The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-27
TIE NEW YORK PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADwe JOURNALS
UPoN CURRENT ToPFCs-CoNPfLED EVERY
DAT FOB THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.

DAY FOB THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The President and the Five Commanders.
Pforn me Herald.
The President has forced his way into
Tlemma of a very disagreeable nature, and it
Esnot easy to see how he can secure salts
actory escape. Heis at open issue, not as
before with coordinate branch of the Govern
ment. but with his subordinatesj and those
aubordinates are sustained against him by the
sense of the country. If he accepts the posi-
tion he compromises the dignity of his Office;
II he removes the Generals he increases that
Irritation of the public mind that is now all
against him, and thus immensely strengthens
the hands of the violent radicals. What will
he do2 The telegraph informs us that "Gene-
raj Grant declines TO relieve General Sickles
from his command in North and South Caro-.
lima" Is that the way in which the thing is
to be gotten over-by quiet use of General
Grants name ..- .la
Generals Sickles, Sheridan, Schofeld, Ord,
and Pope were doing very well. Under their
respective administrations the law, whose pas
sage had so much excited the country, was
seen to take shape as practical plan of recon
struotion, and was notably fair to the people.
It promised a speedy solution of difficulties
that but a little while before seemed to defy
all remedy. General Sickles, perceiving the
real scope and spirit of the law from the first,
assumed all the power it gave, and addressed
himself earnestly to the labor of putting the
Southern social system in practical harmony
with the ideas of the conquering section. His
acts were not more warmly applauded by in
telligent men at the North than they were well
coined by the people of his district who began
to realize the benefits of an equitable rule and
an honest administration of justice. General
Pope did equally well. Sheridan had some
TOugher elements to deal with, and was COM
PEELED to the extreme acts contemplated by
the law. Ord governed his district with high
ability and considerate courage. Schofeld
was in entire harmony with the people subject
to his rule, and intelligent Virginians doubted
If the best conceivable reconstruction would be
an improvement
Such was the position when in came the
Attorney General with his two opinions. His
opinions swept away the very foundation
upon which all this administration was carried
on General Sickles, the first to perceive the
scope of the opinion, as of the law, and the
boldest to come to conclusions profered his
resignation, recognizing that military COM
mandant was useless article under the Presi-
dents view of the law. Sheridan comes
before the public in sharp, 'whirling- through
Winchester sort of a letter, in which he
declares that the Attorney Generals second
opinion opens "broad and macademized
road for perjury and fraud.' The other Gene
rails having taken the same course as these in
their action under the law, doubtless hold
the same views of the opinions the President
has promulgated nullifying the law.
Thus the President, putting himself in an
attitude of antagonism to the law, comes into
conflict with men who were enforcing the law,
though subject to his orders. They are meI
Of too much character to relinquish their well
matured opinions according to the Presidents
political convenience-to ooncede their non
entity, or even to be quietly swept out of the
way. What can the President do ? He has
driven himself into position in which either
to act or to stand still involves bad result
If he does not remove the Generals, he loses
the prestige of his executive power; if he
removes them, he plays into the hands of the
party of extreme measures, and gives then
for new capital all the popularity with the
nation of these renowned and gallant soldiers