Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-07-09
TO ANDREW JOHNSON,


letters of mine, written TO YOU before ana
since you became President by the assas-
sination of Abraham Lincoln, and also
that YOU are troubled with some dellcate
doubts as to the exact propriety oil pub
fishing them, 1 hereby invite you TO PRINT
them in D or all of your four organs at
the National Capital, or through a more
convenient medium, the clubOr committee
representinc the " Bread-and-B1tter Bri-
psde." These letters were written with
out the slightest suspicion that you were
about to betray the party that placed you
where you are.
There is a charming consistency between
the conscientious promptings that con
strained you to separate from that great
party and the spirit which now compels
YOU to reveal to the world your private re-
iations with those who still adhere to hat
organization and, although the practice
is somewhat novel, it will serve to shed a
rich light upon the pages of the historian
when he comes to describe your grateful
and virtuous administration.
The following letter, long threatenedby
your organ, is at last given to the world,
and I reprint it as well for the purpose OF
acknowledging it as for the purpose OF
making some comments upon it:
"NEw York, January 2, 1866.
"MY DEAR Mr.. PREsIDEST: I have been
in this city for two days, and now write
under an impulse which I cannot restrain,
because l feel it to be for your own good
and that of the country. take it for granted
you are resolved not to be unmindful of
your own fame, and that you will not al
low your friends, who heartily sustsin your
policy, to feel that they are without your
aid and encouragement Whether you are
a candidate for President or not, and if you
A-szuJ, 5uan -Sv-5-ooay surprised with
the wonderful favor that has crowned your
restoration policy, you should not allow
the great Offices to go to Indifferent men, or
those clearly in the interest of your foes. l
need not repeat to you that l am now, as
ever, for twenty years shown in my writ
ings, and since your great act Of patriotism
in 1850 especially, your open and avowed
friend. Where l am to-day my two ews
papers both daily show tothe world. Hence,
IN what I now say, I speak no idle
words, but mean all l say. The
collectors Office at New York city is
a post that you should dispose Of
outside of all the politicians not, I mean,
to defy them, but TO select your own man,
WHO should be free only to help you and
serve the Government-one they could
neither attack nor use. Such a man is -
of this city. He was elected to Congress in
- as a Democrat, but, like y0u, refused
to follow the party into treason. He served
a short time with great distinction, and re-
signed on account Of ill-health. He was a
member of the Committee of Ways and
Means, and won great applause. He is a
very able man, educated to finance, in
- - 49,. - .l-.-I--s
and could furnish milliono of security. He
has an organizing mind; would make you
a party or fight your battles single-handed.
He is an Andrew johnson Democrat; in
short, | write in the knowledge that he
would accept, and that his appointment
would be hailed with joy by this whole
community. Yours, truly.
j. W. FoRNEY.
To the President, &C."
When this letter was written there was
scarcely a Union Republican in the Uni
ted States who did not believe that your
restoration policy included impartial suf-
rage to the cOlored race, full guarantees
before return of the rebels, and such a
change in the basis of representation as
would prevent the ~murderers Of American
liberty from r%esuming their former power.
The only real difference between you and
| the radicals in Congress was whether the
rebellion destroyed the State organizations
or not. 1 write with the files of the Wash
ington Chronicle before me, and find that
two days after the above letter was writ
ten, Mr.. Trumbulls two bills-for the
" enlargement of the powers of the Freed.
mems Bureau" and for the protection
of civil rights, were introduced into
the Senate with the full expectation that
they would receive your sanctien- 1t wa;
only when the Copperhesd and traitor or
gans here and elsewhere began to speak
as fly your authority, against the Union
msjorities in Congress that the suspicion
of the treason subsequently indicated
in your veto eff the Freedmen's Bureau
bill and in your disgusting 22d of Feb
ruarE Enaaah-
finally TO possess the loyal minds OF the
country. So fixed was the belief Of the
Republican party that you could not, IN.
der any circumstances, cooperate with
your slsnderers and theirs, and so willing
were they to overlook your suspicious in
difference previous to.the autumn cleo
tions in Ohio, Pend4hia and New
Jersey, that when 1 wrote the above letter
hundreds of thousands ~cheerfully recog-
Missed you as their political leader, and be-
lieved that you intended to stand firmly
by the substantial principles Of their or
ganization. My own conviction was Sc
strong upon this subject that L need only
refer to the pages of the Chronicle and
the Press to prove how steadily 1 resisted
the idea that you were all the time plot
ting to betray your friends, and how earn
estly 1 e%ndeaYored to convince the coun-
try that you had no sympathy with the
common enemy. In all my visits to the
Presidential mansion, and they were fire.
quent, it was not until late in January
that / began to perceive that you were
conspiring with the Copperheads and
traitors. Before that time no word had
ever fallen from your lips to excite the
suspicion that you were laboring to bring
back into full power the red-handed reb-
els whom you had so bitterly denounced
during four long years. But when, with
or faithfully describe, 1 saw these facts
appear too plain for doubt, 1 fearlessly
discharged my duty, regardless of and
fully prepared for all the consequences.
l did not stop to calculate whether, in
denouncing the dangerous conspiracy of
which you were then proved to be the
chief, 1 was helping or harming the dis
tinguished gentleman in whose behalf /
wrote the above letter.
And now, sir, a word in reference to
your personal affairs. l know right well
the difficulty, if not the danger, of the
position 1 occupy. 1 know that for stern
ly holding you to your pledges 1 am as
sailed and threatened by every Copper
head and traitor between Maine and Mex
leo; and l know also, that, stimulated by
the passions that have controlled YOU since
yeu broke away from those pledges, there
is nothing you would not resort to to de-
moralize the party that elected you, and
ruin those who refuse TO follow YOU into
the ranks of the common enemy. 1t is
not the first time / nave been thrown into
conflict with a faithlcss and corrupt Exec
utive, but it is the first time 1 have ever
been called upon to contemplate and to
expose such perfdy as yours. / will not re-
mind You of my earnest and uncalculat-
ing friendship from the period when you
took issue with treason in the Senate in
1860, down to the Baltimore Conven-
ton in 1864, which body, at the request
of the lamented Lincoln and such earnest
radicals as Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio.
1 attended alone for the purpose of press
ing your nominal on for the Vice Presi-
dency, after it became apparent that Han
nibal Hamlin, the i~ncorruptible patriot
was willing to give way in order TO allow
a representative Of the War Democracy
a D~OsitiOn uDon the national tickat Tbs+