The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-08-04
The BETRAYAL.


But had there still remained the least
indication of hope, that to us has been
entirely dissipated in the last few days
by The private intelligence we have
from Washington. The assurance
comes to us through men of national
prominence, who have been clinging
to the President through evil report,
trusting to draw him back to the
principles of true loyalty, that the last
ray of hope is gone, and that he has
sold himself, body and soul, to the
rebels and their Copperhead allies of
the North The worst fears of loyal
men are being realized, and the dan
ger is now very apparent that the ter
rible contest through which we have
passed may be all for naught. The
only hope now is in the loyalty of the
people of the North.
The betrayal of the party and its
principles by the President is the
more base, when we remember the
place from whence he was taken, and
the power and importance given him.
No man has been more heartily de-
spised and more grossly insulted by
the South than this same ANDREW
Johnson 1t will be remembered the
indignity he received in 1861, in the
early stages of the rebellion, as he
passed from Washington to his home
in Tennessee; how he was spit upon
and his nose publicly pulled in the
cars; how he was rejected and de-
nounced by the rebels of his own
home, and compelled to fee over the
mountains of East Tennessee for his
life. We published yesterday JEFF.
DAvIs's opinion of ANDY JOHN
SON, the Beast" regretting that he
was not included in the assassination
of President LINCOLN. The bitter
denunciation of JOHNSON as Military
! Governor of Tennessee, by the rebels
and Copperheads, during the war, is
fresh in the minds of our readers.
1t was not that,the Union party
might add strength to the ticket, that
ANDREW JOHNSON was placed in
nomination with Mr.. LINCOLN in the
last Presidential campaign There
were other stronger men than he, and
the popularity of ABRAHAM LINCOLN
with the loyal masses, would haye car
ried any 0nealong him intfiumph.
But there was desire on the part of
the Republicans of the North to
show their FeeognitieR of the few
faithful men of the South, who had
remained true to the flag of their
country, when abandoned by so many
of their own4blood, and homes. AN
DREW JOHNSON, who was denounced
as the vile migrate and traitor, the
military usurper, and Abolition Mo
SEES 'A.sof the negroes, and who had
shown such determined Spirit Of
opposition to all forms of treason
North and South, was taken up and
made the second man in the nation
I by the Republican party of the North.
They bore the sad humiliation of his
drunken debauch and maudlin utter
ances at Inauguration Day They
were willing to palliate th&esingle act
weakness, even thoughitwere in the
presence of sthecrepresentatiyes of the
civilized world; and could take the
mantel of oblivion and with their
faces backward, cover the shame of
their chief ruler They could par
don his excited harahgue on the I'D
of February from the gate-post of the
White House, and cast part Of the
blame on the indiscretion of Con-
Jgress They could bear with him in
his veto of the Freedman's Bureau
and Civil Rights Bills, if his judg-
ment conceived them to be unwise
measures of legislature, if he judged
them from the stand point of loyalty
and freedom. But when it becomes
apparent that ne has basely betrayed
party, principle, liberty, and the peace
of the nation, and has turned his back
upon every utterance and precedent
he made during the war, it is hard to
keep down the utterance, from the lips
of the loyal masses, of the word
TRAITOR, when they think of these
things.
We see him now following back
ward the pathway which led him away
from secession and slavery. We read
in the scriptures of the dog returning