Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-09-13
Radical Hate.

heaped upon the President at various point
along the route to Chicago. Here Is thu
first citizen of the republic, the chief Exc
cutive of the nation, hooted at and hissec
for daring to have an opinion of his own
and the manliness to express that opinion
Whatever feelings may have been enter
tanned towards him as an individual, how
ever men may differ with him in regard tt
public policy, still, the office he fills should
of itself command the respect of all persons
with the least pretentions to decency. We
debase ourselves when we offer indignitiet
to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. In
the palmy days of the republic, the parties
so offending would have been held up to
the just scorn of all good citizens, their very
names by-word and reproach throughout
the length and breadth of the land. This
action, however, on the part of the radicals
has a deeper significance than the mere
evidence of their hostility to Andew John
son. It is intended to show the state OF
feeling of that party towards the South
and exhibits their diabolical hate towards
us, in a manner too plain to be misunder-
stood. The President is denounced to his
face as {" traitor" and in league with the
rebels of the South. Where is the treason,
and where are the rebels to be found Ii
to have sustained the government during
the war with the most unWearied exercises
of his vast powers if to have upheld the
Constitution of his country against the open
and covert attacks of a powerful and IN
scrupulous party be treason, then is
Andrew johnson a traitor of the deep
est dye. He has sworn to uphold
and defend the Constitution of
the United States and in the discharge of
the duties of his office, has faithfully kept
that OATH and it is because he would not
lend himself to their wicked purposes, to
be the willing instrument in their hands
for the degradation of the South, and the
utter extinction of it's manhood, that he
is now insulted and threatened with i'm
parchment. We do not by any means sus-
tain Mr.. johnson in all of his actions since
his elevation to the Presidency. There are
many things he has done which would have
been better left undone, and many others
which ought to have been done, but have
not been He has shown, however, such
just and proper appreciation of our condl-
ton; has exhibited such wise and benef-
cent policy as to win our admiration and
gratitude We honor him for his patriot
ism, for his manliness, his indomitable will,
his determination regardless of all conse-
quences to himself, to do what he believes
to be right. What men most admire in
men, is manhood, and this it is that gives
Mr.. Johnson such power with the masses.
He has been charged with want of dignity
in some of his recent speeches. It is true
that at Cleveland and at some other points
along his route, his remarks were not
couched in such polished language as is
generally used by men occupying high po-
sitions, but were plain, direct and exceed
ingly emphatic, and justly so, for the prov
ocation was great, and the insult premedi
tated. A gross indignity was offered him,
which as President of the United States he
could not resent, SO laying aside his robes of
Office he stood before his traducers as Andrew
johnson, the citizen, entitled by the Con-
stitution to liberty of thought and freedom
of speech, which liberty he then and there
exercised to the fullest extent, in language
so plain that the most obtuse could not fail
to understand. He spoke as between man
and man, and however we may ..deprecate
his condescencion in stopping to handy
words with the upstairs who insulted him,
we must look for his excuse in the peculiar
temperament of the man. He is naturally
pugnacious, FESTIVE under restraint, and
not at all disposed to receive blows without
returning them with interest, and is the
last man in the world to practise that di-
vine precept, that when smitten on one
cheek, to turn the other to be bufeted also.
We must confess, though, as we have,
that these heretofore avowed scenes
fill us with gloomy apprehensions
for the future for unless the conserva-
tive element prevails in the Fcoming cleo
tons, We shall be, of all people in the world,
the most wretched. Better any fate, aye
death itself, than to be left helplessly ex-
posed to the tender mercleS OF the Sanctl-
monious radicals of New England.
''Better be
'tWhere the extinguished Spartans still are free,
SIN their proud charnel of Thermopyla."
than live as slaves in the land which our
fathers purchased with their blood, and
whose every foot of soil is hallowed ground.
God grant that the people of the North may
be aroused to the momentous issue at stake,
for woe be to the South, and to the whole
country if this radical party is continued in
power. It will be reign of terror. They
know not the meaning of the words mag
nanimity and reconciliation, and have no
more Christian spirit than the vandals of a
barbarous age, or the bloody Jacobins of
the French Revolution. =-s-
The