Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-30
The Sandusky Register on the CIeve
land Herald.

From the sandusky Register, March 26ihl
In a recent editorial on the Union
Press we made the statement that at first
the Cleveland Herald approved, without
qualification, the Presidents 22d of Feb
rua-y speech. The Herald quotes our
charge and replies, with unaccustomed
vigor and point, "You say what you
know to be a falsehood."
The Herald has manifested such genu-
inc shame for the course which it has pur-
sued, and shown such hopeful signs of a
returning sense of decency, that we have
little heart to say anything further in ex-
posure of its deeply regretted folly. But
it has yet one lesson to learn, and that is
that true repentance is better manifested
by frank confession than by useless de-
NAL; besides we are not quite content to
drop the theme without disposing of the
delicate inuendo regarding our veracity
contained in the Rerads disclaimer
quoted above.
The question turns upon what consti-
tutes an unqualified approval of a public
speech. Now we do not claim nor be-
lieye that the editor of the Herald, as an
individual, approved the Presidents ad-
dress. Neither did Henry j. Raymond,
and yet he lauded TO the skies its every
sentiment and expression through the col
umns of his paper, the Times. We have
nothing to do with the private opinion
and mental reservations of the Herald
editor; we speak only of his published
utterances in the columns of his journal,
behind which we do not care to go.
Mr.. Johnson's speech was not a milk
and water affair-it bristled all over with
positive points rpon which every honest
man and every honest journal was bound
to hang a positive opinion-favorable or
unfavorable. The first editorial published
in a journal after the appearance of such a
prodigious address would naturally be
scanned as the verdict ofthat journal upon
the character of that address. We acted
upon that belief and expressed an opinion
which was, at least, not ambiguous. We
found no difficulty in deciding at q glance
what the position of our exchanges was.
The Radical press, ~ofeourse, emphstically
disapproved the speech, and the so-called
Conservative Union journals, ave the ex-
ception of the New York Tipses and the
Cleveland Herald, were almost %outspoken
in condemnation of the leading features
of the Presidential mistake. We remem-
Der turning to the Herald with some curl
osity to see what shape its disapproval of
Mr.. Johnson's course would take. We
found the following leading editorial, the
first authentic 1tteFanee of the Herald
upon the then all absorbing theme, We
give it entire
"wTLLTNG To WOUND.
taTba D.o-,1o,& =, -, ,o-oro5 $1,000.
on Thursday evening, when speaking of
the attacks of Charles Sumner and Thad-
deus Stevens, uses these words-"Willing
to wound hut afraid to strike" This
terse sentence shows that the attacks of
those two gentlemen wounded Mr.. John
son deeply and that the wound is un-
healed. 1t was no light charge when a
Senator declared the President to be a
hypOcrite; it was a shameful thing in a
Representative to say that the President
is a traitor; and that, reduced to words,
was exactly what Sumner and Stevens
said.
"Mr. johnson stood up in the Senate
fearless and defiant, when every other
Southern Senator rode upon the wave of
secession. Mr.. johnson, day and night,
carried his life in his hand, amid traitors
and assasstns, when the gentlemen who
slandered him were out Of harms way.
And is it not natural he should feel that
such ISLANDERS are as wicked, even, as the
assassin's knife ?'
The above article does not say in words
we cordially endorse every sentence of
the address" Such a declaration is not at
sill necessary to a virtual and undissenting
approval. All that the editorial saws Is
in approval, and it does lot temper that
approval with any regrets at the character
of certain portions of the speech. If the
article had contained q single word of dis
sent, or if anything had been mingled
with its approval upon which the reader
could hang an inference that the editor
disapproved any portion, the trail of the
would be removed. But the whole
atmosphere, tone and tenor of the editorial
proclaim it to be, what we have called it.
approval without qualification. We
have already said that the Herald subse-
changed its tone and regretted
certain portions of the speech, but this
does not affect the point we have dis
If the Herald chooses to insist that the
above leading editorial does not contain
an u~ndissenting approval, it mast accept
the other horn of the dilemma, which is 10
admit that it had not the manliness 10
express a disapprobation it felt, until aftsr
it was d3fen 10 it by an overwhelming
public opinion
DTha. -an act on nranro 3, Al. A-..G