The New York herald., 1867-03-29


Active Work in the South General sheridan's
Coup pd'Etaa-Censress and the President.
"Little Phil Sheridan believes in de-
cisive measures His General Order No. s."
as commander Of the Fifth military district,
the States of Louisiana and Texas,
sustains his reputation. He briefly declares
Andrew S. Heron, Attorney General of the
State Of Louisiana, Edmund Abel, Judge Of
the First District Court of New Orleans, and
John 7. Monroe, Mayor Of the city, removed,
and names other men of better record OF
loyalty as appointed to fill their places, at
twelve O'Clock on the day on which the order
is issued. This is the short work of q coup
dstat, and a republican contemporary says 1t
"Thrills the Unionists with joy and the nullifers
with dismay" But whereforei What offence
have these dismissed civil officers committed to
justify this unceremonious removal, and why
is their displacement hailed with joy by the
Unionists and dismay by the nulliiers!
The official correspondence on the New Or
leans massacre of last July explains the
mystery. 1t thus appears, from the testi-
mony of General Sheridan among others,
that Heron, Abel and Monroe were to
great extent responsible for that massacre |;
that it was the result of conspiracy
Of unreconstructed rebels, officials and pri-
Yates, to suppress in reign of terror
the Yankee abolitionists in New Orleans
and the emancipated blacks affliating with
them as political party. But were not
Heron, Abel and Monroe in the confidence of
President Johnson? Unfortunately for the
President they were. He was not only deceived
and betrayed by them. but he tolerated
them after the facts had established their
criminality as confederates Of the mob engaged
in that July massacre. He had, however, COM
mitted himself to the theory, and would not
abandon it, that the obnoxious radical conven-
ton and the negroes we're the instigators Of
the riot, and that Heron, Abel and Monroe
were the instruments only Of law and order in
its suppression. General Sheridan. on the
spot, very pun0ently at the time took the
opposite view Of the affair, and his convictions
Of last July are embodied in this decisive
order No. 5. -, Il. "a A...;
~ WV hOAe pluCC IL 10 TCpOI6U tudt NIL
Stanton, Secretary of War, has sent compli-
mentary despatch to General Sheridan approx
ing this order No. 8, and we presume that he
has done so because his opinions of that New
Orleans massacre are understood to be those
of Sheridan. What, then, is the position Of the
President, assuming that these men were
removed without his authority and against
his wishes He cannot touch the Secretary Of
War, because he is protected in the Cabinet by
the new law regulating the tenure Of oface. He
win hardly undertake to remove Sheridan or
to reinstate these obnoxious officials; because
either Of these proceedings will strengthen the
party before the Judiciary Com
mittee Of. Congress, charged with the investi-
cation Of the sshigh crimes and misdemeanors"
alleged against the President in view Of his
and removal His position, then,
is not that Of the great Mogul reclining on
bed Of roses, nor anything like 1t. He has Sec
retary Stanton to hold him in check on one
side, and the impeachment committee to watch
him on the other. His only course, therefore,
Is to let these laws Of Southern reconstruction
under Stanton, Grant and the commanders
of the five military districts, take their course,
taking care only to "see the laws faithfully
executed"
Meanwhile, while General Sheridan has taken
the bull by the horns in Louisiana, we per-
ceive that General Sweeny, post commander
in Georgia-in the absence Of General Pope,
Third District Commander has ordered the
suspension Of certain local elections super
seded by Congress, that General Schoneld is
very popular in Virginia, that General Sickles
has been favorably received by all parties in
North and South Carolina, and that the people
of Mississippi and Arkansas are pleased with
their commander, General Ord. From Virginia
to Texas we perceive, too, that the republican
politicians, white and black, including some
colored stumpers from The North, are actively at
work organizing Southern wing of the repub-
lican party, while General Wade Hampton, Of
South Carolina, Ex-Governor Brown, Of Georgia.
and General Lee, in Virginia, and others
Of that school, are moving as earnestly in
behalf of q new independent Southern party
Of whites and blacks, planters and laborers,
under the laws Of reconstruction. From all
these proceedings we see that Secretary STAN
ton, with the district military commanders
under his instructions and approval, is really
the master Of the situation, that the Southern
people are at last thoroughly convinced that
President johnson cannot even help himself,
and that instead of praying any longer to Her
cules they must put their own shoulders to the
wheel and work out their own salvation under
the conditions Of war resulting from the col
lapse Of their Southern confederacy.
To make all things sure, Congress, now about
to adjourn, may decide to come together
again in the summer to take . look at the
situation and progress Of reconstruction in
the South, and to see what the impeachment
committee will recommend in reference to
President johnson, and to learn also what
I'll