A day or two afterwards Mr. Johnson addressed a deputation
of soldiers and sailors to nearly the same effect, but with much more ferocity of expression. The " train of calumniators, slan- derers, and traducers were always snapping at his heels "—but he would live them down. The object of the war was not to destroy States, but " to preserve in the States the Union of the States," and their representatives, unless individually excluded as traitors, ought to be readmitted. He relied on those who had fought in the war, and who understood present circumstances better than these " closet patriots." In any other country the speech would have been regarded as an appeal to the artily against the people, but American Presidents do not and cannot regard the soldiery as a class, and the most important part of the speech was therefore the demand—for it was little less—for there-entrance of the South. Mr. Johnson subsequently told a deputation of negro soldiers that he was the true friend of the negro, a declaration he often makes, and which means, we believe, just this. He believes that if the negro is made really free, the white will kill him, and thinks serfage more beneficial to the negro than extermination.
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