void the
authority of Congress, then the government, and of course the Union,
ceased to exist. The constitutional amendment abolishing slavery is
void; the loan-acts and the tax-acts are without authority; every fine
collected of an offender was robbery; and every penalty inflicted upon a
criminal was itself a crime. The President may console himself with the
reflection that upon these points he is fully supported by Alexander H.
Stephens, late Vice-President of the so-called Confederacy.

We quote from the report of his examination before the Committee on
Reconstruction.

"_Question._ Do you mean to be understood, in your last answer,
that there is no constitutional power in the government, as at
present organized, to exact conditions precedent to the
restoration to political power of the eleven States that have
been in rebellion?

"_Answer._ That is my opinion.

"_Question._ Assume that Congress shall, at this session, in
the absence of Senators and Representatives from the eleven
States, pass an act levying taxes upon all the people of the
United States, including the eleven, is it your opinion that
such an act would be constitutional?

"_Answer._ I should doubt if it would be. It would certainly,
in my opinion, be manifestly unjust, and against all ideas of
American representative government."

Thus it is seen that these two authorities concur in opinion; although
it must be confessed that the late Vice-President of the so-called
Confederate States in urbanity of manner and in the art of diplomacy far
surpasses the late Vice-President (as Mr. Johnson, if his logic does not
fail him, must soon say) of the so-called United States.

Having thus impeached the existing Congress and denied its authority,
the way is clear for the organization of a Congress into which members
from the ten States now excluded shall be admitted.

Representatives who do not concur in these proceedings will have only
the alternative of taking seats among the usurpers, and thus recognizing
their authority, or of absenting themselves and appealing to the people.
The latter course would be war,--civil war, with all the powers of the
government, for the time being, in the hands of the usurpers. The
absenting members would be treated as rebels, and any hostile
organization would be regarded as treasonable. Thus would the Rebels be
installed in power, and engaged in cond