Moses and John Tyler
Many of the Democratic
managers are making the most elaborate efforts to allure the President from the party
which elected him, which has steadily supported him, and which has shown its undiminished
unity and power in the Autumn elections. They hope to accomplish this result by approving
what they suppose to be his policy, absolutely and without criticism. Unluckily for the
ingenious operators, they forget that the approval of the President by the Democratic
Conventions elsewhere than in New York has been very conditional, and by no means of that
hearty and wholesale character which is desirable for the success of the plot.Why the President should suppose that the party
which carried on the war, and which is unbroken, should be unable to complete its work the
Democratic doctors do not say. Why Andrew Johnson should imagine that the builders of the
Chicago platform share his earnest convictions upon the questions arising from the war, in
which he was so conspicuous a figure, and was so heartily denounced by those architects,
they also fail to inform us. And why a sensible President of the United States, with his
eyes open, should be expected deliberately to walk into the position which John Tyler
alone occupies in the history of the United States, they also discreetly refrain from
saying. John Tyler was a Whig who ratted to the Democrats upon becoming President, and was
as much respected by them as by those he deserted. What public career in this country was
more pitiable than his? What other public mans name has passed into a word
expressing so weak and abortive an act? John Tyler "tylerized" to secure a
second term. He lost the second term, and gained universal derision. Mr. Johnson is not an
old man, but he is quite old enough to remember vividly the public career of John Tyler.
The alliance which the Democratic party
contemplates is with their ancient friends in the late rebel States. They were formerly
also the political friends of the President. But he parted with them in the winter of
1860-61. He expressed his views of what their fate should be both in the Senate at that
time and in the White House in the spring of 1865. He now says to them that if they will
abolish slavery they may present amended State Constitutions for the consideration of
Congress. But if Congress objects to any of them because of their not being truly
republican and as holding the seeds of infinite future trouble, do the Democratic doctors
oppose that the President is going with Wade Hampton and Horatio Seymour against Congress
and the great body of loyal citizens who carried the war through to the end, and who stand
together to secure the results of the war? Even if, as some Democratic organs openly
stated before beginning to praise him, the President is anxious for a second term, is he
likely to see his way to it more clearly under the auspices of the residuary legatees of
the Chicago platform and of the Rebellion than under those of the great national party
with which he has fought the good fight, and is still fighting it?
Andrew Johnson told the colored men of
Tennessee that he would be their Moses. Events have made him the Moses of the whole
country. We doubt if he will desert that part for the role of John Tyler.
Articles related to Johnson's Early
Presidency:
President
Johnsons Amnesty Proclamation
June 10, 1865, page 355
Pardon-Seekers at the
White House
October 14, 1865, page 641
General Logan upon
Reorganization
September 20, 1865, page 611
The Presidents
Experiment
September 30, 1865, page 610
Moses and John Tyler
October 7, 1865, page 627
The Presidents
Fidelity
December 9, 1865, page 771
The Presidents
"Friends"
November 4, 1865, page 691
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