Year: 1867

Removal Of the Dendiock.


When two muleteers meet on one of those
dangerous shelves Of the cloud-piercing Andes
where only one can pass at q time it some
times happens, when neither party will back
out, that the weaker mule and driver are hurled
to destruction among the rocks thousands Of
feet below In such pass President Johnson
and Congress now stand confronting each
other; and here, too, il neither party will give
way, the weaker win be displaced to clear the
track. After putting down by force of arms
the most gigantic, formidable and tenacious
rebellion in the history Of any people, the vic
torious loyal States have made known their
ultimatum for the restoration Of the subjugated
rebel States. This ultmatum is embodied in
the pending constitutional amendment II is
fair and liberal in Its terms, 1t is demanded by
the new situation Of things, 1t is calculated 70
re-establish harmony between the North and
South, and confidence and enterprise for the
present everywhere; and it gives us in behalf
of the peace Of the Union and the national
debt, Treasury and currency, ample securities
for the future. This amendment, then, Is IN
ultimatum from which the loyal States and
their representatives in Congress cannot re-
code. 1t must 60 through, and the obstruc-
tons which block the way must be removed,
because the North has 80 decreed and has the
strength against all opposition from every
quarter and in any shape to carry through it's
great designs.


What, then, are these Instructions which for
the time arrest the adoption Of this amendment
Strangely enough the chief impediment Is
President johnson, whose special duty is to
s'see that the laws are faithfully executed"
Conceding in the outset the sovereign power Of
Congress over the question Of Southern recon-
struction, he commit itted a fatal mistake in de-
parting from this initial landmark This was
over twelve months ago, and since that day
first in assuming the exclusive powers Of Con-
gress, then in his denunciations of and in his
resistance to the general policy of Congress,
good measures, bad or indifferent, and then after
appealing to the people and getting their ver-
dict upon his course-hc has, in his utter dis
regard of the popular voice, gone downward
from bad to worse until he is menaced with the
worst of consequences, his impeachment and
removal. This penalty he may escape. if he is
not too late, by backing out from his false posi-
tion. Otherwise he must resign, or, as an
intolerable obstruction, he will surely be
removed. There are ether obstructions, such
as the old, intractable and still defiant ruling
pro-slavery oligarchy of the South and their
old hide-bound party confederates of the North,
and Northern egro-worshipping fanatics; such
obstructions as Massachusetts and South Caro-
lima, walking arm in arm against the amend
ment, as in the Philadelphia johnson Convcn-
ton; such obstacles as She incurable fre-eaters
of the South and Northern visionary philoso-
piers and .rcformers, who will have nothing
but the programme Of the frst French repub-
lie or the millennium on the plan Of Fou.
rierite phalanx. But all these distractions and
some others are dependent upon President
johnson, and with his recantation, resignation
or removal they will ell disappear OF cease to
block the way. In word, Mr.. johnson is the
deadlock against Southern reconstruction and
restoration, and II he will not turn the key and
open the door It will be opened by taking of
the lock with the screw-driver Of Impeachment.


The present Congress is evidently faessing
with the Territorial bill Of Mr. Stevens. II
masks the battery which lies behind all these
passing debates. The new Congress, elected
on the platform Of the pending constitutional
amendment, will assemble March 4, duly quail
fed and prepared for decisive work. If not so
proclaimed by law meantime, probably one Of
the first acts of the new Congress will be to
proclaim the amendment in question part of
the constitution in being duly ratified by the
Legislatures Of three-fourths Of the States rep
resented in Congress, and constituting, de facto
and de jurc, the government Of the United
States. This done, the supreme law Of the
land must be enforced by the President over
all the rebel Stats, or upon this issue alone
there win he ample ground for his impeach-
ment and removal In anticipation Of his re-
moval, at all events, it is given out from Wash
ington that law will probably be passed by
Congress providing temporarily for the promo
ton of General Grant to the White House as
acting President--a man whose very name car
ries with it the prestige Of public confidence
and success ','-',,....t..t. .-s.'


With General Grant in the Executive chair
we know that the present unreasonable, i'm
placable and defiant rebel States would
speedily realize their true situation; that they
would be without difficulty reorganized on the
basis Of the amendment, and that with, if not
before, the return Of December they would all
be reinstated in Congress and harmoniously
cooperating with the North to carry on the
great work Of the new Union. We are sure
that the South would thus fall in with the
new ideas and new constitution of
this new epoch, casting out all the
remaining dregs and dry bones of that
old, torn down fabric whose corner stone, like
that Of the defunct JEFF Davis confederacy,
was African slavery. The rebellion was a