The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1875-02-05
Wnaehita Te1eg raph.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
lfhe New Orleans Picayunc.

ANDREW JOHNSON.
lfhe New Orleans Picayunc.l
The presence in the Senate of Il man
who has been President of the United
States has never before occurred in our
history. John Quincy Adams was for
many years member of the House
but he has hitherto been the single ex-
ception to the custom among our eX-
Presidents of exchanging the highest
dignity of the Government for private
life. This abandonment of public
affairs was not in all, or even in a ma
jority OF cases, compelled by the weight
of years, but seemed to follow naturally
from satisfied ambition and the belief
that it was beneath the dignity of one
who had welded Executive power to
accept a minor station. John Adams
lived for nearly thirty years after Ieav
ing the Presidency; MIR. Jefferson for
more than twenty; Mr.. Pierce was still
a young man when he retired, and he
remained for nearly twenty years a
passive spectator of the rapid changes
in politics and the revolutions in civil
affairs which marked the stormy
period subsequent to his administra-
ton. Mr.. Van Buren, lived for more
than twenty years, through much of
ward, and then again as candidate
for the Presidency. All of these men
might have given to the public service
a large portion Of the time which they
spent in seclusion. There may be some
thing graceful, as well as something
illustrative of the simplicity of republi-
can institutions in this voluntary re-
nunciation of public life by men who
have swayed the government ola great
nation and exercised almost imperial
powers but it may we'll be thought
that it might be still more graceful and
still more consonant with the spirit of
democracy if they were to dedicate to
the public, in a lower station, the ex
l,erience which they had gained in Il
higher.
For this reason, among others, we
arc glad that eX-PresidcntJ ohnson has
been elected to the Senate to represent
Tennessee. But not alone for this rea-
son. We welcome the presence of Mr..
johnson in the forum where he gained
so much distinction, not only because
he was once President of tho United
States, but because he will be Il bold,
vigorous and unconquerable champion
public liberty. Because he will re-
sist with all the fortitude Of his iron
nature, and all the energy of his mas
sivc intellect, the encroachments of
President Grant OH popular rights, and
on that fundamental principle of local
sclf-gOvernment, which is the basis OF
American liberty. Because he will
oppose every scheme to plumber the
treasury for the benefit of monopolists
and SPECTATORS. Because he will
stcrnly resist tho policy which the
President and his advisers seem to have
adopted, of pervertins all tho powers
and functions of the Government to the
single purpose of pcrpctuatinG their
domination.
Whatever errors may have been
committed by Mr.. johnson during his
Presidency cannot, at least, be charged
to any sordid purpose, or to any greed
of power. However dis,strously he
may have failed IN his attcmpt to check
tho Republican party in those measures
which it adopted with the design OF
provincializing tho South, and sitting
up negro governments in tho South
crn States, he was, ut least, influenced
by an honest wish to- preserve the
principles on which he believed the
constitution to nc framed. He failed,
as any other man would have failed !;
AS the highest integrity and virtue and
the wiscst craftsmanship would have
failed. But it is certain that no other
man could have fought the battle which
he fought and very few men would
have survived such a defeat as he
experienced.
II may be conceded that no man in
the country is moro bitterly hated by
the President and his followers than
Andrew johnson and there is no man
whose presence in the Senate would be
50 Objectionable to them. But by that
immense majority of the people who
arc resolved to put an end to the usrrp-
ations and the corruptions of the pres
ent Administration, he will be hailed
rs q representative and Il champion.