E 
 
 667 
 
. 
 
 
 
 
LIFE AND SPEECHES 
 
 Or PRESIDENT 
 
 .NDREW JOHNSON. 
 
 LMBRACIXG 
 
 IIS EARLY HISTORY, POLITICAL CAREER, SPEECHES, 
 PROCLAMATIONS, ETC, 
 
 SKETCH OF THE SECESSION MOVEMENT, AND HIS 
 COURSE IN EELATION THERETO; 
 
 ALSO HIS POLICY AS 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 BY G. W. BACON. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LIFE OP ABRAHAM LiTfcoLir," " GUIDE TO 
 
 POLITICS," ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 BACON AND CO., 
 
 UBLISHERS AND AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS, 
 48, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 [The Author reserves the Eight of Translation.] 
 

 *W r , 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 His parentage and early history Death of his father Apprentice 
 ship Lack of education Learns the alphabet Becomes a 
 student Eemoves to South Carolina Emigrates to Tennessee, 
 where he continues to exercise his trade Becomes Alderman 
 of Greenville State Legislator in the Lower Ilouse ; in the 
 Upper Elected Member of Congress Twice Governor of 
 Tennessee Becomes L T nited States Senator Opposition to 
 Secession in the Senate Debate with Senator Hammond, of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON was born at Raleigh, the State 
 G pitol of North Carolina, on the 29th of Decem 
 ber, 1808. Of his family history it can only be 
 said that it belongs to the short and simple annals 
 of the poor." His father, a man in humble life, 
 died from the effects of over-fatigue and exposure, 
 incurred through exertion to save a friend from 
 drowning. Left in orphanage, and with no heritage 
 save those qualities of mind, which at last are as 
 
2 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 superior to mere dead accumulation as the living 
 fountain to the tank; a strong and well-balanced 
 intellect, untiring energy, and innate integrity, he 
 was thrown upon his own resources at the tender 
 age of ten years. His father being dead, and his 
 mother entirely dependent for support upon her own 
 unaided labour, she apprenticed Andrew to a tailor 
 in his native city. He remained with his master 
 seven years, working steadily through the term of 
 his indenture. Owing partly to the poverty of his 
 family, and partly to the entire want of common 
 school facilities, which then, even more than now, 
 characterized the State of North Carolina, Johnson s 
 early education was totally neglected ; indeed, he 
 never attended school a day in his life. Yet, 
 like all whose names become familiar to the 
 world, he ever had within him a latent yet burning 
 desire to Imow. This thirst for knowledge, in his 
 case, was developed by a very simple incident. A 
 benevolent gentleman of Raleigh was in the habit 
 of going into the shop in which Johnson worked as 
 apprentice, and reading to the journeymen while 
 they plied the needle. He was an excellent reader, 
 and his favourite book, a volume of speeches, prin 
 cipally of British Statesmen, doubtless chimed 
 with the latent oratorical proclivities of our subject. 
 At least Andrew became deeply interested, and his 
 ambition* the first of his life was roused to equal 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 3 
 
 the gentleman as a reader, and to master the con 
 tents of that book. His first work was to learn the 
 alphabet. This, with some assistance from his 
 fellow-workmen, he soon accomplished. He now 
 applied for a loan of the book which had so capti 
 vated his fancy. The owner not only made him a 
 present of it, but good naturedly gave him some 
 instruction on the use of letters in the formation of 
 words. His first exercises in spelling were in that 
 book. Thus, in his rugged path to knowledge, he 
 was compelled to leap over that very broad chasm 
 between a knowledge of letters and reading, which 
 in the orthodox educational course is generally 
 spanned with the aid of Dilworth or Webster. By 
 dint of that toughness and energy of brain, which 
 afterwards served him in more important matters, 
 he soon overcame this obstacle, and in due time 
 learned to read. He now became an earnest and 
 intense student, snatching for study the hours of 
 rest and recreation. After ten, and often twelve, 
 hours of exhausting labour upon the shop-board, he 
 yet found time for four or five hours of reading. 
 
