THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPH. PHILADELPHIA, MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 18U7. SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. J5D1TORIAL OFISION8 OP TBI LEATI0 JOtJBNAIA PPO CCBRKST TOPICS COMPILRD EVBUI DAT FOB TBR EVENINO TRI.EOBAPB. Gtn.ral Haucouk'a Order. from the N. Y. Tribune. General Ilanooek, commander of the MiU ry District embracing Louisiana and Texas, Jaa revoked the order Issued in August by .Beneral Sheridan, allowing all lettered Voters, irrespective of color, to bo placed on "the jury list, provided they po.es the reul Bite qualifications of property and intell.genco. General Hancock's order purports to be made trith the view of conforming to the "Constitu tion" of the State of Louisiana, a thing Which, if it had any existence, would super cede General Hancock's authority altogether. It is only because the President has proclaimed that Louisiana has no civil government, and, therefore, no Constitution, and Congress has reiterated the same statement, that General Hancock is not a usurper and a despot. If he Wishes to issue an order that no negroes skall Bit on juries, he ought to have the manliness and honesty to do it openly. No State Con stitution of Louisiana has any more authority over General Hancock than have the laws of J'rance, to which the territory of Louisiana once belonged. Just as the President, while trampling under foot the Constitutions of all the Southern States, pretended to obey them in the single point of excluding black men from voting, so General Hancock, while holding his vory office under a law which, deolares that the Southern States have no civil governments, and therefore no constitutions, yet appeals to the ghost of Louisiana's dead Constitution as if it were a living law. The faot that many of the oolored citizens of Louisiana have not sufficient intelligence to Bit on juries, forms no justification for General Hancock's order. Color is not even an ave rage test. Many of the white citizens of Louisiana are incompetent from want of intel ligence, while many of the colored citizens are thoroughly competent. In New Orleans, there are large numbers of rich and intelligent oolored men. Prior to the Rebellion, the free oolored population of New Orleans averaged greater wealth in proportion to their numb-rs than the white. On the other hand, there are secluded parishes in Louisiana where the heathenism brought by the imported Africans oenturies ago, aui forgotten by their descend ants, has spread to the ignorant whites. Had General Hancock based his order on a qualifi cation either of property or intelligence, it jnight have been sustained. As it is, it looks as if he had entered the lists as a competitor With Andrew Johnson, Horatio Seymour, John T. Hoffman, and George B. McClellan for the next Presidential nomination. Alabana Recomtructlnff. From the N. T. Tribune. The entire American people have looked with natural interest to the Reconstruction Convention for Alabama, which has just closed its session at Montgomery. In the same room Where, six years ago, the Confederate Rebel lion in behalf of human bondage was organ ized into a pretended national government, Were assembled one hundred representatives cf that portion of the people of Alabama who love liberty and the Union engaged in the 'first effort to construct a State government on the basis of the political equality of all men. Among them were sixteen legislators who were formerly slaves. The coincidence of plaoe, be tween the inauguration of the Confederacy, whose corner-stone was slavery, and of the reconstruction policy, whose corner-stone is equality, is one of the most significant in history. The Convention was regarded ly the conservative party of Alabama with an effort at contempt, which utterly failed, or want of anything in the proceedings Of the Convention to which the contempt even Of its enemies could attach. After it had adopted a suffrage policy so liberal towards the Rebels as to disarm all criticism, the only hope of the Conservatives was to foroe the question of color on the Convention in some embarrassing form. An ordinanoe requiring common carriers throughout the State to make no distinction or separation in the con veyance of black and white passengers was re ferred to the Judiciary Committee. An ordi nance providing separate schools for white and colored children was voted down by 53 to 27, and instead thereof a seotion was adopted de claring that the Board of Education should provide one or more schools in each eohool district, at which all the chil dren of the said district should attend free of charge. This leaves to the Board of Education in each district to decide whether hlack and white shall be eduoated