New-York tribune., 1867-09-25
PUBLIC DIGNITY.


1t is not small matter that any pubic
event of respectable importance, belttled ana
besoiled by the undigniiied carriage or those
who participate in it, should pass into our
chronicles with the taunt of degrading remnis-
cence The Antietam Conservation Is case
in point. We do not every day dedicate such
a cemetery; it is not often that we encounter
such a demand for grave, docOrous, and ele-
waited propricty; the ceremonial is an occur
renee which must pass into history; and yet we
began with advertising for poem, and ended
with n speech from Mr.. Johnson! Yet this is
one merely of many similar instances. The
Western tour with its many horrible violations
of good taste and good breeding, was quite as
bad The Masonic Solcmnity in Boston was
even worse; and it will be long time before
the brethren can open n lodge for the dispatch
of business in their new and beautiful
temple without thinking unpleasantly OF
Brother Johnson's rhetorical struggles. These
days of restoration and of reconstruction, of the
national new birth, of n fresh start in the
country's career, should have been among the
most splendid in history aud 80 they would
have been if Mr. Lincoln. who was one oil ma
turc's own gentlemen, had been spared to u.s.
He had no artificial manners; he was ihcap-
able of doing or of saying anything for
effect: he pretended to no polish, nor was
he by any means an accomplished orator; but
the sweet sincerity of his character, the touch
ing simplicity of his instincts, the unfinching
integrity of his heart, made him seem elevated
in his dcmeanor and courtly in his carriage
and won for him a respectful affection which
any public man might be proud of. Ii is won
derful how such an example eleyatcs the whole
tone OF national mind. The mean. the mer-
cona.y, and the malicious, kept in their dark
corners while Mr.. Lincoln was living, or merely
emerged tbcrcfrom To be encountered and put
To rout by indignant majorities. Men were
ashamed 10 be irresolutc in their patriotism, to
be swayed by class prejudice, or by outworn
hatrcds, with such an example of catholic hui
manity constantly before them. With the new
President forced upon us Ivy destiny they raised
once more their ignoblc heads they grew
mcanly hopeful and disrcputably active place
hunting and all the cxpedients of faction be-
came the order of the day; hatcrs of human
liberty, doubtcrs Of mans capacity for self
government, sneercrs at social equality, lifted up
once more their hateful voices, and politics,
which had been only another name for patriot
ism, lapscd into the old, conventional ruts, with
occasional triumphs of the bad and the base,
and with constant vigilance and labor for the
honest and intelligent. Nobody suppoSes that
we could possibly have had this condition of
affairs if Mr.. Lincoln had lived nobody hopes
that we can be quite rid of it until Mr.. John
son be at least politically dead. The faults of
the man have tainted the country, have con
taminated public feeling, and have warmed
into life crowd of creeping creatures who
enjoy, or who hope to enjoy, the Treasury flesh
pots
1t is curious fact that what men most
dreaded in Mr. Johnson should be precisely the
opposite of that fault into which he has help
lcssy fallen. Ii was thought, and his publicly
uttered words gave sanction to the opinion, that
he might be too unrelcnting in his treatment of
treason, and postpone reunion by his unconcil
iating policy. 1t turns out that he is too easy,
too soft, too forgiving, and too forgetful. The
man who is one thing in the morning, and an
other in the evening is the victim of lack of
character; and having settled this, we are ut
once let into the secret of Mr. Johnson's mourn
full want of personal dignity. 1t is not merely
that he does not comprehend the situation. The
trouble is that he does not and cannot, having
been denied certain qualities of mind, rise to
the nobleness of the great occasion. He is proof
against respectable emotions He has none of
that poetical feeling which helped us SO much
in the day of our darkest disaster. He does
business in the White House as he used to do
it in his little law-ollicc and he issues procla-
nations with the same facility with which
he formerly issued writs. He is in the
embarrassing situation of small lawyer
with his practice suddenly and boundlessy en-
larged. Therefore he founders. Therefore he
initiates himself like the frog in the fable
Therefore, with but few qualities to provoke
admiration, he expects to be exceedingly adj
mired All feeble men are apt to be fussy.
And Mr. johnson is nothing if not .fussy in
the extreme. We never had President before
in precisely such predicament and Divine
Providence grant that we may never have
another
We began by saying something of official
dignity, and we end by assuring the people
that dignity in the Executive quarters is just
the one thing which it is folly to look for
In order that no more fine occasions may be
spoiled, no more rambling and incohercnt
speeches recorded in our annals no more NOR
ufying additions made to our history, we beg
leave to suggest that if there be any more
to c0nsccratc, any more Masonic
temples to dedicate, any more monuments TO
ltdllgW, tile business N II ctuupi Lc accom-