The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-06

The President and His Opponents.
Mr.. Seward admits that President
Johnson is a man OF decided convic-
tiops," and others of Mr.. Stewards par
tv faith now confess that he q no less
decided in expressing them. Some OF
she party journals agree further with
;he Secretary IL belief that the differ
ence between the President and Cons
gress is only personal The country
understands very well the way in which
it was turned into q personal channel
Mr.. johnson was fairly at the head of
his party, by virtue Of his being the
Executive. They elected him 10 the
succession, in the event Of any ones
constitulionally succeeding the late
PRECEDENT during The term for which he
was chosen According to ell the prac-
tees and rules of party organization,
he was entitled to share the full conf
dence of the party that elected him, on
the first meeting of the Congress it
controlled, and to receive the courte-
sies due to bis position Instead OF
that. he was ostrntatiously shut out
from the cOunsels of the leaders, his
Inaugural Message was tOrestalled by
the hostile action of a party caucus; his
poJicy. which he had been successfully
developing for seven full months, was
defautly opposed hy every party move
ment, and the purpose daily became
more apparent TO crowd him down by
party pressure into comparative insig
nifcance, or possibly ignore him alto
gether.
Thus the matter was made a personal
one by their own action, hOm the first
Thew did not wait to have his policy
fairly presented in his Message. They
Insuliingly refused to consider anything
he had done or intended TO do IN fact,
they made the mistake, which is much
too common an one, of Understanding
the power Of the person they preferred
10 treat with contempt only. The feel
ing WAS too bitter 20 be long suppressed,
and is broke out pretty soon IN such
t8untiDg, irritating, and grossly often
sive speeches as only Stevens knew how
TO make in the House, and Wade in
the Senate. To give a sharper sting to
the prOvocatiOns they were continually
throwing out, the party press, as a
general thing, industriously repeated
the solemn a-sserveratiOu that there was
no difference whatever between the
President and Congress-tAat both were
working for the anne end, but perhaps
by different ways-thst Democrats need
not trouble themselves to look after mat
ters which they could very well manage
among themselves-and that Andrew
johnson was not the mai TO court
his own ruin by turning his back o the
political organization by which he was
elected. The journals we're REINFORCED
by the party Conventions, great and
small al of them solemnly resolving,
ASH the case of Connecticut, that they
fully Endorsed the President and in
dorsed the majority in Congress st The
same time. Thus, while ~lealousiy and
zealously claiming the President as
their W against al suspected comers,
they nevertheless treated him with in
expressibIo contempt in the party
councils, and dealt out insults upon him
with perfect freedom in both branches
of Congress
The result might have been foreseen
As we have said before, whatever Is to
be urged for the dignity and strict pro
prieties of the Presidential Office, st
least6ome margini is TO besllowed for the
common instincts of manhood, which
can hardly be thought satisfied to
maintain himself in silence while
made a target before the whole nation,
for the jeers snd vituperations, and
IL. r -. II !
control the majority in Congress, and
which the party conventions in turn
indorse without a qualification No
msn would consent 10 have his lips
always locked against such systematic
Misrepresentation, opposition, aud per
sonsl abuse.