The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-24
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EprTORIAL oPmIOEs OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT TOP1Cs-CONPILED EVERY
DAY POR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
The New Proclamation of War.

The New RroCAnmnShOn OF war;
F,,op1 ne ~ Y. Tribune.
Il is not by compromise that this war Of prin-
oiples can be ended. No Johnson Convention,
mo crineing of weak Republicans, can avail.
We are not Of those who are content now that
Gaparal Thomas has gone to New Orleans, and
assure the people that the country is safe so
1o,o nc Grant remains in the Cabinet. These
ornointments may strengthen our hopes, but
do not remove our doubts, for against them
stands the all-important fact that Sheridan
has beeu removed. This is the proof that the
cou6trv is not safe; that Mr.. Johnson, undis
maved by all his hair-breadth escapes from inn
peaehment, has the boldness to defy the peo-
ne and to resolutely carry out his purpose of
breaking down the reconstruction policy of
Coneress Sheridan was to the President the
embodiment of a principle. In Sheridan he
saw the great executive of radicalism-the
whole legislation and spirit of Congress
summed up in the action of a military COM
mander Personal enmity was not the impulse
of the President. Sheridan was to him the
Republican idea made tangible and he struck
that idea down. Can we delude ourselves with
the belief that the blow falls on Sheridan alone,
and not upon us Can we take Thomas
appointment as an atonement for Sheridan's
Andrew Johnson, having successfully defed
the Republican party, having deliberately
struck il full in the face, will rest satisfied
with his triumph We do not thus mistake
him or his policy. We understand the removal
OF Sheridan as proclamation of war, and are
ready to accept the issue.
Our Washington correspondent asserts that
the policy of removing all Generals in the
Rebel States who do not take Mr.. Johnson's
uriax nfr pcfr ofi ruilI ha ad oY1f
and we can see no reason to doubt it. The
Presidential attack upon Sheridan is already
begun upon Sickles and Pope, and the National
InteLiigencer, the Presidents adjutant, has
drawn up the order for their removal, and it
only needs to be signed. That will be done at
the right time if Sickles and Pope persist, as
those upright soldiers will, in executing the
Reconstruction laws as Congress intended.
The reputation of the pure and gallant
Howard is undermined by ISLANDERS, and
he is to be mustered out. Why should
these officers not be removed What
difficulty does Mr.. Johnson fear, having tri-
umphed over Sheridan He has taken out
the keystone of the arch, and may pull down
the rest of it at his leisure. In the Presidents s
new course there is more courage and ability
than the people had supposed him to possess.
1t was master-stroke to bring Grant into his
Cabinet. The appointment of Thomas was an
excellent plan to enable such papers as the
Times to divert the attention of the country
from the infamy of the removal of Sheridan
1t was equally shrewd to send him to fight the
Indians, that all journals of the kind might
fall into raptures to see the hero of Five Forks
once more at the head of an army. Nor is
Mr.. Johnson less adroit in resolving to reor-
ganize his Cabinet-in any event it is perfectly
safe, for the new one cannot easily be more
distasteful to the people than the old.
These preparations are ominous of change
and not of change for the better. Andrew
Johnson does not retract; no sane man can
hope that a movement which begins with the
removal of Sheridan can mean repentance or
remorse. The change is from the defensive tC
the offensive, and Mr.. Johnson marshals his
desperate forces to open attack upon Congress.
it may reconstruct the laws, but he will recon
struct the machinery by which they are ad-
ministered. We believe that the President
desires to so far modify his policy that it
may obtain the support Of the conservative Re-
publiCans, and to dazzle with the robbery OF
great names, or the betrayal of splendid repu-
tations, the perception of the people. He will
use any weapon thatc comes to hand. He throws
the fame of Thomas as veil over the down.
fall of loyalty in Louisiana, and makes the
General of the Army a sentinel at the door o
the White House. But beneath and beyond
all this parade the keen eyes of the people
detect the swiftly moving, unrelenting foe
pushing onward to the attack. They know II
Andrew Johnson man resolved to prevent
the reconstruction of the South upon the
principles they have laid down through Con
gress; they know that his purpose is to replac,
the Rebel States in the Union without guar
antees or pledges, free to repudiate hereafter
their surrender of Rebel principles; they know
that when he disgraced Sheridan he insulteC
them. They perfectly understand that h
ameans war; and no longer one of defensiv
strategy, but deliberate and combined ag
gression.