ast gust of passion intellectually upsets, he is
incapable of looking at anything out of relations to himself,--of
regarding it from that neutral ground which is the condition of
intelligent discussion between opposing minds. In truth, he makes a
virtue of being insensible to the evidence of facts and the deductions
of reason, proclaiming to all the world that he has taken his position,
that he will never swerve from it, and that all statements and arguments
intended to shake his resolves are impertinences, indicating that their
authors are radicals and enemies of the country. He is never weary of
vaunting his firmness, and firmness he doubtless has, the firmness of at
least a score of mules; but events have shown that it is a different
kind of firmness from that which keeps a statesman firm to his
principles, a political leader to his pledges, a gentleman to his word.
Amid all changes of opinion, he has been conscious of unchanged will,
and the intellectual element forms so small a portion of his being,
that, when he challenged "the man, woman, or child to come forward" and
convict him of inconstancy to his professions, he knew that, however it
might be with the rest of mankind, he would himself be unconvinced by
any evidence which the said man, woman, or child might adduce. Again,
when he was asked by one of his audiences why he did not hang Jeff
Davis, he retorted by exclaiming, "Why don't you ask me why I have not
hanged Thad Stevens and Wendell Phillips? They are as much traitors as
Davis." And we are almost charitable enough to suppose that he saw no
difference between the moral or legal treason of the man who for four
years had waged open war against the government of the United States,
and the men who for one year had sharply criticised the acts and
utterances of Andrew Johnson. It is not to be expected that nice
distinctions will be made by a magistrate who is in the habit of denying
indisputable facts with the fury of a pugilist who has received a
personal affront, and of announcing demonstrated fallacies with the
imperturbable serenity of a philosopher proclaiming the fundamental laws
of human belief. His brain is entirely ridden by his will, and of all
the public men in the country its official head is the one whose opinion
carries with it the least intellectual weight. It is to the credit of
our institutions and our statesmen that the man least qualified by
largeness of mind and moderation of temper to exerci