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Show A SENSIBLE VIEW. ; The Depew-Grant-Johnson controversy controver-sy continues to be much discussed. The San Francisco Post, a Republican paper, of Monday last has some very sensible remarks to make on the subject, and we give them below." In passing.we will say the Post is altogether too good and sensible sensi-ble a journal to be a Republican paper : Depew's story of his interview with Grant as to the contemplated treason of President Johnson has been received by the press with almost universal incredulity. There is a natural unwillingness to believe that a man who held so great a place could have been guilty of so great a crime as is now charged against him. It is no wonder that opium has been brought into the case to explain a folly so unspeakable as that which Depew imputes to Lincoln's successor. It is well to recall facts" in Johnson's career in forming a judgment upon this charge of disloyalty. It must be remembered remem-bered that he had been a Breckinridge JJemocrat, a Southern roan and a slave-, holder. He was a Republican only in his opposition -to secession; and, in this opposition, oppo-sition, he showed the most undoubted courage cour-age and patnotisnvbraving the hostility of bis neighbors in Tennessee, and suffering the loss of his slaves and the destmctionof his property. His prominence as a, defender de-fender of the Union cause made him an available candidate for Vice President, as a representative war Democrat. His services were great at a very critical time, and these services, together with his unswerving opposition oppo-sition to secession throughout the war, should not be forgotten in weighing the seri-I seri-I ous accusation that Depew made against his i memory. There is enough publicly known to erplain I most of Johnson's acts preceding the im- peaohment trial. At the close of the war Uiere was a very prevalent belief that the Republican party, having "fulfilled its mis- mon its reason for existing having "ceased j it would pass away as an organization, i Inat this was a serious political blunder tame has fully proven. It was thought that the "solid South"-then a reality, if not yet ! so named-united with the Democratic party of theorthand a considerable defection . , iuuhiu pny or tnose who had sraaply opposed secession and slavery, would rule the country, and Johnson endeavored to 2Sa 8w, X pSXf'- rant recently said thafrthe admission of the seceding States on the ante bellum terms would hare Men equivalent to the victors handing over the results of victory to the conquered. Indeed, In-deed, under- the effects of "my policy" as Johnson was won't to speak of it, the South would have returned with an increased representation, rep-resentation, due to. the freeing of the ne- : groes then not yet made voters who as ! slaves had been counted only as three for every five on the calculation f or political representation. There is such a misfortune as having too much foresight seeing a thing which is to happen so clearly as to underes-tamate underes-tamate the time necessary to bring it about. Within a few years the "solid South" did succed in making itself felt, firstly, by gaining gain-ing a majority in the House, then for a time in the Senate, and finally almost electing the President in 1876. The effort to form a new party on Johnson's theory was made at the Philadelphia convention of August 14, 1866, which was said to have been inspired by Seward, Sew-ard, and which ultimately led to the nomination nomi-nation of Greeley and his disastrous defeat. The Independent Republicans who were the"Mugwumps of those days not only grossly overestimated the defection from the Republican ranks, but relied too much upon the magnanimity of the Southern Democrats. Demo-crats. The Greeley campaign was the ignominious igno-minious end of the proposed third party, . the glories of which Johnson thought he foresaw -- . ; Johnson's acts no doubt constituted treason trea-son to the party which had -elected him to the Vice Residency, but that the sturdy Unionist, who fought back the mob single handed in Tennessee, and submitted to exile and loss in the darkest hour of the cause, intended to use force of arms to establish his own control over the War Department for the purpose of surrendering to the power of the prostrate Confederacy, the country will not believe, unless Colonel Fred Grant can produce the documentary evidence of the fact, which he says he possesses. |