Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-10-30
NO. 81.

dignity of the nation into the mire. and
Irampled upon the good name of the Repub-
Tic. Then every true American hung his
head with shame and the popular heart boil
: ed over with just indignation. The nations
ol ihe world beholding the unheard-of spec
tacle, stood aghast. Language has no vile
/ eplthet that was not thrown at him bv his
opponents. Abraham Lincoln's bitterest
enemies prayed that his life might be spared
10 save the Republic from the rule of such
brute. Civilized mankind would have sent
up shout of gratitude if the party in power
had promptly hurled him from the high place
Where their hasty generosity had put him.
But what did the Republicans doY There
ne lay-llke Noah of old, after having for
The first time tasted the juice of the grape
| drunk, as the truth of history tells us; sick.
as as, the Washington Intelligencer would say
Ihere he lay, disgracefully exposed to the
public gaze, amid the wild jeers of his enc
lnies, the object OF the scornful contempt of
lhe people. Then to befriend him was an
acI OF seli-sacrifice; and what did we be-
loId Republicans, their hearts overflow
ing with sorrow and indignant shame ap-
preached him with averted eyes, and with
lhe mantle OF their charity they covered his
hakedness They picked him from the gut
.er, ana magnanimously condescended to
treat MN as decent man. And no sooner had
he given the faintest symptoms of reform
IMAM they were ready to forgive the worst, and
kindly offered to him assurances of renewed
confidence. Truly, if ever human being was
treated with self denying generosity, that be-
ing was Andrew johnson. If ever there was
man who never for moment should have
turned his head from the duties of gratitude
winch had accumulated upon him mountain
high, that was he But men with little con-
science and much egotism are never CRATE
iul. He instinctively perceived that every
one OF the men that then surrounded him
ielt himself morally his SUPERIOR aud that,
having descended so far as to forgive they
would never SO far debase themselves as to
DOW before him. Then - unconsciously,
perhaps, at frst-he began TO hate those to
whom he owed all. Presently the other
crowd began to gather around him. The
southern aristocrats, who had so long irri-
tated him with their contempt, began TO ar
rlve-deteated, humiliated, suing for pardon.
The recognition for which he had struggled
so long came at last, and II came In the most
Intoxicating form. Aristocrats who knew
how to be naughty and overbearing, knew
also how to fawn and flatter; and he drank
the poisonous sweet with luxurious delight.
Imagine him in his new situation. II YOU
want TO lind man morbidly fond of fiattery
seek MIN among those whose minds are mar.
row, whose intellects are feeble, whose ego
usm Is strong, and whose ambitions are
grasping, and certainly after the exhibition
ne made OF his genius, nobody will suspect
MIN any longer of strong intellect nor of
coherent ideas. He is made to be the victim
OF hattery provided it be gross. You may
assure him that he is philosopher and a
scholar, and he will not doubt it for single
moment, incredible as it may appear After
all he has said and done you may tell him
that he is gentleman and he will instan-
taneouslly believe it. But the Southern par
Qnl lFar ffa1a l. sI.s..
he was the greatest statesman of the age;
he was the savior of the country; he was
the only friend and protector of the South;
he was destined to be the greatest man in
American history; in him they would con-
hde; around him they would rally; him they
would follow even unto death. He was to
be their great leader. The leader think of
tnats-the leader of Southern gentlemenl
Ihe measure of recognition was full An
drew johnson felt himself not only recog-
nized as the equal Of Southern aristocracy,
but he thought himself recognized as its
head. You have heard of snakes which,
before they swallow their prey, first cover il
with their slippery saliva. So the Southern
aristocracy slimed him over with their fiat
terry and then swallowed him with ease.
Iher ostentatious contempt had made him
their enemy; their adulation has made him
their slave, for the poor man does not see
that even their adulation is full of contempt.
From that time Andrew johnson befriended
their friends and hated their adversaries He
became, not indeed their leader, but Ger.
tainly their tool. AS earnestly as be form
erly strove to destroy them he strives now
to save them; and the most glaring lncon-
sistencies of his policy arise from the effort
he makes to pervert his old pretentious
pledges. This would seem a very bold
theory; and l would not venture to advance
it had not Andrew Johnson's public acts
furnished the highest evidence ofits correct
ness. Such, the speaker said, was the
residents policy-a policy of false pre-
tenees; OF false pretence of guarantees,
which guarantee nothing to the national
creditor, nothing to the Union men of the
South, nothing to the emancipated slave,
nothing to the great cause of liberty and
equal rights, nothing for the future security
of the Republic; but which do guarantee, or
attempt to guarantee, to those lately in re-
bellion the power to do mischief-a false
pretence of reconstruction upon loyal basis
which proceeds upon the assumption that al
those now the Presidents friends are loyS
men, and all those who are his opponent.
are voters, and which thus places the con-
sistent and deserving loyalists of the South
without protection at The mercy of over
whelming rebel majorities-a false pretence
OF making treason odious and furnishing
traitors, in which the traitors of the South
are pardoned and reinvested with their
political rights and privileges, while the
UniOnists of the South are relentessly per-
secuted, and in which vengeance is invoked
upon the Northern Republicans "a false
pretence of magnanimity which insists on
selling out the friends of the Union TO please
its enemies-a false pretence of constitu-
tional theory concerning the status of the
rebel States which by his own acts, the
President has fagrantly and continually
violated, thus demonstrating that he himself
does not believe in it; and finally, false
pretence of devoted love for the Union,
which manifested itself by malignant op-
position to every effort made by Congress to
have the Union restored upon the basis OF a
just settlement, while by merely saying the
word, without prejudice even to the consti-
tutional doctrine he assumed, he might have
greatly facilitated, If not fully insured, the
restoration of the rebel States even before
this.n
WELLs-SwANN.-Alluding to the Mary.
land troubles, and apparently upon the au-
a So