The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1866-11-24
WHO rs the GOVERNMENT :
A late St Louis Democrat, lying before
:. .....4os.a IL. e.ll.,..;...


A late st Louis Democrat, lying before
|ls, contains the following:
ssIs Andy johnson the GOvernment9 He claims
|o be, and his party claim it for him. We think
hey win find that the people govern in this coun-
by, exercising their power through their repre-
entatives in Congress, and that the President is
ut the Executive, to execute the laws enacted BY
|he peoples Representatives.
The st. Louis Democrat is now an In
ensely Radical paper-it is black as
|Erebus, and has been for the last six or
blight years. 1t scouts the theory now
hat the President is the Government
let, when Lincoln was President--when
be was imprisoning Democrats BY the
hundreds for mere difference of opln-
on as to the best policy to be pursued,
his same Immaculate sheet claimed that
Lincoln was the Government All the
Republicans, of any note, throughout the
country, took the same position. But now
hese same men, hypoerites and knaves
hat they are, turn round and, with an
inconsistency eminently characteristic of
hem, repudiate the doctrine they SO re-
eently and Justify advocated.
If, when Lincoln was clothed with
greater than imperial power, it was trea-
Fon to deny that he was the Government
t is no less treason now to deny that
honor and power TO his successor; and when
hese Rumps-these Jacobins-these dis
unionists do SO, they simply stultify them
selves in the estimation of all honorable
men.
But it is not true that Lincoln was. or
hat johnson is the Government. m~he
Government of this country, before the
var, consisted of the Constitution and of
he laws made in accordance with Its
provisions. These are the locomotive
he President is simply the engineer to
guide. These are the ship-the Presi-
dent IS the helmsman whose duty it is to
guide the ship, In accordance with the
chart Of the fathers, over the storm
tossed ocean, into a secure haven For
assuming and defending this position four
years ago we were denounced as traitor,
md were threatened with Imprisonment
n one of Lincoln's numerous bastiles.
The St. Louis Democrat says that
johnson claims to be the Government,
and that his friends back him up in this
arrogant assumption. This is simply a
alsehood of the first water. No Demo
crat of any standing anywhere-uo John
son man of any sense-takes any such
ground
The Rump- Radical -MongreI party is
most assufedly guilty of more palpabIe
md glaring inconsistencies-mor mean
ness and corruptlon-more fendishness
and hate-more villainy and crime than
any party that has heretofore existed, not
even excepting that bloodthirsty party to
which the French Revolution gave birth.
They advocate doctrine to-day with
terrible vehemence, and tomorrow utter.
y repudiate and discard it. They learn.
ID this base trick of Lincoln. He said
be had no right, nor no inclination, to in.
erfere with slavery where it existed
Yet in short time he interfered with it
irst in the District of Columbia, and
econdly In the States by issuing his
Emancipation Proclamation. Ten days
however, before he issued it, he told a
OF Of preachers, who had called On him
hat it would do no more good than the
Pope's bull against the comet. He di
eeted Mr.. Seward to say to our Minister
It the Court of St. James, that whether
he rebellion succeeded or failed, the re.
ult, so far as the Confederate States were
concerned, would be the same-theil
rights as to person and property would bt
he same In the one case as the other, and
would be most rigidly observed and re.
pected by the federal government. Yet
n few months afterwards Lincoln sane
ioned acts Of confscation, spoliation, de
FastatiOn, plunder, rapine and pillage O.
he most atrocious character. He wa.
dubbed by his party honest old Abe,
,ut no more dishonest politician ever ap
beared in the tide of time. He was ;
lead and shoulders above Tallyrand in al
he essential elements of deep duplicity
nd profound villainy and dishonesty.