The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-09-03
Ohio County Union Ticket,


A'--'4+A NV \ = "a - MA n W ILL,
4 National Humiliation.
The spectacle presented to the intelli-
gent public OF this country and Eu-
rope. by the Presidential travelling hip
poJrome, now exhibiting in some Of
the northern cities, is one of keen hui
initiation 10 all who feel any national
pride \ man who has earned the re-
proach OF all good men by treacherv
10 friends and principles that has no
adequate parallel in the history of the
Republic, but who, unhappily for the
country occupies the high office of
President of the United States. Is traV-
cling around the country in State. in
personal promotion of the party which
he is laborinE 10 build up out of the
debris of the rebellion. NlIe carries
with him the Lieutenant General to
gather crowds, TO whom he makes
maudlin speeches that set the truth and
history at defiance and violate all rules
Of propriety. and which seem to lie
based on a most insolent assumption
Unpopular ignorance or corruption.
II after all that Andrew johnson had
done to degrade his high Office, any
thing were still wanting To COM
plete that degradation and to fill
the cup OF bitter humiliation
which this man first held to the
lips of an abused people, when he as
sumed the second office IN the nation TO
which their confidence had raised him.
it Is the exhibition of himself which, OF
his own seeking, he is now making. II
he were private citizeu,-or ANYTHING
but President, it would be different.
But it is as President of the United
States that he is going about from place
TO place, seeking popular adulatiou for
purely partisan purposes; and it is i'll
his representative character AS such
that he INDUCES the mawkish utter
ances which are given TO the public
from day 10 day. 1t is to be presumed
that the widespread publication of
these utterauces is a part of the pro-
gramme assigned to the presidential
exhibitions; and if so, we can scarcely
conceive an egOtism more blind or a
judgment of effects more mistaken. IT,
on the other hand, it is an enterprise of
the associated press, it is difficult to i'm.
agIne keener refinement of cruelty
than that practised by the association
towards the President. The daily and
hourly repetitions of sober, consider
ate, dignified gentleman, elevated with =
nobility ofpurpose would hardly bear
this daily reproduction through the
public journals. What then must be
the effect on an intelligent, reading and
already indignant public, produced by
adally repetition of the nauseous
speeches with which Andrew johnson
regales the crowds of hungry expect
ants who fawn on him at the stations
and cities through which he passes g?
When Andrew Jackson made the
''grand tower" Jack Downing was
there to satirize it; but the second "hero
of New Orleans" needs no Jack Down
ing to make him ridiculous. His fOllies
and vices, his monstrous egotism and
thinly yelled demagoguery, are too
well exhibited by himself to leave any
thing for the pen OF a sa,irist to do.
How puerile and apparent are the
schemes of the shrewdest men
who respect no high moral prfn-
ciple. Selfish and vicious motives
emasculate even the best merely
Intellectual judgment. Perhaps the
scriptural maxim that "great men are
not always wise," is founded on a re-
c"gnition of the fact that only a man
who has moral ballast can he truly wise
IN selfregulation. 1t is certain that
men who lack it are liable to run into
the Srossest Inconsistencies and nbsur-
dities, and this liability corresponds
with the strength Oftheir vices. preiu-
dices and passions. a Judgment that
takes no moral responsibility into ac-
count, is but a feeble guide. Shrcwd a
schemer as Andrew Johnson is rcputed.
he utterly miscalculates tho temper
of the intelligent northern people; and
ifhe has moderate powers of Observa-
ton, and is sober long enough to use
them, he will discover the fact before
his return from the "grand tower"
HIS articles are AS transparent as the
light Of day. With all his professions
OF self-sacrificing Willingness to be "a
martyr when no martyr is needed,
the keen popular vision penetratcs his
hideous moral deIormity the real
character of the man-the schemipg
demagogue-the slave of appetite, of
passion and of bitter hntreds, filled with
self-exaltation that makes hirnseIfthc
central figure Of all his designs as of all
his speeches, and almost destitute of
any sense of moral accountability or
sentiment of philanthropy.
We can hardly hope that contact with
the people will do such man any
good. lie will not meet the indignant
people who are filled with grief and hu-
initiation. He will besurroundcd ONLY
by those who now enjoy or hope to re-
ceive his bounty, who will flatter because
nattery is what he asks. BESIDES, the
condition in which he appears to keep
himself, Judging from his speeches,
will scarcely permit him To learn such
lessons from observation rs man in
the full possession of his faculties
might acquire.