The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-14
The National Incubns.

Tug time has come When expression OF tne
Dubl;o conviction of the true character of the
individual who now occupies the Presidential
nasoo sbould not be stifed. Each succeeding
dav but more clearly reveals him as an enemy
to the hast interests of the country, so that
tba Kindly reticence which has hitherto, in
Uraat measure, concealed his faults, should no
longer be exercised
When Andrew Johnson was inaugurated
Vice President, he disgraced himself and dis
eraced the nation. Before the vast and dis
tinpuished audience assembled on that occa-
sion, he presented himself to take the oath Of
Office in a condition Of beastly intoxioation,
and proceeded to inhiot upon his mortified and
indignant hearers an incoherent and maudlin
speech. We can imagine what must have
been the feelings of wonder with which the
representatives of foreign Governments looked
upon so extraordinary spectacle, and we well
remember the emotions of disgust and indigna-
tion which filed the breast of every American
citizen who saw his country thus outraged in
the very first official act of one whom she had
called to the second Office within her gift
The career thus inauspiciously opened has
been downward one ever since. Its key
note was struck then. The same want of self
control, slavery to passion, disregard of public
dignity, and subsection to low order of
influences, then exhibited, have marked Mr..
JOhnson's whole subsequent career. We can
hardly recall a speech which he has since
made which has not had the same maudlin
characteristics of his Inauguration address.
And in his public policy we find equally the
dOminanoy of passion and the disregard of
reason. We have seen him inaugurate his
fierce and disastrous contest with Congress.
We have beheld him attempt to settle by his
own puny fat the vast problems growing out
of the Rebellion. We have witnessed his
efforts to create States, and give them stand
ing in the Union. We have seen his assump-
tion of legislative functions, and his attempts
to make instead OF to execute the laws. We
have watched him cut loose from the great
Union party which elevated him to power,
and surround himself with advisers gathered
from the infamous conclave which ruled the
Buchanan dynasty in its hours of final and
deepest disgrace. And we now behold him
assailing those noble men who exercised so
great an influence in carrying the country
safely through the perils of the war.
Secretary Stanton, who was President Lin
coins right arm of strength throughout the
Rebellion, whose successful administration of
the War Department won the admiration of
the whole civilized world, and to whom the
American people owe as much as to any other
one man for the preservation of their Govern
ment from overthrow, is suspended from Office
simply because he has refused to crown great
career with infamy. Sheridan, whose splendid
military genius has dazzled the eyes of the
nation, is threatened with removal because he
is faithfully performing the duties imposed
upon him by the people. Sickles, Pope, and
others are booked for like treatment. The
very men who saved the nation are
being prescribed and persecuted by this
wretched migrate, who has dishonored
and cursed i'll From the time of his
Inauguration as Vice-President down to the
present moment, Andrew Johnson has been
disgrace to the nation. His whole career
has tended to bring popular government into
disrepute. He has exemplifed the possible
dangers which lurk in our political system.
His influence upon the country has been dis
astrous. He has kept the nation in ferment.
He has exasperated our political contests
beyond precedent. He has retarded the great
work Of reconstructing the Union. He has
filed the late Rebels with vain hopes, and in
spired them with fresh hostility TO the Govern
ment. He has demoralized the public service
by removing faithful officers appointed by
President Lincoln, and filing their places with
Venal adventurers. He has obstructed the
faithful execution Of the laws, and has per-
sistently sought to override and defy the will
of the people. Protesting the most unbOunded
devotion to the Constitution, he has con-
stantly trampled upon its plainest provisions
and has persistently violated its spirit.
In our opinion this man has been tolerated
long enough. He has become an incubus
upon the nation. II is both absurd and crimi-
nal that the interests Of thirty millions of peo-
pie should continue to be jeopardized by a
single individual. The Constitution points
out the remedy. If that remedy ought not
now to be applied, then it would be difficult to
conceive of circumstances which would make
1t appropriate.
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Anticipating the Nomination.
ALREADY the Presidential contest of 1868 has
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