, 1865-06-16

to rule in a revolution, with a policy as
distinct as that of the oldest European
statesman, and a will which, be that 20,
Icy wise or rash, will assuredly make re-
s~lstance TO 1t a most dangerous task.
There is no single point in politics which
it Is so important to Englishmen TO an
defstand as the character of the Amcri-
can President they cannot afford a sec
ond mistake such as that committed
about Mr.. Lincoln, and we have passed
hours in studying the speeches and acts
of Mr.. Johusn3 a. Governor of Tennessee.
The more W. have read the more strong
Iy has the conclusion grown OH US that
the new American President is one Of the
most individual men on HE coutiueut,-
a rule who, whatever else he may do or
leave undOne, will most aSsurediy rule,
who will borrow knowledge, but accept
advice only when it harmonizes with his
own preconceived convictions. "a Qua
ker," says Sam Slick, "who dissents from
Quakeri>m must haye a pretty stiff up
per lip" aud a man who, born a Soulher-
er, raised himself toto the idol of slave
r-a0aNAp3g democrats, and then, convinced
WR slavery WAS an evil, flung himself
down from his position, down to the very
bottom, 4 homeless, landless, fritudIess
man, aud then fought his way back to
the very top as chief Of the autj-sIavery
democrats, is not the man to be "guided''
by softer politicians. Andrew Johnson,
unless we mistake utterly all the indjca-
tions of his life, is simple Andrew Jack
m.&n over again, and we are not certain
Nwhether the repetition Of The character is
- oDr.,1a,- ,,L,tIA. W., E1i,-o, L-
not recognized his resemblance to that
prototype and modelled himself to make
the resemblance visible. lie is always
talking Of him, always quoting him, aud
the accidental analogy Of careers must
frequently have struck him. Like Jack
son, Mr.. Johnson was born in the Carroll
mas, a poor If not a 'meau" White,-he
says II picked cotton as an apprentice,
and packed twice as much as any slave
and like him emigrated to Tennessee,
and there became the idol Of the demo-
cracy. Like hun, too, he contracted, ap-
parenIly through the force Of an imIgra-
ton which requires strong ideas to stir it,
~ passion for the Union, and therefore Il
a resolution to defend it at all times by
all means legal and laWIeSs equally. Had
Jackson been encountered, as he was
threatened, with q shareholders revolt,
he would, we can hardly doubt, have
passed, as Mr.. Johnson has done, EDWARDS
from resisting slaveowners to an iron de-
termination that slavery should end, end,
as the new President says, "now, uncon-
dilionally, for ever" so hat no State
shall have the power TO re-estabIish it.
On that point there is in Mr.. Johnson's
mind no possibility Of truce or compro-
mise.
Not to pursue the external analogy, it
appears certain that internally, in heart
and brain, Mr.. Johnson is a democrat
we use the word in its English scuse-of
the Jackson type, a democrat, that is,
with a tendency towards equality as we'll
as freedom, q restlesSness under law, a
disposition TO act in emergencies with re-
evolutionary energy or violence. His mind
has none of the bias towards legality
which his life as a lawyer had impressed
upon Mr.. Lincoln, none Of that desire for
moderation as 10 itself a good which so
distinguished that great man. On the
contrary, he places the will Of the people