Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-07-05

in paying disrespect to and openly insulting
superior officers General GRANT cannot
endorse the arrogant conduct of this officer,
but it will shock the high and refined
sense of official propriety entertained by
the great commander, as it has done VIC
lence to the popular sense of the country.
The Northern press are much excited III
reference to this matter, and we propose, III
lieu of any further views of our own, to
select q few extracts from our exchanges.
The National Iateljqencey, i'll commenting
upon this letter, says:
s'Any soldier, However, high or humble,
who refuses to execute the order of Il su-
perior, however respectfully, subjects him
self to a court-martial for disobedience In
this instance General Sheridan has mani
tested unquestionable disrespect to supe
rior officer.
1st He has been disrespectful to the
War Department, through which the order
was ira 1smitted.
I'd He is disrespectful to General Grant.
Sd. He is disrespectful and insubordi-
nate to the President of the United States
the COMMANDMENT Chief of the military
and naval forces of the United States.
cit is true that the President has not
been SO explicit and definite in his order as
he might and probably should have been.
He should not have left anything in refer
ence to the time when registration should
cease to the discretion of the subordinate
His order should have been decisive, adj
uniting no discretion, no controversy, but
imperatively directing how the law should
be executed, particularly after he had been
sustained by the opinions of the Attorney
IS Of NoJ, olI-ic
except one. But this has nothing to do
with the main question. Gen. Sheridan's
despatch is not only disrespectful, it is in
solent Its publication by telegraph from
New Orleans simultaneously with its trans
mission by telegraph to Washington was an
act of intolerable insolence. 1t is, in fact,
a despatch to the Republican leaders, and
not to Gen. Grant.
General Sheridan was appointed as a
subordinate military officer by the Presi-
dent to execute q certain law, the exc
cution of which was cOniided to the Presi
dent, as the head of the military organiza-
ton of the country It is no more the
right or duty of Gen. Sheridan to assume
to himself the privilege of disregarding the
orders of his superior in reference to the
execution Of this law than for simple
lieutenant, or even private soldier, TO set
up his opinion against that of his General
commanding in reference to Obeying any
military order given to him.
cit is not the province of General Sheri-
dan to argue against the obedience to an
. order that his construction of law is better
than the law officer of the Government, or
that his rule in regard to registration in
Louisiana is preferable to that prescribed
by the Attorney General of the United
States, and approved by all but one of the
Presidents constitutional advisers, and
adopted by the President himself as Com
mander-in-C Chief For him to oppose his
individual opinion under such circumstan-
ces, and to decline to obey the order given,
is gross disrespect to superior officer, and
should be so regarded and treated, if mill
tary subordination is to be maintained.
at matters not what may have been the
Presidents opinions of the measure in
question before it became law, any more
than it does to a lieutenant under General
Sheridan's command what may have been
the Generals opinions of any order before
it was issued. It is not the place nor the
privilege of General Sheridan TO set himself
up as the Judge over his superior officer,
and to countermand his orders because he
differs in opinion about them. This is the
very essence of INSTRUMENTATION, and unless
it is cured now there will no longer be any
thing like subordination i'll the army of
the United States. Any private soldier
may, with the same right, say: L differ in
opinion with my superior officer, and will
not obey him. but will go before the coun-
try with q letter addressed to partisan pas
sions and bid defiance to army discipline.
Given the most furious of the Congress
sional Radical cabal dare not sustain this
INSTRUMENTATION, for by that act they will
at once and for all time utterly destroy all
discipline in the army, and convert it into
a simple armed mob in which every pri
vate soldier will be entitled to obey or dis
obey an order given him, as his own opin-
ions or caprices may dictate.
The New York Times, a Radical organ,
in desperate effort to gloss over this con-
duct of General SHERIDAN, really admins
tiers to him a severe rebuke. It says:
Gen. Sheridan certainly pays very little
attention to the forms of dacorum in his
relations to his superiors. His dispatch to
General Grant on the subject of regis
tration sails as near the edge of absolute
characterization as anything of the kind
we have seen lately. Being directed through
the War Department to extend the time for
registration In Louisiana until August l,
unless he has fsome good reasons to the
contrary he assigns his reasons for not
doing it without further orders.
Ii ne Is OTd6Te0 TO extend TIE tlAne, he
will do so. But he takes occasion to say
that the Attorney Generals opinion "opens
a broad macademized road for perjury and
fraud to travel on" He "regrets to differ
with the President, but takes occasion
to say that he has been ordered to execute
law to which the President has been in
bitter antagonism! This is certainly
very unusual and extraordinary Ian
guage. We remember no parallel
to it in recent military history
If Gen. Sheridan were engaged in popu-
lar canvass, he might, perhaps properly
make such an issue with the President.
But he is holding an appointment under
the President, and is directed, as a subor-
Gnate officer of the army, to execute a GER
tain law of the land. How can he sit in
Judgment upon the orders he receives from