The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-06-21

Ing SeheTd' commanding tne Filth Military
District, has removed, as obstacles to the work
of reconstruction committed to his hands. the
mayor who connived at if he did not encour-
age the riot last year in New Orleans, the
judge who from the bench justified that out
rage, the attorney general who began TO pros
ecnte the assailed instead of the assailants.
aud the governor who foreseeing the riot took
himself out of harms way. The immediate
cause of the removal of Governor Wells was
his persistent determination to use the fund
set apart for repairing the levees, for political
purposes General Sheridans prompt action
in these cases has been generally acquiesced
in; his appointments have been so judcious as
to extOrt praise from all quarters. The con-
servative Picayune said of Durant, 'He will
be universally confessed to be one of the first
men in the State, not only in professional
learning and ability as a lawyer, high capacity
as political leader, consistency as a politician
and fidelity TO his friends but as a man whose
honesty is unimpeachable." The half-rebel
Times says of Flanders, "We believe the prev
alent feeling with those who know him most
intimately and those who have investigated
his condnct most closely, Is that of confidence
in his personal integrity, frmness and fidelity
to duty, and to what he believes to be right"
The radical Tribune, which severely blamed
General Sheridan for appointing whites only
on the boards of registry, says of the opposi-
ton to the removal of Governor Wells, eff the
opposers of our military commander were
guided by Republican principles alone, they
would with us have condemned the general
yba, ba al and ha,a 4
him when he was just"
So unanimous is the press Of New Orleans.
The solitary exception is the Republican.
which is understood to be the organ of Gov.
Wells. But, admitting that Sheridan's ap-
pointments were judioious, and that there was
provocatiOn for his removals, does the state OF
things in Louisiana demand such prompt and
violent remedies? Would it not have been
better to tempOrize and suffer certain minor
evils rather than to seek cure by such means?
No man will say that who realizes the condi-
ton oil Louisiana. The outbreak of last july
was only the blazing forth of fires which
shoulder but are not extinct. Only few
weeks ago jury was being empanneled in the
First District Court of Louisiana. AS each
mans name was called, Attorney General
Lynch asked him if he was prepared to convict
white man for the murder Of a negro, if the
testimony should establish the fact. Out of
twenty-four men called and questioned, twen-
ty-three declared they would not convict a
white man for numbering a negro; only one
was willing to say that he would be guided
solely by the law and the testimony. Is this
community prepared to administer the civil
rights act? Is there not q necessity that the
provisional governments organized by a
people who regard killing negroe. as no mur-
der, should be kept under very close surveil-
lance until the freedmen are invested with po-
litical power to protect themselves?
General Sheridan must be sustained We
cannot afford to have the reluctant acquies-
cence which the Southern people at last are
ready to yield, revoked at anybodys sugges-
ton. We cannot afford to have the dangerous
policy of contscation thrust upon us, as it will
be if the present terms of reconciliation are re-
jected. Mr.. Johnsoa vetoed the Military bill
on the express ground that, "the power thus
given to the commanding officer over all the
people of each district is that of an absolute
monarch" Mr.. Stanbery has now shown him
By Mr. Staubery's Interpretation the command
ing oficer is SO far from being an absolute
monarch that he hardly comes up to the digni-
ty of a special policeman. Who that fairly es-
Inmates the mulish obstinacy of Mr.. Johnson's
character can doubt that he will adopt the
opinion of the A torney- General and once
more try to have his own way, in spite of Con-
gross! As we write, we take up the Charleston
Mercury. A correspondent of the Mercury,
who met the President in North Carolina, saws,
''There were some who left his presence satis-
fed that the usurpations of power and free and
easy exercise of military authority in certain
extreme Southern quarters, would ere long re-
ceive check which would remind officials that
one Andrew johnson is still President of the
United States"
We must not be deceived by the semi
official utterances of the National In
telligencer. Andrew johnson will not seek
the advice of the Congress which he has stig-
matized as "a body hanging on the verge
of the government" His full-blown conceit
has not yet been pricked. If Congress does
not meet in July to interpret authentioally
the will of the ration, we shall have this ques-
ton of reconstruction thrown back upon our
hands, as surely as Andrew johnson is An
drew johnson The President will not reveal
his policy at once unless he finds that July
session is sure. But it will not do to trust to
the vague hint OF an August session. The
conflict of authority is to be renewed, and the
representatives of the States and of the peo-
pie must not abandon the field. What irrepar-
able mischief might be done in the five months
from July to Decembcri