Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-02-27
ANDREW JOHNSON.
From the New York News i

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I From the New York News.l
| The most striking political event Of
the past month has unquestionably been
the return of Andrew johnson to the
Senate, replacing that old worn-out rep
rebate, Parson Brownlow. This is the
first and only instance of an ex-Presi-
dents entry into the Senate. We have
had the case of John Quincy Adams,
going into the House of Representa-.
tives, after his Presidential term had
expired, and sitting there, pertinacions
and revengeful, until death siezed him
one day in his seat, and he died "with
his harness on, on sofa in one OF the
lobbies. And here we now have the
venerable and loquacious ex-Vice Pres
ident OF the ex-Confederacy, Alexander
Il. Stephens, in the present House but
perhaps he, being Rebel, is scarcely q,
case in point. Anyhow, Andrew john
son, of Tennessee, is the first Senator
made out Of u President-as the Ro-
mans used to say, a man of Consular
rank" The rest have been content
to keep out of public life,. as far as
possible; but this man is irrepressible.
If Charles Dickens is correct, Amer
ica literally swans with people. each Of
whom is one of the most remarkable
men in the country" But there has
been no such public man before An
drew johnson, and there is likely to be
none such after him. In most of his
political career he has been classed as q
Democrat, but he was always at war
with the Democracy OF his own State,
! and his present election is triumph
over them. While he was Lincoln's
Military Governor" (whatever that
is,l of the State of Tennessee, he did
not show much recognition Of old-fash-
ioned Democratic principles. Nor, in
deed, did he, while President, with
William I'll. Seward for his Secretary
of State. 1t can never be forgotten of
him, that he allowed Stanton, Preston
King, and the rest of the suicidal band
by which he was then surrounded, to
murder poor Mrs. Surratt, crime
which just history will forever stamp as
infamous. 1t may be, that the ac-
counts of his frustrated intention to
grant mercy after that notable convic-
tion, are true, and we hope they are.
The men who perpetrated that horrible
act of blind revenge have preceded
johnson to the other world-haunted
to deaths door by the inexorable fu-
ries of Remorse; but either Johnson's
nerves are stronger than theirs, or his
conscious culpability is lighter. No
self-sought grave is ever likely to be
his; since he is entering new career,
of public life, in the glories OF which it
is to be hoped, that that bloody stain
will be forgotten.
Andrew johnson has been chosen,
by Democratic Legislature, over such
men as Governor Brown and General
Bates, because Tennessee has deemed
that, in the present crisis, his selection
would tell better at Washington than
that Of any other living man. And it
will; though we would have preferred
straight Democrat, other things being
equal II there are two public men on
the continent who are emphatically per-
sonal enemies, they are President Grant
and Senator Elect Johnson. Imagina-
ton fails to conjecture Grants feelings,
when, to the defeat of his beloved Chan
dler, was superadded the triumph of his
hated johnson. o&
If johnson received any Republican
votes in the Legislature, it was in de-
fiance of Grant and OF the Hon. Roder-
ick Random Butler, who telegraphed to
Nashville the express instructions of
the Administration to vote for" any
body else" And we see that the Re-
publican members of the New Jersey
Legislature all opposed certain resolu-
tions of O congratulatory character,
which some enthusiastic Demo-
cratic member there proposed. There
should be mourning among the faithful
for is there not weeping and wailing
at the White House?
Andrew johnson will pursue an hon.
est and independent course in the Sem
ate. That goes without saying il. He
never was anything but honest except
that he was Independent. He has his
little animosities toward the present in-
cumbent of the Executive Mansion. He
is not likely to omit to exhibit them on
convenient occasions. In fact, be may
be expected to be vindictive and reient-
less toward Grant, as Tennessee knew
and calculated he would be, when she
chose to send him 10 Washington. How
much he may defer to the semi-Repub-
lican counsels Of Evarts, ThurIow
Weed, young Seward and the rest. of
those that were around his Presidency
nobody can predict He will euSelH
not call himself or range himself asa
Democrat, yet be must act fov the most
part with the Democrasic Senators. He