Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1866-09-25
johnson a Stranger in the Family of
Politieians-His next Apostacy Gu
rious Events in 1867.

Politicians next Apostacy Gu
rious Events in 1867.
The rule OF action among public
men is for Office holders to follow
their parties. Indeed this would
seem practice ofmutual obligation,
| the party and its representative
/ keeping in perfect unity, but tie
latter always yielding to the party
!eommand, just rs the inferior men,
/ 5crs Of the body yield to the head.
l.Such would seem to embrace the
hwhole essence of manly political in
I.tegrity, and when varied from, dis
I,grace follows just so sure as fate.
There may be exceptions to the rule,
MS when party decentralization takes
place; during Buchanans admins
vtration, as also Fillmore's, there was
widespread party decentralization
resulting from the executive attempt
ut snbverting the faith and practice
of all parties. In such times there
appeared beams of moral obligation
TO guide all men in the right way
which widely divcrged from the ex,
rcQtiye lead Douglas disobeyed his
party head, choosing rather to fol
Cow the people who subsequently
sustained him by their votes, After
I'LL moral right and reason constitute
iho essential guides for office hold
erS.
But Andrew Johnson is an obs
Server of none of these essentials of
party consistency and action. lie is
j belligerent; when the party whose
Yhief he is, makes a demand upon
him, he shows fight. When the pow
rrs that made him say, Andy, set
lie with the rebels en- terms Of secu-
sity to your friends" he says, /" No,
BY the eternal the traitors shall have
thc butt end OF all future bargains
and the party that made me Vice
President shall be held for their
good behavior-loyalty shall be
made odious and treason shall be re-
spected as the equal if not the supe-
rior of such virtues as saved the
country by the war"
J 1t has been said that President
johnson, voxod over the comments
Of the loyal press and people III the
lime Of his inauguration, resolved
lpon revenge against the entire par
" that elected him.
Such was probably the case, the
same line of conduct having previ-
5usly actuated him at the time he
deserted the rebels and for the same
Ieasons-severe criticisms upon bis
eoltduco by the rebel press and peo-
pie.
His rule Of conduct and practice
would then seem to be part Of his
very nature-a conduct which must
in the future as in the past, cad him
to betray and punish the whole par
hy at his back when any part there
Wt darcs to criticise and condemn his
pubic or private practice. This is
Andrew Johnson-the like Of which
pcrson and character was never
known in our country Criticism
within the democratic party never
'ctt Andrew Jackson 10 forsake and
betray his party and take up his bed
sw'th another party late his deadly
enemies. John Tyler was not actua
fc9 from such motives to bctray and
divide the whig party. Nor was
FILLMORE led by such motives to de
,taeh the Silver Greys from the wings
and hitch them on to the bunker
Yiomocracy.
Johnson is therefore an anomaly,
swbom we have to Judge as such
But men Of single or peculiar nature
may be interpreted even better than
orderly men. The rebel Etherise
knew his man when he said long be-
fore Johnson's apostacy, that he
would most certainly Of all things
,betray the union party-yet in do
ing so will as certainly betray the
next party that assumes his keeper
ship.
Johnson has an old way, old and
deep rooted in nature, of charging
his mind to cut off aspiring party
driends, and then bidding all to Iol-
loY and woe to the man who de-
tlihes to follow him as shepherd and
priest He is not the least partieu-
lar.as to pretense or argument for
his, variations. He can "swing
around the circle or turn at right
angles, or 90 to MI across lots, = and
always squat behind his conscience
and assume fidelity to principles.
Hc is veXcd, It's very true, by pre-
vi9us engagements His well said
Iobnsonianism, Traitors must be
impoverished, &c. touch at the arc
IT the circle he is 50 gracefully de-
scr;bing. but he has 4 way Of recon
sling them exactly with his late no.
}iohs that the northern loyal citizens
&ni soldiers are now the di~loyalists
Vt the country, and that the south
crn. people are the loyalists.
But what is Johnson to do with the
\ York IIoria and Times Boston,
PEt, and other papers belonging to
lis policy, and the hundreds Of Bread
and Butter men who condemn the
,lte speeches Of the President and
lay to his charge their defeat ut the
Maine elections and their almost
certain defeat at the coming fall
elections in all the northern States
W.