Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-09-15
P O r II TsCl "A r..
From the Atlantic Monthly for September
ala THE .JOHNsON PARTY

From the Atlantic Monthly for Septembef.l
THE JOHNSON PARTY.
The President of the United States has SC
singular combination of defects for the
Office of constitutional magistrate, that ne
could have obtained the opportunity to mis-
rule the nation, only by visitation Of Pro.
vidence. Insincere as we'll as stubborn,
cunning as well as unreasonable, yain as well
as ill-tempcred, greedy of popularity as well
as arbitrary in disposition, veerihg in his
mind as well as fixed in his will, he unites
ir his character the seemingly opposite quail
ties of demagogue and autocrat, and converts
the Presidential chair into a stump or a
! throne, according as the impulse seizes him
to cajole orito command @ Doubtless much
of the evil developed in him is due to his
| misfortune in having been lifted by events
to position which he lacked the elevation
and breadth of intelligence adequately to
fill. He was cursed with the possession of
power and authority which no man of
narrow mind, bitter prejudices, end inordi-
nate self estimation can exercise without
| depraving himself as well as injuring the
nation. Egotistic to the point of mental
disease, he resented tile direct and manly
opposition of statesmen to his opinions and
moods as personal affront, and descended
to the last degree of lit:leness in political
lcader-that of betraying his party, in order
to crafty his spite. He of course became
the prey of intriguers and sycophants of
persons who understand the art of managing
minds which are at once arbitrary and weak,
by allowing them to retain unity of will
amid the most palpable. inconsistencies of
opinion, so that Inconsistency to principle
shall not weaker force of purpose, nor the
emphasis be at all abatcd with which they
may bless to-day what yesterday they cursed.
Thus the abhorrer of traitors has now be-
come their tool. Thus the denouncer of
Copperheacs has now sunk into dependence
on their support. Thus the imposer of con-
oltions of reconstruction has now become
the foremost friend of the unconditional re-
turn of the rebel States. Thus the furious
Union Republican, whose harangues against
his political opponents almost scared his
political friends by their violence, has now
become the shameless betrayer of the peo-
pie who trusted him. And in all these
changes of base he has appeared supremcly
conscious, in his own mind, of playing an
independent, q consistent and especially
conscientious part.
Indeed, Mr.. Johnson's character would be
imperfectly described if some attention were
not paid to his conscience, the purity of
which is favorite subject of his own dis.
course, and the perversity of which is the
wonder of the rest of mankind AS public
man, his real position is similar to tina. of
commander OF an army, who should pass
over to the ranks Of the enemy he was COM
missiorcd to fight, and then plead his in
dlvidual convictions of duty as justification
of his treachery. In truth, Mr.. Johnsons
conscience is, like his understanding, a mere
form OF expression of his will. The will of
ordinary men is addressed through their
understanding and conscience. Mr.. John
sor's understanding and conscience can be
addressed only through his will. lie puts
intellectual principles and the moral law in
the possessiye case, thinks he pays .hem
compliment and adds to their authority
when he makes them the adjuncts OF his
petted pronoun 'my;" and things to him are
reasonable and right not from any quality
inherent in themselves, but because they are
made so by his determinations. Indeed, he
sees hardly anything as it is, but almost
everything as colored by his own dominant
eeolism. Thus he is never weary of assert
Ing that the people are on his side yet his
method of learning the wishes of the people
is to scrutinize his own. aud, when acting
out his own passionate impulses, he ever in
sists that he is obeying public sentiment.
OF all the wilful men who, by strange chance,
have found themselves at the head of con-
stitutional government, he most resembles
the last Stuart king of England, James H.;
and the likeness is increased from the cir
cumstance that the American James has, in
his supple and plausible Secretary of State,
one fully competent to play the part of Sun
derland. = '.,,r..'.,'Ii ..r,
The party which, under the ironical des-
ignation of the National Union Party, now
proposes to take the policy and character of
Mr.. johnson under its charge, is composed
chiefly Of Democrats defeated at the polls,
and Democrats defeated on the field of bat
tie. The few apostate Republicans, who
have joined its ranks while seeming to lead
its organization, arc of small account. Its
great strength is in its Southern supporters,
and if it comes into power, it must obey
rebel direction. BY the treachery of the
President, it will have the Executive patron
age on its side, for Mr.. Johnson's soon
science" is of that peculiar kind which finds
satisfaction in arraying the interest of Others
against their convictions; and having thus
the power to purchase support, it will not
fail of those means of dividing the North
which come from corrupting it, The party
under which the war for the Union was con
Quoted is to be denounced and prescribed as
the party of disunion. and we are to be edi-
fed by addresses on the indissoluble unity of
the nation by secessionists, who have hardly
yet had time to wash from their hands the
stains of Union blood. The leading propo-
stion ON which this conspiracy against the
country is to be conducted is the monstrous
absurdity that the Rebel States have an in
hercnt Continuous" unconditional, consti-
tutional right to form part of the Federal
Government, when they have once acknowl-
edged the fact of the defeat of their inhabi-
tants in an armed attempt to overthrow and
subvert it-a proposition whichimplies that
victory paralyzes the powers of the yictors !;
| that ruin begins when success 10 assured I;
that the only effect of beating Southern
rebel in the fieldsis to exalt him into q maker
Of laws for his antagonist. o ' a2lQ
! In the minority report of the Congressional
Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which
is designed to supply the new party with
constitutional law, this theory Of State rights
is most elaborately presented The ground
is taken, that during the rebellion the States
in which it prevailed were as completely
competent States of the United States as they
were before the rebellion, and were bouad
by all the obligations which the Constitution
imposed, and entitled to all Its privileges; !"
and that the rebellion consisted merely in a
series "of illegal acts of the citizens of such