Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-02-26

A
~ironical message to Congress, commend
ing General HANCOCK, was meant a a
defiance, TO provoke that body to more
violentand extreme measures aHdhasteR
the coming Of the day Of doom for the
party of destruction.
We can now see that Mr.. JOHNSON
has perhaps been wiser than we and
others who at times censured him for no!
moving more rapidly in the work Of
reconciliation, and resisting more strenu-
Ously the unconstitutional enactments
Of Congress, and its iuvasions of his
prerogatives. We now think that 1t
was wise on his part to wait. Until re-
Gently, the vast majority Of the North
ern people was bitterly against him
and in favor OF the usurpations of
Congress. He could not rely on half
a dozen men, Of all who surrounded
him. A spy in the War-06ice plotted
against him the General Of the Armies
addressed to him Gliding letters, the in
territorial d~isrespect Of which he was at
LITTLE pains 20 coneeAL.
The country ought to thank the Presi-
dent for having let J~acobinism have its
way and run it's course, and ven for the
speeches, deemed undigniied at the
time, by which he dashed the leaders
into an insane rage that robbed them of
reason and drove them into greater ex-
eesses. They endeavoured TO crush him ;
but they failed. They were willing to
let the House and Senate DO disgraced by
assertions broadly made that the Presi-
dent was an accomplice in the murder Of
bis predecessor; and it is not to be
doubted that many of them would gladly
have seen the pOpulaee, reused and fired
by these brutal accusations, massacre the
President on the steps of the Capitol. A
Congressional Committee crawled SO low
down into the Shiny pits of infamy, as to
inquire into the state Of his bank &C.
count, as though they suspected him of
robbing the Treasury Of the nation or
receiving brides. He was ove and over
again denounced in each House as a
traitor. 1t was attempted to impeach
him, not for any known offence defined
by law, but on paltry charges that COW
cred their authors with ignOminy. He
was libelled by the whole Jacobin press
asa habitual and groveIling drunkGrd.
No official act Of his escaped inquisitorial
investigation, preceded by unmeasured
cehsure.
No public man in this country has ever
borne the pitiless peitings" of so fierce
q storm OF hatred, detraction and intimi-
dation. He has not shrunk from it. He
has faced it nobly; and he has also o
ageously n .sted those OF his friends who
would have had him make a.more vigor-
u opposition, give back blow for blow,
and defy Congress by exsrting to the ut
most his power Of pardoning.
OF course he has at times made mis-
takes. To say that he has not, would be
to say that he is mere than human. But
that his course has in the main been
eminently wise, is demonstrated by the
increased bitterness of Jscobinism against
him, and by the daily increasing favour
with which the people are coming to re
gard him. The apostates from the cause
of constitutional liberty hate him as
SATAN hated the SerGph ABDIEL, when
"a noble stroke he lifted high.
Which hung moi, but 50 swift with Jempes
on the proud crest of Satan, that no sight
Nor motion OF swift thought, less could his
shield,
Such rain intercept"
Even so, again and again, the Presi-
dent has smitten with his vetoes ard the
tEo-hsnded, double-edged sword of
Truth and Logic the Congressional An
srchs, and made them reel and stRgger
under his blows.
Notwithstanding the favour with which
the name of Mr.. PENDLEToN has teen re-
eeived in some quarters, We shall now
not be surprised if ANDREW JOHNSON
were to be the Democratic nominee for
the Presidency. The people OF the United
like the English, admire and like
and Of that il is now known by all
men Lnat ANDREW JOHNSON d q enough. |
II these who think he ought to have done
more, had had the same ample infOrma-
ton that he had, they would perhaps
that he has been able 10 do so
much. The General who, overlooking
the field, sees how the tide of battle Gibbs
and flows, sees the combinations of the
enemy developed, knows where his own
line is strong and where weak, and takes
in with praetised coup dol all the de-
tails and all the movements of the action,
can judge somewhat better how daring
or how prudent he ought to be, than a
or q subsltern.
ANDREW JOHNSON has proven himself
4 great and wise man; 3 Patriot Presi-
lent.