The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-01-29
saMistG1( aMenMs,
From the ". 7. Herald (Rcp.)
II EI0sak .NOresNe.lt Of the J0cO-
bins.

Andy johnson for the last three years
has been under the care of Congressional
Committee of Safety-the joint Committee
on Reconstruction. On motion of Mr..
Wilson, in the Senate, the case of General
Grant has been referred to the Joint Com
mittee on Retrenchment. This is grim
Joke. The sans cuJ0ttes of the great French
Revolution were fond of such jokes. They
began with poor Louis XVI. by making
him wear the cap of Liberty, and they fin
ished him at the guillotine. The House
passes bill for the repeal of the Tenure of
Office law by an overW helming vote. The
repeal is known to be desired by General
Grant, although recommended by johnson
and introduced by Butler. Hence, on
being "called to the scratch" there are only
forty-seven radicals in the House who have
the moral courage to risk the suspicion of
suspecting Grant. We like their pluck,
but we fear it means mischief in the party
camp.
The bill of repeal goes over to the Senate,
where it is referred to smothering COM
mittee, together with substitute in the
way of a compromise. They cannot ven
ture upon blind presumption to give the
incoming President full vote of conf
dence, but they will go half way. They
will release him from the shackles of his
officeholders' protection law in reference
to his Cabinet and they will not require
him to give his reasons for the suspension
of any otficeholder in the absence of the Sen
ate, but that is all. If any such suspension
when laid before the Senate, shall not be
approved it shall not hold good. There is
some comfort in this to the whiskey rings
President Grant may turn their chief engi-
neers out, but the Senate, with the assist
ance Of the lobby, can turn them in again
The retention Of this check upon "the man
at the other end of the avenue" is urged by
the editor of the radical organ upon the
plea that in 1872 Robert E. Lee or some
other "old line democrat" may come
into the White House, in which event the
only security of the officeholding radicals
and carpet baggers against general clear
ing out will be this needed consent" OF
the Senate. A poor excuse, they say, is
better than none; but the Jacobins are APP
prehensive not SO much of the election OF
General Lee in 1872 as they are of the de-
lection Of General Grant in the interval.
This halfway repeal of the Tenure Of
Office law proposed in the Senate is, there.
fore, only an adroit flank movement against
Grant. The real design, no doubt, is to
smother the bill in the committee and to let
this Congress expire without any definite
action upon it, The Jacobins want Gene
raj Grant to show his hand. If johnson
protested too much in advance Grant has
protested too little, and that was the game
of Captain Tyler. TO be sure, Grant has
| been the salvation Of the republican party.
Upon any other candidate, even against
Seymour, they would have been swampod
last oyember-President Congress and
all. But while Grant as the democratic
candidate would have beaten Chase as the
republican, Chase as the democratic would
probably have beaten even Grant At all
events, the republicans are indebted to
General Grant for their success in gaining
the Presidential succession and the next
House of Representatives. He did not
seek the Chicago nomination; he did not
want it. AS General-in Chief of the Army
he had the best Office in the country. More
over, to the radical leaders he was Hobson's
choice. The editor of the radical organ,