The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-07
An Englisl, Opinion.

An Engl1sh Opinion.
The London Pail Mall Gazette has
the following comments on the poll
cy of President. johnson
The sympathy of Englishmen is
greatly awakened by the triumph of
kresldent johnson over his radical
antagonists. As given in the teIe-
graphic summaries which first an
nounced the simple fact of his veto
upon the Act of Congress, and of the
popular support out of doors which
sustained him, the story of the strue-
gle and its issue was full of interest
to the lovers of constitutionalism.
But as now described, with all the
details of the contest, it wears a dra-
matte interest which is not the less
exciting because of the parallel which
1t supplies, nutatis mudndis, to the
fierce and closely fought struggles by
which, from time to time, our own
liberties have been secured. The
single incident of the sudden sum-
mons of Mr.. Reverdy johnson by the
''whip" of the Presidential minority
to come up to the rescue, while the
said minority was speaking against
time, SO exactly reproduces the neck
and-neck contests Of our own House
Of Commons that it is difficult to be-
lieve that the scene took place on the
other side of the Atlantic. And the
instantaneous rush of the lawyer thus
summoned, faithful to his party, and
throwing down his brief in the court
where he was pleading when the tele-
fo1, l.:
mounting q locomotive, in the alb
sence of any regular train of carriages,
and dnshlng forty miles along the
railway IN as many minutes, that so
his single vote might turn the scale
and this is so thoroughly akin to our
notions of hand-to-hand parliamen-
tary fight, where the issue is momen-
tous, and yet the forms and princi-
pies of constitutional government are
scrupulously adhered to by both vic
tors and vanquished, that whig,
tory and radical alike must Join in
admiration of struggle which has
shown so conclusively the power of a
thorough constitutionalism to stand
the str1& in of Il violent political crisis.
The circumstances of the case,
moreover, are the more remarkable.
because the Presidents policy, thus
strikingly upheld, is what, for want
of a better word, may be fairly de-
scrlbed as conservative--not that it is
conservative according to our present
use of the word IN England. It is
conservative, not in the sense of being
devised for the purpose of confining
political privileges to that portion of
the nation which is ut present in ex-
elusive possession of political or reli-
gious supremacy. 1t is conservative
in the sense of defending the consti-
tutional rights of /; defeated minority
against the tyranny of a victorious
majority. 1t is thus conservative, not
of the principle of exclusive privi-
leges, but of the principle of consti-
tutional equality and freedom. There
has been bloody fight between two
parties in the United States, each
claiming to be acting in the spirit of
the Constitution, and not in the
spirit OF ohgarchical or despotic pri-
vlleges. The fight has been, to n
certain extent, like our old wars of
the Roses. and totally unlike the later
struggles between the Crown and the
people under the Stuarts, or the ter
rlble conflicts 10y which European
sovereigns have annihilated the liber-
ties OF the greatest nations of the
continent. The struggle has been
professedlv struggle within the
limits of the law, however frightful
may have been the sufferings It has
involved, and however violent the
measures 10y which each side mas
sought to establish its own view as to
the legality Of its claims. And the
great merit of President Johnson has
been the decision and force with which
he has grasped the full significance of
the struggle, in the midst of the be
wllderment of popular and partisan
excitement consequent upon the sud
den and decisive victory of the more
powerful of The two conflicting
parties. No English Judge. sitting
calmly upon his judgment seat, and
dlsentangling the real facts and bear
lnSs of difficult case from the sophis-
tries and rhetoric of contenling cOun-
sci, cvershoweda 4 clcarerapprehension
OF the supremacy Of law rs such than
The President has now exhibited in
the keennoss of perception and the
vlgor of exposition with which he has
seized and enforced the fundamental
principle of all constitutional govern
ment. Under a constitutional govern
ment, 10y its very nature, whatever