swear him in one sense, whilst he would take the oath in another. It would be well, perhaps, that our rule on this subject should be so amended as to enable gentlemen whose native States may hereafter rush into rebellion without just cause to see at once the path of their duty, and so relieve their consciences from any embarrassments originating in fanciful theories about a "duality of allegiance." Opinion of the Supreme Court on the Mississippi Application for an Injunction against the President and other officers, April 15, 1867. Chief Justice CHASE delivered the opinion of the Court, as follows: A motion was made some days since on behalf of the State of Mississippi, for leave to file a bill in the name of the State, praying this Court perpetually to enjoin and restrain Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, and E. O. C. Ord, general commanding in the district of Mississipi and Arkansas, from executing or in any manner carrying out certain acts of Congress therein named. The acts referred to are those of March 2 and March 25, 1867, commonly called the reconstruction acts. The Attorney General objected to the leave asked for upon the ground that no bill which makes the President a defendant and seeks an injunction against him to restrain the perform ance of his duties as President, should be allowed to be filed in this Court. This point has been fully argued, and we will now dispose of it. that the performance of this duty might be enforced by mandamus issued from a court having jurisdiction. So in the case of Kendall, Postmaster General, vs. Stockton and Stokes, (12 Peters, 527.) An act of Congress had directed the Postmaster General to credit Stockton and Stokes with such sums as the Solicitor of the Treasury should find due to them, and that officer refused to credit them with certain sums so found due. It was held that the crediting of this money was a mere ministerial duty, the performance of which might be judicially enforced. In each of these cases nothing was left to discretion. There was no room for the exercise of judgment. The law required the performance of a single specific act; and that performance, it was held, might be required by mandamus. Very different is the duty of the President in the exercise of the power to see that the laws are faithfully executed, and among those laws the acts named in the bill. By the first of these acts he is required to assign generals to command in the several military districts, and to detail sufficient military force to enable such officers to discharge their duties under the law. By the supplementary act other duties are imposed on the several commanding generals, and their duties must necessarily be performed under the supervision of the President, as Commander-inChief. The duty thus imposed on the President is in no just sense ministerial. It is purely executive and political. An attempt on the part of the judicial department of the Government to enjoin the performance of such duties by the President might be justly characterized, in the language of Chief Justice Marshall, as "an absurd and excessive extravagance." We shall limit our inquiry to the question presented by the objection, without expressing any opinion on the broader issues discussed in argument, whether in any case the President of the It is true that in the instance before us the United States may be required by the process of interposition of the Court is not sought to enforce this Court to perform a purely ministerial act re-action by the Executive under constitutional quired by law, or may be held answerable, in any case, otherwise than by impeachment, for crime. The single point which requires consideration is this: Can the President be restrained from carrying into effect an act of Congress alleged to be unconstitutional? It is assumed by the counsel for the State of Mississippi that the President, in the execution of the reconstruction acts, is required to perform a mere ministerial duty. In this assumption there is, we think, a confounding of the terms "ministerial" and "executive," which are by Lo means equivalent in import. A ministerial duty, the performance of which may in proper cases be required of the head of a department by judicial process, is one in respect to which nothing is left to discretion. It is a simple, definite duty, arising under conditions admitted or proved to exist or imposed by law. The case of Marbury vs. Madison, Secretary of State, furnishes an illustration. A citizen had been nominated, confirmed, and appointed a justice of the peace for the District of Columbia, and his commission had been made out, signed, and sealed. Nothing remained to be done except delivery, and the duty of delivery was imposed by law on the Secretary of State. It was held legislation, but to restrain such action under legislation alleged to be unconstitutional. But we are unable to perceive that this circumstance takes the case out of the general principle which forbids judicial interference with the exercise of executive discretion. It was admitted in the argument that the application now made to us is without a precedent, and this is of much weight against it. Had it been supposed at the bar that this Court would in any case interpose to arrest the execution of an unconstitutional act of Congress, it can hardly be doubted that applications with that