Year: 1866

If one were to judge by the tone of the
Democratlc press and speakers throughout
the North, he would be led to believe, that
that good old party had resolved itself into
an organization, for the simple purpose of
prTS1l.sIng and supporting President johnson.


Whlie we have no objection to editors and
speakers-the political teachers of the great
mass of voters-applauding and approving
OF whatever acts may seem to them to be
right, no matter by whom performed, vet
we have an utter repugnance to anything
that locks like sycophantic laudations Of
men, simply because position gives them
power And for the Democratic party, be-
cause President johnson has done a few
praiseworthy acts, TO set him up as their
particular star to guide by, and go blum
dering on out of the beaten track, in
the unsteady and Pickering light it may
give is not only wrong, but is fraught with
great secrets that are hid by the thin veil of
futurity; neither can any tell what changes
may take place, between May 1866, and
May 1867. And who is there willing to
guarantee, that the Democratic party will
not be the loser by the unmeas,ired conf
dence it is placing in Andrew johnson? It
must be recollected that it was the Demo-
cratic party that brought him into political
existence and nursed him into political great
ness; and yet after all it had done for him,
that he turned round and basely betrayed
and deserted it, il its hour of greatest need
and sorest trial. Neither should it be for
gotten that he has in one year denounced
abolitionism, as the worst Of all evils that
could befall our country, and in the very
next, becomes its special advocate and cham
pion.


1t may be well enough for US to applaud
President johnson, when he denounces the
fanatical majority in Congress; it may be
in place for US to approve, when he thwarts
the schemes of the lunatics who are at
tempting to degrade the white race TO level
with the black, and it is bat right in Us to
endorse him when his acts are in perfect
consistency with our principles-but for US
to assist in building up party for Andrew
Johson-to follow him wherever he may
lead-is as wrong as it is suicidal, and can
end in no other way but in the disruption
and defeat of the Democratic party, and the
success and ascendancy of a class of men,
who would have no fixed political principles
to guide them, and who would be controlled
in every movement, by the shifting winds
of political opinion. We have everything
principles underlying our politica. organiza-
ton, to which we should CHG, with as much
tenacity, as does the mariner to his compass
In their success alone rests the only hope
of our country. They will be as truthful, as
necessary to the existence of a Republican
form of government and as beneficial to the
cause of civil liberty, when johnson is dead
and forgotten as they are now. 1t is to
them that the great masses of the people
should be pointed around them that we
sholffd rally the hosts that are battling for
self-gOvernment and the supremacy of the
white race, and by showing how much the
future prosperity of our country depends
upon their success, gather from our oppo-
nents strength to make them triumphant.


We must remember that President John
son has not yet determined to act with the
Democratic party We must recollect that
he attained his present position by advocat-
ing doctrines entirely the reverse of ours;
and that at this tire it is only upon a few
particular issues that his policy is consist
ent with our principles, while upon others
he differs as widely from us, as does Sum-
ner Greely or Stevens. 1t is has policy
that he is pursuing, not ours, has notion that
leads him not our principles 4; and Il Is to
carry out some peculiar idea of his own
perhaps to build himself up party of which
he shall be the acknowledged head-that in
duces him to pursue the course he does. And
are we, as a political organization ready to be-
come the followers of any iadtUidudt7 Are
we ready to play Second fiddle to any
other party that may spring up In opposi-
ton to puritan abolitionism? II not, let us
stand By tie traditions of Democracy and
strengthen our party, through the advocacy
of right principles, rather than on the ground
that we are the endorsers of President John
son.-DemOcrdtic W0tchmGn.