The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-04
SPIRIT or THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPfOs-CoMPmED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TBLEeRAPH.
The PrssIdent ON the War Path.

The President who evades the law tramples
,,Don it For his refusal to execute the law
IN ;ts plain intent there can be no excuse;
even ignorance cannot be pleaded in his case,
for ignorance is incapacity, and that is an
;mneaohable offense. Mr.. Johnson may there
fore take his choice of explanations, with the
certainty that he can make none that the
country will accept. When we find IN the
lorr oourse of his official action, year after
wear. nothing but direct opposition to the
laws. the conclusion is inevitable that he Is
criminal or incapable, and in very respect for
the Presidency, the people will not permit 1t
to be filed by law-breaker or an lmOeoile'
Wa NAV think it wiser to wait and endure as
No have endured: but, wise or imprudent, no
man can doubt the great fact that the lndlg-
uant spirit of the nation will not long tolerate
the monstrous anomaly of President whose
sole business is to defeat their will. The issue
between the President and the people Is upon
fbe immediate execution of the laws, and can
not be postponed until 1869. We want peace
no,o. not two years hence; and ii the nation
cannot obtain it through the President 1t Is
Enthusiastically resolved to get it over him.
Unfortunately for the majority OF the people,
who would much prefer to find him obedient,
the President prefers to resist. He seems re-
solved to force them to measures which they
are still desirous to avoid. His new organ, the
Boston Post tells us that che has determined
to be master of the situation; that he has ex-
hausted every effort at harmony and conollia-
tion and is resolved to resist to the utmost.
Mr.. Johnson declared to party OF friends TO-
day that, having exhausted every effort at con-
oiliation, he should now untlinchingly enforce
every constitutional power to save the country
from impending ruin; that the simple issue
was constitutional government or military
despotism, and he had fully resolved upon
the course he should adopt to fulfil
the plain requirements of his Office" And
it actually assures us that "the President has
taken the war path in earnest" Is it any
wonder that these semi official declarations of
papers which are known to have the confidence
of the President, and which enjoy monopoly
of his news, should have aroused the people to
a sense of new danger? Without them the
removals of Stanton, and Sheridan and Sickles
would be enough to prove that Mr.. johnson is
not yet ready to abandon his hopes of defeat
ing the will of the people. Politically, we may
be likened to people stricken by a pestilence
or by some other great and general calamity,
of which the limits are underlined, and the end
whereof no man knoweth truly. We know to
what sore and bloody straits bad Govern
ment, long continued and too tardily circum-
President with all the political vices of Mr.
Buchanan, we have too much reason to fear
that 1867 will be at least as bad as 1861.
That vague, ill-begotten, and hybrid monster
baptized ''My policy" to which no man, not
even its begetter, can attach fixed form and
purpose, is the natural parent of a progeny of
minor doubts, of ugly and swift-running
rumors, of threatening portents, and of con-
tinually shifting panics. This is the mischief
al IL, lands nd in o4h 4har
times has been able to do, but from which
this republic during nearly the century of its
existence has been exempted; for Mr.. John
son is our first thoroughly bad President. In
those estates lately in rebellion" in which
lusty hopes of bloody coup d'6tat are begin
ming to develope themselves--in Maryland,
which, if not a Rebel State, at least swarms
with Rebel spirits--we are told that the enc
mics of peace and order have taken heart of
grace. They anticipate nothing less than the de-
claration of martial law throughout the United
States. Congress is to be prevented from
assembling next November by force of arms.
The President in short, is to assume supreme
authority. These hopes and rumors may be
partly unfounded; but the bitter question is,
how they came to be entertained and promul
gated at all The Governor of State might
give an impression that he intended to pardon
all the thieves; but could he do so withou
some act or speech unworthy of the dignity o.
the equity of his Office When the Presiden
has arrayed himself with the full impressive
ness and power of his place against the loya
masses, we do not blame the unregenerate
political sinners of the South for supposing
vaguely enough, perhaps, that he has gon
over to their side. They would be less o
more than men if they were not instantly en-
couraged and melted to fresh acts of persisten
disobedience. The grief of genuine and un
sullied loyalty must be the joy of treason.
In this emergency, we wish to hear nothin
of the purity of the Presidents intentions
We must judge public men by their acts, an
the quality of their acts is to be determine
by results. The irresponsible and ill-tempere
exercise of power is a phase of politics {
which in this country we have never been az
customed, and God forbid that we should eve
become so! The quarrel of the President
with the people, through their representative
and in this struggle it is to be determine
whether Presidents shall be our servants {
whether we shall be theirs. Let the reade
turn to the Constitution, and then study til
simple and well defined duties of the EXecr
tive. Let him then consider the extraordinar
assumptions of Presidential authority whic
have convulsed the country and ask himsel
whatever may be the motives of Mr.. johnson
if official eccentrioities (to use the mildest
words) may not sometimes rise to the bad di,
nifty of high crimes and misdemeanors.
The Presidents Forthcoming Amnest
Proclamation.