The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-20

contain the Attorney Generals OPT
mon in full. OF course, they COM
ment omit, but mono of them favor
ably Our extracts must necessarily
be brief. The Tribune says:
''Mr. Stanberry cuts the heart out
Of the military bill. If he is right,
then Congress is criminally wrong.
A measure which was carefully and
anxiously devised by more than two
thirds of the Senate and the House,
and not only adopted, but second
time considered and passed over an
able and ingenious veto message,
proves to be delusion and q snare.
and absolutely worthless rs mea-
sure of reconstruction. If Mr.. Stan
berry Is right, then we can no more
reconstruct the South under this bill
than we could under the tax levy of
our Common Councils, or Mr.. Swim
burne's last poem. The Senate was
wrong-the House did not know
what it was doing. Mr.. Johnson's
veto message was written in igno-
rance of the law, and our generals
have entirely misconstrued one of
the plalnest and most emphatic bills
of Congress! Everybody has erred
but Mr.. Stanberry! That officer may
be subtle logician and we'll learned
IN the law. but we do not believe
either his logic or his facts
1t concludes its comments by say
ing:
Congress should assemble in July.
and address itself again to recon
structlon. We must make this bill
so plain that even Stanberry may
understand it, and so comprehensive
that the President cannot escape it's
execution. We regret that the Ad-
ministration has forced another issue
upon the country. We must prompt
ly meet it."
The Times says:
eve can only repeat .hc hope we
have more than once expressed. that
the President will not follow .his ad-
vice. If he acts upon it ut all, it can
only be as advice. Whatever may be
the cogency of the technical reason
ing of the Attorney land we
confess that it is very strong the
Presidents attention ought to be
given-as that of the public will be
to the practical execution of the law
IN completing the work of reconstruc-
ton; and that depends far more on
the actual and complete authority of
the generals il ueir respective dis
tricts than upo' any technical con-
structions of the law. Theirsmoral
influences and consequent usefulness
very much depend upon the realiza-
ton of the act that they are in Il
manner absolute-that their power to
dispose of faithless or obstructive
officials is as complete as their power
to preserve the peacc-and that their
acts are not subject to reversal by dis
tant political authority. Let it be
once understood that the general is n
mere subordinate, whose superior is
ready to listen to the complaints of
persons whom the general has, for
cause, removed, and, from that mo-
ment, the enemies of the law will
take fresh courage, and the work of
reconstruction will be very seriously
impeded."
The Herald says:
'No man disposed to accept and
act upon this law in good faith can
see III it any other than the clear in
tent and purpose thus set forth. But
we do not say that any lawyer may
not argue around it, or that legal
acuteness. exercised for the specific
purpose, may not find in it places
large enough for many small men to
creep through. Richelieu could con-
denim man upon any three lines he
had ever written, and no doubt the
right sort of lawyer can nullify and
defeat the most distinct and positive
statute that ever declared the will of
Il ruling power. 1t, indeed, requires
only very moderate ability to make
quibbles of any sort. Is the recon
strnction Ia" to be acted upon in this
spirit? Are legal arguments to de-
prive 1t of its vitality? Docs the
President, under pretcnce of telling
the commanders how to execute the
law, intend 20 tell them only how TO
defeat 1t? Evidently that is Just
where we stand. This is the evident
purpose now, and it is clear that we
are on the eve of new troubles.
Above all, il is clear that rccCustruc-
ton cannot so forward until we have
another Executive. How long shall
that be? This is now the great qucs-
ton for the country TO consider. We
have the Presidents platform i. the
two OpiuiOnS-Wc know what n, ,v-