The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-19
StantOn-The President-The RepubII-

StantOn-The President-The RepubIl-
cans.
From the ~ Y. World.
The telling message of President Johnson
on Stanton's case-the most scathing of his
many able messages, and needing only more
weighty occasion and subject to make it a
state paper of the first order of merit-should
have an effect on poor Stanton like the search
behind the screen in the apartment of "Joseph
Surface" in the School for Scandal. If the
mans nature has any lingering remnant of the
sensibilities of a gentleman, he will hide his
face in confusion and wish to slink away from
human observation. Despite the sober and sea-
soned gravity of its manner the message is as
good as comedy. Its effect on Stanton and his
Jealous Republican laudators must be like
that produced ON "Falstaff7' by the exposure
of his prodigious heroism against the men in
buckram.
1t is conceivable enough that q man may
differ vehemently with the President, even on
points where the President is strong and right,
without having any cause to blush for his
personal probity or his sense of character. A
mans honest prejudices, be they ever SO vio-
lent do not dishonor and degrade him. But
when man passes himself off for a martyr,
and is presently unmasked as hypoorite, he
is beyond the pale of charity. If Mr.. Seward
should turn upon the President, and raise
quarrel on the ground that Mr.. johnson had
consented to squander the public revenue in
the Russian purchase, or If Mr.. McCulloch
should try to fasten on him quarrel because
| he favors a contraction of the currency, or
Mr.. Stanbery because he vetoed the Recon-
| struction bill, every honest man would
| declare without hesitation that these mem
bers Of the Cabinet were disgraced. But if
these scarcely supposable hypothesis were
facts, they would fade away before such
infamy as Stanton's. This perfdious mis-
| ereant had the indescribable impudence to
tell the President that he was unfit to be
| trusted with the appointment of an ad interim
| Secretary Of War, when he himself had been
| not merely an approver, but the author, of the
| policy for which the President was condemned |!
| The reconstruction policy of Mr.. Johnson,
which is 'the head and front of his offending" {"
was devised and put in writing by Stanton
| himself, before Mr.. Johnson became President.
1t had the previous approval of President
Lincoln, and was accepted by Mr.. johnson
when he came into Office. These facts and
documentary evidence to prove them are given
by Mr.. Johnson in the Message, and the we'll
driven nail is clinched by the sworn testimony
Of Stanton himself. The North Carolina
proclamation, in which President Johnson's
reconstruction policy was first announced,
was a concoction of Stanton's brain, and in
all its essential features, the production of his
pen
The brazen knave and hypocrite outdid
even himself in publicly oontesting the Presi-
dents authority to suspend him. He rested
his remonstrance on the Constitution" and
the claws" but was prudently tender Of
going into particulars. The word "Constitu-
ton" in such a connection should have burnt
his pen like vitriOl, and Redeemed the very
paper with shame. He, as having been 8
former Attorney General, was consulted by
the President respecting the constitutionality
of the Tenure Of Office BILL and held it to be
in plain conflict with the Constitution. He
supplied orally all the best points in the veto
of that bill, and would have written the veto
message had it not been for transient physi
cal inirmity. And yet he had the amazing
effroAtery to plead the Constitution against the
act of the President. A man capable OF this il
capable of any meanpess, and he probably wai
in collusiOn with Congress at the very time ht
was supplying the President with arguments
against their action. The bill was probably
amended so as to include Cabinet officers a
his instgation, and his arguments against itt
constitutionality were a device for warding OF
suspicion. This snake in the grass was tn
only member of the Cabinet for whom the Re
publicans had any tenderness or whom they
had any motive to keep in Office.
The skulking baseness, the personal anC