The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-09
NuInnoatlon In Alexandria.

Efon Ete Tribune.
The Reconstruction bill is disregarded by
The President. March 5, three days after it
Ras made a law by Congress, municipal
hle, ion was held in Alexendria, Virginia, at
Df ,ior. Nothing could be palmer than the
tcus of the law, nothing more absolute than
t. ight of coored men to vote in Alexandria
In, tuesday. The refusal of the judges Of
el, IONS to receive their ballots was an inso-
lel defiance of the law, the desperate act of
l.,o y no knew themselves to be minority,
al, who elected a Rebel Mayor by denying
o,rl men their rights. In Alexandria 900
l,,n ,oted for the Rebel candidates. there
IRE So radical white and more than 1000
,uiore@ voters. The latter, excluded from the
uljr polls, voted at polls of their own, but
: { wme the result is clear radical majority,
X, vel candidate for Mayor, Hugh Latham,
declared elected.
But this defiance of the law is not as i'm
:, rtant as the disobedience of the President
{ its commands. He was directed to enforce
yet without one step of his to prevent, 1000
gal voters of the United States are banshed
Il ON the polls By General Canby's order
not Mr.. JOhnsOn's-a police force of five hun
red soldiers was sent to Alexandria to pre-
erve order; but the President, with an army
vt his orders, did not send one man to execute
he laws. The act of the Alexandria Rebels
was even worse than a riot-it was delibe-
rate contempt of the Government and we can
see no excuse for Mr.. Johnson's failure to meet
disobedence with authority. There could
have been no doubt of his duty to interfere in
the Alexandria election. The law declares
that its provisions shall apply to call elections
to any office" 1t makes no exceptions, fixes
no distant day for its provisions to go into
operation; it took effect from the moment of
its passage, and Mr.. Johnson was as much
bound to obey it last Tuesday as he would be
. year hence.
the Attorney General of the United States is
of the opinion that the President was not
Tequirc to prevent this outrage, because
militar. commander has not been appointed in
the district of which Virginia is a part But
where ii the law is any clause which Obliges
the President TO act through the District com
mander or that gives any discretion to COM
mander ~ to the President himself, in the
matter O the elective franchise? The right
TO vote j absolute; the language of the law is
unmista able the suffrage laws exist indie
pendently of ligadioI-Generals. Yet even if
the opinion had any value, it would be no ex-
.cuse, for ii military commanders are necessary
70 the execution Of this portion of the law, why
lid not the President appoint them The law
"clares that certain things shall be done, and
ley are not done; that he shall appoint GER
in officers, and they are not appointed.
In the Alexandria election the authority Of
Jnr government has been insulted and defed,
'rp;e, as the first election held under the law,
Was the very case in which that authority
s41uld have been asserted. When we con-
sr that Alexandria is but an hours ride
Fl the Capitol, almost under the eyes Of the
/ dent, and that there he permitted the
1,,s Of which he is the Executive to be tram
pln under foot, his apologies for the massacre
at w Orleans his Indifference to the disre-
e of the Civil Rights bill, cease to surprise.
n DO we so much care that the Rebel voters
q alexandria disobeyed the law, for that is an
oil, nse which Injuries but one thousand citi-
zers: we look at the disregard of the law by
Andrew Johnson as a matter which affects The
nation,