in the same or different schools. A Bureau of Industrial Resources for collecting and publishing statis tics calculated to promote the business of the Bute and encourage immigration ha3 been proposed, and we believe adopted. The Con vention, after a long and close struggle, finally Voted to make all judicial offices in the State elective. An ordinanoe to prohibit marriages letween white and black was defeated. The Statement that General Pope had written let ters urging the Convention to close its proceed ings as soon as possible, if true, probably indi cates only the anxiety of that officer for an early submission of its work to the people, so that the State may 'apply for admission to Con gress during the present session. We have re ceived the thirty-two first sections of the pro posed Constitution, which is now complete. They are framed with care and ability, and contain nothing of which any friend of Union and liberty will disapprove. On December 5 the Convention, by a vote of C7 yeas to 10 ays, adopted the Constitution, and by a vote of 00 yeas to 13 nays, provided for its submis sion to the people. The vote for and against the Constitution, and for the State and county officers and Uepresentatives in Congress, will Le held on tha 4th of February, 1868, under the orders of tu Commaudiug-Ueneral of the district, all returns to be made to the Presi dent of the Convention, who will issue cer tificates of election to the candidates elected. The latter will enter on. the duties of their offices as soon as the State 8hall be admitted into the Union. At the proposed election all adult male oitizens with . out distinction of oolor, will vote, exuept those Who, having previously taken an olliuiai oalh to support the Constitution of the Uiuta States, violated their oath by joining in tke Rebellion. liven these may vote if they have aided in the reconstruction proposed by Con gress, and accept the political equality of all men before the law. Seventeen members of the Convention voted and protested agaiutit the Constitution. If a majority of the regis tered electors of Alabama shall vote, and if a majority of those who vote shall vote fur the Constitution thus adopted, there can be no doubt of the loyalty of the State overnment and Members of Congress who will be elected tinder it. There seems to be every prospect, Lerefore, that the State of Alabama will be represented in the prrsent Congrnss, and will I le ready to vote at the next Presidential e eo- J tion. The Alabama Convention is entitled to the gratitude of the country lor inn earuesu.ena and promptness it lias displayed in the work of reconstruction, and we "hope the Conven tions in other Southern States will display equal business ability and despatch. Th. Rsvtnint Mud IUtrtnthm nt-Hr, lloor' riau. From the N. Y. Tlmt. Mr. Hooper's proposition to reduce the reve nue from internal taxes to $?,00,0d0,000, aui to keep the aggregate of appropriations within that amount, may be too summary and sweep ing to please timid financiers, but it will doubtless commend itselt to the favor of those who hold that decisive measures are necessary to save the country from disaster. The ap proved form of proceeding might, perhaps, be somewhat different. We should have long and indefinite inquiries touching the possi bilities of reduction under the respective forms of income and expenditure. There would be paring here, and modifica tion there, and vague suggestions as to what might hereafter be attempted in other quar ters. The Department estimates would be taken for granted, and these would absolutely regulate the taxation to be levied. Mr. Hooper reverses matters,' and handles them more roughly, lie asked Congress, in the first place, to affirm the sufficiency of a reve nue irom given sources not over $300,000,000; then he insists that the Committee on Ways and Means shall cut down taxes until they yield, a3 calculated, 300,000,000, and no more; and then he requires the Committee on Appropriations to diminish the expenditures until they be brought within what is thus to be made the entire available income for the year. The adoption of this short and decisive mode of effecting reforms will dispose of many embarrassing questions. It cuts all red-tape bandages at the outset, and throws on the committees the duty of giving effect to the will of the House, instead of attempt ing to subordinate its policy to their plans. We can understand the shock which Mr. Hooper's bluntness will inflict upon the nervous gentlemen . whose, investigations usually end in showing ''how not to do it." They will shrink with horror from a motion which fixes the maximum cost of carrying on the Government, and so directly saves the difference between that sum aud the sum which the