The Fairfield Herald

The Removal of Gen: Sheridan,

The Washington correspondent of the New York Herald writes as follows under date of the 3d instant:

It is rumored to-day that the order removing General Sheridan had been issued by President Johnson. I have it on the best authority that such is not the fact; but I have good reason to believe that the order is all ready, and would have been issued some time ago but for some little hitch that has not yet been removed. After all, I believe that there is a lack of backbone in quarters where great stiffness was expected. Combinations have been formed that embarrass the President in his policy and render him uncertain how to act, whether to push forward boldly or to recede.

It is rumored now that there is a defection in the Cabinet, and that another member besides Stanton has kicked against the anti-Sheridan policy. However this may be, I believe the President will not yield in his determination to remove "Little Phil." The order will assign as a cause for the step that Sheridan himself is an impediment in the way of rational and constitutional reconstruction, and that, therefore, he should be removed in the same way that Sheridan himself removed Governor Wells, of Louisiana. It will direct General Hancock to assume command of the district, and to so administer the laws of Congress as to conflict as little as may be with the letter and spirit of the constitution. The President believes that, though the recent acts of Congress clothe military commanders with absolute power, still these commanders should use the utmost discretion and exercise their powers so as to bear as lightly as possible upon the people, and so as to give satisfaction in their districts. He considers that Sheridan has not thus acted; that he has been unwise, arbitrary without cause, and in many instances despotic in the exercise of power. Some other person, he therefore considers, equally patriotic and far more efficient and discreet, should be substituted for him as commander of the fifth Military District. In General Hancock he believes such a man will be found.