The New York herald., 1867-03-25

the civil authorities, but Information OF importance
has bcen elected General Grisr has furnished volu.
ninous report 70 the authorities ct Washington.
The body Of missing girl found in her fathers
cellar In Brandon. W., recently, and her father IS
been arrested suspicion Of having caused her DEATH
President Johnson's Administration-Hts Past
Mistakes and Present Opportunities.
Under the lights Of history the administration
of Mr.. Johnson has so far been Q budget of
blunders. His first mistake was one OF omis-
sion, and we locate it ON the 18th day of April,
1865, the day on which he was sworn into
Office. Abraham Lincoln had lived to see the
had been received in triumph among the smok-
ing ruins of Richmond. The work of destruc-
lion had substantially ended, and the task Of
construction confronted Mr.. johnson from
the moment after he had taken the Presidential
OATH As this business exclusively belonged
to the sovereign legislative branch of the gov
ernment, the first duty and the first stroke of
sound policy which ought TO have occurred to
the mind of Mr.. Johnson was a proclamation
calling an extra session of Congress. As the
law then stood, without such call the recess
(short SESSION., which had commenced on the
4th Of March, would last Till the first Monday
in December. Seven months and half were
still before Mr.. johnson to act, with or without
Congress as he might determine; and in deter
mining to appropriate this long interval to the
development of his own policy, in forestalling
and supersedng the rightfui authority OF Con-
gress, he committed his first and greatest
blunder.
Through all the summer and autumn Of 1865,
however, while assuming and exercising the
exclusive powers of Congress in the working
up of his provisional Southern State establish
ments, he still pleaded the constitutional plea
OF the supervising and sovereign jurisdiction
of Congress. In his first message December,
1869 to the two houses this sovereign author
ity was conceded in the attempt that was made
to evade it 1t was not till the 22d of February,
1866, however, in that famous stump speech
from the White House, that the first tilt against
Congress was made by Mr.. johnson, and in
this bis hostility was limited to such violent
radicals as Stevens and Sumner and I" the
dead duck" Forney. In fact, running through
to the adoption Of the pending constitutional
amendment by Congress, the position of Mr..
johnson was that Of a republican President
who intended to fight out his fight agains! the
extreme radicals within the lines Of the party.
Had he adhered to this resolution, in falling in
with that amendment, he might still have be-
come master Of the situation but just here he
self in appealing from Congress to the people,
disastrous especially from The way in which he
pushed .his appeal.
His Philadelphia August National Conven-
tion was an offensive mockery, an incongruous
jumble Of dead heads, adventurers, crudties
and curiosities. Instead of serving him any
good purpose it broke up his independent ma
tional party programme, and left him at the
mercy of the helpless remnant OF the Chicago
democracy. Then followed that melancholy
pilgrimage to the grave Of Douglas, OF itself
great budget of blunders, stumping tour
which, in connection with the Memphis and
New Orleans massacres, brought down upon
Mr.. Johnson and his policy that tremendous
avalanche OF Congressional republican majori-
ties which last fall swept the country from
Maine to California. Here, however, was an
other chance Of salvation to the Executive in
the acceptance of the verdict of the people
and in falling in with the policy of Congress
which they had so emphatically approved. But
this verdict, which he had sought, he utterly
ignored IN his annual message OF last Decem-
Der, and still discussed the saving virtues OF
his own condemned and exploded hereses OF
restoration.
The Reputation, then, of all his two years.
labors and their results in the work of South
ern reconstruction, with new beginning from
Appomattox Court House. was the only alter
native left to Congress, involving. If necessary,
the impeachment and removal of the President
himself Over halt a dozen vetoes, more or
less, this sweeping work Of reconstruction has
been consummated. Mr.. Johnson, completely
defeated at every point, and with the sword Of
impeachment still hanging over his head, is
now left TO the test of the execution of these
laws. What, then, are his opportunities for
the redemption Of his administration
His first opportunity is that which is offered
him to save himself in seeing these recons.ruc-
ton laws Of Congress faithfully executed"
We are gratifed with the evidences before us
OF his good intentions in that direction. But,