The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-15

Dismissed
Davis Released ON BRiI-A Clear Field
Tor southern Recon struottOn.
From the Herald
The Supreme Court of the United States
has dismissed the Mississippi and Georgia
injunction cases for want of jurisdiction. BY
the Circuit Court of the United States at Rich
mond Judge Underwood) JEFF. Davis, while
awaiting his trial, has been released from mill
tary custody on bail, in the sum of one hun
dred thousand dollars. These are two i'm
portant events, and will be hailed with general
satisfaction throughout the country, in view
of an uninterrupted reconstruction, and an
early restoration to Congress of the ten ex-
cluded Southern States.
The Mississippi and Georgia cases were each
petition to the Supreme Court, restraining
the Secretary of War, General Grant, and the
five Southern Military District commanders
(for an injunction in one case would apply to
them all) from the execution of the Southern
Reconstruction laws of Congress, on the
ground that they are unconstitutional and
void in trenching upon State rights. de-
csion to this effect, looking to the Milligan
decision of last winter, was reasonably ex-
pected by the petitioners (Sharkey, Walker,
and others), and there was some reason to
fear that President Johnson in the event of
such decision, might obey it, in the recall
of the Southern Military District comman-
ders, thus reinstating his own policy. and
challenging another conflict with Congress,
which would inevitably end only in his i'm
peaChment and removal, and in the recOnstruc-
ton of the Supreme Court itself.
1t will be perceived therefore, that i'll the
dismissal of these injunction cases the conflict
from which the President stands so signally
defeated has been declined by the Supreme
Al,o% 41,.,
departments the legislative is recognized the
sovereign master OF Southern reconstruction
and restoration. Consequently, all those dis
turbing State rights politicians of the South
and the North who have been promising a
rescue from Congress by the Supreme Court
must now fall in with the good advice of Gene
rails Lee, Hampton, Longstreet, and other
late fighting Rebel leaders, in fulfilling the
terms laid down by Congress. In behalf of
Southern reconstruction, then, the importance
and value of this decision cannot be exagge-
rated.
Nor is the temporary enlargement of jeff
Davis on bail trilling matter, looking to a
healthy reconstruction of Southern public
opinion. Two years ago, on the charge of
being a conspiratOr with Wilkes Booth and
others in the assassination of President Lin
coin, a reward of one hundred thousand dol
lars was offered by President Johnson for the
fallen to the ground but, from the quibbling
evasions of Chief Justice Chase, the accused is
detained in prison two years awaiting ga
speedy trial, " as murderer a traitor or
Rebel. The laws delay, through the Chief
Justice, is thus becoming public scandal
when Davis is brought up for trial and re-
leased on bail in the very sum Gone hundred
thousand dollars) paid for his capture. This
is a curious fact; but it is not half so curious
as the fact that first on the list of his bonds
men appears Horace Greeley ('on to Rich
mond'') and second, Augustus Schell, Presi-
dent of the Democratic Manhattan Club of
which Thurlow Weed is likewise a member.
Here is Northern rivalry for political capital
South which may lead to still more remark
able manifestations of brotherly love. 1t
matters little now whether Davis is tried next
week, next month, or next year-his trial
will end in smoke. 1t is not unlikely that if
left to the courts his case may be postponed
again and again, till finally dropped. In the
John Brown song it is said,
1--WE will hang JEFF Davis on O sour apple tree,
AS we go marching on,"
and President Johnson has declared several
times that treason is a crime and traitors
must be punished" but as matters now stand
the best thing he could do would be to grant
free pardon to Davis and let him 60 in peace.
Thus, in this case, the work of reconstruc-
tion commenced by O'Conor, Greeley, and
Schell will be perfected by the President, and
/ Davis will become tower of strength to the
| Government in the good cause of Southern
restoration. Greeley will have a fair field
throughout the South to rectify the blunders
Of Senator Wilson, the Hon. Mr.. Kelley,
Jedediah h. Hayward, and other Northern
radicals, IN their missionary efforts to array
the Southern blacks against the whites as a
political party; and Davis will be able to
exercise still greater influence over the
lntractable State-rights politicians, in brino-
ing them round to the laws of Congress- and
over the five Southern Military District com
manders. The great danger now is that.
between the ideas of cOnfscation and agrari.
anlsm, which are getting into the heads of the
Southern blacks by the hints thrown out by
sold Thad. Stevens Senator Wilson and
others, on the one side, and from such South
ern unreconstructed white leaders as ex
Governor Perry of South Carolina, Sharkev O
Mississippi, and Governor Jenkins of Georgia
on the other side there may be organized
such a clashing OF races as will precipitat,
even in the North another political revolution
throwing everything into confusion, while We
the work of reconstruction is only half begun
To arrest these tendencies of the presen
political agitations Of our five Southern Mill
tary Districts, we submit to President Johnso,
the experiment of free pardon to Davis. il
order that he and Greeley, and Augustus
Schell and John Minor Bolts, may stump tn
South together, in correcting the fallacies O
State rights, and in dsabusing the ignoran
blacks of those dangerous notions that il
addition to freedom, the Freedman's Bureau
, and the ballot-bOX, they are to have free farm
and nothing to do but to enjoy all the African
splendors of Hayti. The Republican leaders
r at all events must look to this, or they ma