which provides that the subordinate officers in the several departments can only be discharged for dishonesty, incapacity or neglect of duty; and the corruption in Congress, which for the last few years has astounded the world, receives a heavy blow by the provision which renders a two-thirds vote of both houses necessary for all appropriations, unless they shall be asked and estimated for by one of the heads of departments and submitted to Congress by the President. The complements of this provision is that other one which permits Cabinet Ministers to take part in those debates in Congress relating to their respective departments, and thus subjects them to a wholesome catechising and cross-examination.
Two other provisions against corruption are highly important. One is that every law or resolution having the force of law shall relate to but one subject, and that that shall be expressed in the title. The effect of this is to cut off the foul practices of tacking on appropriations to various bills, or of tacking bills to appropriations with which they have no connection, or of smuggling an objectionable measure into another measure which is good, and thus carrying it by stealth; or of members of Congress making a corrupt bargain to vote for each other’s pet jobs put into one bill. The second excellent restriction is that ‘Congress shall grant no extra compensation to any public contractor, officer, agent or servant, after such contract shall have been made or such service rendered.’
Taking away from the President the right to pardon in case of impeachment is another valuable provision; for, by the present constitution, the President may not only pardon himself, but his heads of departments acting under his direction.
Internal improvements at the expense of the federal treasury, the source of so much contention in times past, are expressly prohibited. Improvement of harbors, the furnishing of lights, beacons, buoys, if done by the general government, must be paid for out of the duties laid on the navigation benefitted thereby. A maritime or river State can lay duties only on sea going vessels, for the purpose of improving its harbors or rivers, the surplus revenue to be sent to the federal Treasury. When any river flows through two or more States they may enter into compact with each other to improve the navigation thereof. This makes that sea–the Mississippi–the property of the States marked by its waters.
The Post Office Department, too, must pay its own expenses–a consummation long devoutly wished.
The provision that no bounties shall be granted from the treasury, and duties shall be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry is only a guarantee of justice to the people at large, who ought not to be mulcted for the support of local and sectional interests, as they have been by the outrageous Morrill tariff. The provision which prohibits an ex post facto bankrupt law, wiping out the debts of broken merchants, is another conservative and salutary check upon rascality. By the retrospective action of the law of 1841, the bankrupts of 1837, including James Watson Webb, to the tune of some half a million of dollars, were purged of all their liabilities, like dirty walls made clean with a coat of whitewash.
Now, as to those provisions which guarantee the right of transit to matters with their slaves through all the States, as well as protection to the rights of slave owners in the Territories, they are deducible from the principles, if not the express words, of the present constitution, and are explanatory and necessary for the carrying out of the original compact. The question of secession is settled by expressly giving the right of seceding which is not denied nor affirmed by the old constitution. But there is a provision which balances it and will always prevent secession. Congress is compelled, on the demand of any three States, to call a Convention to amend the constitution. Here is the safety valve. To obtain an amendment of the constitution of the United States is next to an impracticability. But if the new constitution is only adopted by the Northern States there would be no necessity for a change during the next century. It is the ultimatum of the Southern confederacy, and its immediate adoption by the border and Northern States is the only way in which the Union can be reconstructed, and tranquillity and prosperity restored to a distracted country. Let Mr. Lincoln call Congress together for this purpose, and he will have taken the first step of a statesman since he came into power.