A YANKEE'S EULOGIUM ON THE PRESIDENT.
[FRO31 OIIR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]
New York, December 3, 1867. Two great questions now command the attenion of the people of the United States, who talk and really think very little of any other subject. These are, on the one hand, the financial policy of the Government and the business prospects of the country ; and on the other, the selection of candidates for the next Presidency, and the formation of the platform (upon which they and their leading supporters will take their stand before the people. How- ever and whenever the former may be settled, the latter must agitate us profoundly for six months and more. And yet if President Johnson had a little more craft and a little less of dogged fidelity to his convictions, this latter question would be already determined, and be would be the candidate sure of election upon a platform framed from the able Messages which have set forth his policy. For it is manifest now that in the struggle which has been going on for two years between the President and Congress, the one is prevailing over the many ; and that Andrew Johnson, who has not even a party at his back, is to be victorious over a political force whose apparent strength has never been surpassed ; which comprised three-fourths of one branch, and more than two-thirds of the other branch of an independent legis- lative body, elected by a party which had just carried the country successfully through a great war, and notably unanimous and enthusiastic. The President was not impeached (I write now in the past tense), not because of the autumn elections, but simply because, whatever his errors or his faults, he had been guilty of no act that had even the seeming of high crime or misdemeanour, except in the eyes of a few unscrupulous politicians and fiery zealots. He knew this ; and understanding the people and the men in Congress, he did not flinch or waver ; and while they, with multitudinous and potential voices, threatened him with depo- sition and disgrace if he did not serve their will, he not only denied and defied, almost bullied them ; he did worse, he lectured them. He undertook to give them a little elementary instruction in the principles of constitutional government, to teach them their duty, and to make them know their place. Never was a body of men so put to school since Elizabeth Tudor was school-ma'am. If Congress were as omnipotent as Parlia- ment, and if the people of this country were accustomed to follow political leaders, this course could have had only a disastrous end for Mr. Johnson. And, perhaps, it is not surprising that even the clearest-headed and best informed British journalists should have been able to foresee only such an end for him, especially after his last Message,—that they should have expected of Congress that thereafter its tone would be more confident, its decisions swifter, its action more determined, and that they should have thought that at last impeachment would surely come. But the end was that impeachment was rejected by a two-thirds vote of the House, that Congress is demoralized, and that the Republican party is disintegrating before this stubborn man. Wendell Phillips, the great apostle of Radicalism, has proclaimed through the length and breadth of the land, " The surrender of Congress." Wendell Phillips is only an agitator ; never was there a more splendid example of the vox et preterea nihil ; but he has sometimes spoken to the purpose, and never more so than on this occasion : Congress has surrendered.
That this was to be the end of the contest was plain enough from the beginning to any observer who understood the conditions of the parties and the meaning of the struggle, and who was neither a hot partizan nor a one-eyed fanatic ;—that is, it was manifest, if the President stood firm. But unless to those who knew Mr. Johnson very much better than I do (not knowing him at all, and never having even seen him), it was by no means certain. that he would stand firm ; the force brought against him was so tremendous, its purpose so fell, its demonstrations so violent.. Abraham Lincoln would have gone down before it like a rush, before a thunder-gust. With all his wisdom, and his goodness, and his seeming simplicity, he was a crafty manager of men, and appeared to lead the people by sagaciously discovering whither they would go, and whether their road was practicable. Then he stepped out, but not before. The reasons why victory was sure to. Mr. Johnson, if he would but hold out, are these ; and they are as• significant now as they were heretofore. The Republican party elected Mr. Lincoln ; but it was not the Republican party that carried through the war, some of the most prominent leaders, civil and military, and hundreds of thousands of the hearty supporters of which were straight-out Democrats, and dyed in the wool. These,. however, were cut loose and cast off by the Democratic party, which tolerates no deviation from party lines toward patriotism.. It was, both in fact and in name, a Union party that carried the war through to its successful issue. But naturally the majority of the men sent to Congress during the war were Republicans, or at least men who were ready to follow the leaders of the party which seemed then triumphant and in possession of political power for a generation. Had