A good story of an American Republican's bitterness of heart
towards Mr. Johnson is going about. The legend goes that our new Ambassador, Mr. Thornton, before his departure for the States, having praised Mr. Johnson's firmness to the Yankee, who evidently did not see it, lowered his tone, and said, "Well, at any rate, you must admit that he is a completely self made man ;" to which the Yankee replied, with a grave piety that was almost fervent, "I hope so, indeed, for it would relieve the Almighty of an awful responsibility." There is an unfathomable depth of bitterness in that rejoinder that goes far out of the bounds of philosophical ideas, but oddly enough it might be the exact truth. Mr. Johnson—so far as he is what excites all this bitter indigna- tion at the North,—might be really a self-made man,—a man,
that is, made what he is by innumerable acts of immoral free-will running counter to his conscience and the highest spirit within him, foi which his nature and character, as given him by God, would be in no way responsible. Of course, that is not at all morally likely, but it is quite morally possible.
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