present system of taxation extracts from the people's pockets. The dis ease is desperate, however, and calls for promptitude and vigor in the application of remedies. And no remedy could well be more efficacious than one which, like Mr. Hooper's, provides for the reduction of taxa tion to a degree that will be beneficially felt by every interest. To appreciate the extent of the reform which Mr. Hooper invites the House to in augurate, it is only necessary to glance at the total revenue, realized and estimated, as given by the Secretary of the Treasury. These are the figures, derived from his report just pub lished: . JK07, year ending June 30 $190 834.010 18U8, year ending June 80 417, 1H1 9;M lbtiy, year ending Jun 30 3sl.0t0 0u0 Compared with the last fiscal year, Mr. Hooper's reduction would amount to upward of $190,000,000, while for the current year it wouia be over ifir.uuu.uuu. These amounts respectively represent the excess of burdens beyond what we may hereafter be required to carry. The difference between the proposed aggregate and the aggregate computed by Mr. McCnlloch for the next fiscal year 1,000,000 is the true measure of Mr. Hooper's reform. This it is which we may hope to see saved if a thorough system of retrenchment be enjoined upon those who are responsible for the esti mates. To leave the subject to them, or to allow Mr. McCulloch to encumber current wants with anticipatory payments on aocount of the national debt, would be to lessen indefi nitely the chances of retrenchment. In proposing thus arbitrarily to strike $81,000,000 from Mr. McCulloch's estimated receipts for the next year. Mr. Hooper does hut reflect the universal desire for a large and immediate reduction of taxes. No other sub ject possesses half the interest which attaches to this; on none else is public opinion so con centrated or inllexible. On the currency question differences of opinion creep in to moderate the energy with which legislators may address themselves to its solution; but on this question of taxation the people are agreed. They demand that routine shall not obstruct retrenchment, and that the reduc tion of taxes shall be large enough to afford quick and tangible relief. Whether measured by the enormous revenue of the last or the current year, the redaction to $300,000,000 will obviously meet this requirement. And no one can doubt that the saving begun by General Grant may be easily extended in other departments, until the entire expendi ture of the Government be below the assigned (3(10,000,000. To those who hesitate in regard to Mr. Hooper's proposition, we would suggest the expediency of some very large reduction of taxes as the most effective means of stilling the movement for repudiation. Uenwral But ler's sgitation, having had no visible provoca tion, wears the air of simple mischief. Mr. Pendleton's, on the other hand, takes its rise in the prevailing impatience under oppres sive taxation, and derives whatever strength it possesses fromthe unwillingness perhaps we might say the inability of the people to endure burdens which cripple aud distress them. Excessive taxation is the evil to which Mr. Pendleton aud others point in justification of popular discontent. By re ducing taxation, thtrefore, from 1400,000,000, or even $417,000,000, to 300,000,000, more than material relief will be afforded. The temptation to seek succor by disturbing the contracts with the public creditor will be re moved; the grievance of taxation will no longer be so enormous as to prompt rough-and-ready methods of escape; and the operations of the Government will necessarily be purged of the extravagance and corruption which now irri tate and disgust the country. By all means, then, let Mr. Hooper's resolution, or some thing equivalent to it, be adopted. By no other course may help be so effectually ren dered to the people; by none will the appeals of, the repudiator be so surely or so happily counteracted. Popular Kduiatlou In Pollllos. From the N. Y. Independent. Ignorance and knowledge, when predicated of the masses, are comparative. Every rational beiDg has some knowledge; no one has aU; few have enough. He who from year to Jar attends, through a good part of eleotion day, the poll of his district, may well stand appalled at the aggregate of ignorance and vioe which enters into the composition of that popu lar verdict which should always be rendered under the guidance of intelligence and virtue. If there ever was a tim vi.n i, t.anra well-being of this people wa but slenderly, remotely affected by political aUou, that time ha rvldintly pa?re1, not soon to return. Re- onstruction, finance, currency, debt, taxi th'ii, eto.,' come home to the fireside and thn table of rich and poor alike; taxes