New-York tribune., 1867-03-08
NrILIFTcATIOY IN ALEXANDRIA.

The Reconstruction bill is disregarded by
the President. March ), three days after 1t was
made a law by Congress, municipai eiecuo1
was held in Alexandria, Virginia, at
which legal voters were excluded on ac-
count of color. Nothing could be palmer
tIaT the terms Of the law, nothing
more absolute than the right OF coiored men
TO vote in Alexandria last Tuesday. Inc re-
fusal of the Judges of Elections 10 receive
their ballots was an insolent defiance Oh the
law, the desperate act of men who knew them-
selves to be minority, and who elected
Rebel Mayor by denying loyal men ther
rights. In Alexandria 900 men voted 1or
the Rebel candidates there were 56 kadicai
white and more than 1000 cOlored voters. The
latter excluded from the regular polls, voted
at polls of their Own, but while the result Is q
clear Radical majority, the Rebel candidate for
Mayor, Hugh Latham, is declared elected
But this defiance of the law Is not as I'M
po,tant as the disobedience of the President
70 ts commands. He was directed to enforce
IL. vet without one step of his to prevent,
,0oO legal voters of the United
States are banished from the polls. BY
Gen. Canbys order not Mr.. Johnson's
-
sent to Alexandria to preserve order; but the
President, with an army at his orders, did not
send one man to execute the laws. The act Oh
the Alexandria Rebels was even worse than
riot-it was deliberate contempt OF the Gov
crnment, and we can see no excuse 1or
Mr. Jolns0n's failure to meet disobedience
with authority There could have been no
doubt of his duty to interfere in the Alexandra
election The law declares that its provisions
shall apply to "all elections to any office." IL
makes no exceptions, fixes no distant day for
its provisions to go into operation; 1t took
effect from the moment of its passage, and
Mr. johnson was as much bound to obey 1t
last Tuesday as he would be year hence. We
are told but can scarcely believe, that the At
torney General of the United States is OF the
opinion that the President was not required to
prevent this outrage, because military Com
mander has not been appointed in the district
of which Virginia is a part But where in the
law is there any clause which obhges the
President to act only through the DSts5ct
Commanders, or that gives any discretion to
commanders OF to the President himself, in the
matter of the elective franchisef The right to
vote is absolute; the language of the law is
unnllStahaDlet the suniuBc EiNs cAiSt mucp~hu
emily of Brigadier- Generals Yet, even If the
opinion had any value, it would be no excuse, fol
il Military Commanders are necessary TO the ex-
ecution of this portion of the law why did not
the President appoint thcmf The law declares
that certain tlsngs shall be done, and they ar'
not done; that he shall appoint certain osacers
and they are not appointed.
In the Alexandria election the authority o.
the Government has been insulted and de
sed while, as the fast election held under the
law. il was the very case IN which tha
authority should have been asserted. Wher
we consider that Alexandria IL but ar
hos's rido from the Capitol, amos
under the eyes of the President, and that there
he permitted the laws OF which he Is the Exc
cutive to he trampled under foot, his apologies
for the massacre at New Orleans, his indiffer-
cnce 10 tho disregard of tho Civil Rights bib
cease to surprise Nor do we so much care thai
the Rebel voters of Alexandria disobeyed tAt
law for that il an offense which Injuries bu
one thousand citizens; we look at tho dise'
gard of the law by Andrew johnson as a mastei
which affects the nation.