The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-17 00:00:00

NEW YORK, ffirr. 5.
Mr. Johnson continues his extraordinary tour,
and to make his extraordinary speeches. When
last heard of he was at Cleveland, Ohio, addressing
a very stormy meeting, which appears from the re-
port to have been largely composed of his op-
ponents. He was constantly interrupted, laughed
at, called " traitor," and assailed with every
exclamation that seemed likely to embarrass or dis-
possesa him, until at last he seems to have been
worked up into uncontrollable rage, and directed
his remarks in a defiant way to one of his inter-
rupters personally. A more extraordinary or dis-
creditable scene has probably never been transude
in the United States. He goes next to Chicago,
where he will be probably to-day or to-morrow,
and strong fears are entertained that his visit there
may end in a riot. The radicals are of course
growing more and more exasperated every day,
and the copperheads of that city would be only
tee glad to bring about an armed collision. The
Meats Times, which
ai was throughout the war a
Confedernte n and was once suppressed for its
treasonable language, has been publishing for the
last week, in anticipation of the President's arrival,
articles of the most inflammatory kind, preparing
Mr. Johnson's partisans for an attack on the radi-
cals, in case any attempt should be made to inter-
rupt him. It was in Chicago that the great con-
spiracy was formed in 1864 to rise and burn the
ci.y, Ind in the confusion liberate the large body
of Coafederate prisoners confined in the neighbour-
hood, supply them with arms, and march south-
ward. It was luckily discovered, and the leaders
tried by court-martial and convicted, but it re-
vealed( a very large mass of lawless material
amonot the Chicago population, which the
friend 4 of the President would not be slow to
turn to account at the present juncture.
There are abundant indications, in fact,
that his extreme supporters—by which I mean
"the peace democrats," ss they were called—who
wished the South to succeed at any cost, are hoping
just now that the present controversy may end in
an appeal to arms. This is a hard thing to say,
but it is impossible for anybody who reads their
newspapers and hears them talk to resist this con-
clusion. And, unhappily, there is little difficulty
in providing them with a motive. They expect
that if the President should attempt to carry out
his policy by force, or if, which is the same thing,
the radicals should attempt to frustrate it by force,
the conflict which would ensue would be in reality
a renewal of the war, under conditions vastly
more favourable to the South. The South would
of course come to his aid, and would thus renew
the struggle with their old adversaries with the
government, and apparently the law, and they
would hope the regular army, on their side ; while
their opponents would have to take the field with-
out organisation, and apparently as rebels. Should
the President prove victorious under these circum-
stances, his victory would be in reality the victory
of the Confederacy, and the Southern States would
in its Ices* probably escape from the terms which
have been imposed on it at the close of the late
war, and which it considers deeply humiliating.
I need hardly say that I think this a wild and