national, state, local swallow up a fifth, if not a fourth of the gains of cipital, tlie earniugs of lab.r; end he naturally restive temper of the jeople, thus heavily burdened, proffers' rare incitements to liuancial quackery aui vill.iiny. The two thousand five hun dred millions of national debt, supple mented by at least five bundled millions of State and local debts, form au aggregate marly equivalent to one-tenth of the property cf our whole people. Iu other words, he who has pioperty worth in all $100,000 may con- fcider it mortgaged to the extent of ten par ctnt. by public debts; aud, including the cur rent expenses of Governn eut, he must expect to jay twenty per cent, of his earnings in taxes. This enormous percentage will be gradually reduced if we shall be preserved lioni future rebellious and wars. Property is rapidly augmenting, while debts are being re duced aud paid off, so that the burden of taxa tion oan hardly be half so great in 1S77 ad it is iu 18G7; but it must for a generation heavy, and its pressure is aggravated by our past exemption, raying taxes is never a de light, a luxury: but he who never felt them till yesterday will stagger under them to-day as he will not to-morrow or next day. An 1 the ignorant poor man, who is freshly met at each turn by an excise or an impost, will be apt to lend an opeu ear to the demagogue who proposes to rid him of the load by means which he pronounces thoroughly consistent with public faith and personal honor. Those whom the national debt overthrew, of course, hate that debt. It represents the men and means to which the Rebellion was forced to succumb. They cannot be expected to kiss with affection the rod that smote them. To "be hung and pay forty shillings" used to be proverbial for severity of punishment; to le put down by the strong arm, and taxed to defray the cost of the discipline, may be ever so just and wholesome, but its subjects will naturally be among the last to see and con fess it. So with reconstruction generally. That the recognition and establishment of the right of snfliage as justly and necessarily inhering in blacks as well as whites, is indispensable to any t.'ue and lasting restoration of the na tional authority in the States lately in revolt, is as clear as any proposition in mathematics. Slavery was the core of the Rebellion, and whoever this day believes that blacks have no rights which whites are bound to respect, is at heart a Rebel, whatever his flag or uniform. The Rebellion had no meaning, no purpose, no excuse, but just this. Men fought ou each side in our late etiuggle who pro perly belonged on the other (and this is the case in all civil wars); but the Rebellion meant exactly that slavery is everywhere and always the rightful, benefi cent relation of the black to the white race, aud its maintenance a legitimate, important function of government. He who believed tf is was at heart with the Rebellion, though he lived In Vermont or was a general in the Union army; he who held the contrary may have served gallantly in the Confederate forces, yet he thanks God to-day (if capable of reasoning) that those forces were defeated, And whoever is to-day struggling, to keep down the blacks, to deny their right of suf frage, and exclude them from all consideration or power, must feel that the late Confederacy was mainly intent on doing his work, and be moved to drop a tear to tue memory of Stone wall JacKson. A great majority of the people desire righteous and just government; yet many oiten vote as though they did not. They virtually go to the polls blindfolded, and vote away their own and their country's well-being, because they Are badly in formed. They mean to be good citizens, but their ignorance prevents. And that ignorance is culpable in so far as the means of dispelling It are provided ftBd accessible. Ihere is not one voter in the United States who ought not regularly to take at least one newspaper; for even those who cannot read should qualify themselves to vote by eaoh having a wife, child, or neighbor read aloud in his hear ing. When a decent weekly can be had through a year for the price of a summer- day's work, no voter can be justified in doing wunout one. Through one of two channels the news paper or the grogshop every voter obtains some knowledge of publio affairs. Some voters are familiar with both; but the great majority depend mainly on the one or the other. And nine-tenths of those who find the facts which underlie their political convictions and impel their political actions mainly in the journals they take and pay for vote the Republican ticket; while those who glean what they know oi pontios mainly from bar-room discussions vote against us. And, ivhile good journals are abundant and cheap, there