New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-08-29
THE PRESIDENT AND HIS ENEMIES.

cal fight than has been going on for the last
nine months between the President of the
United States on the one side, and the radi-
calls of the country in and out of Congress, on
the other. Those who suppose that it is Con-
gress alone with which the President has to
contend, commit serious error. The whole
radical press of the country attacks him with
| vigor and virulencel altogether unparalleled.
The very Office holders who hold their posi-
tions by virtue of his favor, are among the
noisiest of the pack who are bounding him
down. The turbulent passions of the masses,
excited to such phrenzy by the war, have
not yet cooled down and we here in the
South, who know no divisions of parties, can
form but feeble idea of that rancor of feel
ing-that intense hostility which is not politi-
cal merely, but has become personal-which
so large a portion of the Northern people feel
towards the constitutional chief magistrate of
the country. The NEUROLOGICAL battles of the
giants, who are reported to have plucked up
mountains by the roots and flung them at
each others heads, may give some idea of the
intensity of the rage of the radicals and the
vigor with which their assaults are repealed
by the President shows that the gage of bat
tie has been fully accepted, and henceforth it
is to be war q roottronce.
We confess that we are glad to see this.
We would not have it otherwise. The issue
is now to be tried whether this is a constitu-
tional government OF not-and this question
depends upon who is the victor in the pend
inc, rf Ia+v,-na,, Aha T0rns;lo,,+ o,,J +I,o ,1;
Gals. The sooner we know how it is to be,
the better. The sooner we discover whether
the spirit of liberty exists sufficiently, or not,
among the people Of this country to preserve
our land from ruin, and vindicate the supe-
riority Of republican institutions, the better
it will be not for ourselves only but for our
children and our children's children to the
remotest generation, ......
And one of the most peculiar features Of
the quarrel is the fact that the hostility of the
radicals to the President is caused as much
by the certainty that he is not a supple and
plant instrument in their hands, for party
purposes, as by the knowledge that he cam
not be made party to their revolutionary
political schemes. They supposed they
were comforting an immense favor upon
Andrew Johnson by putting him upon their
Presidential ticket. They supposed they
were signalling their theory that
State could not secede from the Union, by
selecting for Vice President a citizen Of
State which was one of the Confederacy.
They thought that, in the possible contin-
gency of his accession to the Presidency, he
would be mere automaton, and move only
at the dictation of Sumner and his radical
allies. Much of their rage proceeds from the
fact, discovered Immediately after Andrew
Johnson's Inauguration, that he is not the
pliable and easily-managed instrument they
took him to be, but that he is President in
fact as well as in name. 1t may be set down
as general rule indeed, that any man who
has positive qualities Of craftsmanship suffi-
Gent to secure an election to either the first
or the second Office in the gift of the people,
has also the courage to take broader views of
the situation, from the Presidential chair,
than any mere district or State representative, |
and is capable of rising superior to the narrow
political prejudicas of such visionary and de-
mented people as Mr.. Sumner, or such avowed |
highway robbers in politics as Mr.. Thaddeus
Stevens. .=...=.
If Mr. johnson had consented to be Presi-
dent merely in name, permitting Mr.. Sumner
to be President in fact-had he left the dis
Of his patronage to the radical mem
0ers Of Congress instead of taking it into his
own hands-had he servileIy followed the die
Lation, and registered the behests Of those
who expected to make him their tool, perhaps !
we should have been spared the spectacle
which is now exhibited of Congress making
furious war upon a President elected by the
party, mainly, which now makes warupon him.
Perhaps radical maleyolence would not have
gone to the extreme it has now reached, of seek
ng to destroy the last yestiges of the Constitu-
ion, and booming to perpetual political and
PERSONAL abasement the entire people of the
ate Confederate States. Perhaps there is in
he conduct of the radicals, something of that
1ique and resentment which often htlrries
men and parties into exeesses from which, in
he absence Of such provocatiyes, they would
nave recoiled. We know not but we hope so
for it is hard to believe that party, without
my motive whatever, or any motive less
trong than the control of government with
i've hundred millions year disbursements,
would deliberately seek to overthrow all the
of American freedom, and trust to
nance for the Eeyolution out of the chaos
which they propose to create, of some SEM
dance or shadow of the republic which once
nsted. The course of the President was, how
yer, none the less clearly defined.
Te would have been false to his
uty if he had permitted any tie
f party, any political allegiance, any sense
f gratitude to those who elected him. or hos
ility to those who opposed him, to cause him
D swerye for moment from the impera-
i've obligation Of his oath to support the Con-
tuition and to see justice equally adminis-
cred to the people of all sections. And the
esult of the struggle, let us confidently hope,
ill be that which is taught as well by expert
nee as by reason. We are not without pre-
edents, in which a President has
ucceeded in having himself sustained
gainst his enemies. Indeed, in nearly
very issue of that sort which has been
lade, the President has proved the stronger.
teneral Jackson waged successful war against
is political adversaries Mr. Tyler lived to
ee his principles adopted by the country, and