there been no Constitution,. no negro, and no Andrew Johnson, or had there been a little- statesmanship in Congress, the Republican party would surely have controlled the affairs of the country for the next twenty-five or thirty years. But the three former were, and the latter was not. And the Republicans, it should be remembered, were never a majority even in the loyal States. Moreover, this minority party was not an old party, or a party of well established organi- zation, or even a homogeneous party. It was somewhat hastily got together for a specific purpose, the restriction of the slave power in our Government ; and a large proportion of its numbers, as well as many of its ablest and most active leaders, were Demo- crats, called Free Soil Democrats, who joined it in express terms. pro hdc vice. These men were firm believers in State Rights,. but not in State Sovereignty (for between the two there is a clear and vital distinction) ; they were Free Traders ; they were opposed to all Governmental interference with individual liberty, whether with good purpose or bad, except to ensure liberty ; they favoured direct taxation and a specie currency ; upon which great cardinal points they adhered to the tenets of the old Democratic party.. They formed one-fourth, or perhaps one-third, of the Republican party, the majority of which strongly favoured what was called a national or American system, to the disregard of State Rights (except when they found them as useful), a protective tariff, a developing and philanthropic system of government, internal improvements at the cost of the State, indirect taxation and free banking. The former, as regards the Constitution, were for strict construction, and limiting Congress and the President rigidly by the express grant of power in that instrument ; the latter were for a liberal, their opponents said a loose, construction of it in all these respects. Now, when the war was over and the existence of the Government secured, and when slavery was abolished by the passage of the Constitutional Amendment to that effect, these members of the Republican party, and not only these, but many others, said that the party should by the very terms of its organiza- tion come to an end, the reason of its being having ceased to exist. But working associations of even twelve years are not to be dissolved at a word, especially when four of those years have been years of fiery trial ; and so the Union party would have held to- gether for a while in any case ; but there was yet another power by which it was held together, the dread of the old, regular Demo- cratic party, lest it should come to life again, and again control the Government. But this power was not one either of attraction or cohesion, it was applied to the Union party from the outside, like the hoops upon a barrel. Now, the action of the leading Republicans for the last two years has been such as to weaken this bond of union by diminishing the fear of the old Democratic party, and even by compelling great numbers of people who would otherwise gladly see it buried out of sight, to look to it as the protector and pre- server of the rights of the States, as the hope of Free Trade, and a sound financial system, and generally, as the champion of that kind of government which, in their eyes, is best because it governs least. The Republican leaders, believing, of course, as all party leaders believe, that the prevalence of their party, and the contin- uation of their leadership, was the great need of the country, greater than any mere respect for the restraints of constitutional govern- ment, made the perpetuation of their party and its continu- ance in power the one great object, not only of their party action, but of their legislation. To obtain the votes of the Southern negroes, without which they have confessed, and even most impressively declared to their followers, that the Republi- can party cannot live, they did not hesitate to disregard the great constitutional right of every State to absolute control upon the subject of citizenship within its own boundaries. To check the man Andrew Johnson in moves that they suspected him of intending against them, they undertook to curtail the power of appointment and dismissal conferred by the Constitution upon the President of the United States, and which has been exercised by that officer from the foundation of the Government. In brief, to attain their end they have made laws (which of coarse must be of general application) for special cases. In a certain sense they were wise in so doing ; for they could have accomplished their purpose in no other way ; but in the larger sense and on the wider view they were foolish ; because there is nothing more repulsive to the people of this country than this making laws for special cases, or even for the attainment of particular objects. A typical instance of this short-sighted legislation, by which the majority in the House has been month by month diminishing its points of sympathetic contactwith all except the hot partizans of the Republi- can party, is the Bill which, although it is in general terms of course, is plainly meant for Fitz John Porter's case. This gentleman, a regular army officer, and a general during the war, was cashiered after trial by court-martial, his sentence being approved by Presi- dent Lincoln. It is claimed