are this day hundreds of thousands of voters who take no newspaper whatever. The class who live by day-labor almost uni formly vote against us. Two-thirds of them work for Republicans whom they respect: but, reading no paper regularly, they take their politics, directly or indirectly, from the grog shops, it hall a minion of these could each be induced to take and read a good journal, there would be at least one hundred thousand more Republican votes in the ballot-boxes next November. And these votes would insure a Republicau President and Congress. I respectfully commend to the half million readers of the Independent their duty in the premises. Each of them might induce three to six voters to take some good Republicau paper, it he would try. 1 do not msist that he fchall so act in behalf of this or of any particu lar journal, but that he shall induce each voter within the sphere of his influence to take such Republican paper, whether it be classed as political or religious, as shall prove most acceptable, une will take a Baptist, Metho dist, or temperance paper, who would not be induced to take another. Persuade each to take that which he may prefer; but let us try to begin the new year with half a million voters who took no paper in 1SG7 taking a eood one tor the momentum year lbos Reader, look around you, and see how aud where your duty in the premises shall be fitly and faithfully accomplished I HOBACE GSERLEV. A Word More About Impeachment. From the N. Y. Nation. One meets constantly, both in literature, and jhilosophy, and politics, with men who are addicted to cramming into their heads ideas which are too big for their brains, aud which, com-t quently, produce acute mental inflarama. tion, thowing itself in rant and bombast. Mr. Williams, if we may judge from the ''report" ou the impeachment of President Johnson which he has appended to me eviaence coi h cUd by the Judiciary Committee; is one of these, and not the least remarkable. His pjmptoms are certainly as grave as those of any case which has reoeutly oonie under our notice. Mr. Boutwell and the rest of the majoiity seem, too, to have beou fully con scious of the unfortunate gentleman's condi tion, inasmuch as they were very careful to mention that it was b who wrote the report, being apparently unwilling to incur the suspi cion of sharing in his malady. What has brought Mr. Williams to grief is the notion, which he makes fi antic but unsuccessful efforts to develop, that In Andrew Johnson the majoiity of the Committee had got hold of a great historical character of the Stuart and Sir afford type, whose abilities and wickedness made his possession of power dangerous to the State, and whose removal, therelore, was a duty as delicate as it was awful. 1 here is certainly some resemblance betweeu Mr. Johnson and Charles I or James II, but Mr. Williams has apparently very little idea in what it consists. The President is like the Stuarts in having very loose notions of the nature atd functions either of the legislature or of the executive, aud in fancying that the latter is the real depositary of the sovereignty 'Vu in a constitutional government, the foimer being rather an adviser thau a law civer. He has set out his opinions, too, in much the same temper and with a similar want of sincerity. But here the parallel ceases. Nothing can be possibly more unlike than the relations of the Stuarts to the English nation and those of cur worthy ''Chief Magistrate" to the Ameri can nation, and nothing but the nervous dis order we have mentioned would have led Mr. Williams to fancy there wa any aualogy between them. The crisis, too, through which the country is passing is a momentous one, no doubt; but it is not Mr. Johnson's faults and follies which have made it so, au i his impeachment or removal would, therefore not remove anv of the real drtliculties lu the national path. The business of impeaching him is nut now and never was a weighty or important business in the eyes of anybody except the small Knot ot superuaiurauy illu minated politicians who have taken it in hand. Whether the North would reap the fruits of its victory in the field, after thelightiug was over, has all along depended not on what Andrew Johnson did or said, or what Mr. Stevens or Mr. Wade or Mr. Boutwell said or did, or what anybody else said or did, but on the temper and persistence of the Northern people. In every great struggle, whether in war or peace, it is only a small number of master-minds who can take in the whole field and see where the key of the position really lies, and on what combination of circumstances the fortunes of the day will turu. The com mon run of politicians aud soldiers are pretty suie to fasten on some trilling matter of only collateral