Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-02-03
THE TRIALS OF THE PRESIDENT-THE
CONDUCT OF CERTAIN PARTY LEAD

ERS.
The conduct of Mr.. Stevens, of Pennsylva
MIA, and certain other members Of the Re-
publican party, shows pretty plainly that if
the President was under any circumstances to
be driven into the ranks Of the old Buchanan
democracy-that set made up of the disloyal
North and South, who came near wrecking the
Government that it would be done. The
fact is not to be disguised, that from the first,
the most active leaders of the Republican
party at Washington have bestowed upon the
President only half way sort of confidence,
that instead of cordially and heartily rally
ing around him, counseling with him and
sustaining him under the tremendous respon-
sibilities which have been thrust upon him,
they have, as far as they well could do it. left
him to other influences, and too much to other
support, With the Executive mansion, from the
very nature of those events which closed the
war, thronged with pardon seekers; with the
best talent of the South amongst President
JohnsOn's old associates, seldom has there been
much to counter balance the rush which has
thus been made; seldom has it been the case
publican party have been met with in his
presence.
Now, although it may have been but natu-
raj for these men to have avoided circle.
where, as matter of course and of necessity.
they might be brought into contact with those
inimical to themselves and their associates in
the government, what right had they to leave
4bn L..
tempt to reconstruct the nationally, to bear
the brunt Of all those influences. mainly by
himself? With the exception of Mr.. Seward
and others whose official duties naturally
brought them into constant association with
him, and who have stood by him nobIv
throughout, the President has been compelled
to struggle almost as hard to sustain himself
against his friends as his enemies
Wen, notwithstanding this has been so. the
fact is plain enough, that the President has
not lost the confidence of the country nj
large, even If he has to some degree failed to
answer the purposes Of the politicians
Claimed by the Copperheads of the North and
by the Southern Democracy, by turns. he has
shown sturdy determination to allow him
self to be appropriated by neither: and if he
has stood in the way of much that was ex-
IRENE, much that involved mere experiment
he has demonstrated that he has ideas and a
policy of his own, and the ability and deter
mination to carry it out.
Finally, if we admit that he may have erred
somewhat on the score of leniency. that he
may have been, in many cases, too ready to
accept fair promises from those who have
crowded upon him from the South, at the
White House, the fact is clear enough that he
has not yet parted with the power to rebuke
and control disloyalty; that he has not lost
the disposition to do it; that, in short-he
still stands in his place, the determined and
true and trusted defender of the nation peace
and integrity, and, as such, must be sustained
by all who regard more the good of the country
than of mere party. That he may not be
understood or appreciated, in his every act,
and so may be thoughtlessly assailed and con.
demned, may be oftentimes the case. 1t is
the fate of men in high position whose des-
tiny 1t Is to represent or shape public senti-
ment and public measures. But with past
so worthy in its stern devotion to freedom and
the best interests of the nationally, who shall
say that his position as a ruler is not vet full
OF noble promise, of that which compels trust
on the part of loyal men? Let the leaders of
the truly loyal and conservative sentiment of
the land stand by him as well as he has stood
by them; remembering past devotion to the
Union which in the face of the fiercest and
hIO0dIpSt Oh. Il.
need be no fear but that he will fully vindicate
that trust extended to him, when from his
trying position as Military Governor at the
capital of Tennessee, he was called upon to
preside over the nations destinies