Year: 1866

The Executive, on the other hand, Is
supposed TO be more especially and Pc
culiarly the representative of every sec
ton and Of the entire country, and the
veto power is expressly given to him to
check what he may deem unconstitu-
tional or uuwiss legislation. He IS 8
part Of the laT-making power, and his
Judgment, his oath, his interest, all
conspire to make him discreet and pa
triotic in the exercise of this preroga-
tive. We have seen nothing IN his ad-
ministration of the Government thus
far to warrant any suspicion that his
motives are not unsel6sh and patriotic,
whether he be right or wrong in his
opinions-and, for this reason if for no
other, we are disposed 70 defend hun.
But there are other reasons. We have
been taught from our infancy TO honor
the Office of the Chief Magistracy of
the nation. We believe that proper
reverence for that exalted position is
due to ourselves S. well as 70 those who
fill it, and that a contrary course tends
to weaken the respect for law, order,
and government which is essential to
the public safety and the duration Of
our republican Institutions


lis no new thing, that differences
have arisen between the Executive and
bis party and the CONGRESS- in power.
Even the great aud good Washington
was maligned in and out of Congress,
and by members Of bis own party and
of his own cabinet. His successor,
John Adams, was more violently as
sailed by the same influences. Jeffer-
son was allowed no peace from the
same cause Madison, at one period of
his administration, was almost without
party or political friends. John @
Adams was yindictively assailed by all
parties, including many of those hold
ing official relations to him. Jackson,
in his efforts to defeat notification and
overthrow the United States bank,
was in constant antagonism with large
numbers of his influential political as
sociates, who, in Congress and out of
it, denounced him as a tyrant. Gen
eral Taylor, short as was his term of
service, and faithful as he was TO the
Union and the Constitution, found
himself denounced in the South as in
imical to its interests, and equally op-
posed in the North, as too partial to
Southern institutions. The stern, and,
in certain quarters, malignant hostility
of large numbers of Republicans to
the martyred Lincoln, is too recent 70
be forgotten by any of the present par
Elephants in public affairs. That hos
tility was at length developed into an
organized party whose main purpose
was to prevent his reelection. Impair
tial history has done and is doing JUS
tice to the patriotism and purity Of
each of these illustrious men.


We doubt not, from what we have
thus far seen, that when the excite
ments of the present hour shall have
passed away, the name and fame of
Andrew johnson will be rescued from
the obloquy which partisan warfare
and the prejudices that q civil war of
unparalleled magnitude and bitterness
has created, and that he will be sppre-
ciated as one of the frmest and noblest
among the defenders of the Union and
the Constitution. We do not believe
that he can be swsyed from his purpose
of defending to the utmost OF ms power
the rights of all sections and'a classes,
or be seduced by the hsttery or cajolery
of the leaders Of the peace party" on
the one hand, or the rebel party on the
other, into an abandonment Of the
great Union party with whose interests
and honor he viii beidentified through
ali coming time.