tructing the States that seceded will be
practically settled before these pages can see the light, and will
therefore be considered here only so far as necessary to complete the
view of the constitution of the United States. The manner in which the
government proposed to settle, has settled, or will settle the
question, proves that both it and the American people have only
confused views of the rights and powers of the General government, but
imperfectly comprehend the distinction between the legislative and
executive departments of that Government, and are far more familiar
with party tactics than with constitutional law.

It would be difficult to imagine any thing more unconstitutional, more
crude, or more glaringly impolitic than the mode of reconstruction
indicated by the various executive proclamations that have been issued,
bearing on the subject, or even by the bill for guaranteeing the States
republican governments, that passed Congress, but which failed to
obtain the President's signature. It is, in some measure,
characteristic of the American government to understand how things
ought to be done only when they are done and it is too late to do them
in the right way. Its wisdom comes after action, as if engaged in a
series of experiments. But, happily for the nation, few blunders are
committed that with our young life and elasticity are irreparable, and
that, after all, are greater than are ordinarily committed by older and
more experienced nations. They are not of the most fatal character,
and are, for the most part, such as are incident to the conceit, the
heedlessness, the ardor, and the impatience of youth, and need excite
no serious alarm for the future.

There has been no little confusion in the public mind, and in that of
the government itself, as to what reconstruction is, who has the power
to reconstruct, and how that power is to be exercised. Are the States
that seceded States in the Union, with no other disability than that of
having no legal governments? or are they Territories subject to the
Union? Is their reconstruction their erection into new States, or
their restoration as States previously in the Union? Is the power to
reconstruct in the States themselves? or is it in the General
government? If partly in the people and partly in the General
government, is the part in the General government in Congress, or in
the Executive? If in Congress, can the Executive, without the
authority of