Year: 1868

Tho Outgoing Administrati0n-Mr. johnson


Failure.


All eyes are turned from the setting to the
rising sun, from the outgoing to the incoming
administration, from Mr.. johnson to General
Grant, from favors lost, refused or enjoyed, to
favors expected, and generally from the disap-
pointments of the past to the hopes of the
future. Very few politicians or philosophers
now care to inquire what Mr.. Johnson has
do, what he is doing or intends to do, or whe-
ther, on his retirement from the White House,
he goes to Tennessee or to Texas. To the
public at large 1t is enough that his admins
tration has been q failure, and that they are
awaiting the incoming of General Grant with
q very general expectation Of something better.


To the aspiring politician, however, Mr.
Johnsons administration, even as failure, is
full of instructive matter. First Of all, II re-
minds us of Tyler and Fillmore, each Of whom
like johnson, was elected as Vice President
and as make-weight on the ticket, each Of
whom became President from the untimely
death of his superior, and each of whom as
President turned out failure. It was the
great misfortune, we apprehend, Of all three Of
these men that they were not satisfied in being
President by accident, but desired another term
each in his own name and in his own
right. Thus it was that Tyler quarrelled
with Henry Clay and the whig party,
and endeavored to set up party Of his own
on the basis of the distribution of the spois.
The movement was carried to the point of an
independent Tyler convention, but it collapsed
with the nomination Of Polk as the democratic
candidate and was merged in the democratic
party. Fillmore, as the substitute for General
Taylor, played more cautious game; but
failing to secure the whig nomination of 1852
he took the field in 1856 as the candidate of
the American or Know Nothing party, the
lineal successor Of the whig party South,
against the republican party, the lineal sue
cessor Of the whig party North, and so elected
Buchanan. Tyler and Fillmore each signally
satisfaction in the success of their next pur-
pose, which was the defeat Of the party they
had deserted and the same may be said Of
Van Buren, In reference to second term, rs
the lineal successor Of Jackson.


johnson has, then, been more unfortunate
than Van Buren, or Tyler or Fillmore. His in
dependent Johnson party movement Of 1866
and his efforts to secure the democratic nomi-
nation of 1868 were loves labor lost and
quite as fruitless were his efforts at the elev-
enth hour of the day to turn the scale by a
pronunciamiento in favor Of Seymour. Worst
OF all, however, for johnson, in his policy to
make the Presidential Office subservient to his
election as President in his own right, by a
third party or by the democratic party, his
administration from beginning to end may be
pronounced q failure, and failure compared
with which that Of Tyler was great enjoy
ment and that Of Fillmore great success.


The first step Of Mr.. johnson after he was
sworn In as President Of the United States was
the blunder to which his whole budget Of sub
sequent blunders and failures may be charged.
We refer to his primary blunder Of undertaking
the reconstruction of the subjugated rebel
States without the assistance Of Congress. AS
the law then existed the two houses which had
adjourned on the 4th of March, 1865, would
not. without special call. meet again till