itutional magistrate, that he could
have obtained the opportunity to misrule the nation only by a visitation
of Providence. Insincere as well as stubborn, cunning as well as
unreasonable, vain as well as ill-tempered, greedy of popularity as well
as arbitrary in disposition, veering in his mind as well as fixed in his
will, he unites in his character the seemingly opposite qualities of
demagogue and autocrat, and converts the Presidential chair into a stump
or a throne, according as the impulse seizes him to cajole or to
command. Doubtless much of the evil developed in him is due to his
misfortune in having been lifted by events to a position which he lacked
the elevation and breadth of intelligence adequately to fill. He was
cursed with the possession of a power and authority which no man of
narrow mind, bitter prejudices, and inordinate self-estimation can
exercise without depraving himself as well as injuring the nation.
Egotistic to the point of mental disease, he resented the direct and
manly opposition of statesmen to his opinions and moods as a personal
affront, and descended to the last degree of littleness in a political
leader,--that of betraying his party, in order to gratify his spite. He
of course became the prey of intriguers and sycophants,--of persons who
understand the art of managing minds which are at once arbitrary and
weak, by allowing them to retain unity of will amid the most palpable
inconsistencies of opinion, so that inconstancy to principle shall not
weaken force of purpose, nor the emphasis be at all abated with which
they may bless to-day what yesterday they cursed. Thus the abhorrer of
traitors has now become their tool. Thus the denouncer of Copperheads
has now sunk into dependence on their support. Thus the imposer of
conditions of reconstruction has now become the foremost friend of the
unconditioned return of the Rebel States. Thus the furious Union
Republican, whose harangues against his political opponents almost
scared his political friends by their violence, has now become the
shameless betrayer of the people who trusted him. And in all these
changes of base he has appeared supremely conscious, in his own mind, of
playing an independent, a consistent, and especially a conscientious
part.

Indeed, Mr. Johnson's character would be imperfectly described if some
attention were not paid to his conscience, the purity of which is a
favorite subject of his own discourse, and the perversity