The Indiana State sentinel., 1875-08-05
moorning were displayed in various local

NAcK's INTERVIEWS WITH JOHNSON - HIS |
FERvENT LANGUAGE-GRANT AND JOHNSON |
THE PRESIDENTS VIEWS OF THE I'M |
PEAcHMENT-rRIcKso OF THE OPPOSING PAR
TIES.
], B. McCullagh ("Msck''l contributes to
ing recollections OF the late ex president
johnson during the time he was under i'm
peachment in the United States senate:
One day, 1 think it was very soon
after the resssembling of congress
in January, 1867, word was sent to me
to the reporters gallery that President
johnson would like to see me that evening
at O'Clock. The quarrel between the two
ends of the avenue had then assumed an
attitude of dead earnest. ! was correspond
ing for the Cincinnati Commercial under
instructions to do the fair thing by both
sides, but was already preludiced In favor
his cause, but because of the under dogged-
ness of bis fight. Both political parties were
really against him. Tue democrats, though
making show of support, were secretly in
bitterly fighting him.. they hated him for
the past, they were unable TO use him for
the present, and they feared him for the
future. He stood to them very much in the
relation in which an old lady of whom
| tradition speaks stood to her friends-it was
out him. The blood of the republican mar
| tyr might become the seed of the democratic
church, and scatter to the winds the hopes
and aspirations of whole score of demo-
cratic candidates, chief among them Hen
dricks and PendletOn, who had Just erected
presidential lightning-rods over their heads,
and have never taken them down since.
Well, of course called at the white house
that evening. was considerably astonished
when Mr.. johnson revealed the purpose of
| his in nuifafinn and still QqfOniCha6 of
the manner in which he made the revela-
ton. As I afterwards learned he was given
| to
VERY sTEoNG LANGUAGE
in private conversation. Indeed, he swore
like our army in Flanders when excited on
topics of personal concern; but it was
harmless kind of profanity, a sort of con-
versational heat lightning that lit up the
sky of his tete-a tete without Intentionally
| ipjuring anybody's person or character.
With him as with many others, damns and
| bells were made to supply the deficiencies
| of a vocabulary picked up without the aid
of schools and books. He swore for the
same reason that uneducated people as
class, and women as a sex, underscore most
of what they write. He Italicized his con-
The impeachmei scheme had not then as
sumed very important proportions, but
| think Mr.. Ashley had already offered a res
Olution of impeachment; at any rate, Mr..
| Johnson seemed to know what was coming,
and he talked freely and bitterly against his
| eaemies, whom he denounced as usurpers,
| and rebels, and traitors; all in league to
subvert the constitution. The elections of
the previous fall-lS66-had gone largely
against him, and his Philadelphia conven
ton had proved a great failure, but he at
tributed great deal of this TO the treachery
of the democratic party, whose leaders, he
said, were afraid he wanted to be a demo-
cratic candidate for 1868, whereas, ac-
cordirg to his own declaration,
nothing was further from his pur
pose. ''Six months in this position" said
he, "would disgust anybody. You hear
nothing from morning till night but the
cry of office -office-office.' Its the old cry
of 'beef-beef-beef,' that Patrick Henry
talked about in revolutionary times"
| Having listened rather than talked to Mr..
Johnson for an hour or more, as L rose to
leave asked him if L might use the sub
stance of his talk for letter to the Com
mercial, and be replied, with careless cheer
he. "if you put me down right; but the d-n
newspapers are as bad as the
politicians in misrepresenting me.
IL don't want you to take my
side," said he, II can fight these fellows sim
gle handed, but put me down correctly"
assured him / would do so, and l sft5rward
got his own word for it that the promise was
kept. He was greatly pleased, and s0Op-in
less than two weeks, I think,-he sent for
me again. ~ want TO give these fellows"
this was always the term used in speaking
of congress, pointing in the direction OF the
capitol as he spoke-"hell," said he. "and
think l can do it better through your paper
than through message. because the
PEOPLE READ THE PAPERS
more than they read messages" In truth,
however, he wanted to let OFF little of the
. steam of personality whien would not have
, looked we'll in message; he wanted TO have
r it known why Ashley, Logan and a host OF
others had first deserted him and then op.
posed him-because he would not grant
3 their requests, which varied from the ap
3 pointment of a crossroads postmaster TO the
approval of a gigantic war claim. The
longer impending crisis of impeachment
D "came to a headh very early in 1868,
9 under circumstances which are familiar
: to the people, what some call the cause, and
= what others call the pretext, being the re-
{ moval of Secretary Stanton. Gen. Grant
:, had been appointed secretary of war in Stan
4 ton'splace during the preceding summer,
Q under personal promise, as Johnson more
9 than once very forcibly asserted, that be
# would hold 1t at the pleasure of the presi-
Q dent, and surrender it to him, but never to
|. Stanton. When, very early in 1868, Gen
Q Grant, after the Senate had refused to sane
d ton the surrender OF Stanton, resigned the
l. position into the hands of Mr.. Stanton,
q there was no measure TO the denunciation
of Grant by Johnson. 1 had heard him
abuse Thad. Stevens, Sumner, and all the
rest of the republican leaders, bui
his language concerning them
was mild and decorous com.
pared with what ne said of what he called
@ Grants treachery. He told me once of q
cabinet meeting in which he confronted
Gen. Grant with the question of veracity
A and said he. "I pinned him down to 1t, snC
ne looked as If the floor would open under
!. him and let him through" The qurrrel thu
II begun lasted while both men lived, and i
furnished the occasion for the violation of
precedent as old as the country. The Gus
10 tom had always been for the outgoing snt
II the incoming presidents to ride TO the capi
) tol in the same carriage on inauguration
Q day, ssjoint participstors in the qusdrennia
L - -. -