object would have been heretofore addressed to it. Occasions have not been infrequent. The constitutionality of the act for the annexation of Texas was vehemently denied. It made important and permanent changes in the relative importance of States and sections, and was by many supposed to be pregnant with disastrous results to large interests in particular States. But no one seems to have thought of an application for an injunction against the execution of the act by the President. And yet it is difficult to perceive upon what principle the application now before us can be allowed, and similar applications in that and other cases could have been denied. The fact that no such application was ever before made in any case indicates the general judgment of the profession that no such application should be entertained. It will hardly be contended that Congress can interpose, in any case, to restrain the enactment of an unconstitutional law, and yet how can the right to judicial interposition to prevent such an enactment, when the purpose is evident and the execution of that purpose certain, be distinguished in principle from the right to such interposition against the execution of such a law by the President? The Congress is the legislative department of the Government; the President is the executive department. Neither can be restrained in its action by the judicial department, though the acts of both, when performed, are in proper cases subject to its cognizance. The impropriety of such interference will be clearly seen upon consideration of its probable consequences. Suppose the bill filed and the injunction prayed for be allowed. If the President refuse obedience, it is needless to observe that the Court is without power to enforce its process. If, on the other hand, the President complies with the order of the Court, and refuses to execute the act of Congress, is it not clear that a collision may occur between the executive and legislative departments of the Government? May not the House of Representatives impeach the President for such refusal? And in that case could this Court interpose in behalf of the President, thus endangered by compliance with its mandate, and restrain by injunction the Senate of the United States from sitting as a court of impeachment? Would the strange spectacle be offered to the public wonder of an attempt by this Court to arrest proceedings in that court? These questions answer themselves. It is true that a State may file an original bill in this Court; and it may be true, in some cases, such a bill may be filed against the United States. But we are fully satisfied that this Court has no jurisdiction of a bill to enjoin the President in the performance of his official duties, and that no such bill ought to be received by us. It has been suggested that the bill contains a prayer that if the relief sought cannot be had against Andrew Johnson as President, it may be granted against Andrew Johnson as a citizen of Tennessee. But it is plain that relief against the execution of an act of Cong by Andrew Johnson is relief against its execution by the President. A bill praying an injunction against the execution of an act of Congress by the incumbent of the presidential office cannot be received, whether it describes hi as President or simply as a citizen of a State. The motion for leave to file the bill is therefore denied. In the case of The State of Georgia against certain officers, the Attorney General makes no objection to the policy of the bill, and we will, therefore, grant leave to file that bill. Mr. Sharkey. If the Court please, the objection to the bill which I attempted to file seems to be that it is an effort to enjoin the President. The bill is not filed, and I can reform it to suit the views of the Court, and present it again. The Chief Justice. Leave to file the bill is refused. When another bill is presented it will be considered. Mr. Sharkey. Do I understand the Court to say that the application can be made on Thursday? The Chief Justice. On Thursday. This subpoena was issued in the case, April 16 1867: The State of Georgia, complainant vs. Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, and John Pope, defendants. In equity. The President of the United States to Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, and John Pope, greeting: For certain causes offered before the Supreme Court of the United States, holding jurisdiction in equity, you are hereby commanded that, laying all other matters aside, and notwithstanding any excuse, you be and appear before the said Supreme Court, holding jurisdiction in equity, on the first Monday in December next, at the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, being the present seat of the National Government of the United States, to answer unto the bill of complaint of the State of Georgia in the said Court exhibited against you. Hereof you are not to fail at your peril. Witness: The Honorable SALMON P. CHASE, Chief Justice of the said Supreme Court, at the city of Washington, the first Monday of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-first. D. W. MIDDLETON, Clerk of the Supreme Court of the U. S. comes to us from our ancestors; regarding the Union in its restoration as more sacred than ever; 1ooking with deep anxiety into the future, as of instant and continuing trials, hereby issues and proclaims the following declaration of principles and purposes, on which they have, with perfect unanimity, agreed: 1. We hail with gratitude to Almighty God the end of the war and the return of peace to our afflicted and beloved land 2. The ar just closed has maintained the anthority of the Constitution, with all the powers which it confers, and all the restrictions which it imposes upon the General Government, una bridged and unaltered, and it has preserved the Union, with the equal rights, dignity, and authority of the States perfect and unimpaired. 