The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-08-30


for Stanton's resignation. He declines
point blank to withdraw and falls back
upon Congress. We hold, then, that the
only course left to the President, if he
would maintain the dignity of his office
and his own self-respect, is to suspend the
refractory Secretary of War, and appoint
or recognize some other person in the dis.
charge of his official duties for the time
! being.
This, however, is but limited view of
the case. Mr.. Stanton's suspension is not
only necessary to the proper settlement
of the personal issue between him and the
President, but it becomes indispensable
to Mr.. johnson if he would SO apply the
reconstruction conditions of Congress as
to give the whites of the South fair
field against the negroes. But is there
not some danger in this thing of making
a martyr of Stanton to his advantage as a
Presidential candidate There mi ght be
IT he were left standing alone as martyr.
But there will be not be any such danger
IT the whole five commanders of the five
Southern military districts are made mar
tyrs OF at the same time with their reno
val. The honors Of martyrdom, i n
being thus divided among half dozen
martyrs, will be neutralized, and SO Mr..
stanton's calculations upon this score will
s'gnally fail. This, then, is the proper
line of action for Mr.. Johnson-the sus-
pension of Stanton, tho removal of the
five military commanders, and the substi-
tuition for all these of other men who will
cordially cooperate in the execution of the
laws of Congress according to the liberal
ideas and purposes of the President to.
wards the white population of the ten
States directly concerned in opposition 10
negro supremacy.
Upon this broad and general issue Mr..
johnson need not be afraid of throwing
down the gauntlet to the radicals in our
approaching Northern elections. Let it
appear, and let it be fairly understood,
that while Southern reconstruction under
Secretary Stanton and the present South
ern military commanders under his wing
means negro supremacy in the South, and
the return of perhaps twenty or thirty
negroes as a beginning to the present
Congress from the Southern States, the
execution of the laws of reconstruction
aimed at by Mr.. johnson contemplates
the supremacy of the Southern whites, so
far at least as to exclude negroes from
Congress, end wo shall have an issue
which will change the face of things even
this fall in the elections Of PENNSYLVANIA
and New York.
The whole issue in the South depends
upon the spirit in which these laws of
reconstruction are applied. If the re-
strlctions against rebels are vigorously en-
forced, while the negroes, without qucs-
ton, are freely admitted to the suffrage,
as they have been so far, the negroes will
rule in the work of reorganization and
send whom they please to Congress. If, |
on the other hand, the restrictions against
the Southern whites are somewhat relax.
ed, and the requirements to suffrage are
fairly applied to the blacks, the white ma
Jorlty, where it exists in any Southern
State, will be brought into action, and
white ascendency will be the result
We believe, too, that under this system
Southern reconstruction may be so fairly |
accomplished as to compel even the radi-
Gals of Congress to accept it; for if the
idea of universal suffrage has now gone
SO far that it cannot be arrested, that 9TH
er idea of general amnesty is close be-
bind. If jeff Davis, on the bail volun.
teered by leading radicals, can be turned
loose, surely we need no longer delay in
letting all tho smaller fry of the rebellion
go scot-free. Now, then, is the time for
President johnson to make the issue we
have suggested between his method of
executing the laws of reconstruction,
which means Southern white supremacy,
and the Stanton method, which means
Southern negro supremacy and twenty
or thirty negroes in the two houses as q
before the expiration of the
present Congress. Let MIR. johnson pre-
pare at once to try New York and Penn
sylvania on this test, and he will discover
before the re'assembling of Congress that
they are not yet ready to be jostled by
Sambo in the United States Senate.
Y Herald