importance, and see in it, to use the gorgeous balderdash of Mr. Williams, at ouce "a master-key" and "a centre of gravity," and make a fuss about it in the inverse ratio ot the value Of their opinions. We might illustrate this copiously from the chronicles both of the late war and of the last two years, if we had space. One of the most striking examples of the force ot this tendency has been what we may call, we hope without offense, the impeachment craze. For a year and a half a number of well-meaning, as well as some ill-meaning persons have been fully persuaded that unless, by hook or by crook, Andrew Johnson could be got out of the Presidential chair, all was lost, aud have been trying, but with a very Email measure of success, to win the publio over to their way of thinking. As is usual with a certain class of minds, the more they thought of their scheme, the more import ant it appeared; and the more important it appeared, the more stupendous a villain An drew Johnson became. He started before them as simply a very indecent brawler, whose presence In the White House was a national disgrace, no doubt, but who was simply a dis gracenothing more. As the chase continued he grew into an offender against morality, then a seller of pardons, then a conspirator against the nation, then the preparer of a coup d'e"tal, and finally General Butler ran him to earth as a common assassin. But all this was done by dint of hallooing and insinuating. No proofs were forthcoming, and, in order to put a good face on this little defect, it was given out that the proofs were too awful to be laid before the public till the Committee was ready to report, and the mem bers were bound to secresy under the most solemn sanctions. We have waited with bated breath more than a year for the opening of the bag, and now Mr. Williams has opened it and displays its contents tvith a showman's mag niloquence. But it turns out, as we have over and over suggested in these columns, that he has not bin e to show that we did not all know already. The secresy was apparently intended simply to heighten the effect of a rather sorry farce. Two-thirds of the charges are simply offenses for which the only proper punishment is non-reelection and public reprobation. There could be hardly a better illustration of the diseased condition of Mr. William's politi cal sense than the enumeration amongst Mr. Johnson's "high crimes and misdemeanors" of his having vetoed bills he ought to have approved, and having advised Legislatures to reject a constitutional amendment which he ought to have advised them to adopt. Why, if the President might be impeached for offenses of this sort, so might every member of Con gress be impeached for voting against any bill which the majority chose to pronounco essen tial to the national safety, and so might every member who made stump speeches against a constitutional amendment. The President has just as much legal right to veto wrongly as a Senator to vote wiougly, just as much right to argue against a constitutional amend ment as a Senator to argue for it. We think Mr. Johnson has been wrong, and perhaps from bad motives, in nearly all his vetoes aud in nearly alibis recommendations; but if he is to veto when the majority in Congress says he may, and only tj recommend what they prescribe, his office becomes a ridiculous sine cure. Nearly all the charges, too, are old and well worn. The pardoning of the Virgiuiau de serters, if true, was a bad and corrupt act; but bad as it was, and corrupt as it was, it was no worse than other Presidents have done, and than other officials are constantly doing; and though we should like to see Mr. Johnson puui.-hed for it, we should not like to see the country convulsed, reconstruction delayed, and the publio credit imperilled in order to have it done. The- power of impeachment is not lodged in the hands of the House for the purpose of affording striking examples of poetic justioe, or for delighting the lover of pure morality with the spectacle of wicked men brought to grief and discomfiture. It is lodged in their hands, like all their other powers, for the publio good, and is to be used or not used, not to meet any theory of abstract right or wrong, but as the public interests may seem to require. We do not know of any rule of morality which demands that the poor shall be kept suffering, the finances of a great nation de ranged, scandal brought on free government, aud the whole community convulsed and the machinery of administration almost paralyzed, simply that Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, may be chastised for being ruiiianly iu speech and demeanor, and for having, after pacing thirty years of his life as a pro-slavery dema gogue, failed in playing