Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-02-20
From the New York Evening Post, (Rep.)
The Presidents Position.

Inc FfcSl0tnts fOSltlOns
n The President has said nothing, since
his grand message was uttered, better,
wiser, more to the point, than the few
words he addressed yesterday to the
committees from Montana. In modera-
ton, dignity, discernment, and consci.
entious adherence TO sound principle,
they were worthy of the Chief Magistrate
of a great people, and in themselves
sufficient to counterbalance and neutral
ize all the windy or insidious rhetoric
that has endeavored to disparage both
his patriotism and his integrity. so
The burden of this brief but compre-
hensive address was simply this, that his
message was not hasty production, no
array of pretexfs for the moment. no i'm
pulsive outbreak of sentiment, but the
calm, utterance OF, bis lifelong convic-
tons in regard to the great truths which
lie at the foundation Of all free govern
ment. But there were three points
which the President particularly empha-
iized; the FIRST was, in accordance with
@ sentiment that he long since proclaim
ed as TO the Office ofthe Presidency,
that he would not be candidate for re-
election; the second was-a corollary
from the former--that his whole ambi-
ton now, having attained all the honors
of political life, was to restore the Union
to more than its pristine harmony; and
the third, that whatever political parties
might be hereafter formed, they must
rally themselves for or against the grand
principles of constitutional democracy
which be had announced in bis first State
paper. a#Es# Ia -t
The journals the other day gave an
account of an informal meeting of poll
ticians held at the capital, for the pur-
pose OF forming, as it was reported, a
"great national conservative Union
party" In itself il was nothing, unless
ridiculous, because great parties are not
made save in the way that the tower of
Babel was built, to come to confusion in
the end. Great parties only grow; they
grow out of the actual traditions and
circumstances of q nation; and they can
no more be made on purpose than you
can make the weather. When the acca-
sion comes for expressing themselves,
the people will instinctively divide into
parties, according to their several ten
denotes, and the combinations OF mere
politicians will fall into naught. Yet
some interest is attached to the meeting
in question because it professed to act
in support of the views of the President;
and we know more distinctly than ever
what those views are. We should hard
ly call them conservative, in the ordina-
ry sense of that word on the contrary,
they seem to us to be very radical; they
certainly 90 to the root of the matter, q
many respects. Mr.. johnson is no new
man; his convictions are not picked IN
fer the occasion; he has for years acted
upon them, and they embrace nearly
every point of theoretical doctrine as
well as Of practical policy On every
question of prominence he has shown
that ne believes in the equal rights of
the masses, of white men as we'll as of
black men; in local self government az
the only means of protecting those
rights, and in restricted central gov
eminent as the only means of assuring
such local goverumen Like Jefferson.
like Jackson, like Benton, like Wright
and other illustrious statesmen of The
past, he holds that the. one end of ali
government is TO establish Impartial ius.g
tice, and that all exercise of power
beyond that is usurpation and wrong
New parties will unquestionablv snrino
out OF the agitations of the existing
time. AS the Republic has been cast BIZ
the events of stubborn war into new
and untried circumstances, the combines
tons of opinion may be modified accord.
ing to the altered character of thinps
But we believe with the President. that
the sound, moderate, far seeing. and cen.
erous principles which be has laid down
IN his message must become the nucleus
OF any party that shall be able TO Law
claim to wise statesmanship and uonnlar
sympathy. At present the tendency. al,
Washington. Albany, New York. every.
where, is to an excess, and even l;censa
.. Government. Schemes of Lsgisla.
t'on swim upon Us, menacing an utter
overthrow OF every sane notion of the
rightfal sphere of the State. They de-.
ride the very conception of equal rights:
tney concentrate and accumulate mower.
they NIL our assemblies with corrupt men
and measures, and, unless arrested nv
party which shall be devoted-realIv
and not sentimentally--to the PRINCIPLES
OF impartial justice, will swamp like the
general and local governments ia one
broad mesh of vsnality and error. If
we would put an end to the universal
corruption of which every intelligent
patriot complains, we must drop those
iaise theories OF government that have
m's!ed US, those theories which make ex.
Peolency and not right the guide of the
state, and restore our politics to that
simple yet noble faith which confines the
functions of all power to the one object
OF equal End exact justice.