Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-03-20
Then and NOW.

When, on the 4th of March, 1865, An
drew johnson was inaugurated as Vice
President of the United States, and made
that disgraceful drunken harangue which
caused every Unionist to hang his head
with shame, what was the attitude of the
Copperheads With scarcely an excep.
ton they clamored for the resignation or
expulsion of the man who had so shame
fully and recklessly trampled under foot
the decencies of life. The very men who
are now his champions and defenders, then
had no mercy for Andrew johnson, the
renegade" the drunken BRUTE" the Re-
publican ofice-holder, and demanded his
instant removal from the high Office he had
disgraced. Nothing would satisfy the I'M
terrified but the Impeachment of "that
drunken sot, the Vice President" and
when the great party who, out of regard
for bis supposed services and sufferings in
the war, and through sympathy for the
prosecuted Tennessee Unionists, whose
leader and Moses he had proclaimed him
self to be, had elected him to the second
office in the gift of the people, threw the
mantle of their reluctant forgiveness over
the wretched and seemingly penitent Of
fender, what howl of outraged virtue
went up from every Copperhead throat.
1AC VI oAC pdlOy wac QC-
ncunced as miserable weakness and held
up to scorn and contempt. Twas weak
ness of which the people have since re-
pented most heartily, and could they have
been granted brief look into the future,
could they have anticipated what took
place a few weeks afterward, the sudden
removal Of the idolized Lincoln, by the
hand of an assassin, Mr.. Johnson's term as
Vice President would have come to sud-
den end. He never would have been per-
mitted to sit in the Presidential chair.
Three years to day, after johnson had
disgraced himself and the nation in the
hour of his Inauguration, the President of
the United States was formally arraigned
before the Senate by a committee demand
ing his impeachment and trial in the name
of the people for high crimes and misde-
meanors. But what change OF front on
the part Of the COpperheads? The very
men who, three years ago, denounced him,
are now his devoted friends, partisans and
adherents. They who then heaped upon
him jeers and curses, and insisted Oh his
| impeachment for single drunken spree,
are now striving with might and main to
shield the great offender from the conse-
quences of years of deliberate treachery,
perfdy and indecency. The scene has in
| deed undergone wonderful changes. The
paTdoned sot has turned upon his benefac-
| tors and become the patron and protector
of his former enemies. It's, however, per-
fectly consistent that the men who bawled
out for his instant decapitation for one
| hour of inebriation, should now clamor for
his continuance in the Presidency, simply
because his course since that day has been
one unbroken round of profligacy, treach-
cry and duplicity He has sounded the
| whole gamut of treachery, and become
one of themselves, hand and glove with
| traitors and the open enemies of the Gov
eminent of which he is the executive head.
Andrew Johnson's ofenses against morali-
| ty and common decency alone have been
sufficiently aggravating to warrant his re-
moval from office, but these the people are
glad to cover with the mantle of silence.
It now remains to be seen whether his
crimes against the written law Of the land,
his usurpation of supreme power in the
| freest and most enlightened Government
| on earth, will be allo wed to go unpublished
| by those whom ne has insulted, betrayed,
and attempted to trample under his feet
| OticGgo Post. ~ ~ ssa