Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-09-08
President johnson Photo
graphed.

Among the many wholesale and ID
discriminate COMBINATIONS Of the char
acter of Andrew johnson, it is refresh
iag to find occasionally a fair and honest
pOr,raiture of that worthy, like the fol,
lowing from the September number of
the Atlantic Monthly:
"The President of the Uoited States
has so singular a combination of defects
for the Office of constitutional magis-
trate, that he could have attempted to
misrule the nstion only by visitation
Of Providence. Ansincere as well as
stubborn, cunning as well as unreasons-
bic, vain as well IS i'll tempered, greedy
of popularity as well as arbitrary in dis
position, yeering in his mind as well as
fixed in his will, he unites in his charac-
ter the seemingly opposite qualities Of
demagogue and autOcrst, and converts
the Presidential chair into a stump or a
throne, according as the impulse seizes
him to cajole OF to command. Doubt
less much of the evil developed in him
is due TO his misfortune in having been
lifted by events to a position which he
lacked the elevation aud breadth of in
telligence adequately to ill. He was
cursed with the possession Of power
and authority which no man Of narrow
mind. bitter prejudices, and inOrdinste
self.estimotiOn can exercise without de
proving himself as well as iDjuring the
nation. Egolistic TO the point Of men
tai disease, he resented the direct and
manly opposition of statesmen TO bis
opinions and moods rs a personal affrOnt
and descended TO the last degree of lit
tleness in political leader-that of be-
trayIGg MS FaIty, IA ordar RI rratify his
spite. He Of course became the prey of
intriguers aud sycophants-Of persons
who understand the art of managing
minds which are at OGce arbitrary and
weak. b. allowing them TO retain unity
Of will amid the most palpable ineOnsis
tencies of opinion, SO that the incon-
stancy to principle shall not weaken force
of purpose, nor the emphasis be at all
abated with which they may bless 20 day
what Yesterday they cursed. Thus the
abhorror of traitors has now become
their tool. Thus the denouncer Of Cop
perheads has now sunk into dependence
on their support. Thus the impOser of
conditions Of reconstruction has now be-
come the foremost friend of the uncOndi-
toned return Of the Rebel States. Thus
the furious Union Republican, whose
harrangues against his political Oppo
nents almost scared his political friends
BY their violence, has now become the
shameless betrayer Of the people who
trusted him. And IN AL these changes
of base he has appeared .supremely con
seious, in his own mind, OF playing an
independent, consistent a9d especially a
conscientious part.
Indeed, Mr.. JohDson's character wo'd
be imperfectly described if some etten-
ton were not paid to his conscience, the
purity Of which is favorte subject of
bis own discourse, aud the perversity of
which is the wonder of the rest of man
kind. As public man, his real PEST
ton is similar to that Of commander Of
an army, who should pass over to the
ranks of the enemy be was commission
ed to fight, aud then plead bis individual
convictions of duty as q justification of
bis treaehery. In truth, Mr.. Johnson's
conscience is, like his understanding, a
mere form of expression of his will
The will Of ordinary men is ADDRESSED
through their understanding, and con
science can be addressed only through
his will. He puts intellectual principles
and the moral law in the passive case.
thinks he pays them q compliment and
adds to their authority when he makes
them the sdjunets of bis petted pronoun
any" and things to him are reasona
bic aud right, not from any quality ad
herent in themselves, but because they
aEe made so by his determinations. In
deed, be sees hardly anything as it is.
but almost everything as eolored by his
own dominant egotism. THUS be is new
er weary of asserting that the people are
on his side; yet his method of learning
the wishes of the people is to scrutinize
his Own, and, when acting out his OWE
passionate impulses, he ever insists that
he is obeying public sentiment. Of all
the wilful men who, by strange chance,
have found themselves at the head of
constitutional government, he most re-
Hembles the last Stuart King of L ngland,
James IL; and the likeness is increased
ftom the circumstance that the Ameri-
can James has, in his supple and plausi-
bic Secretary of State, one fully compe.
tent to play the part Of Sunderland.
---$s~-