The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-19
The Last John sonian Essay.


Iessness, aud all. 1t was the work of "Lanoe-
lot, and not another" A single such man in
any country is enough to make all its other
6emagogues appear respectable by oompari-
son. Once we supposed that no President
would ever again commit an official atrocity
equal TO Millard Fillmore's signing of the
Fugitive Slave law; but Mr.. Fillmore is a saint
Of the calendar in comparison with Mr.. John
SON This Tennesseean's statue Gf he is to
have one) should be wrought in Brass and
represent him shaking both fists at the walls
of the Capitol. Nor can one help fancying him
grating his teeth as he penned some Of the
bedovilled sentences of his message, they are
30 full Of hatred, passion, aud revenge.
estates TO which the Constitution guaran-
tees q republican form of government" he
says, "have been reduced to military depen-
denotes, in each of which the people have bsen
made subject to the arbitrary will of the com
manding general" And yet this seltsame
critic of the reconstruction measures was him-
self a military governor and one of the ear
LEST agents Of the Federal Government in
inauguratiDg the very system which he coz
demns
"There seems no good reason" he says,
''why the reconstruction measures should
longer remain on the statute book" Aud
yet this perpetual eulogist of popular ma
jorities knaws very well (and trembles in
knowing that all the States of the Union,
except half-a-dozen voted overwhelmingly to
resfirm, to maintain, and to enforce these
identical reconstruction measures.
"The attempt" he says, "to place the
white population under the domination of
persons of color in the South has impaired,
II not destroyed the kindly relations that had
previously existed between them" And yet
the author of these words once stood on the
steps Of the State House at Nashville, and
with hands uplifted towards heaven, swore
an oath to these same "persons of color"
that he would be their Moses
at would be just and equitable he says,
THAT the per cent. interest now paid by the
Government should be applied TO the reduc-
tiOn of the principal" And yet the man who
has the ehrontery to say this knows we'll
enough that to pay the interest OF a debt and
then to count the paid interest as so much re-
ductiOn Of the principal, is to cheat the oredi-
tor out OF the principal altogether, and is
nothing less than shameless robbery. man
who would claim that in paying the interest
he was paying the principal might just as
well deny that he owed either principal or
interest at all.
Mr.. Johnson will 20 into history as a man
whose public career has exhibited him in the
three-fold character of drunkard, Rebel, and
repudiator.
One would have supposed that the President
in closing his official term, in making his fare
we'll address to the American people, in be-
queathipg his last will and testament to pos
terity, would have endeavored to win back
some of those golden opinions with which
his countrymen unwittingly honored him at
the beginning of the war. But ever since he
first disclosed his real self to the worlds eye,
il has been apparent that his final epitaph
would be Macaulay's remark of Sir Antony
Ashley Cooper-"Every part of his life re-
hected infamy on every other"
When, in a few weeks, his term shall end
and he shall go back to lead in person the Ku-
l1xy RIoH,I 10 I, I'LL
his old neighbors to be more rusted corroded,
and mildewed thing than the ancient tin sign
in Greenville which still says "a. Johnson,
Tailor" The sight OF the rusty sign will,
perhaps, make him wish that he had never
laid aside his needle and thread and he will
then, for the first time in three years, be of
the same opinion with his fellow untrymen.
Army Reunions and their Purposes.
from the ". T. Times
The former meetings of the Western army
organizations at Cincinnati and ST. Louis were
simply social reunions, having no higher or
more practical purpose than the celebration
OF some battle anniversary. But at the meet
ing at Chicago on the anniversary OF the bat
tie of Nashville an attempt was made to re-
solve at least OF the associatons-that of the
Army of the Ohio--into sort of special his
torical society for the collection of material
concerning it as it operated in the field; while
another made arrangements or at least passed
resolutions commencing the preparation Of
history of its operations.
These attempts to give utility to these
organizations are very oommendable; the
history of each army, each corps, each di-
vision, each brigade, each regiment and
each company, written by its own commander,
with the addition of such personal reoolleo-
tions and "reminiscences as wOuld naturally
creep into such accounts, would be invalu-
able to posterity if gathered in library, even
IN manuscript form. But the plan of eparate
organizations, separate Libraries, and separate
histories for each army has a serious objec-
ton which should not be hastily overlooked.
1t is calculated to produce a jealousy between
the societies and lead, in an insidious way
not to be prevented, to examinations and re-
hections on other organic atoms and individuals
Much jealousies and backbting were the
most lamentable consequences of the early
organization of the army into sectional aud
State divisions-as, for instance, all the
Eastern troops going to the Potomac, all the
Middle State troops TO the Army OF the Ohio,
and the extreme Western men to the Army
Ofthe Tennessee, while in some cases, brgades
and even divisions were wholly organized
with troops from single State. The objeo-
tiOnable results which rendered it necessary
to change this army organization, in part, will
follow the plan of the society organization as
contemplated. The practical utility of these
organizations is highly desirable, but there
ought to be one general organization including
each army, and such we yet hope to see.
American Sentiment IN Spain.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
very remarkable feature in the insurrec-
tions in Spain is the prevalence of good feel