the part of au enlight ened Christian sUtesuiau. The peoplj to bj OLD RYE HIE LARGEST AND FINE OLD RYE 7 H I O K I In tho Land is now Possessed by II E N 11 Y S. 1IANNIS & CO., Ncs. 218 aid 220 South FRONT Street, WII MII II THE NAllli; lO THE TKADE, IJC LOTS, ON TKBT ADVANTAUEO VU TERM. Tbtir Stock of Rje Whukies, in Bond, comprises all the favorite brands extant, and rons through the various months of 18C5, 'CG, and of this year, np to present date. Lileial contracts made for lots to arrive at Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, Ericsson Line Wharf, or at Ponded Warehouse, as parties may elect. punished, as it Eeems to us, are those who, knowing Lis character and antecedents, nomi nated him iu the Convention; and the proper remedy for his case is not to do the like again. As long as the whole tejior of a mau's life counts for nothing in the selection of candi dates, or can be covered over by a few harangues or a few execrations, such cases will occur; and it is not the cheat, but those who give him the chance of cheating, who ought to be called to account for it. When he removed the generals last Bum mer, we feared, as we said at the time, that he did so for the purpose of putting men iu their place who would use their powers to frustrate the Congressional plan of reconstruc tion. Had this proved true, Mr. Williams would have a charge to make ou the strength of which we should be all agreed. But it has not proved true. Nothing very mischievous Las followed the removal of the generals. It confirms our bad opinion of the President, an l has probably exerted a bad influence on the Southern mind, but impeachment is not a proper means of punishing men for the remote and indirect bad consequences pf acts in them selves lawful.- One does not need to possess any very ex traordinary amount of wisdom to be nbU to say that now, as two years ago, no single move in this reconstruction business, no single man, possesses paramount importance. The e.-seutial thing is that the Northern people bj kept earnest, persistent, high-minded, and satisfied with the Republicau party. If for any reason it is driven or seduced into taking the power away from the Republican party, we shall fear the worst for the future. The freedmen will be endangered, the publio credit will be endangered, the national honor, and even the memory of the dead, will be eniau gered. Every consideration, high and low, makes it desirable that the country be not dis gusted with the present holders of power. It is for this reason that we have, during the last two years, declaimed incessantly, and at constant risk of being misunderstood, against the tendency of Republican leaders in Con gress to abuse or waste their influence. When Mr. Steven3 was preaching confiscation, gag ging the opposition, and hurrying important bills through Congress without debate; when Mr. Boutwell was threatening the Supreme Court with abolition, and excluding the whole Southern bar from practice in the United States Courts; when Mr. Banks was humiliating every sensible man in the country with his Fenian "reports;" and when Messrs. Butler, Ashley & Co. were crying night and day for impeachment, ' we felt satisfied that though these gentlemen flattered themselves they were striking deadly blows at the enemy, they were in reality alienating their own fol lowers, and that if they kept at their work, though they might succeed in pouring out many vials on the heads of Mr. Johnson and the Rebels, they would probably end in tho roughly sickening the country of themselves and their performances, and bring the whole process of reconstruction, as the Republican party had planned it, to a stand-still. It must now be confessed those who were of this way of thinking, and they were many, have proved to be not very far wrong. It is not yet too late for the majority in Congress to retrace its steps and turn to serious things. The work before it is to bring the South back to the Union on the basis of equal rights, and not to punish the President or provide farms for negroes or remodel the American Government. Even if it were well to do all these things, it cannot do them. Would it not now be well to turn to the essential, and abandon all else ? The impeachment scheme has apparently found a fitting grave in Mr. Williams' rhetoric, and it is a striking and significant fact that General Butler, who was sent to Congress with a loud flourish of trum pets for the express purpose of riding this hobby, ha3 already abandoned it and is engaged in the pleasing task of persuading Congress to adopt a course with regard to the publio debt which, whatever it might do "to lighten the publio burdens," would so thoroughly damn. American credit that the publio would pro bably never