The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-28
The Government of the south.

1t is with great joy that the people of the
North see the sword of military government
unsheathed by Congress over the rebellious
States. Thank God that our dilatory represen-
tatives at last mean to provide against the
perils of the situation by courageous remedy.
The army of the republic must re-encamp in
the Southern States, no longer to destroy the
Southern Confederacy, but to reconstruct the
American Union on the basis of political
equality. No other than a military plan is
adequate to the present emergency. The doc
trine of self-government does not mean the
erection of ten State Governments over loyal
lists to be administered by traitors. The first
condition of self-government is true-hearted
allegiance, not rebellious defiance. Trea-
son cannot govern it must be gov
erned. Every unreconstructed State must
go without self-government until its citizens
become loyal. Is this policy severe 1t is
Just. Any other policy is cruelty towards
the loyalists of the South. Any other policy
betrays the negro to his enemy. Any other
policy burns the houses of the white Unionists
of Georgia and Mississippi, and exiles their
families to the North. An outspoken Yankee
cannot travel securely in any Southern State
to-day. A Northern radical cannot open a
store in any rebellious city without encoun-
terlnR threats .Ol .NlOl6llC6. II ODlOA SOlul6I
cannot enter a social company in the South
without receiving insult and scorn in return
for his devotion to his country. Give the
unrecOnstructed States back to self-cOn-
troll and in half year reign
of terror will exist throughout their
length and breadth. The old regime will be
reinaugurated, and made worse than in the
days of slavery. The black flag will fly at the
masthead, and civilization will shudder at a
/ No. Gfnfn flrn
Texas, which, during the last year, murdered
twenty-seven hundred negroes in cold blood,
need civil government or military police
Moreover; of what earthly use is the Federal
! Government itself unless it can protect the
! American citizen? What baseness and perfdy
shall be charged against national admins
tration which, in the second year after vietO-
rious war, has permitted the public enemy to
| slaughter nearly three thousand of the loyal
defenders of the Union Is such a state OF
things better or worse than open war; Mill
| tary government ought never to have been
relaxed from the rebellious South.
| 1t is patent to all the world that, except for
| the national calamity which gave us a traitor
to sit in the White House, the South might
have been long ago brought into subsection,
! humility, and peace. On the head of the
basest of American Presidents falls the bloody
responsibility for every loyal life taken since
Lees surrender Congress at last proposes to
stay the further progress of the Rebellion by
an uplifted warlike arm All hail to the mill
tary dictatorship! But the plan has prime de-
feet. Congress sets the army to governing the
South; but does Congress know who is at the
head of the armyY Andrew JOhnsonl The removal
of the President therefore, becomes instantly
necessary to the safety of the Republic. Let
him be impeached forthwith Let him be put
out of the way without further coquetry Con
gress might as well ask Robert f. Lee to carry
out its military government,as to ask Andrew
Johnson. Having taking a bold step in de-
vising strong plan, let Congress take boldel
step in devising its sure execution. The army
of the United States must have a new Com
mander-in- Chief. Andrew Johnson has be
come an offense to the nation. Let him be led
to the tribunal of the Senate, and thence dis
missed to private life. The hearts of the loya
millions look to a loyal Congress to impeacl
the President, to protect the negro, and L
govern the South.