The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-15

intimate in the councils of the radical oamp at
Washington as Miles O'Reilly is with the pr-
vate views Of Andy Johnson on public affairs
The profession Of a jockey, involving tho
rough knowledge Of all the points OF excel
lence or interiomty in a horse, he has been
applied to some purpose by Wilkes in regard
to politicians. As at q single glance, from his
nostrils to his tail and his pastens, Wilkes
knows all about his horse, 80 in q single
glance, under the same rules of Judgment, he
knows his politician. In this respect the
jockey, as a man of science and fixed facts,
has an immense advantage in view of the
political situation over the poet and his flights
of fancy. 1t is the difference between AgaJsiz
and Beecher in description Of q Greenland
whale or a woolly horse.
Mark, then, what Wilkes says of the
dilemma of the radicals at Washington. He
says that when the Reconstruction bill had
become a law they saw clearly "that the man
at the other end of the avenue, who now
stands utterly without a friend or a party,
may in less than six months have at his back
the compact power of thirteen States and all
the COppeIhead party of the North" that
then, with its two-thirds of each House of
Congress destroyed, the Republican party will
become demoralzed and will perhaps be
broken up. The only remedy, he contends,
in order that the military machinery of South
ern reconstruction may be given into upright
hands, is the removal of President Johnson.
He must be removed, or with the weapon
which has been furnished him in this Recon
struction bill he may demolish the Republi
can party.
This, then is the radical difficulty at Wash
ingtOn, and the secret of the new movement
for the Presidents impeachment. 1t is mani
fest however that since the passage of the
Reconstruction bill, and with the general be-
lief that Mr.. Johnson will "see the law faith
fully executed " it is manifest, we say, that
this alternative of impeachment has so far
lost ground in Congress that it may be con-
sidered as virtually abandoned. Let Mr..
Johnson faithfully execute these new laws of
Congress- and even the impeachment investi-
cation will be given up. He has the case in
his hands, and by straightforward, honest
work, he may by next December have all
the excluded States at his back in both
Houses of Congress. Ofcourse, this will pro-
duce complete change in our present party
organizations, in Congress and out of Con-
gress, North and South; unquestiOnably, as
Southern slavery and all its accessories will
be settled, the money question i'll all its
phases, national debt, national taXations, ex-
penditures, currency, banks, everything, will
form the absorbing question OF the day, mark
ing party lines, as in the time of Jackson.
In this view of the coming conflict, if Mr..
Johnson will only take time by the tOrelock,
IN careful message to Congress, defining
well-considered financial policy of reform,
economy, and retrenchment, he may still be-
come master of the situation. The statement
of his views of the tendencies of this financial
question as given to the world by Miles
O'Reilly is overdone. 1t puts Mr.. Johnson in
a bad position, and is operating to strengthen
Chief Justice Chase and the political pipe
layers of his financial system. Twenty-Five
hundred millions of money are at stake, and
Mr.. Johnson owes it to the country to define
his position officially on this subject, as soon
as practicable, in a message to Congress- The
political advantages which are thus offered
him. moreover, no shrewd, aspiring politician,
or wise statesman would overlook. To Mr..
Johnson here is still another golden opportu-
nifty which ought not to be lost.