be troubled with any other bur den in the shape of debt, let it want money ever so much, within the next two centuries at least. . Uencral Grant and the War Department, From the JV. Y. Ileruld. The radioal Congressmen at Washington, according to the statement of their organ in this city, are extremely anxious to get General Grant out of the War Department, and are busily employed in hunting np all manner of laws which they hope may have a tendency to cut t-liort his term of office. One act passed in 1803, providing that any head of a bureau appointed by the Pnidont in an emergency shall not serve for a longer period thau six months, is regarded as applicable to the acting Secretary of War. If this should be found inoperative in his case, then an act of 18(37, providing that no detail shall be made by the President, as Commander-in-Chief, that shall extend beyond the space of six months, is relied upon as terminating General Grant's term of office in the War Uepartment in Feb ruary next. In ie meantime, while the radi cals are displaying all their restlessness, jealousy, aud annoyance, the army estimates are out dwn under Grant's admirable admin istration nearly sixteen million dollars. This amount is saved to the country in a siugle yenr by the acting Secretary's system of re trenchment, while the efficiency of the army is increased instead of diminished. The fact is, General Grant has long been satisfied that the offices of General of the Army and Secretaiy of War should be united in one person. When he commenced his work of army retrenchment, immediately after Lea's surrender, he fouud himself suddenly checked by ti e authority of Stanton, backed by the approval of President Lincoln. It had been the desire of Grant to put the army, without any loss of time, as nearly upjn a peace root ing as the then condition of the oouutry would warrant. To this end he proceeded rapidly with the Hoik of musteriug out the volunteer regi ment, cuttiug down and disposing ot army supplies, and getting rid of a host of volunteer cilia is who had no commands an l whose only WHISKIES. BUST STOCK OF e s duty consisted of drawing their pay. Quarter masters, commissaries and other epauletted idlers felt the effect of his pruning-knife. But a political pressure was brought to bear upoa Stanton and Lincoln, and the work of retrench ment was stopped. As soon as Grant obtained possession of the War Department it was re sumed, and the result has been an immediate saving of nearly sixteen million dollars from Stanton's estimates for a single year, and the curtailment of expenditures in every direction in equal proportion. These practical results will satisfy the people that there is sound sense in Grant's views iu relation to the union of the two offices of Gene ral of the Array and Secretary of War. The former, as the head of the military of the United States, subject only to the Commander-in-Chief, should not have a political power ex ercised over him to cripple his plans and in terfere with his administration. The General is the proper adviser of the President on all army matters, and should be a member of the Cabinet. Now that such an office has been created, a Secretary of War is no longer ne cessary. General Grant's oourse has entirely disposed of all partisan agitation over Stan ton's removal, and the best thing Congress can do is to provide for the abolition of the office of Secretary of War, and turn over all the duties of the Department to the General of the Army. L O OCUfJC-GLACGGG op rn .. ! BEST FRENCH TLATE, In Every Stylo of Frames, ON HAND OR MADE TO ORDER. NEW ART GALLERY F. BO LAND & CO., 11 1 2m2p IV o. 014 ARCH Htreet. FURNITURE, ETC. -pURNlTUREI PURNITUREI MODERN AKD ANTIU.TJE! PAUJ.OK, HALL. AND CXIASIBEB SUITS AT BEUIU'ED FBICES. Onr tacllltlea are sacb tbat we are enabled to offer at very moderate price, a large and well-aatorted stock of every description ot HOU&EHOLD FU&NI TVJKK AND BIDQINO, Goods packed to carry safely to all parts ot tba country, BliimONU A FOBEPATJOU, 921 11 Q. 40 m. E:ONI STKKET. fam & H. LCJAMDRG HAVE EEMOVED THETB FURMTURE AND UPHOLSTERING WAP.EROOSIS TO HO. 14a 5 CIIEMNCT UTBKJST, 978)0 Keit to the corner of fifteenth. fO HOUSEKEEPERS. Ibuvea large stuck of every variety of FUhNl'l'UUK, "Wh.eti I will sell at reduced price, oonslstlug oi PLIN AND JdAKBlJS lUPCOri'Atiit bUlltt. W lM'T CWAAlbfc.ll hUl'lH. PAULOH bUllS IN VJi-LVt-T PLUSH. FA KLOK fcUJTrt IN H A IK CLOTH. PA hLOK bOUX IN K&PS. fclm hoardH, Kn ul"ii 'lab!, Wardrobes, J; . cast a. MaUressw. lounges, tic. etc. H. . UI'STIWL 8 1 em N. K. corner 8K(X)N1 and HACK Htreoi. gSIA ii L I S II E D 1735. A. S. ROBINSON, 1 tench I late Looking-Glasses, K'jAVLNOB. 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