The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-10-30
cIHfoW&te-NGafp.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
A SHARP AND LIVELY POR-
TRAITURE OF THE MAN.
"a Self.Made Man." "An Umble
Man" "A Firm Man."es
IAN Alderman"
[Frnrn tho Atlantic Monthly for Norsmber. ]


From the Atlantic Monthly for Novemberl
Andrew johnson has dealt the most cruel
Of oil blows to the responsibility of the fac}
ton which rejoices in his name. Hardly had
the political Pecksniffs and Turveydrops
contrived 30 to manage the johnson conyen-
ton at Philadelphia that It violated few of
the prophecies of intrigue and none of the
decencies ofdishonesty, than the commander
III. chief of the combination took the field in
person with the intention Of carrying, the
country by assault. His objective point was.
the grave of Douglas, which became, by the
time he arrived, the grave, also, of his own
reputation, and the hopes Of his partisans.
His speeches on the route we're volcanic
outbreak of vulgarisy, conceit, bombast,
scurriitv, ign0nnce, insolence, brutality and
balderdash. Screams OF laughter, cries Of
disgust hushings of shame were the various
responses of the nation he disgraced TO the
harangues Of this leader Of American ICON
servatism." Never before did the first office
in the gift of the people appear SO poor an
object of human ambition as when Andrew
Johnson made it an emnence on which to
exhibit inability TO behave aud incapacity to
reason. His low cunning conspired with his
devouring egotism to make him throw off all
the restraints of official deeorum, in the ex-
pectation that he would find duplicates of
himself in the crowds he addressed and that
mob difused would heartily sympathize with
mob impersonated. Never was clustering
demagogue led by q dissempered sense Of
selfimportance into more fatal error. Not
only was the great body OF the people inorti-
fed or indignant, but even his 'satraps and
dependents, even the shrewd politicians
accidents of an accident and shadows of
nod ho ba1 iahn hor I'd or da1
phia to weave a cloak of plausibliiies to COW
er his usurpations shivered with apprehen--
sions or tingled with shame, as they read the
reports OF their masters impohtic and ignoS
minious abandonment of dignity and decen-
cy in his addresses to the people be attempted
alternately TO bully and cajole. That man
thus selt-exposed as unworthy of high trust
should have had the face to expect that intel
hgent constituencies would send to Congress
men pledged to support his policy and his
measures, appeared for the time to be as pit
liable spectacle Of human deusion as it was
an exasperating example of human itnpu.
dence.
Not the least extraordinary popularity of
these addresses from the stump was the i'm.
mense profuberance they exhibited of the
personal p-onoun. In Mr. Johnson's speech
his app resembles the geometer description
of inhnity, having ''its center everywhere and
its circumference nowhere Among the
many kinds of egotism in which his eloquence
is prolific, it may be difficult to iasten upon
the particular one which is the most detesta~
BILE, or most laughable but it seems to US
when his arrogance ape humility il is deserv.
lug perhaps OF an intenser degree of scorn or
derlsion than when ii riots in bravado. The
most offensive part which he plays in public
is that of ''the humble individual" Dragging
of The owiness of his origin. limiting OF the
great merits which could alone have lifted
him to his present exalted station, and reps
resentipg himself as so satiated with the
sweets of unsought power as to be Indifferent
to its honors. Ambition is not for him, for
ambition aspires and what object has be TO
aspire 10 2 From his contented mediocricy
as alderman of village the people have in
sisted on elepating HIM from one pinnacle of
greatness TO another, until they have at last
made him President of the United States.
He might have been Dictator, had he pleased
but what, to man weared with authority
and dignity, would dictatorship be worth !?
If he IS proud of anything, it is of the tail
or 5 bench from which he stated. He would
have everybody TO understand that he is hum.
ble-ihoroughly humble. Is this carcatute?
No. Ii is impossible TO caricatare Andrew
johnson when he mounts his high horse of
humility aud becomes sort ofcross between
Triah Heep and Josiah Bounderby of Cuke-
town. Indeed, ii is only by quoting Dickens
description of the latter parsonage that we
have ANYTHING which fairly matches the traits
suggested by some statements in the Presi-
dents speeches. "A big, loud man says
the humorist. with stare and metallic
laugh. A man made out of coasee material,
which seemed 10 have been stretched 20 make
so much Of him. A man with great puffed
head and forehead, swelled veins in his tens
pies. and such a strained skin to his face, that
It seemed to hold his eyes open and lift his
eyebrows mp. man with n pervading apr
pearance on him Of being inflated like q
balloon, aud ready 10 start. A man who
could not sufficiently vaunt himself self
made man. A man who was continually pro-
claiming, through that brassy speaking trum
pet Of a voice Of his, bis old ignorance and
his old poverty \ man who Was the bully
Of humility
If we turn from the moral and personal TO
the mental characteristics of Mr.. Johnson's
speeches, we find that his brain is to be
classed with notable cases Of arrested devel-
opment He has strong forces in his nature,
but in their outlet through his mind they are
dlssipates into confusing CHATTER of uprela>
ted thoughts and innpplicable phrases. He
seems TO POSSESS neither the power nor the
perception of coherent thinking and logical
arrangement He does not appear to be
aware that prepossessions are not proofs, that
assertions not arguments, that the proper
method to answer an objection is not to re-
peat the proposition against which the obiec>
ton was directed, TINT the proper method of
unfolding q subject is not TO make the sue
cessive statements a series OF contradictions.
Indeed. he seems 10 have q thoroughly ami
mallzed intellect destitute Of the notion of
=, nh oh hut fba
of determinations, aud which derive their
force MOI from reason, but from will. With
an individuality thus strong even to fierce
ness, but which has not been developed in
the n entail region, and which the least gust of
passion intellectually upsets. he is incapable
OF locking at anything out of relatiuns 10 him>
self of regarding it from that neutral ground
which is the condition OF intelligent discus
sion between opposing minds. In truth. he
makes virtue of being insensible 10 the evil
denee of facts aud the deductions of reason,
proclaiming to all the world that he has ia
ken his position, that he viii never swerve
from il. and that all statements and argus
ments intended to shake his resolves are i'm
pertinences indicating that their authors are
Radcls and enemies of the country. He is
never weary Of Wanting his hrmness, and
frmuess he doubtless has, the firmness OF at
leas. score of mules; but events have
shown that it is different kind of frmness
from that which keeps statesman firm to
his..principles, political leader TO his pledges
gentleman to his word. Amid all changes
of opinion, he has been conscious of un.
changed will, and the intellectual element
forms IS small portion of his being, that
when he challenged .the man, woman Of
child, TO come forward and convict him o
inconsistency to his professions, she knew
hot sulf ba n n
mankind, he would himself be unconvincct
by any evidence which tie said man, woman
or child might adduce. Again, when he Wal
asked b, one OF his audiences why he did no
hang jeff Davis, he retorted By exclaiming
"Why don't you ask me why l have NO
hanged Thad. Stevens and Wendell Phiilips-
They are as much traitors as Davis Ans
we are almost charitable enough 70 mpPos'
that he saw no difference between the morn