Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1866-07-17
a DISSOLUTION OF ruR cAp1Nrr.
o. S. LONG, Secretary.
Wheeling, June %, 1866.

"A DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET
The country will receive with unfeigned
JOY the announcement which, we think, not
withstanding the unfounded rumors of the
past, may now be relied en- as true, that the
inharmonious and IHosaic Cabinet of Presi
dent johnson is about to be dissolved The
differences of opinion which, from time to
time, have been made known to the public.
between the President and his ministers, and
the apparent unwillingness of the former to
dismiss the recusants and collect around him,
as his constitutional advisers, those only who
accorded with him in the conservative mca-
sures OF restoration proposed by him, have
contributed, in no small degree, to shake the
confidence of the people in the firmness of
the President, and to impair his ability to
counteract the policy of the anarchists in Con-
sress who have led the government to the
very verge of destruction. There are crises
In the history of nations when hesitation, on
the part of those who give direction to their
affairs, Is ruinous. The time for prompt, dcci-
sive, curative action if once passed may often
never be reclaimed. Timidity emboldens op-
position and begets doubts in the minds of
friends; whilst boldness and energy carry
with them the force of honest convictions.
which, though often mistaken, never fail to
command the support of the popular heart.
The great secret of the success of one of
the most illustrious of President Johnson's
predecessors, and which made him in his day
the idol Of the people, was not the wisdom or
superior craftsmanship, which presided over
his conduct, but that earnestness and tenacitv
OF purpose, at all times eyinced by him, and
which yielded to no opposition, however de-
termined or rancorOus, but pressed straight on
to the attainment Of their object Glaring
faults were acquitted in the popular Judgment
where they stood up for trial by the side of
undoubted honesty Of intention Without we
trust, being too ccnsorious, we reluctantly
express the opinion that many opportunities,
such as laid the foundation Of the unendinr
and lndestructible reputation of Andrew
jackson, have been thrown away by Andrew
johnson. 1t is true that the difficulties, which
he was obliged to encounter, possessed mag
nltude and wore novelty such as were never
before encountered in the history of the
Republic but these should have been regarded
onIy as greater incentives to the prompt action
which the emergency demanded. Convinced,
as we have every reason to believe he was,
that the correct conclusions of the war were
to place the nation just where it was before
the fearful baptism of blood with which it
had been sprinkled, and that all the States
OF the Union had, by virtue of the defeat of
armed resistance to the Federal authority been
restored to their original condition in the gov-
eminent, we have never been able to see why
twas that Mr.. johnson recognized the rep
resentatives of twenty-five States as the Con-
gress of the United States.
In view of the plain constitutional provi-
slons that call Legislative powers shall be
vested IN Congress of the United States -
that I" the House Of Representatives shall be
composed of members chosen every second
year by the people of the several States -
that " the Senate of the United States shall
be composed of two Senators from each State
chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six
years, and each Senator shall have one vote :"
and that ''nO State, without its consent, shall
be deprived of its equal suffrage in the SEN
ate" how could the President be brought to
acknowledge body that not only refused to
examine the credentials Of the representatives
OF eleven States, but. among its earliest acts,
declared that the States themselves were no
part OF the Cnion-thus disintegrating the
territory of the country and diminishing by
nearly one-third, its national power? But it
is alleged that ample apology for the rccogni-
ton OF the Congress is to be found in the fact
that at the time Of its assembling in Dccem-
Der LAST although the military power of the
South had been broken, and its armies were
dispersed, the country was tcch3sicahy in a
condition of war. This view in the main is
correct. As the revolution was failure and
those who sustained it had been overcome. and
the United States government had been left
victor on the great field of contest, and there
was no representative power on the part of
the defeated with whom to negotiate, legally
condition of peace could be attained only by
the proclamation of the President
This consideration may have induced Mr..
johnson to withhold his iusistance upon the
admission of the Southern members at the
beginning of the session. A more courageous
man, however, would have taken another, and
we think, a more successful course. With a
readiness everywhere manifested on the side of
the Southern people to submit to the conclu-
sions of the bloody arbitration which had deter
mined their cause; and to accommodate them