by his friends that he was unjustly con- demned, and they make out what is admitted on all hands to be a very strong case, upon which application is made to the President for an examination by a military commission, and, upon its recom- mendation, a reinstatement of the cashiered officer. But Porter is a Conservative and a friend and admirer of General M•Clellan : and, therefore, a bill is brought in and passed by a vote of 116 to 31, declaring that no officer of the army cashiered by sentence of court-martial, properly approved, shall ever be restored to his office except by reappointment, which, made by the President, must be confirmed by the Senate. They do not care a rush what wrong such a law might inflict hereafter upon innocent men ; they do not see that in the course of a few years the whirligig of time might bring round revenge upon them at the hands of another President who would not reappoint, or another Senate that would not confirm " the right sort of man ; " all they seek is to attain their present object of preventing President Johnson from restoring "a M'Clellan man," to the great ex- ultation and heartening up of the Democrats. But will not the people, at least all those who formed the great Union party that carried through that dreadful war so unflinchingly, consent to a little twisting of the Constitution, a little special legislation to confer political power upon the freed negro, and enable him to control the legislation and the Presidental vote of the Southern States? What? twist the Constitution for the negro, when even Kansas, " bleeding Kansas," refused, by I forget how large a majority, to admit her few negroes to the ballot-box I Will it be said that this refusal to do a little violence to the Constitution leaves us the sorrows and the burdens of the war without that for which the war was fought ? President Johnson's last Message called attention to a resolution of both Houses of Congress, which declared that the sole object of the war was the preservation of the Union and the maintaining of the supremacy of the laws ; but there was another measure taken by Congress much more signifi- cant, which seems to have been forgotten on both sides of the water. In February, 1861, after seven of the Slave States had passed ordinances of secession, the following amendment to the Constitution was passed by a two-thirds vote in each House :— "No amendment shall be made to this Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labour or service by the laws of said State."
Not only was this perpetual guarantee to Slavery against a Con- stitutional Amendment in which even the majority of the Slave States themselves should concur given by Congress, but a few days after, in his inaugural address, President Lincoln, the Republican President, the Anti-Slavery orator, the wise and good, said, " Holding such a provision now to be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevo- cable." Was, then, the war only for empire ? No; for this security (although it would have been confirmed by all the States, and Republican Ohio did lead the way) was refused by the seceding States ; they would have slavery in the Territories, or separation. By granting that, war could have been avoided and empire secured. But on that issue battle was joined, and slavery not only kept out of the Territories, but rooted out of the land. But have the people of the United States learned nothing by the war ? Much ; but with all their learning it will be found in the end that they have not learned to set at naught constitutional government for any purpose, least of all, shall I say, to give political power and consequent social standing to the negro. That may come ; but I do not yet see the time of its coming.
The consequence of all this is political chaos, over which dark- ness broods. To predict who will be the candidates for the next Presidency would be rash indeed, almost mere guess-work. It is not yet by any means certain that General Grant will be the Republican candidate. The unwillingness to accept him on the part of the advanced Republicans is very great ; it has not at all diminished ; he is by no means desirous of the position, to accept which indeed would be a sacrifice on the part of the General-in- Chief, for life, of the Army of the United States ; and the move- ment in favour of Chief Justice Chase is very strong. But the Republican candidate may be another and a yet unmentioned man. The moderate Republicans would like to elect Charles Francis Adams. But he has neither won battles nor made green- backs ; and he is too much a gentleman and a scholar for popularity in this country. The Democrats are yet groping utterly in the dark, and hoping that the Radicals will take as much rope as they can get. What the platform of either party will be is almost beyond conjecture. Over that of the Republicans there will be a very free fight. Meantime, President Johnson stands guard, as he
swore to do, over the Constitution. A YANKEE.
[*** We print this letter out of deference to an old and able Correspondent, who once took a saner view of American politics. But we warn our readers that all the facts seem to us against the probability of his vaticinations, and that nearly all sound political principles seem to us outraged by his opinions.—En. Spectator.]
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