The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-04

ton was negahved without a divi-
sion. 9 H
The Crisis In the Cabinet.
In connection with the generaland
an-absorbing issue of Southern re-
construction, the events of each sue
ceeding day point to an inevitable
and early reconstruction of the Cabi-
net. With each succeeding day the
necessity in this direction devolving
upon President Johnson becomes
more urgent and more apparent. The
time is not far off when, if the dis
senting members Of the present Cabi-
net shall have failed to take the ini-
tiative, the President will be con-
strained, in the vindication of his
Southern policy, to begin the work of
removal. His indulgence towards the
subordinates of his administration
whose sympathies and influence are
employed against him cannot be much
farther extended Every considera-
ton of dignity and decorum on their
part, however, suggests, or ought to
suggest, to them the alternative of
voluntarily retiring from the service
of an official chief whose leading
measures of Southern restoration they
cannot actively support.
We refer especially to Mr.. Stanton,
the Secretary Of War. Mr.. Harlan,
the Secretary of the Interior, and Mr.
Speed, the Attorney General. These
gentlemen should remember that the
war of the Union against Southern
rebellion and its work of destruction
are at an end, and that the duties of
peace, reunion and restoration are
now the order of the day. But, as it
appears, they hold fast to the theory
of Thaddeus Stevens: that the lately
rebelllous States are not now in the
condition of States of the Union, re-
lieved of O ruinous rebel conspiracy,
but are rather as provinces wrested
from foreign power, disarmed, but
still hostile to the General Govern
ment, and unfit to be trusted with
representation i'll either House of
Congress. This issue between Thad-
deus Stevens and the President ad-
mits of no compromise. The policy
of the one or the other must prevail,
and the conflict must go on till the
radicals Or the Administration shall
have been supplanted.
r The action of the two Houses of
Congress upon the veto of the civil
rights bill must inevitably result in
widening the breach between the Pre-
sident and the radicals and in strength
ening the Administration with the
people. We dare say that the BILL
passed originally, like the Freedmen's
Bureau bill, by more than g. two thirds
majority In each House, will fail of
two-thirds in the one or the other,
under the powerful objections of the
veto. In any event, the President, in
his reply to the New Je1sey Ieiega-
tion, on Wednesday last, has declared
that he is too old to retrace his steps,
and that he shall take no step back
ward. The day, therefore, is near at
hand when the duty of recognizing
his Cabinet will admit of no further
delay. Unquestionably he does not
wish, if he can avoid it, to make any
Cabinet removals for differences of
opinion upon questions of public
policy; but the unity of the Cabinet
is the first essential to successful ad-
ministration. In this view, men who
stand as distractions must give way
to principles and measures, or be dis
placed, whatever may be their minis
terial abilities or their claims on the
score of public services. Messrs. Stan
ton, Harlan and Speed represent the
radical party in the Cabinet. The
antagonism between that party and
the President on the civil rights bill
is too broad and comprehensive to
justify any presumption of recon
ciliation. The only course remaining
to the radical members of the Cabi-
net indicated, consistent with patri-
otism and a proper self-respect, is
gracefully to retire, and to leave the
President free to re-organize his
ministerial household in accordance
with his general policy. AS matters
now stand, the presence of Messrs.
Stanton, Harlan and Speed in the
Cabinet is incompatible with the great
object of harmony in the Admins
trasion, and they ought to retire.
Ne,D York Herald