RECONSTRUCTION AND OBSTRUCTION
The letters of General
Sheridan and of General Sickles upon the opinions of the Attorney-General show very
conclusively the result of his interpretation of the reconstruction law. His view of the
military power of removal under the law, and his criticism of General Sickless
action, has occasioned the request of that officer to be relieved. The General says:
"Congress having declared these so called State governments illegal the declaration
of the Attorney-General that military authority has not superseded them prevents the
execution of the Reconstruction Acts, disarms me of means to protect life, property, or
the rights of citizens, and menaces all interests in these States with ruin."So in regard to the first
opinion upon the registry, General Sheridan says: "The registration will be completed
in Louisiana at the time specified, unless I am ordered to carry out the law under Mr.
Stanberys interpretation, which practically in registration is opening a broad
Macadamized road for perjury and fraud to travel on."
Now inasmuch as the plain intention
of the law was to arm every military commander with the power of protecting life,
property, and the rights of citizens: and in registration to avoid perjury and fraud, the
Attorney-Generals interpretation directly defeats its purpose. The President in
adopting this view intervenes to baffle the national intention. Does he expect to gain any
political advantage from such a step? And in what way? He will not be able to persuade the
country that the Radicals are merely anxious to exclude the late rebel States until after
the Presidential election, because such representative Radicals as Wade, Wilson and Kelley
have all declared that nothing was desired but conformity to the Act as it was universally
understood before the Attorney-General gave his opinion; and because the whole Radical
press, almost without exception, has taken the same ground. Every body knows that
reconstruction was favorably proceeding under the Act until these opinions. They were
given, indeed, in reply to a request for information, but they are none the less, as the
letters of the two Generals show, directly subversive of the intention of the Act. Take
the subject of registration, for instance. The registry is the foundation of the future
State governments. If that is vitiated the election, the Convention, the Constitution are
all made doubtful. Yet General Sheridan, who necessarily knows the practical operation of
the interpretation of the Attorney-General infinitely better than that officer himself,
says that it directly encourages fraud and perjury.
Does the President think that he can
induce the country to believe that General Sheridan is a Radical partisan? When the
question is asked, "What delays reconstruction?" there can be but one reply. It
must be either the Reconstruction Act or the President. Yet what is more evident than that
the work was going on most smoothly until the President, who, as General Sheridan says,
"has been in bitter antagonism" to the law, undertook to explain it from his
point of view? The people are just as logical this year as they were last year. They knew
then that the difficulty was the determination of the President and his advisers to
intrust the work of reconstruction to the late rebels, excluding the new and always loyal
citizens. They know now that the intention of the President and his advisers is to come as
near as possible to the same result. Now we suppose if the people are resolved upon any
thing, it is that the whole body of loyal citizens in the Southern States shall unite in
this work, and that a certain class of the late rebels shall be excluded from it. Does the
President really suppose that he can defeat that purpose? Could any thing be more
preposterously foolish after the experience of the last two years than such an
expectation?
By his whole administration the President
shows that he utterly misconceives the duty of his office. If he is called upon to approve
a law which he considers to be absolutely unconstitutional and destructive of civil and
religious liberty, he will, of course, refuse his assent. But if it becomes a law despite
his opposition his duty is either to resign his office or to execute the law. It is
certainly not his duty to obtrude his objections and deprecations at every stage, and to
seek in every way to annul a law which the people of the United States have
constitutionally enacted. Yet it is to this task that he constantly inclines, and he will
continue in the same way to the end of his term. A balking horse is very inconvenient upon
a journey; but he is less trying to the patience when his habits are understood. The fat
boy in Pickwick was perpetually dropping asleep; but his infirmity at last excited no
other remark than, "Confound that boy! He is asleep again." So with the
President. During the next two years he will undoubtedly compel the country to exclaim
more than once, "Drat that Andy! Hes obstructing again."
Articles Related to Overt
Obstruction of Congress:
Congress
February 2, 1867, page 67
February 16, 1867, page 99
March 16, 1867, page 163
How Long?
June 29, 1867, page 402
Reconstruction and Obstruction
July 6, 1867, page 418
The Summer Session
July 6, 1867, page 418
The Fortieth Congress
July 17, 1867, page 467
Thanks to the District Commanders
July 27, 1867, page 467
Impeachment Postponed
July 27, 1867, page 467
A Desperate Man
August 13, 1867, page 546
The Secretary of War
August 24, 1867, page 530
Samson Agonistes at Washington (cartoon)
August 24, 1867, page 544
The Stanton Imbroglio (illustrated satire)
August 24, 1867, page 542
Secretary Grant
August 31, 1867, page 546
Southern Reconstruction
August 31, 1867, page 547
The Political Situation
September 7, 1867, page 562
General Thomas
September 7, 1867, page 563
Southern Reconstruction
September 7, 1867, page 563
The General and the President
September 14, 1867, page 578
General Sickles Also
September 14, 1867, page 579
Southern Reconstruction
September 21, 1867, page 595
The Presidents Intentions
September 28, 1867, page 610
Impeachment
October 5, 1867, page 626
The Main Question
October 5, 1867, pages 626-627
Suspension during Impeachment
October 19, 1867, page 658
"Disregarding" The Law
November 2, 1867, page 691
Impeachment
December 14, 1867, page 786
General Grants Testimony
December 14, 1867, page 786
The Presidents Message
December 14, 1867, page 787
General Grants Letter
January 1, 1868, page 2
Secretary Stantons Restoration
January 25, 1868, page 51
Reconstruction Measures
January 25, 1868, page 51
The President, Mr. Stanton and General Grant
February 1, 1868, page 66
Romeo (Seward) to Mercutio (Johnson) (cartoon)
February 1, 1868, page 76
The War Office
February 1, 1868, page 77
Secretarys Room in the War Department (illus)
February 1, 1868, page 77
The New Reconstruction Bill
February 8, 1868, page 83
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