The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-15
Wendell Phillips and the Johnson stan
ton Rupture.

From The Anti Slavery Standard of this week.
johnson has challenged Stanton The recent
Secretaryof War accepts the challenge The duel
mOnopollSeB the attention Of the whole land,
Nobody but the President doubts tile result;
unless, possibly, Seward may be equally
Slill, though the result is certain, the country
Is naturally anxious as to the path by which
Ibe goal is 10 be reached Stanton submits, and
resigns under protest-and to the CONSERVATION
of the country, Grant takes his place. On this
precise point we forbear comment until events
Rebels murder negroes and Unionists at their
pleasure, Texas Is given up to anarchy, and
Kentucky is den of assassins.
How anxiously Union men, North and South,
warned Congress against the folly OF adjourn
ing after tinkering that single flaw which Stan
berry had invented in the Reconstruction Act
assuring Senators that another would be in
vented the moment IL was neededi The Presi-
dent picks this flaw in the Civil Office Tenure
act, rendered bold because he has no Congress
TO fear till November
One can hardly blame the President for this
subterfuge Senators refused to impeaoh, and
tried instead to envelop him in q net of limita-
lions. He naturally tries to find break or
movement was more than half a sham, he is
too old a gamester not to see the trick. They
affect supreme anxiety about violating the Con-
stitution by any attempt at impeachment In
reality they are scheming for a Presidential
candidate. Are there foxes in the Senate cum
ming enough to hide their tracks from Reynardln in
the State Department. When Johnson reads
Senator Sherman's speeches he probably quotes
his own words, "When you hear man prate of
the Constitution, spot him; he is traitor"
When Seward reads Fessenden, he remembers
Avonmore's portrait of Glare, zone who stlckles
for the letter of the Constitution with the
affectation of PRIDE and abandons its princl-
Piles with the effrontery of a prostitute" Do
such men make the White House traitor afraid?
No, indeed. A Capitol full of them would be
only poppies and mandragora to medicine him
to sweet sleep. He fears House of Represen-
tatiVes full of radicals-a Senate whose fore.
most men demand his impeachment What
he needs Is an overseer while he remains in
office, and to be thrust out of it as soon as pos
sible.
Meanwhile, see how Rebels grow bold and
Unionists fly and hide themselves See how
each mail brings fresh news of negroes hunted
and murdered. Whence this new courage in
Rebels? 1t comes because, for the hour. the
President unchecked, represents and wieldS
the Government: because that Rebels see that
Johnson has tools enough in the Senate to
strike out that provision OF the Houses bill
forbidding him TO remove the district COM
manders, and, by adjourning Congress, take
the clutch ofthe radicals from the nape of his
neck.
For every broken heart and desolate home in
the South, for every murdered black there, We
hold Fessenden, Wilson, Edmunds, Conkling,
and their clan, responsible. We will not be told
that by such course this mans chances for
the Presidency are strengthened, and that
other measure is to be advanced. The
policy which stalks to its purpose over bloody
game is admissible where the counters are life
and death. Heartless men shall not sit in the
Capitol playing with the lives of negroes and
Unionists, and escape rebuke merely because
they style themselves politicians. Their pro-
per style is murderers. We know that we use
beside the hunted Unionist of TeXas-let him
stand under the desolate roof whose owner has
Just been shot in presence OF his wife and chill.
dren-let him think of the negroes ruthlessly
murdered by hundreds-and then ask himself
II the strongest terms we can use do not halt
and linger far behind the truth?
If Stanton is removed, those Senators did 1T.
If Rousseau goes to New Orleans to take Sherl-
dams place, they sent him there To get places
for their famiIies-to leave national finance
wholly in the hands of capitalize engineer
Grants nomlnation-thOSe men opposed I'M
peachment, and voted TO adjourn Congress,
leaving Johnson free course all the summer,
only that they might carry on their plots II is
unfair to single out one sinner. Johnson could
| do little harm without the aid of these men,
| his satellites and tools In the Senate If john
son dares to-day to challenge stanton, IT is not
| because Kentucky and Louisiana Rebels fill mis-
| is not because the World and Chicago Times
| bluster in his behalf He dareS TO challenge
| Stanton, because Henry Wilson, Grants jackal,
| consents to carry the challenge, and Fessenden,
| in return for q dozen offices given to his kim
| dred acts as second in the fray.
| Do not let us so disgrace the American people
and discredit their intelligence and virtue as to
| tell the world that an exposed and all but con-
| victed Rebel of Johnson's cal1bre can mislead
| them and leopard their future. Having sur
! vived Lee and Davis, who had, at least ability,
| let us not show this nation trembling before a
| clumsy knave, with neither character nor
ability. Let us not admit that our tellow-citl.
| zens are overawed by Cabinet like that at
reputation, either for honor or ability, to lose;
and no one had any reputation which in the
eyes of an intelligent people could endure keep
| ing such company. No, let us tell the truth.
The nation watches this duel In anxious sus-
| pense only because Wilson, Sherman, Fessen-
| den, and their fellows stand behind the Presi-
| dent because they stab the Secretary OF War
| WENDELL PHILLIPS.