3. Representation in the Congress of the United States and in the electoral college is a right recog. nized by the Constitution as abiding in every State, and as a duty imposed upon the people, fundamental in its nature, and essential to the existence of our republican institutions, and neither Congress nor the General Government has any authority or power to deny this right to any State or to withhold its enjoyment under the Constitution from the people thereef. 4. We call upon the people of the United States to elect to Congress as members thereof none but men who admit this fundamental right of representation, and who will receive to seats therein loyal representatives from every State in allegiance to the United States, subject to the constitutional right of each House to judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members. 8. While we regard as utterly invalid, and never to be assumed or made of binding force, any obligations incurred or undertaken in making war against the United States, we hold the debt of the nation to be sacred and inviolable; and we proclaim our purpose in discharging this, as in performing all other national obligations, to maintain unimpaired and unimpeached the honor and the faith of the Republic. 9. It is the duty of the national Government to recognize the services of the Federal soldiers and sailors in the contest just closed, by meeting promptly and fully all their just and rightful claims for the services they have rendered the nation, and by extending to those of them who have survived, and to the widows and orphans of those who have fallen, the most generous and considerate care. 10. In Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, who, in his great office, has proved steadfast in his devotion to the Constitution, the laws, and interests of his country, unmoved by persecution and undeserved reproach, having faith unassailable in the people and in the principles of free government, we recognize a Chief Magistrate worthy of the nation, and equal to the great crisis upon which his lot is cast; and we tender to him in the discharge of his high and responsible duties, our profound respect and assurance of our cordial and sincere support. Of the Philadelphia Convention of Southern Loy alists. They were reported by Hon. Andrew J. Hamilton, of Texas, chairman of the committee on resolutions, and unanimously adopted: 1. That the loyal people of the South cordially unite with the people of the North in thanksgiving to Almighty God, through whose will a rebellion unparalleled for its causelessness, its cruelty, and its criminality has been overruled to the vindication of the supremacy of the Federal Constitution over every State and Territory of the Republic. 5. The Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, are the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary not withstanding. All the powers not conferred by the Constitution upon the General Government, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, or to the people thereof; and among the rights thus reserved to the States is 2. That we demand now, as we have dethe right to prescribe qualifications for the elec-manded at all times since the cessation of hostilitive franchise therein, with which right Congress cannot interfere. No State or combination of States has the right to withdraw from the Union, or to exclude, through their action in Congress or otherwise, any other State or States from the Union. The Union of these States is perpetual. 6. Such amendments to the Constitution of the United States may be made by the people thereof as they may deem expedient, but only in the mode pointed out by its provisions; and in proposing such amendments, whether by Con gress or by a convention, and in ratifying the same, all the States of the Union have an equal and an indefeasible right to a voice and a vote thereon. 7. Slavery is abolished and forever prohibited, and there is neither desire nor purpose on the part of the southern States that it should ever be re-established upon the soil, or within the jurisdiction of the United States; and the enfranchised slaves in all the States of the Union should receive, in common with all their inhabitants, equal protection in every right of person and property. ties, the restoration of the States in which we live to their old relations with the Union, on the simplest and fewest conditions consistent with the protection of our lives, property, and political rights, now in jeopardy from the unquenched enmity of rebels lately in arms. 3. That the unhappy policy pursued by Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, is, in its effects upon the loyal people of the South, unjust, oppressive, and intolerable; and accordingly, however ardently we desire to see our respective States once more represented in the Congress of the nation, we would deplore their restoration on the inadequate conditions prescribed by the President, as tending not to abate, but only to magnify the perils and sorrows of our condition. 