That is pretty complete in itself, but the House of
Represen- tatives has gone further. It has passed, by 123 against 45 votes, a declaratory Bill asserting that there are as yet no valid civil governments in the late rebel States, and transf erring all power of appointment and removal under the Reconstruction Act from President Johnson to General Grant, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. We confess we cannot conceive a Bill better calcu- lated to test Mr. Johnson's threat in his December Message of resisting by force any encroachment on a " co-ordinate power of the Constitution." If anything is certain under the Constitution, it is the President's power of appointing the Executive officers. The Bill passed by much more than a two-thirds' majority, and if it passes the Senate by the same majority, it must be passed over the President's veto,—and then the crisis ought to have arrived.
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