The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-07

M. i,Uro ,G, 0heTloan from the command of the
rll'n IN mlntary District, for that would arouse
the indignation of everv loval mar. The can.
sure OF the President would be iustlv inter
preted as the highest compliment to the in
legllty and ability of Sheridan's patriotio
ouIse' What that course has been we NAV
reny examine. After Sheridan's brilliant
ldes around Richmond a series of cavalry
PeTaIlons which ehectually broke up all rail
oao communication with the Confederate
apital, and insured the capture of Lee and
his whole army, he was assigned. in Nav.
1863, to general command west of the Missis
slppl and south of the Arkansas rivers. This
appointment intrusted him with the control of
Louisiana and Texas, and from the first Sheri-
dams policy was to build up loyal party in
the Southwest, and to trample out the unex-
tinguished fires of treason which, in 1866, Mr..
Johnson had carefully famed into ahame. 1t
was comparatively easy work to rule Louisiana
till July of that year, when he found it actually
necessary to prohibit the organization of Con-
tederate batteries and brigades. But they
were organized, and played their part in the
riots OF July 30. We all know that ter
rible story, but it was not till months after
ward that the part Sheridan had taken
was made fully known to the American
people, Then the publication of his official
correspondence with the President, the Secre-
tary of War, and General Grant disclosed the
ouppiSSolOu anu UuLlldLlOu OF his QeSDdLCleS
to suit the policy of a corrupt Administration,
and the bitter opposition he had met with from
Andrew Johnson. Never was a man more
systematically tempted. Immediately after
the massacre the President addressed him a
series of leading questions, which were in
efect:-"Was not this riot caused by the radi-
Gals Are not Heron, Monroe, and Abel
blameless 7" Sheridan answered with an en-
phatic-No! He told the President precisely
hot
the truth. Three days after the affair he sent
this word to Grant:-"It was no riot. 1t was
an absolute massacre by the police, which was
not exceeded in murderous cruelty by that of
Fort Pillow. 1t was murder which the Mayor
and police OF the city perpetrated without the
shadow of a necessity. Furthermore, believe
it was premeditated." The investigation of
the causes of the massacre by Military Com
mission, and by the Congressional Committee,
conclusively proved all that Sheridan declared;
and III March, 1867, he carried out his con-
victions by removing Monroe, Heron,
and Abel from office, and putting
loyal men in their stead. In Texas
the condition of affairs was even worse than in
Louisiana. Massacre was chronic there and
so reasonable had the State become that in
April General Griffin was compelled to forbid
all elections by civil authority. Freedmen
were shot down at the very doors of the civil
murderers. Union men were killed with i'm
punity. Sheridan undertook to change all
this, and the Presidents reply was the threat
of his removal. But that gallant soldier never
wavered in his impartial course. In June he
removed Governor Wells, a corrupt radical,
precisely as he had removed unrepentant
Rebels. In the meanwhile he was pushing on
registration, and working for the reorganiza-
ton of his department upon a permanently
loyal basis. But he fought his way step by
step. The President was against him; the
Cabinet, Stanton excepted, was against him.
All that he did was done in the very teeth of
the Administration, and his success must be
estimated by the strength of the opposition.
Had Sheridan been decently sustained, there
would never have been July massacre loyal
men would long ago have filed all the Offices
and we should not have waited till the other
day to see Throckmorton, of Texas, removed
from the Office which he had occupied solely
in the interest of the Rebels.