New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-03
JOHNSON IND BROWNLOW At HOME.

ing conversation between one or our CORE
spondents and Senator Brownlow OF Tcnnes-
see, and this morning we present graphlc
report of our correspondents visit to Green
Vile. and of the conversation which took
place between him and ex-President Andrew
johnson. The views thus given OF the two most
prominent men in the politics OF that I'M
portant State have a special interest to our
readers at this time. They are marked
by curious points of parallelism, and by
diyergences which are no less singular Both
gentlemen. of course, eschew any plans oil
advancement. Having reached the summit OF
reasonable ambition, neither of them had any
more TO ask from their grateful or grumblng
fellow citizens. Yet it is excessively likely
that a loud call from the endangered republic
would meet with q prompt response from
either of these two patriotic gentlemen. en-
cinnatus doubtless liked blowing better than
being Dictator, but he left his plow in the fur
row and followed the heralds TO Rome. There
is a quaint flavor of the old border bitterness
in one passage of each of these conversations
Mr.. Brownlow wished the war had lasted long
enough to have resulted in the hanging OF
the leading Rebels. Mr. johnson said few
of tho leading Rebels should have been
hanged, Internationally, at the end OF the
war. If you do not hang them, you should
give them Office. The ex-President clearly
thinks the best use you can put distinguished
Rebel TO, is to hang him; the next best, TO
vote for him. From what widely severed
points Of view do these rival Tennesseeans
and Mr. Phillips regard this question. Yet 1t
Is singular commentary upon the impulslve
radealism of all of them that they should each
insist on q few days use of the gallows, as tho
first of peacemakers. Both Mr.. Brownlow and
Mr.. johnson take it for granted that Gen.
Grant will be tho Republican candidate
next year, and as to the result OF
the election their hopes equally belle
their fears. Brownlow thinks the Repub-
lican cause is sure if the Republicans make no
mistakes in Convention. His ex-Excellency
has no doubt of the defeat of Grant unless
the Democrats commit one of their quadrennial
follies in the national conclave. In one point
they greatly differed. johnson spoke with
great venom Of all his rivals, while Brownlow
treated his colleagues with generosity and
even his enemies with consideration. OF
course their evidence on matters of fact was
Numerically opposite. Mr.. Johnson pretends
that there arc no Ku-Klux In Tennessee, but
the Parsons definite details are far more con-
vincng than any general vagueness OF denial.
The ex-Presidents assurance of the amiab1e
intentions of the ex-Rebels is rather weak
ened also by his own admission that the legis-
lation of Congress chad embodied against us
" (meaning the Union) all the better part of
the community"
All our readers have, of course, read the re-
port of Senator Brownlow's conversation, and
have seen how full it was of practical wisdom
and moderation. His earnest patriotism COM
mands our respect, even when we fail to see
the Justice and expediency of the measures he
proposes. When we leave him and come to
the ex-President. we see an almost cemicai
eccentricity and absurdity which seem insep-
arabic from men who have suddenly
been perverted from the path when
they had done good work. They strive
to amuse their own consciences with novel
fancies. Mr.. johnson, for instance, restates
his famous thesis that the interest on their
money for few years is all the national
creditors have right to expect. He pretends
to think that Congress is plotting to make
itself supreme, and finds a preposterous rea-
son for thinking this probable, that every
body nowadays reads newspapers and
talks politics. He sees dark possibilities
in the fact that the BARRIERS read their
TRIBUNE and vote in their own way. He has,
however, an occasional lucid interval in which
his views are as clear and pointed as In his
better days. He hopes nothing from the can
didacy of Hancock, and when the correspond
IL, hfrf
" ing out Grant and putting in Hoffman, for
" instance, who would hand the Government
" over to the control Of the Tammany RlngT
d" Nothing, whatever" he replied; we should
4" have only driven away one swarm OF plum
" derers to give place to a hungrier one."
There is something touching in the calm
with which he gravely an
that I" the vice of our present politics
90 was the want Of fixed principles" This
sounds like a well-known letter of Madame de
Pompadour, in which she said that a nation
without virtue was disgrace to humanity.
We are always glad to hear from MIR. John
son. He shows us so simply and honestly the
absurdity and wrongheadedness of his new
associations, that he is the best purveyor OF IN
telligence we could have in the enemys
camp. He never knows how entertaining
he is-even when dropping such pearls
as this: "Then there was fanatical
z" feeling in the country about Lincoln
g. which made everything his successor
might do unacceptable to the people"
How much there is of our poor human nature
in this naive attempt to account for his own
failure. How the average Athenian must have
hated Aristides for setting such ruinous ex
ample of probity. We find the ex-President
more honest and human in this interview than
IN anything he has said since 1864.