The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-14
General Grants Magnanimity.

From the Washington National InteAI0encer
The exposition of the false pretences of gene
rosity put forth by General Grants chief of
staff towards ''persons now in confinement
under sentences of military commissions or
ganzed under the reconstruction acts of Con-
gress in the States in which the reconstruction
laws have ceased to be operative" has fallen
like thunderbolt upon the radical managers.
For whole week before the letter was de-.
livered to the President, they had, through
dispatches to the press, heralded this letter
of "John A. Rawlings, chief of staff" as an
evidence of General Grants willingness for
the supremacy of the civil over military
authority in matters affecting the lives or
liberties of citizens. They thought to make
of it great card in the campaign. They had
become painfully conscious that the people
were tired of the government by the sword
and bayonet, and were longing for restora-
tion of civil government. They had found
already their military candidate was a dead
weight upon their hands; that the people had
turned from the sword to the fasces, from
military despotsm to a government OF law.
They had heard the enthusiastic response of
the whole country to the noble efforts of Gene
raj Hancock to restore the supremacy of civil
authority within his military Jurisdiction, aud
in humble imitation of this splendid example,
they endeavored to hold up Grant in similar
light before the people, and to proclaim him
an advocate of the restoration of civil autho-
rity in the States that have so long been ruled
only by the sword.
The effort was made too late. The oppor-
tunity had passed. The government of the
sword had been already superseded. There
was no longer shadow of right to arrest and
try and imprison citizens by military commits
sions. General Hancock, in his military de-
partment, had long before completely done
away with these abominable outrages upon
civil right. The erection OF civil governments,
Nul, a1
had removed all pretence for a continuation of
military control when General Grants chief of
staff, in his name, recommended this extra
| ordinary magnanimity to the President of the
United States, upon whom he had always
heretofore urged the sternest adhesion to mill
tary punishments.
This reaching after second handed popu-
larity has missed its mark. There is nothing
in all of General Grants record to sustain it.
His whole history, from the date of his com
mission as a Brgadier- General is at variance
with this latter-day clemency. He had during
his career numerous opportunities to have
| manifested this forgiveness and love for the
supremacy of the civil authorities, if he had
entertained such sentiments even for mo-
ment. But all the way We find him uphold
ing the sword above the law, making the mill
tary always superior to the civil authority.
His recommendation, as Secretary of War ad
interim, in the case of Lusk, in September,
1867, in which he urged the execution of the
prisoner, not because he deserved capital pun
ishment, but simply because sit was the first
trial for murder under military commission
under the reconstruction acts, " is a signal in
stance OF this disposition and desire to substi-
| tute military for civil government, even where
the civil courts were in operation, and ready,
willing, and able to take cognizance of crimi-
| nal otfenses.
| 1t was only through the interposition of
! President Johnson that this victim of mill
tary commission was remitted from the death
penalty until civil court could pass judg-
ment upon him, in accordance with the Con-
stitution and the laws of the land. This is
only one of many similar nstances in
which the President, as the sworn defender of
the Constitution, has had occasion to stay the
acts of military despotism, and protect citizens
from military outrage, until they could be re-
mitted to the protection of the Constitution
| and the laws.
The radical organ here endeavors to hide
its vexation at the exposition of Grants
inconsistency, by claiming that the action
of the President in the case of Lusk
is a recognition of the validity of the recon-
struction acts of Congress. This conclusion
is far-fetched and unwarrantable. Mr.. John
son has publicly, in his various messages to
Congress, placed on record his protest against
the validity of all these acts and expressed
in unequivocal terms his opinion of their un-
constitutionality; but he has also declared his
purpose-as they have been given the form of
laws-to execute them until their unconstitu-
tionality shall be adjudged by competent
Judicial tribunal. This surely affords no
shadow of pretext that their validity is in any
manner recognized by Mr.. Johnson, or those
who entertain the same opinions he has pro-
mulgated in regard to this iniquitous legisla-
tion, as it has progressed step by step.
The inconsistency is confined exclusively to
the radical organs and the radical candidate
for the Presidency, who assume that it is an
evidence of submission Of military to civil
authority for Grant to recommend the cessa-
tion of punishment by military commissions
in States where they pretend to have re-estab-
lished civil governments. II, by the aid of
the deluded negroes and rapacious carpet
baggers, Congress has really set up civil gov
ernments in these States, then the recommeu-
dation of General Grants chief of staff am )unts
really to nothing, for these victims of military
despOtism can find redress by application TO
the civil courts, and General Grant is RENTED
to his previous record and urgent recommen-
dation of the in1iction of the death penalty
upon citizen solely upon the ground that it
was the first trial Tor murder under the Recon.
struction laws of Congress.
The Question before the People.
From the N. Y Times.
The all-important question presented to the
people, North and South, is not whether Re-
publican or Democratic administration shall
rule the country. The political conflict which
agitates every section of this continent is not
simply partisan, as in ordinary cases where
the people are called upon to Judge between