Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-04-25
,,.. Resides. he EXPRESSED an unqual.


fled opinion that il would be ruinous to
the reputation of President johnson,
and perhaps disastrous to the country,
were he TO make any removals at that
particular time in his Cabinet. Consid-
cradle conversation on the subject en-
sued, and General Herbert urged Mr..
Campbell to call and see General Butler
at Williards Hotel
Mr.. Campbell remained in Washing
ton, having very frequent personal COM
munications with the President in refer
ence to public affairs, the condition OF
the country, etc., and from day to day
receiving additional information in refer
ence to the combinations which had been
formed to prevail upon the President to
make change in his Cabinet. On ma
ture deliberation Mr.. Campbell deter
mined 1t was due from him to the Presi-
dent, who had been his personal and po-
litical friend for many years, and whom
he had been instrumental in bringing
prominently before the public. after
the breaking out Of the war, to warn
him that these plans were on foot
TO have General Butler put in the State
or War Department. He accordingly
furnished Mr.. johnson with the informa.
ton relative to these combinations, and
urged him to make no change whatever
of Mr.. Lincoln's friends until the shock
occasioned by the assassination would
have subsidized, and then, he found 1t
necessary to make q change, to do so,
but not before. The President assured
his informant that he would make no
removals thsn, and especially would not
for moment entertain the idea OF remov-
ing man who had suffered as much as Mr..
Seward bad and was then in q critical
condition. General Buffers staff officer
(Herbert) told Mr.. Campbell several
times during the sojourn of the latter in
Washington, that General Butler was
very desirous Of seeing him, but no in
tsryiew took place between them, except
for few moments with Gen. Rosecrans,
who called upon matters relating to the
military. Mr. Campbell's aversion to
holding any communication with Gen.
Butler arose from the belief that the
whole programme which the latter had
marked out would prove disastrous to the
President and to the country. m
About the lst of May, 1865, Mr.. Camp.
bell returned to his home in Ohio, and
among the letters which had accumu'
lated during his absence he found the
one which Butler staff officer had mailed
to him. jy r.s.. lna .-el. fo,t >.
It was this failure of Butler and his
CLIQUE to accomplish their ambitious
ends that caused the subsequent hue and
cry against Andrew johnson and the bit.
terest anti-administratio war since the
time of Washington. Never before was q
President 80 outrageously assailed, and
by men who, it appears, were utterly
destitute of decency and patriotic feeling.
Part of their programme was to force
negro suffrage upon the South, willing or
unwilling, which they hoped to accom-
plish through Butler as Secretary of
War. Mr.. johnson not only declined
the honor of Buffers society in his Cab
met, but declined also to adopt the negro
suffrage policy, which was shown in his
North Carolina proclamation.
Senator Sumner also seems to have
been in the plot, for some time after he
had protracted interview with the
President, during which he urged the
President to adopt the negro suffrage
policy, and on being met with stubborn
determination on the part of the Execu-
tive he became somewhat insolent and
threatening, concluding with solemn
warning that he and his friends intended
to carry out their plan and to fght the
Administration to the bitter end on that
line, should it ruin the country. This
interview Of Sumner and the President
lasted for three hours, and resulted in
leaving each 10 exactly the same po-
sition as when they started. From that
time forward the conspiracy has grad
ually developed itself, until now, when
il seems the purpose of the Radi-
Gals to remove the President if they
can, then to establish nominal military
dictatorship with the great power centred
in Senatorial oligarchy The late acts
of Congress, in the opinien Of ahla men,
point to this end unmigtakahly. There
is very little diEeet evidence, but the
whole course of Congress has that ten
dency Those who ridicule the idea ofa
dictatorship do not know that some of
General Grants staff have said lately
that condition of things might occur
which he would feel 10 justify him in
assn ming the responsibility OF dictator.
They forget that he has not disclaimed
the announcement that he favored the
removal of President johnson; nay,
that he has refused to deny it when
asked for an explanation. They lose
sight of the fact that Congress has al
ready made him dictator over all the un-
reconstructed South that it has passed
a law preventing his removal from office
or from Ws lhington by the constitutional
commander.in-ohief, and passed still
another law declaring that all orders to
the army must be issued through him, so
that regiment, under existing circum-
stances, is not at the command Of the
President unless the gepeRal-in- chief
nko