The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-09-27
ANDREW JOHNSON.
What an Old Time Politician Says Of
the Great Commoner.

COulQ KNOW OuG VI HIS. W nCH nS
was a candidate for governor
against Gentry, in 1856, i made six
ty-five attempts at speeches, and
spent time and labor to aid his eiec-
ton. was a young man then.
johnson was the most unscrupu-
lous knaye that ever caught the
popular heart. Douglass was a SUI
perb demagogue. johnson never
reached that dignity. He was sim
ply a shrewd knaye, devoid of every
instinct of gentleman. If he had
for moment conceived an honest,
unselfish purpose, it would have
been as fatal to him as strychnine
to a "yaller dog" All decency
was foreign to his nature. His
form and countenance were marked
with villainy, as plainly as the
branded brow of Cain. Born poor
he knew the envy of the poor class
towards the rich He was CONVEX
SAINT with every key of their envious
and jealous nature, and practiced
on that harp with the same assidu
ity that Gortschakoff did on the
piano before one of his concerts
He hated every man who had re
ceived the advantages of even an
"old field schooling" Then, i
you added to this the fact that the
mans father had by hard labor
saved few dollars and left then
for his son, Johnson's malice became
intensified, and he was willing tt
pursue him with the same vindic
tive determination that David ex
hibited towards that gallant Jewish
general whom he ordered to the
forefront of the battle-that hC
might die, and not live"
But johnson was the most effect
i've vote maker in Tennessee. He
was not eloquent in any sense of The
term. His sentences were awk
wardly constructed, with no rhythm
grammar, imagery or rhetoric
With an ungainly form, a baC
voice and a hang-dog countenance
he was still a vote maker. He
gathered up all the low passions anC
prejudlces of the people, weaving
them into sort of web of rough
logic, so dovetailed them together
in homely style as to strike the
baser chords in the meaner nature
of man, that gave back mean 'mu
sic to the TOUCH" and made the
populace think they were great mer
badly treated, and the rabblt
would howl Justify for ANDY
They could go off and tell what he
said; and they imagined that il
johnson was elected, the property
of those who had labored for il
would be taken and divided equally
with the worthless vagabonds who
had never performed an honest day S
work in their lives.
They say he was great. He was
ten years in the lower house of con
gress; four years governor Of Ten
nessee; in the United States senate
president, etc.,-and if he ever gave
birth to a single idea, thought OF
policy, l have not read it, or heard
of it by tradition. The same speech
be made as q candidate for mayor
of Greenville, was rehashed in
every canvass, "half-soled' in con
gress, and "revamped" in his mes
sages as president. He was incar-
mated meanness. A mixture of La
phystius and Dem9netus, with 9
Pecksniffian cross. He betraye
every man and party that trusted
him; he betrayed the democratic
party that made him, and the repub
lican party that nsed him; the
north that trusted him and the
south that honored him, and had he
been one of the disciples, he would
have betrayed the Savior that died
for him Still, he was a power, as
was Lucifer. He had an indomita
BILE will and tireless energy. He
cultivated and caioled every young
man of his party that could be OF
service to him, and out of their en-
ergy and vim made ladder upon
which he climbed to position. On
the leaders of his parties (for he
was in all) he made war, as soon as
he had flattered their weak points
and ambition into developing them
selves to his quick perception. His
instincts low, cunning and vindic-
tive, he warred on decency in every
form and fashion. Witness his dem.
agogy in pardoning all rebels under
the rank of colonel and worth les.
than ten thousand dollars. Remem-
Der, he had said that treason ''must
be made odious," and that he "kneW
of but two rights a rebel had, the
right to be,hung and the right to be
damned" Then he turned and
begged these rebels to elect him to
congress, after being president and
hanging an old Irish woman to hide
his own iniquity. He trampled on
the laws of God and man when he
could do so with safety to the prog
ress Of his ambition. He was
moody, cynical, defiant, with a self
inflicted misery at heart, engen-
dered by his own malignant nature;
implacable in revenge, and incapa-
bic of strong affection, a whitening,
rotten mass of ill-regulated intel
lectual endowments, warped by ear
ly circumstances nourished on the
promptings of base heart, and de
veloped into manhood by the cor
ruption of every noble or gentle i'm
pulse Lebanon Herald.
Abuse of public men has been
carried to such an extent in many
political newspapers that it has
ceased to have any injurious effect
on the persons whose regulations