The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-18
Lincoln and Johnson A Contrast.


State Cfovernments in the late Rebel States
without the authority of law, and by usur-
nation of legislative functions, desires to know
whether in so doing Mr.. johnson 'did not loi-
low in the wake of our late lamented Fresi-
dent Lincoln Y'
In reply, we might say that we do not re-
r,.rd Mr. Iinooln,s action while he occupied
the Office of President as in all respects safe
Drecedent for his successors to follow. Mr..
Lincoln administered the Government during
a season of actual, hagrant war-war upon
gigantic SCALE and which called forth all the
energies of the nation to save itself from
destruction. OF necessity, he resorted to many
things during this condition of war which
would be out of place and highly inconsistent
as a settled policy in time of peace. And
this broad distinction is to be observed between
MIR. Lincolns action with reference to provi-
sional Governments in the Rebel States, and
Mr.. Johnsons attempt to create not provi-
sional but permanent State Governments there.
Mr.. Lincoln's action was purely tentative, ex-
perimental, provisional, and taken with
direct reference to assisting in the great work
of bringing the war to successful close. Mr..
establish policy for time of peace, as a
permanent thing, and by his own mere ipSe
DIRT to settle the entire vast problem of recon-
struction. Even, therefore, if Mr.. Johnson
had strictly followed Mr.. Lincoln's example,
we should by no means have held him justi-
fed, because acting in altogether different cir
cumstances. Mr.. Lincoln's measures were
purely ,car measures; Mr.. Johnson's measures
were intended to force permanent political
policy, covering all the great questions which
had grown out of the war, upon the country,
without regard to the will of the people.
But Mr.. Johnson did not follow in the wake
of the lamented President Lincoln in the
matter of creating Provisional Governments in
the Rebel States. The lines of policy adopted
by the two men were as widely different as
their respective characteristics diverse as the
mildness, wisdom, and moderation of the one
were opposite to the egotism, violence, and
vanity of the other.
Mr.. Lincoln had no fixed plan of reoonstruc-
tion. Accompanying his annual message of
1868 he sketched a plan after which the peo-
pie of any of the Rebel States might proceed,
of their own motion, to organize loyal State
Governments, which he agreed to recognize
and protect. But he took special pains to
then state that his plan did not exclude others.
And when Congress passed law providing
plan of reconstruction, although Mr.. Lincoln
refused to sign the BILL on the ground that he
did not wish to commit himself infexibly to
any single plan of reconstruction, he still
avowed his satisfaction with this plan as one
very proper for the people of any State to
adopt, and preferred Executive aid and assist
ance to any such as might be disposed to
adopt it.
During the war Mr.. Lincolns great anxiety
was to get loyal organization of almost any
kind in the Rebel States, and it made but
little difference to him how or upon what
plan it was accomplished. 1t became a nucleus
for loyal sentiment to orystallize about.
But Mr.. Lincoln attached no idea of sanctitv.
or even of legality, to these provisional orga-
nHatlons. He did not assume that they had
the right of representation in the Union.
when Representatives and Senators from
these provisional organizations presented
themselves for admission to Congress. he
never thought of attempting to bring a
pressure 10 bear upon that body to secure
that end. lie signed the Joint resolution ex-
cluding these very organizations from nartici-
patton in the Presidential election of s64. or6
in the last public address that he evor -, =,
he plainly declared that he would not oo,,
tinue to support the State organization, :,
Louisiana, should it prove adverse to the
public interest. In Short Mr.. Lincoln 20
garded those organizations as purely provisioaaJ
and temporary, liable at any moment to be
superseded, subject to the recognition and
endorsement of Congress before they coulC
participate in the political power of the nation
and in no sense as thoroughly reconstructed
States, entitled to claim full rights and powers
in the Union.
MIR. Johnson, ON the other hand, after the
war was entirely over, undertook to settle the
whole problem of reconstruction himself. The
organizations which he created he assumed tc
be perman ent and final, and binding upon all
the departments of the Government. He
claimed at once that these creations of his
were already entitled to participate in the
government of the country; that they were
estates" possessed of all the rights and powers
of States in the Union, beyond any rightful
supervision or control of Congress. He had
settled the whole matter according to his owr
good pleasure, and Congress had nothing to dc
but to register his ediCts.