Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1866-08-10
The Presidents Last Message,

No one will accuse the Chicago Jour.
nal of being unduly severe OH President
Johnson; for it has done its best to keep
in friendly relations with him. Yet
hear what it now utters:
The Presidents message on the Joint
resolution readmitting Tennessee, is
about rs ugly rs it can he. 1t is queru-
lous and splenctic. 1t is pcevish and
perverse. 1t reflects as badly on its
authors heart as it does upon his head,
sinceit is ill-tcmpcrcd rs it is ill-reason-
ed. It's spirit is as bilious as its logic
Is lame. 1t would be of no sort of con-
sequence but for its connection. The
words of some are valuable in them
selves the words of others derive their
consequence solely from the position
which those who utter them may hold.
But =" pigmies. though perched on Alps
are pigmies STILL, " and the elevation of
a man may leave his words as desti-
tute ofmerit as their author is of wit.
From the last of the many messages
of the present President we may infer
what we have inferred from all its pre-
GecessOrs, that its author is dead-set
against all who are arrayed OH the side
OF the recognition of the fact that reb-
cHion against the authority and major
ity of this Government has been waged
andworsted in this country. The mes
sage is in the tone which has prevailed
the Presidents public documents and
speeches ever since he abandoned the
tone that characterized him when he
reigned in Tennessee and began to
reign at Washington. We have only
to compare these two tones to remark
their contrast. They are singularly
marked with points Of contrast. One
might be called key of &C sharp" and
the other the key Of B fiat" And SO
noticeable did the expression of the
former temper keep step with the ebb
and flow OF public Indignation over the
murder of President Lincoln, that the
historian will be able to give the history
Of both by giving the history of either
the Presidents change of heart and
the abatement in the public frenzy. 1t
will always be curious subject ofspec-
ulation and inquiry to note how, when
the public etfervescence subsidized, there
was an utter subsistence of opinion in
the Executive mind. Could the Presi-
dent have confounded effervescence
and conviction, and imagined them the
same in the public as well as in his
own mind? But if the people were eX-
cited and subsequently cooled, their
convictions remained firm, and are to-
day as ineradicable and profound as
they were first formed; while the
convictions of the Executive seem to
have evaporated with excitement with
which they were at first attended. His
fine, high ringing words that electrified
the loyal heart and fortified its hopes
passed away with the days that knew
Andrew johnson oasly as Senator and
Governor. With the days of his Presi-
dency came the days Of his recreancy.
Ever since, his have been words OF
weakness and not Sfstrength. and his
the praises of those wka. for his other
sorts ofwords, pronounced him aceursed.
So much for the spirit; now for the
logic of the Executive. His last mes.
sage is as detective in the one as it is in
the other. He says:
"Ifa Joint resolution Of the character were
necessary and binding as condition prsceden,
TO the adnissi0n Of members Of Congress, II
would happen IN the event OF veto by tbs
Executive that Senators and Repres: natives
could only be admitted to the Halls OF Con
eress by atwo-thirds vote Of each Of the tws
Nousea"