Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1872-09-14
General A. johnson.

be separated by any fair rule OF
logic, to ask why this denunciatiOn:
and to know if il be true that rebel
soldiers have so demeaned them
selves as TO merit such unstinted
abuse. We contend that, Is a class
since the war, the rebel soldiers
have acted with liberality, discTc-
ton and modesty. Save in few
counties in Tennessee, it is undenia-
BILE that since the restoration of the
ballot rebels could have controlled
the elections, and could have filed
the public offices out of their own
ranks. This, had they claimed to-
gether, would have been the newt
able result and that such is MT the
case, is due to their unselfish action
and generosity. On the other hand,
these same battle.scarred veterans
have voted for, and elected to Office
such men as Vaughan, Warren, Hal
sey, Pearson and Thomas, and many
others who were notorious in their
devotion to the Union, and some Of
them actually fought in the Federal
army. Ills also true that Mr.. John
son himself received no meagre sup
port, in his race for the Senate, from
men fresh from the armies of the re-
bellion. They understood his am
nesty was sincere, and that, perhaps,
it sprung from the honorable impul-
ses of a patriot rather than the low
promptings of a demagogue. AT
the late Convention which nominat-
ed Cheathan, some of JOhnson's
warmest adherents were followers
of the Lost Cause. They believed
that Johnson had buried the past,
and would not alright his audiences
with the grinning skeleton of the
rebellion, and endeavor to hold true
men responsible for the blood and
carnage of war which no msn did
more to encourage than himself.
His set speech in favor of coercion,
did much TO direct the Northern
mind into the channel of hate, and
to confirm them in the final deter
mination to resort to arms. When
Horace Greeley and Winfield Scott
were saying, let the hayward sis
ters departin peace" Andrew John
son was saying, "march your armies
across the Rubicon, right into the
heart of the South, and develop and
protect the Union sentiment.''-
These were his utterances in sub
stance; and, to appease his wrath,
and stop his clamor, the populous
North poured her legions upon us,
and from the Ohio TO the Rio
Grande, the great civil war was be-
gun in earnest.
When the Huns entered our State
Capitol, Andrew johnson came as
one of their leaders, having COM
mission from Abe Lincoln in his
pocket. He signalized his entrance
by series of impressments and lev
les upon private citizens, which, ac-
cording to his own version, were
unworthy of q Spanish guerilla or
an Italian bandit. He was his own
judge and his own jury; and in the
role of dictator, he decided how
much each man must pay, and col
lected at the point of the bayonet.
Under the Constitution, which is
Mr.. JohnsOn's subject for half of his
senseless gable before the people,
he had no right to take private pro-
perty without due compensation,
and, as the "end never justifies the
MEANS" this crime cannot be sane
tilted under the plea that Confeder-
ates were made the beneficiaries.
His dictatorship was sheer usurpa-
ton, and the candid historian will
so pronounce it. His defense is as
unmanly as it is anomalous. We
imagine there are not many widows
who would welcome TGtions from
the same bloody hands that had
slain their husbands nor can the
murderer stifie the wall of the or
phan. ascending to just God for
vengeance, by a distribution of
''hard tack and bacon" Far better
for General johnson had he never
lifted the sword against the people of
Tennessee-those people who had
borne him on their shields through
the surging sea of political fires that
gathered around his eVentfnl career,
even as did the founder of the Ro-
man race bear the old Anchises
through the flames of Trov-far bet
ter for him had he never given
away to his unframed ambition"
that, like mountain devil, ruled
his heart. And even though,
through 1t, he has become Presi-
dent, his crimes and his virtues are
so equally poised, that if one-half
the world should pronounce him a
hero, the other must ever consider
him a fiend. We hold such men
as Johnson responsible for the late
war. A united South would have
postponed the evil day; and the
lsickly minority who refused to
make Southern opinion unanimous,
when the war was inevitable, is just
ly chargeable with our "niad of
woes" And yet General johnson
tells US, with trimming eyes and
heaving breast, that his way to glo-
ny is not "paved with human skulls,
or bidged with human bones" We
appeal to the people for fair retro
spection of the past, and ask them
to decide, does General johnson
speak the truth?
what Has re Done!