The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-16

execution. II this definition be correct, there
are no courts open at the South, and IL there
be no courts there is no civil law and no
police. All the talk which we havo heard in
defense of Mr.. Johnson's views on this point
are so much sophistry sOphistry which would
bring discredit on tavern debating club.
There may be objections to Mr. Stevens bill.
1t may give q color of support TO q theory
which we at the North might some day find
highly inconvenient. But the preamble is a
small matter. The main thing is to save
Southern society, which the present state Of
things is rapidly barbarizing and will very
soon break up. We hear good deal Of the
blow which the spectacle of military rule at
the South will give to civil liberty at the
North and elsewhere; but we know of no
state Of things so dangerous to liberty, so well
calculated to bring free government into CON
tempt, as state of things in which the con
stitutional forms are used to cover Just such
tyranny as the Turks exercise over the rayahs,
in which trial by jury is used to promote
the denial of Justice, and in which judicial
decisions on points Of law are simply express
sions of popular passion, and in which the
sheriffs and police are in active sympathy with
the law-breakers. There is no worse enemy
of temperance than a drinking temperance
lecturer; there is no worse enemy of religion
than dissOlute professor of religion; and there
is no worse enemy of free government than
a country in which the forms which were
framed for the protection of weakness and Of
innocence and of freedom, are used to protect
robbers, murderers, false witnesses, and OPP
pressors from the consequences of their crimes.
This is the state of things which exists at
the South, and it is with this state of things
that our Government, in the interest of free
dom and democracy, is called upon to deal.
Reconstruction cannot be effected i'll day. 1t
is knotty, troublesome business, to be con-
sidered carefully, debated thoroughly, and
faithfully carried out. Let Congress take all
needful time for it, but i'll the meantime let us
have protection for life and property and free
speech. No man ought to lie down under the
United States flag in terror of anything which
police and soldiers can prevent. Mr.. Stevens
bill proposes, curiOusly enough, to pass the
President over and impose the duty on Gene
raj Grant, little device which shows what
crooked condition the minds of some of the
leaders are in. No bill can relieve the Presi-
dent of the duty of executing the orders OF
Congress in any matter requiring the interven-
tiOn of military force and so far from seek
ing to relieve him of it, those who want to
have him tried ought to seek, by every means
in their power, to bring him face to face with
the sharp test of positive and clear injunc-
tiOn to do something.
Should he disobey, there would then be a
plain case against him. Hardly any of the
objections made to Mr.. Stevens bill apply to
Mr.. Eliots. The latter only proposes military
rule ad interim. 1t makes the army subordi-
nate to the civil power. 1t provides for recon-
struction in regular form at certain fixed
period not very remote, asserts the power of
Congress over the whole question, and pro-
hibits all political distinctions based on race or
color; and though last, not least, prescribes a
certain course of action for the President He
must either obey or disobey. If he obeys, all
is well. If he disObeys, let him be at once i'm
peached at all hazards.