Projected Overturn of Congress.
By Editor
THE last number of the Nation, in an editorial entitled “Steering for the Rocks,” enters at large into the question of the coup d’état projected, if not by the President, at least by his democratic advisers? That the danger is real, is obvious to every person who has had opportunities of knowing what is going on behind the scene of the political theatre,—who has conversed with representative men of the different factions which make up the opposition to Congress,—and who understands the significance of the legal arguments for the right of the States in rebellion to representation in the national legislature, made by discontented lawyers of eminent purchasable ability. But even outsiders can hardly have an excuse for being blind to the criminal designs of the supporters of “my policy,” unless a perverse shutting of the eyes may be considered an excuse for not seeing; for it has been openly avowed, in public address, by many indiscreet members of the conspiracy. Some Republicans who know or suspect the intention of the President or his advisers, think it unwise to make it the subject of general remark, on the ground that the way to produce the evil, is to diffuse the idea of its probability. We, on the contrary, think that the only method to prevent its occurrence is to circulate everywhere among the people the fact that there is great danger of its occurring. The truth is, that, in all the loyal States, the simple question before the people in the approaching autumn elections will be this: “Are you for or against a new civil war?” To vote for the President’s party will be to vote for the overturn of Congress by armed force. It will be to place the loyal States in the condition of rebels to a Federal Government, of which all the powers must be usurped. There is no political villainy of which the dominant faction in Mr. Johnson’s party will not be capable, in case it succeeds in carrying a sufficient number of representative districts at the North to constitute, with the Southern representatives, a quorum. The sooner the people appreciate the gravity of the situation the better.