The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-16

those Well-meanlng out badly informed Con-
servatives who fancy that The nation will
submit to any reconstruction other than
political equality. With the exception of
Ohio (whose Legislature has Just clothed
itself with the shadow of shame) every
Western State is engaged in the humane task
of lepisating into its statutes the equal rights
of ali classes of its citizens The next reDort
that comes from the Northwest will be the
o,,nunginp of the word ''whiten from balfo-
dozen State Constitutions. In forwardness
of radical sentiment, the men who live West
of the Mississippi rebuke the men who live
East Such Legislature rs has Just voted
disgrace upon Ohio, could not possibly have
been elected in Iowa or Minnesota.
The Thirty-nnth .Congress-atter the inevi-
table soilure produced by two years residence
i'm Washington, even at the distance of a full
mile from the White House-did not dare dis
miss itself and return to the people without
first cleansing its tarnished record of delay by
Giving to the nation a reconstruction bill which,
swpeninu with victorious majesty through
both Houses striking down the Presidents
negative with a counter-veto now holds overthe
misbebavior of the South the sword of a mill
tary government, to reconquer the Rebellion,
to re-establish loyalty and to reordain peace.
The great act would have been morally
greater had it compelled the immediate or
Ganization of State Governments in the South,
on the basis of their loyal citizens both white
and black, instead of leaving to the South the
option of forming just and equal civil Govern
mcnts or of continuing as vassals under the
rod of military rule.
Nevertheless, the military plan is SO much
better than the most sanguine had reason to
expect q month ago, that the day of its pas
sage over the Presidents veto was q day to
make the blood merry in a radical man.
pulse. | happened to be in company with
my friend Frederick Douglass in Chicago
on the announcement of the good news;
whereupOn he Immediately lifted his hands
and cried remembering his race and the pros
pect of their deliverance, ''Thank Godl''
To the new Congress the nation looks with
new hope.
Its first great duty is the impeachment Of
the President.
Be it spoken as the will of the loyal North
| that the Fortieth Congress is charged with the
solemn duty of removing traitor from the
chief magistracy of the Republic. Nothing on
the docket ought to take precedence Of this
business. The chief mischief.maker in the
nation must be cut short in his career of crime
| Andrew Johnson is now greater obstacle tC
| the reconstruction of the Union than either
\ Robert Il. Lee or Jefferson Davis. These mer
are Rebels out of office; but Andrew Johnson
4 is a rebel in the highest of offices. Daily is
! he executing the will of these two men, in
him President. TO govern the South by the
army, while Andrew Johnson is the head o
| the army, is a mOckery. If the military plan
| of Congress is to succeed the army must hav,
a new master-spirit. The impeachment of tn,
| President is the first necessity of the situation
With Supreme Court loyal one day and dis
! loyal the next, and with an Executive dislOya
| all days alike, Congress will count only on,
against two in the game of governing tn,
| South. II must make success certain by grind
| ing the Executive to fine dust in the Senate
and blowing him away with the breath of
judicial sentence by the Chief Justice
The country would cheer to the echo tht
| dismissal of Andrew Johnson to the harmless
ness of private life. saw no audience al
winter that did not applaud the Impeachment
OF the President. Western men, familiar will
the Presidents speeches. are in the habit o
saying that Andrew Johnson should now
take a back seat
Nor let the Fortieth Congress initiate tin
Thirty-ninth in the bad example of waiting
two years, and tardily doing its duty with it
expiring breath. Two years hence the Presi
dent will fall off like a withered leaf. Wha
we want is that he should be shaken off now
! A Congress to which he disdains to send
message may, before the two years are ended
find him denying its jurisdiction and arrest
ing it's members. Addrew Johnson is to-da
the chief enemy Of the republic: let him b
| removed
And with these amiable reflections o Lndt
poadent here drop the pen of a pilgrim, i
hope of soon walking up the steps of No.
Beekman street, and rejoining the goOdl
society of my office-mates, in the afOresai
| cham bar bauOtad Of STidars and mica