4. That with pride in the patriotism of the Congress, with gratitude for the fearless and persistent support they have given to the cause of loyalty, and their efforts to restore all the States to their former condition as States in the American Union, we will stand by the positions taken by them, and use all means consistent with a peaceful and lawful course to secure the ratifica- | cible soldiers and sailors" who made the grand tion of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as proposed by the Congress at its recent session, and regret that the Congress, in its wisdom, did not provide by law for the greater security of the loyal people in the States not yet admitted to representation. 5. That the political power of the Government of the United States in the administration of public affairs, is, by its Constitution, confided to the popular or law-making department of the Government. 6. That the political status of the States lately in rebellion to the United States Government, and the rights of the people of such States, are political questions, and are therefore clearly within the control of Congress to the exclusion of the independent action of any and every other department of the Government. 7. That there is no right, political, legal, or constitutional, in any State to secede or with draw from the Union; that they may, by wicked and unauthorized revolution and force, sever the relations which they have sustained to the Union; and when they do so, and assume the attitude of public enemies at war with the United States, they subject themselves to all the rules and principles of international law, and the laws which are applicable to belligerents, according to modern usage. 8. That we are unalterably in favor of the Union of the States, and earnestly desire the legal and speedy restoration of all the States to their proper places in the Union and the establishment in each of them of influences of patriotism and justice by which the whole nation shall be combined to carry forward triumphantly the principles of freedom and progress, until all men of all races shall everywhere beneath the flag of our country have accorded to them freely all that their virtues, intelligence, industry, patriotism and energy may entitle them to attain. 9. That the organizations of the unrepresented States, assuming to be State governments, not having been legally established, are not legitimate governments until reorganized by Congress. 10. That the welcome we have received from the loyal citizens of Philadelphia, under the roof of the time-honored Hall in which the Declaration of Independence was adopted, inspires as with an animating hope that the principles of just and equal government, which were made the foundation of the Republic at its origin, shall become the corner stone of reconstruction. 11. That we cherish with tender hearts the memory of the virtues, patriotism, sublime faith, upright Christian life, and generous nature of the martyr President, Abraham Lincoln. 12. That we are in favor of universal liberty the world over, and feel the deepest sympathy with the oppressed peoples of all countries in their struggles for freedom and the inherent right of all men to decide and control for themselves the character of the government under which they live. 13. That the lasting gratitude of the nation is due the men who bore the hardships of the battle, and, in covering themselves with imperish able glory, have saved to the world its hope of free government; and relying upon the "invin army and navy of the Republic to be true to the principles for which they fought, we pledge them that we will stand by them in maintaining the honor due the saviors of the nation, and in securing the fruits of their victories. 14. That, remembering with profound gratitude and love the precepts of Washington, we should accustom ourselves to consider the Union as the primary object of our patriotic desire, which has heretofore sustained us with great power in our love of the Union, when so many of our neighbors in the South were waging war for its destruction; our deep and abiding love for the memory of the Father of his Country and for the Union is more deeply engraven upon our hearts than ever. After the adjournment of this convention, the lovalists of the non-reconstructed States met and adopted an address, closing with this declaration: "We affirm that the loyalists of the South look to Congress with affectionate gratitude and confidence, as the only means to save us from persecution, exile, and death itself; and we also declare that there can be no security for us or our children; there can be no safety for the country against the fell spirit of slavery, now organized in the form of serfdom, unless the Government, by national and appropriate legislation, enforced by national authority, shall confer on every citi zen in the States we represent the American birthright of impartial suffrage and equality before the law. This is the one all-sufficient remedy. This is our great need and pressing necessity." The vote was as follows: TEXAS, 10 yeas; LOUISIANA, 14 yeas; VIRGINIA, 28 