The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-06-29
REC0NSTRUCTION---GENE SICKLE AND
THE ADMINISTRATION.

| THE ADWlNISIkAIIUNs
General sickles forces the fighting in his
letter asking to be relieved of his command.
He puts before the nation, stripped OF all
DISCUSSES in bold, distinct reality, the actual
point at issue-the point that the people
must see and understand before they can
satisfactorily determine who is right-the
poit in relation to which the President
would confuse popular vision-that he
would cover up and overlap with all the fine
phrases of legal palaver. 1t is Mr.. Johnson's
desire and purpose to man9nvre-to adj
vance and retreat-to watch the popular hu-
NOR and his own occasion--to keep this OBJ
iect secret from the people, and all the time
practically defeat the law by delay, and
thus, between worry and disgust, weary the
nation out of its now positive will. He counts
upon solid obstinacy in refusing to obey the
law, and upon justifying himself before the
people by crying in and out OF season that
| he refused obedience in the interest of free
DOM that the law was tyrranical, and de-
molished by the one crisp sentence in which
Sickles says the Attorney Generals declara-
ton prevents the execution OF the Recon-
struction acts, disarms me of means to protect
life, property or the rights Of citizens, and me-
naces all interests in these States with ruin"
Here is testimony as to what the President
|
soldier and a lawyer-a man nobly known
for his good record in the war-a man of
acute intellect and a high sense of his hon
orable responsibility. He has had practical
experience of the operation of the Recon-
struction act during two months, and he
testities that on the foundation laid in that
statute the social fabric of the Southern
States was going up well-that the abroga-
ton of the law menaces all interests in
those States with ruin" and that the Presi-
dents Interpretation abrogates and nullifies
it, In these words full light is thrown on
the Presidents course, and the issue between
the President and Congress is put before the
people.
This same outspoken soldier once before
held high command in a dangerous hour
when the hot July sun was blazing down
on the little town of Gettysburg and the
open country near. Then the army had COM
mander appointed to his high place only
three days before, and this commander had
just hastily concetrated several corps in
the presence of an enemy flushed with the
recent triumphs. He would have been
a more than commonly bold man If the
thought of maneuvring somewhat in the
presence of the enemy had not crept into his
mind. Yet the word manGuvre uttered then
would have sickened the heart of the army
and parayzed the country. Lee had gone
round our right wing in Virginia as if our
army had toy general-had swept across
Maryland and into Pennsylvania, and talk
ed of Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Pllila-
delphians were getting their valuables ready
for the New York train. But the army of
the Potomac was coming on singing its John
Brown chorus all the way, and on the 1st
OF July it was so hard on the heels of Lee
that he had to turn and face it. 1t had
caught him in the broad Pennsylvania fields
in .fdgrante delictO, and had him out of his
swamps and woods, on solid Northern
ground, face to face What would man9u-
vre have been then-maneuvre with more or
less of possible retreat-what but shame and
disgrace? The cards were drawn for an
open, straightforward, stand up fight. The
army and the county saw this yet the omi-
nous word man9uvre was certainly whls-
pered in high places, and the long second
day was going by without battle. Man9u-
vre was getting the best of the discussion,
perhaps. But while the discussion was go.
ing on, suddenly the roar of battle was
heard on the left. What could it mean 3
The commander did not know. But it was
soon explained. One of our corps was in mo-
ton; its general saw the enemy on his
front; thought the enemy was coming at
him, and so went at the enemy. The ques
ton of manevuring and retreating was set
tled-the country was saved by great vic
tory, and Lee driven to the Potomac The
general who went at the enemy was Sickles,
and the country owes him its gratitude for
forcing the fighting then, and not less def
mite debt for the same sort of action now;
for an equivocal course would be as danger
Gus as it might have been then.
Let the nation contrast Gen. Sickles' opin-
ion OF the RecOnstl uctiOn law with the Off
cial administration view concocted between
the President and his Attorney General 1t
is not so long, and is immensely clearer
Without the power given by the law he can
not protect life property or the rights ofci
liens, and in view of its abrogation ruin
" menaces every interest" Yet this is the
law upon which the President has exercised
a veto power by Interpretation. The law
says no legal State governments exist in
the rebel States" and this is interpreted
to be giving of power to the governments
it endeavors to deprive of power. What is
this Z" Interpretation" but veto and defiance
ofthe legislative power of the peo-
pie Some time ago the Washington organ
of the administration urged that an inter
probation of the law should be put before
the several commanders -" in such shape that
no military officer would dare to treat it with
contempt or indifference" 1t is now for Con-
gress in its July session to put the national
will before the President in just that way-so
that hewill not dare to disobey tito defy tito
treat it with contempt and trample upon it,
rs he has done on the law already made. 1t
is difficult to see how a law can be made
stronger than the military bill. The prob
EN- of the hour is not how to make the law
stronger, but how to force its enforcement
upon a logged and hostile Executive. This
S the point for the deliberations of the July
Y. Herald.
The RIGHT SP1Rr.-At a meeting of
u hit and c1larn6 1aool,lo holl