Weekly Trinity journal., 1866-02-24
President johnson q New and Unex-
pected Role.


Andrew Johnson, Southern man, would sue
ceed him, people who had the welfare of the
country alone at heart asked Will the Tennes-
seean prove worthy of the great trust, and equal
to the emergency? The almost universal re-
sponse was, Can he who, when the shafts of trea-
son were being hurled thick and fast in all di-
rections, told the traitors from his place in the
United States Senate that were he President he
would hang them all, prove recreant. Union
men, whether conservatives or radicals, did not
believe he would. Ten months have passed with
Andrew Johnson as President the Union party
has sustained him in every act, even to his un-
limited use ofthe pardoning power. Congress has
been convened, and for time it and the Presi-
dent acted in perfect harmony. But recent dis
patches are ominous. Democratic Congressmen
have visited the President to congratulate him
upon the stand taken in his recent interview with
the colored delegation. A dispatch states that
it is expected the President will veto the Freed
mans Bureau Bill. which will be the signal for
forming a Johnson party, composed of Copper
heads whitewashed traitors and recreant Union
men, and another dispatch gives reputed con-
versaton between the President and some Sou
thern ex-rebels, in which he applauds their loyal
ty, and proclaims it as an example worthy Of i'm
itation by Northern radicals.
These acts have filled the hearts of the rebel
democracy with unfeigned rejoicing the gloom
of despair is quickly dispeled by the smiles OF
a. -. .b fo;J how lately wont
to designate the President, and their heated i'm
agnations picture glorious visions of fat offices
and official patronage, and they bend eagerly
forward to catch the first echo of the sound of
the slave-drivers lash it is applied to the
shoulders eff the negro-a Freedman in name on
ly That negro may have been one of the heroes
of Fort Wagner, or one of the forlorn hope at
Port Hudson he may bear the scars of wounds
received in defending Milliken's Bend, or per-
haps was one of those who sheltered and fed our
prisoners escaped from the hells of Anderson
Vile and Belle ISLE What of that? Our Pres
ident tells them-'' you had better emigrate-
better leave the country you have helped to re-
gain-better abandon the homes you have helped
to wrest from traitor hands. You and your for
mer masters cannot live in peace together p
How gratifying this must be to them how thank
full they must feel for this unexpected generosi-
ty. And how rebels and democrats have all of
q sudden discovered the eminent wisdom and
and superlative patriotism of An
drew Johnson
One would feel inclined to laugh were it not so
serious a matter. Has the President soon for
gotten the lessons of the last five years Does
he imagine the United States of 1866 to be the
same slave-ridden, slave-governed COnfederacy
of 1860? Have we expended millions of dollars
and sacrificed hundreds of thousands of precious
lives merely to be told that the loyalty of force
converted rebels is superior to the loyalty of the
so-called radicals of the North ?
Who are these radicals so sneeringly spoken of
by the new-fedged supporters of Andrew John
son? They are the men who elected him to the
high position he now holds-who generously and
and confdingly placed him on the same ticket
with that great and good man, Abraham Lin
coin, and who ignored, even in the midst of a
bloody rebellion, the fact of his being South
ern man and not a Northern radical! Is there a
field in the South where green, grass-covered
hillock does not mark the last resting place OF
one of these radicals? Is there a river, lake or
bay that washes Southern shore which does not
roll its waters over the bones of these radicals
who were slain by the very persons who eagerly
applaud the last doctrine of our President? The
thirteen thousand victims of Andersonville-the
ueau OF the StOckauc at Mlllen-tne heroes OF q
thousand battle-felds are all Northern radicals.
But perhaps we were all wrong perhaps the true
loyalists were the men in Lees army Beanre-
gard, Vice President of recent Democratic as
semblage in New Orleans, must be an excellent
loyalist, for he is opposed to radicals. Forrest.
the chvalric, who burned and buried alive ne
groes at Fort Pillow, is another loyalist who
should be exalted, for he too despises radicals.
But we have faith in the Republic even though
Johnson should forget his pledges. We have in
the present Congress men who will stand boldly
and fearessly in the defense of liberty and un-
ion, and whom Presidential threats can neither
intimidate, nor official favors move from the
path of right and justice.
Let the Legislature take immediate measures
10 @ stiffen the backbone of our Congressional
Say to them that it approves the
,ction of the Union majority in Congress, and
hat so long as President johnson acts with that
majority California will sustain him, but that if
lie throws himself into the arms of the Seymours
md Vallandighams of the North, and white
washed traitors of the South, California will not
esitate, but hand in hand with her loyal or rad
ceal sister States fight the good fight till victo-
y is gained in the halls of Congress as it was
asst year in the field, over traitors and Copper
reads combined.
RELEAsED.-On another page will be found an
ccount of the incarceration for trial of the sea-