Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-02-27
po,...,ion Of tho War otae..


Republican journal antagonist to the
President: ..r Lad f-..r
A sinister significance attaches to the
struggle between the President and Con
gress for the possession OF the War once
and the circumstance that Edwin Nj
Stanton remains in the ofiics oy night as
we'll as by day, guarded by soldiers, is
not peaceful in its aspect.
Throughout the country the excite
ment growing out Of this extraordinary
condition Of affairs runs dangerously
high. The dispatch from Governor
Oglesby, OF Illinois, exhibits the needless
passion Of the injudicious, and how easily
we might be carried headlong into the
red sea Of civil war.
When mischief is afoot; when the war
spirit is up, and the general disposition
OF men seems to be to challenge each
other 10 mortal combat, an admission
that one experiences sense of danger is
very liable to be taken as a confession oil
weakness and evidence OF dismay.
No apprehension that we may be mis-
understood by our fellow-citizens shall,
however, cause us to modify the expires
sion of our most earnest belief that the
condition Of the country at this hour is
exceedingly critical. Rife in our midst,
present to the consciousness OF ell OF US,
are the elements Of civil war, and the
higher the intelligence OF the observer,
the clearer must, in our Judgment, be the
conviction that they are menacing and
imminent.
So far as Andrew johnson is con-
cerned, we can only be quite sure that
in any given situation he will do the
most wrong-headed, irritating and dis
turbing thing that can be suggested. And
Congress, we infer, will follow to the
bitter end the caucus dictates ofthe most
headstrong partisan leaders. Thank
God, then, that in this difficult time there
are two cool heads in Wsshington-and
that one of them is that of the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, and the
other that Of the General commanding
the armies of the United States.
The right to the occupancy of and
possession of the powers pertaining to
the War Office is question of law. The
President has the right to test the consti-
tutionality of the Tenure of Office act,
under which Congress insists upon main.
tanning Stanton as Secretary of War.
1t would be more than one could expect
| of Andrew johnson to make that test in
a perfectly quiet, legal and legitimate
way. But in this case, thus far, he has
not done any violence.
As Mr. Lincoln said, upon a memo
rable occasion, nobody is hurt, though it
must be admitted that the historical pre-
cedent shows that great many may be
hurt if judicious counsels are not kept
uppermost. Mr.. Stanton's removal from
the War Office would not in itself, infict
the slightest injury upon any public in.
terest, and with the venerable Thomas
Ewing in his place the country would not
indulge in spontaneous combustion.
Mr.. Stanton has been maintained in
the War Office, not for any great service
that he alone is capable of rendering the
country therein, but as an assertion OF
the power of Congress in the Cabinet of
the President. Stanton in the War
Office is the express and standing adver-
tisement, by authority of Congress, of
the humiliation and helplessness of An
drew johnson. Now, there are woques'
| tions that we must not overlook in the
fervor of feeling on this subject: First,
is it constitutionally within the power of
Congress thus to subjugate the President
in his own household 7 Second, is it
well to degrade the Office of the Chief
Magstracy in this way, because Andrew
Johnson is the incumbent of the office Z
In the Senate debate on the Tenure-of-
Office act, the objection was urged by
Democratic Senators that it would pre-
vent the President from being master in
his own house, and force him to submit
to the retention of obnoxious Cabinet
officers, and such construction of the law
was secuted by Radical Senator'S, Mr..
Sherman denouncing as ridiculous the
assumption that any man of honor would
remain Cabinet officer for an hour af-
ter the slightest suggestion by the Presi
dent that he desired to effect change I;
and not only is it an undispuied fact
that Stanton himself declared in Cabinet
meeting the nconstitutioDality of the
act upon which he now plants himself as
good law; it is also true that General
Grant and Lieutenant General Sherman
have urged upon Stanton that he should
through patriotic motives, but from pure
personal considerations
Therefore it must occur to all who
heartily wish Congress and the country
we'll out of this scrspe, and who have no
objection whatever to disposing of An
drew Johnson according to the plain
provisions of the organic law, so that be
shall no longer be disturbing element,
that it is a pity, after all the provoca'
tions he has given, and the damage he
has done by the revival of rebel hopes,
that the impending declaration OF war
against him by Congress should not be
backed by more satisfactory preamble.
Precisely the amount of guilt of the
President under the Tenure of office law
for, Of course, it is law until otherwise
decided-in assuming to remove Cabi-
net officer while the Senate is in session,
we do not feel competent to determine.
If his object has been, as he processes,
to get up a case in court, and If he
pauses without attempting the employ
ment of force, and keeps the peace, as
he necessarily asserts his purpose OF
doing, we have no hesitation in saying
that if he is to be fought out of office, we
are sorry that the case against him is
not stronger-that it is not one in which
the popular verdict must be so nearly
unanimous as TO discourage opposition
and overbear hostility.
Congress-three fourths ofboth Houses
being Of the same party-has power in all
thisgs as great as if all the members were
Of one mind. This power is derived from
the Constitution, aud from the rightful
exercise Of the authority that became
vested in the representatives Of the peo-
pie through the successful issue OF the
war of the rebellion, in which ten States