Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-06
The Presidents speech in England.

The Presidents Speech in England.
tLondon Correspondence Cincinnati Gazette.1
If the news had come to this country
that the President of the United States
and Thad. Stevens had had a regular prize
fight at Bfadensburg, with G. F. Train
and Chief Justice Chase for bottle holders,
the shock could hardly have been greater
in England than the report of the Presi-
dents speech in front of the White
House on the 22d of February; and the
universal conclusion is that the Presi-
dents exhibition of himself on the 4th of
March previous was decency and dignity
| themselves compared with this latest man
Hesitation Of his fitness TO gain the re-
spect of the world for republican institu-
tons. Americans go about hanging their
heads. 1t is feared that it will be consid-
cred a personal afiront to allude TO Amer
lea before an American. The reputation
of the whole people for the eommonest de-
eorum is impaired. 1 sat night before
last in the gallery of the House Of Com
mons, when the great debate upon the ex-
tension of the franchise was going on, and
again and again America and her Presi-
dent were pointed at by the fingers OF
aristocratic contempt, amid long cheers
and the silence of Americas best friends.
The time was when that would not have
been SO when a w-orkingman President
was an argument for the enfranchisement
of workingmen in Europe, not against il
Us now. Thus has one man brought the
country into contempt. But pray heaven,
he may not bring it to something even
worse thar the loss of foreign pres
tige. The Spectator, in 2 powerful arti-
Gle on the the situation, has a warning
which every human being in America
should read. 1 can send you but a brief
indication of lis tone and tendency. III,
it says, "this attempt to heal over the
wounds of the Union specifically and
hastily, in which Mr.. johnson Is going far
beyond the advice even Of his most trusted
military counselors, in which, indeed, he is
neglecting the very moderate cautions OF
General Grants to be prosecuted, it can
nave but one result-to foster the seeds of
d new and perhaps not very far distant
repetition of the rebellion which has re-
Gently failed. The abolition of slavery
can be of no political use in cementing
the Union, unless it is to represent some
thing that affects the whole ground
work and constitution Of Southern
society. Ii the spirit of respect for free
dom and for individual rights Is to be fos-
tered and guarded, and the old slave-own-
ing animus is TO be rooted out, then, and
then only viii there be an end of danger
10 the Union from this source. But II all
the old spirit of caste Is to revive again in
even greater strength thar before-greater
On account of the new jealousy felt of the
rights nominally given 10 the negro and
if the Southern States are TO become the
scenes of chronic passions, far less ungov-
erned, because far less restrained by law,
than those of our own Jamaica planters,
then in another ten years Southern soci-
ETY. will be in an attitude at least as hos
tile to the spirit of the free North as ii
was six years age; and if its material re-
sources are once more recruited by peace, /
we do not see how a new collision, as
fierce as the old, and provoked, probably, !
with more cautious craftsmanship, Is to be
averted. If ever that time come, the
North viii have to regret even more bit
terly than it now does, that it trusted the
destinies of the Union to the hands of
statesmen bred up, like Mr.. Jefferson Da-
Wis and Mr.. johnson in habits of thought
radically Incompatible with true free
dom