yeas, 3 nays; GEORGIA, 8 yeas, 1 nay; ALABAMA, 2 yeas, 3 nays; MISSISSIPPI, 1 yea; ARKANSAS, 2 yeas; NORTH CAROLINA, 1 yea, 2 nays; FLORIDA, 2 yeas, 1 nay. Pittsburgh Convention of Soldiers and Sailors, September 26, 1866. General Benjamin F. Butler reported these resolutions, which were adopted unanimously: By the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy of the United States, in convention assembled, be it Resolved, That the action of the present Congress in passing the pending constitutional amendment is wise, prudent, just. It clearly defines American citizenship, and guaranties all his rights to every citizen. It places on a just and equal basis the right of representation, making the vote of a man in one State equally potent with the vote of another man in any State. It righteously excludes from places of honor and trust the chief conspirators, guiltiest rebels, whose perjured crimes have drenched the land in fraternal blood. It puts into the very frame of our Government the inviolability of the national debt and the nullity forever of all obligations contracted in support of the rebellion. 2. That it is unfortunate for the country that these propositions have not been received in the spirit of conciliation, clemency, and fraternal feeling in which they were offered, as they are the mildest terms ever granted to subdued rebels. 3. That the President, as an executive officer, has no right to a policy as against the legis- | who had sealed with their life-blood their devo- 4. That the right of the conqueror to legislate for the conquered has been recognized by the public law of all civilized nations; by the operation of that law for the conservation of the good of the whole country, Congress has the undoubted right to establish measures for the conduct of the revolted States, and to pass all acts of legislation that are necessary for the complete restoration of the Union. 5. That when the President claims that by the aid of the army and navy he might have made himself dictator, he insulted every soldier and sailor in the Republic. He ought distinctly to understand that the tried patriots of this nation can never be used to overthrow civil liberty or popular government. 6. That the neutrality laws should be so amended as to give the fullest liberty to the citizen consistent with the national faith; that the great Union Republican party is pledged to sustain liberty and equality of rights everywhere, and therefore we tender to all peoples struggling for freedom our sympathy and cordial co-opera tion. 7. That the Union men of the South, without distinction of race or color, are entitled to the gratitude of every loyal soldier and sailor who served his country in suppressing the rebellion, and that in their present dark hours of trial, when they are being persecuted by thousands, solely because they are now, and have been, true to the Government, we will not prove recreant to our obligations, but will stand by and protect with our lives, if necessary, those brave men who remain true to us when all around are false and faithless. 8. That in reorganizing the Army justice to the volunteer officers and soldiers demands that faithful and efficient service in the field ought ever to have place in the army and navy of the Union. Cleveland Convention of Soldiers and Sailors, Col. L. D. CAMPBELL reported these resolutions, which were adopted unanimously: 1. That we heartily approve the resolutions adopted by the National Union Convention held in the city of Philadelphia, on the 14th day of August last, composed of delegates representing all the States and Territories of the United States. 2. That our object in taking up arms to sunpress the late rebellion was to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired, and not in any spirit of oppression, nor for any perpose of conquest and subjugation; and that whenever there shall be any armed resistance to the lawfully constituted authorities of our na tional Union, either in the South or in the North, in the East or in the West, emulating the selfsacrificing patriotism of our revolutionary forefathers, we will again pledge to its support "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." STATE CONVENTIONS, 1867. Connecticut. REPUBLICAN, JANUARY 24. 1. That the result of the elections of the last autumn affords new proof of the devotion of the 2. That the pending amendment to the Fed- 3. That the only just basis of human governments is the consent of the governed; that, in a representative republic, such a consent is expressed through the exercise of the suffrage by the individual citizen, and that the right to that exercise should not be limited by distinctions of race or color. The Union soldiers and sailors who served in the army and navy of the United States in the recent war for the suppression of the insurrection, the maintenance of the Constitution, the Government, and the flag of the Union, grateful to Almighty God for His preservation of them through the perils and hardships of war, and for 4. That in any revision of the revenue system His mercy in crowning their efforts with victory, the duties upon imports should be adjusted with freedom, and peace; deploring the absence from a view to the encouragement of American industheir midst of many brave and faithful comrades | try, without impairing the public revenue, and Γ |