The Portland daily press., 1866-09-07
ssyUeau whites.,,

The N. Y. World has repeatedly referred to
the convention of the Southern loyalists and
their Northern friends as the "Mean Whites
Convention" To such men as Gov Pierpoint
and John Minor Bolts of Virginia, James
Speed, late U. S. Attorney General, of Ken
lucky, Gov. Brownlow of Tennessee and Gov
Hamilton of Texas, who stood by the flag
from the beginning to the end, the World has
now no better greeting to offer, as it had no
better comparison than "Caligula's horse, for
Vice-President johnson when he too be-
longed to the party of progress. Such
ssmean whites as Gen. Chamberlain, Gov
Cony and s. Z. Spring are included in the
Worlds rather liberal application of the
phrase.
We take leave to differ with the World. We
do not regard the Southern men who bore
arms on the side of the Union, faithful among
the faithless found" as mean whites. We do
not regard their Northern friends, such men
as Senator Trumbull, Gov. Hawley, Ex-Gov.
Andrew, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Whitti-
er, and host of others, as mean whites.
We do regard the journalists who called Vice
President johnson an "insolent, drunken
brute" two years ago, and who now speak of
his royal progress" in terms of disgusting adj
ulation, as the meanest whites to be found in
this country. The Argus copies this word
progress" perhaps without observing its
meaning, SO offensive to republican ears. We
are not accustomed to state 'progresses'in this
country yet, and please God. it will be a long
day before we are.
Mr.. johnson himself spoke not long ago Of
the officers of the United States government
as his "satraps and dependents" and the
World cheerfully echoed the monstrous pre-
tension. A Philadelphia officer had taken it
into his head to test the Presidents power Of
removal in the courts Is there any reason
why one citizen of the United States should
not, if he chooses, question the acts of an
other before the legal tribunals? Is the
President anything more than citizen? Is
he above the laws? The World thinks he is,
saying:
The audacious attempt of petty official at
Philadelphia to defy the Chief Magistrate
| men. Any person pretending to exercise the
| functions of an executive officer in defiance OF
| the orders of the Executive-in-C Chief, is simply
an intruder upon the Office which he occupies,
and to be thrust out of doors as summarily as
he would be from the cashiers desk of a bank
which he should usurp.
This of course is entirely in harmony with
| the insolence of the World toward the Union
men of the South. The cringing of q lackey
| to his master is by law of nature offset by
an equal amount of insolence toward men
who have no claim to his venal services
When Mr.. johnson spoke of the @body as
Stunning to be Congress-" the World with
great empressement proceeded to ask
what next?" using the following singular
language respecting the President:
1t is not for soldiers and subordinates to in
quire too curiously into the plans of their COM
mander-in-chief But, when the hour of move
ment has come, speculation viii be busy IN the
ranks respecting its immediate object.i
Strange and foreign all this, to American
ears. We have been accustomed to speak OF
the people as sovereign. We have not been
wont to hear of them as 'subordinates" who
must not inquire into the plans OF their
chief This flunkeyism is a disgrace to
American manhood. The man or the
party which expect, to be supported by
blindly confident constituency, has al
ready abandoned the American theory
of government. The Democratic party, hav-
ing ruined itself by adherence to the doctrine
of secessions, now rushes to the other extreme
and dances attendance upon man, who the
other day, when Gen. Logan told him the
Western people would never submit to the un-,
conditional reinsta tement Of the rebel leaders,
replied, "By God, I'll make them Submit