The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1866-01-18
An English Journal on the Presidents Mes

From the Manchester Examiner, Dec. 10,
To form correct estimate of President
Johnson's message, we must remember the
, circumstances i'll which it was uttered and
the history of the man who uttered it. We
say so assuredy not because we feel that
the message requires the slightest apology,
but rather because We are firmly convinced
that no statesman in Europe could have
produced anything nobler in ITSELF or better
adapted in its craftsmanship to the necess-
ties OF the people to whom it is addressed
| With this qualification, let US humbIy beg
pardon of Count Won Bismark, M. Drown
De Lhuys, Count Gortschakotf, Earl Clar-
endon, Cardinal Antonelli, and all the rest,
while we recall the fact that this &c is
the work of man who taught himself to
read, who thirty years ago worked on his
own shopboard in vocation which certain
ly, If antiquity were decisive, might lay
claims to be considered the most aristocrat-
| ic, put which, as matters actually stand,
even Mr.. Carlyles glorihcation of the tail
ors craft has not elevated above the most
plebeian grade. Mr.. johnson never went
to college. He never learnt to scan verses
at Eton His name is unknown in the col
lese rolls of the Cambridge of the United
States His career has been of his own
making; he is, in no vulgar sense, the ar
chitect of his own fortune. Intellectually,
he is the offspring of the American Consti :.
tuition, which taught him to think, which
supplied him with topics of thought and
which opened up to him a political career,
terminating in position surprising in
power, if not surprising in splendor, those
which Europe reserves for the scious of the
Oldest and noblest b ood Such is the man;
how unique are the circumstances in which
he first addresses his country and the world!
A civil war is just ended--a war compared
with which the ordinary contests of the Old
World sink into the dimensions of pot-house
squabbles-a war in which vaster armies
have been employed than were ever known
before-a war which would have beggared
our Oldest monarchies, war in which one
half of the republic have gained decisive
vict cries, and the other half reduced to the
most AFFECT and absolute prostration. No
better position could be conceived for devel-
oping those vices and failings which are too
easily presumed to be inseparabIe from hum
BILE birth. Insolence, absolutism, defiance,
the intoxication of success, might here have
found congenial sphere. To the compli-
We're superadded. During the war which
the republic has SO triurnphantly concluded,
foreign nations-and among them that one
nation which, being nearest in blood, might
also presume to be the most keenly hated
have been mixed up with the defeated par
ty. The passions Of the people were in
famed They were ready to applaud to the
echo and appeal to their self-love. They
were ready to pawn their resources for half
a century to come in a quarrel which was
presumably bound up in cause of honora-
bic revenge Such were the circumstances
in which this man of the people, this tribune
selected from the commonest grade of arti-
zaD life, and to raise his voice. We have
listened to it. All Europe by this time has
read lis manifesto. And what is the extor-
ted verdict? His enemies are forced to
praise him. Those who are accustomed to
the dispatches prepared by the trained
statesmen of Europe are forced to admit,
that never was document drawn up in
better taste, or pervaded with more subtle
or perfect sense Of dignity. NeUsr aoere grea
questions more graveLy treated; neUer 'oaS q
spirit Of moderation more Loftity displayed
These are the grounds upon which we avow
our exultation in the Presi dents message
and we put it to those much esteemed
friends of ours vino are in the habit, most
conscientiously but most mistakenly, O
decrying the people and popular institu
lions, whether their kingly pets, after
quarter of a century of schooling, couIt
have supplied their partisans with NOR,
legitimate opportunity of boasting.