The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-13

ner. The danger Is more Imminent than most
persons imagine: We shall breathe more freely
when the President Is once more safe at Wash
ington. His loss to the nation at such a crisis
as this would be incalcuable. We cannot
realize the situation in which his death would
leave the country. Let us, therefore, beg the
Presidentt to take care OF himself and his suite
TO take of him. We do not intend TO excite un.
necessary alarm; but there il really room for
the gravest apprehensions. These radicals who
threaten murder so sayagey are none too good
TO do il, and those ruftians who shoot do Wn the
Presidents supporters Will not long hesitate to
FIRE at the President himself.
Horace GreeIey's interviews with the
From the World.
We have reprinted from the Tribune an edi.
torial to which Mr.. Greeley appends his full
signature. 1t describes certain interviews he
had with the President, and the curious advice
he gave HIM, last autumn and winter The
ostensible occasion of this signed editorial is
the complaint made by Mr.. Beecher, in his
recent letter. of The want of tact exhibited by
the Republican congressman in provoking a
rupture with the President. The ostensible pur-
pose OF Mr.. Greeley is TO rebut this censure by
show ng that concll atory overtures were made
to President johnson and rejected. Mr.. Greeley
therefore concludes that, long before the meet
ing of CONGRESS, the President had decided to
break with his party and make an alliance with
its enemies.
Mr.. GreeIeys statements do not bear out his
conclusions. The first of the interviews took
place soon after the New York election, in
November; the other, after the appointment by
Congress of the Joint Committee on Recon
struction. BY Mr. Greeley's account, both of
those private conferences we're sought by the
President. Instead, therefore, of Invalidating
the criticism of MIR. Beecher they strengthen
it. 1t is the side that makes ovettures not the
side that receives them, thaJ gives evidence of
a conciatory spirit. Ii is true that the Presi-
dent did not follow Mr.. Greeley's advice; but
the fact that he once and again sought it,
showed an anxious, troubled, undecided state
OF mnd--a mind cropping after some eXpedient
to prevent final rupture with the party that
had elected him, Mr.. Greeleys advice was not
followed because 1t was not good; or at any
rate, this is a ready way for accounting for its
rejection.
The ADVICE given in the November interview
was, that three eminent citizens of the North
should meet, at the White House, three eminent
citizens OF the South, and there, under the eye,
and with the occasional advice OF the President,
spend a fortnight or 50 in canvassing the condi-
tons OF settlement. and agreeing on policy.
Mr. Greeley pledged himself III advance TO give
his utmost support 70 any policy which should
be thus agreed on.
BY tins purbllnd disclosure Mr.. Greeley is
estopped from harplnp with his party. as Justify
as heretofore on their favorte topic ot Presidcn-
tial usurpation. sit is the province of Con-
gress," they insist every day IN the week, land
not at all of the President, to devise the policy
OF restoration" We put IT tc Alr. Greeley to
say if a policy reached by the method he
advised would have been a Congressional
policy? Congress would have been consulted
in no stage OF its formation. 1t would have
been a policy concocted by the President with
the aid or unofficial a0 0visers OF hls own seleC-
tiCn; and Mr.. Greeley, by his own account,
pledged himself 20 advocate it through thick
and thin, whether Congress approved it or not.
The President, at the time of that interview,
was engaged in the preparation of his annual
message; and had Mr. Greeley's advice been
followed, and satisfactory result been reached,
the policy agreed upon would have been COM
municated TO Congress in the message. Mr..
Greeley would have mad Mr.. johnson stand by
il, even in opposition to Congress- as resolutely
as he has by bis actual policy; and the Tribune
would have given him a steady and robust
support in doing so. In view of this exposure
which he has made OF himself we call upon
Mr.. Greeley never again to join in the hue
and-CrY Of the radicals against the President
tor daring to have policy before consulting
Congress.
MIR. Greeley does not tell what are the points
! he would have had the President submit to hii
half-and-haH conclave of Republicans and eX
| Rebels. The President could not have askeC
/ them to consider whether the reconstructed
| State Governments should be permitted to stand
| tOr 10 have confessed doubt on mat point wOulC
| have been a sef'pronounced sentence OF con
demnanon upon all he had, up 10 that time
| dOTe. BY such Vaclllation, he would have
broken aith with all those states, undermined
all taith in his sC9bility OF character, thrown
Jle NDOlp GOuJl DaCk lulO Tue tOnIuSl III iron
which it had emerged, and have annulled th'
! Constitutional amendment aboll Sh1ng slavery
| by making all the Southern ratidCatlons Invalid
Congress itself burst not deny the validity o
those State Gouernments; for by doing so the
! would have given up the anti-slayery amend
ment TO the Constitution.
As the validity OF the new State Governments
could not have been submitted to the deli0era
lions of Mr. Greeley's secret Conclaye, so nei
ther could the right of those States 10 represen
I tation in Compress. One OF those questions
| included IN the other. The ratification OF
Constitutional amendment IS the highest act
| State can perform. states which are competen
| to do this are qualified tor every inferior stat
| function. To put new article into the Const
| tuition Is to make law which binds not mere
the people, like an act OF Congress, but LAY
which binds CONGRESS- itself; binds the Suprem
Court; binds every department OF the Govern
ment There could be no more fagrant al
surdtty than 10 say q State can thus particIpat
in making the supreme law, but not In makln
the inferior laws which may be repealed as fas
they are made.
Had Mr. Greeey's advice been adopted an
\, had the proposed irresponsible concave al
lNsWered his expectations, it would have presente
! to the South an UttGGtlEnl To suppose tina
A. H. Stephens General Lee, and SoulherneT
l of that class, would have consented to be voluI
tary parties to forcing al utiInatltm on thei
section was absurd. Certain 1t is, that the
would never have made negro suffrage such a
Uhfn,dtunl, and yet Mr.. Greeley has hundre
times asserted, with every form of spasmodi
ernpbasis. that to stop short of giving the ballC
to the blacks IS treachery that cannot be toll
.A,l.