The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-12-19
The Last Message.

dent JOHNSON to Congress. assigning
his reasons for removing Secretary
STANTON, contains a good many items
of significance. Accepting all the
statements of the message as true, it
places the Honorable Secretary in a
somewhat embarrassing position. Il
certainly devolves upon him the ne
cessity of showing their falsity. They
cannot be ignored. They cannot be
sneered out of the way. Unless they
are shown to be false by facts which
the President has suppressed, or
ignored, the people will conclude that
Secretary STANTON attempted the role
of Trimmer and lost his position in
the effort.
The President charges directly that
III. S ANTON insisted that the Ten
ure OF Office Act was unconstitutional,
and ought to be vetoed. That he
quoted in Cabinet meetings all the
precedents, decisions of the courts,
and the usage of che Government to
establish the right of removal by the
President, and added TO them the
weight of his own deliberate judg-
ment. He was selected to write the
veto message, and declined, on the
ground of physical disability, but
stated h readiness to furnish what
aid he could in preparing material for
the paper. We cannot but agree
with Mr.. JOHNSON, in the light of
these facts, that Mr.. STANTON's sud-
den change of opinion-when his own
removal came up Reconsideration =
by which he became a champion Of
the law which, in his own deliberate
judgment, he had previously decided
unconstitutional, was very remark
able and unexpected, to say the-Ieast
of it. q
But the most serious rcharge the
President makes against his former
Secretary is, that he ignored an inn
portant dispatch, asking for instruc-s
tions that might have prevented the
New Orleans riots, had they been
given promptly to the commanding
officer of that city, Gen. BAIRD. We
think any one who will carefully read
this portion of the Presidents Mes
sage will concede that he makes out
a very ugly case for the consideration
| of Mr.. STATIONS friends! If it be
true that Gen. BAIRD notified the
Secretary of War of the impending riot,
and asked for Instructions; that Secre-
tary STANTON pocketed. the dispatch,
/ neither replying to it1nori notifying
the President of its contents, we
cannot avoid lifting large portion of
, the responsibility for the murder and
bloodshed of that Thirtieth of.
August from the shoulders Of the
President aud transferring it to those
| of the Secretary. Carelessness or for
I getfulness cannot be pleaded in. ex-
tenuation. The Secretary should
have notified General BAIRD at once
what to do, or handed the dispatch to
the President to take proper action in
the premises. We are anxions to see
| what reply Mr.. STANTON will make
to this part Of Mr.. JoHNsoN's com
munication. It certainly demands
/ immediate attention on his part.
While we have condemned the
| Presidents policy with regard to re-
construction, because we were con-
WINGED it would, if carried out, place
the Southern States under the con
troll of the very men who 1nstigated
the rebellion, we do not propose to
blind our eyes to the shortcomings of
politicians, simply because they are
members of the Republican party.
Mr.. STANTON has rendered the Re
public much service, for which the
people hold him in grateful remem-
brance, but we insist thatit not only
IS not fair to abuse the President for
Mr.. STANToN's mistakes or worse
than mistakes, but also poor party
policy. All, the Republican, voters
want is fair pay all round. If our
old leaders cannot be longer trusted,
overheard With them; others will
take the helm.