The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-01
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPTcs-ooMPILED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
ENLARGING THE ARMY IN ORDER TO
RENOMINATE GRANT,

From the N. y. Sun.
While good many people will be ready to
assert that General Butler is neither wise
statesman nor a cautious politician, few will
deny that he carries clear head on his shoul-
ders, and usually speaks his mind with free
dom. He therefore distinctly sees what
General Grant is after in the Ku-klux bill
which he is urging upon Congress, and what
is necessary to give effect to its provisions;
and, if we are to credit the Tribune, General
Butler is prepared to make an effort to 80
amend the measure as to afford the President
ample means for exercising the tremendous
power which this unprecedented bill confers
upon him.
According to the Tribune, General Butler
thinks ''that such portion of the regular
army as could be spared from duty in the
Indian country would be too small to be of
much service in enforcing the provisions of
the bill" In this opinion Butler is certainly
correct. If we are to have an armed force in
every county and considerable town in the
South where some carpet-bagger or nervous
negro can be found to report to General
Grant that there now exists or is likely to
occur breach of the peace, then our present
army is not half large enough. If, whenever
an assault and battery breaks out in that Sec
tion of the Union between white man and a
colored man, with show Of pistols on either
side; or wherever there is o small row in
liquor saloon in which a carpet-bagger gets
the worst of it, or q set of thieves, disguised
in long white robe, gets up midnight raid
to steal horses and frighten the colored ele-
ment; we say if all portions of the South
where such scenes occur are to be put under
martial law, and the President is, according
to this bill, to employ the land and naval
forces to execute his DEGREES, and arrest and
bring to prison and to trial all those whom he
wishes to get out of the way, then it is unde-
niable that those forces, and especially the
army, must be very largely increased.
Apparently believing that General Grant
is right in declaring that Few rebellion has
broken out at the South, General Butler is
for putting into Immediate operation the
martial machinery whereby we crushed the
old rebellion, by so amending the pending
bill as to authorize General Grant ''to call
out and organize such number of the volun-
teers who served in the late war as he may
deem necessary for such purpose, according
to the provisions of the act of July %, 1861"
If this is really the intention of General But
Ter, then he is apparently bent upon support
ing General Grant in his purpose, under the
pretext of putting down a rebellion which
exists only in his proclamation, to get control
of the Southern States so that he may compel
the Republican party therein to send delegates
to the National Convention who are in favor
of his denomination to the Presidency.
So much for the intents of Grant and
Butler. That this Ku-klux legislation will
finish Grant no one can see more plainly than
Butler. How much Butler would mourn over
such a result is not 30 clear; and whether he
would prove nimble enough to avoid the re-
coil of the gun which he helped to load, must
remain an unsolved problem until the killed
and wounded are picked up.
But is the country ready to enter upon this
'dance of blood?" And how will Mr.. Bout
wells funding scheme prosper with the neces-
sity of raising and maintaining an addition to
the army Of twenty thousand new troops?