 Having completed his term of apprenticeship in 
 the autumn of 1824, he went to Lauren s Court- 
 House, South Carolina, where he worked as a jour 
 neyman for nearly two years. While residing in 
 that village he became engaged to be married, but 
 objections were raised by the family of the girl on 
 
4 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 the score of youth and want of means in the suitor, 
 and the match was broken off. 
 
 After returning to Raleigh, and living there for 
 a brief period, he set out in September, 1823, to 
 seek his fortune in the West, accompanied by his 
 mother, who was now dependent on him for sup 
 port. He selected Greenville, a small town in East 
 Tennessee, for his future home, and commenced 
 work there as journeyman. After remaining in 
 that place a year, he went further westward in 
 search of a better locality for his trade, but failing 
 to satisfy himself in this particular, he returned to 
 Greenville, and commenced business. During the 
 first year of his residence in Greenville he had the 
 good fortune to marry an intelligent and estimable 
 woman, who from the first exercised a benign in 
 fluence on his future destiny. From her he obtained 
 the nearest approach to instruction that it had been 
 his lot to enjoy. She aided him in completing the 
 acquisition of those rudiments of knowledge which 
 he had commenced to master while tailor s appren 
 tice. He now learned to write, and soon added a 
 respectable store of miscellaneous information in 
 other branches. He was not long in putting his 
 late acquired culture to use. In five years from the 
 time he set foot in Greenville he entered into the 
 arena of public life. 
 
 A better political field for the "unaccredited 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 5 
 
 hero" certainly could not have been selected than 
 that region in which Mr. Johnson made his start in 
 life. Bast Tennessee was and is the social antipode 
 of North and South Carolina. Traversed by the 
 Blue Eidge Mountains, a spur of the magnificent 
 Alleghanies, it is a thoroughly Alpine region, both 
 physically and socially. The people are primitive, 
 honest, thrifty, warm-hearted, and exuberantly hos 
 pitable. Without great pretensions to learning and 
 science they are nearly all possessed of a good 
 English education. Though in the heart of the 
 slaveholding States, East Tennessee possessed but 
 few slaves; their numbers being scarcely in the 
 proportion of one in twenty of the whole popula 
 tion. There was, therefore, no slaveocracy in the 
 country in which Mr. Johnson now made his first 
 essay in political life, sufficiently powerful to mono 
 polize offices of honour and profit. Tet even in the 
 unpretending little town of Greenville there was the 
 germ of an aristocratic clique which struggled feebly 
 and ineffectually to resist the democratic influences 
 of the country. It was against this straggling off 
 shoot of the Southern oligarchy that Mr. Johnson 
 first tried his strength. The circumstances under 
 which he was first chosen to office are thus related 
 by one of his early associates* : 
 
 * This incident was communicated to the author by Alexander 
 Hawthorne, Esq., now of El Paso, Illinois. 
 
6 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 " While residing during the year 1828 in the village 
 of Greenville, East Tennessee, I made the acquaintance 
 of Andy Johnson, an industrious tailor, whose little 
 shop, a twelve feet by twelve log cabin, had gradually 
 become the resort in leisure hours of the young men of 
 the village. Such gatherings were generally the occa 
 sion of such boisterous merriment as would, with most 
 minds, have made serious mental occupation utterly 
 impossible. Andy, however, neither lost his temper nor 
 suspended his twofold employment of sewing and read 
 ing ; but no matter how great the surrounding distrac 
 tion, always exhibited the same good-natured impertur 
 bability, smiling good-naturedly at the sallies of humour 
 as if he heard and appreciated all. There he would sit 
 reading and sewing; the moment the needle passed 
 through the cloth, his eye would return to the book, and 
 anon to the needle again ; and so, enter when you would, 
 it was ever the same determined read and sew, and sew 
 and read. His sober industry and intelligence won the 
 favour of the grave and sedate, and his genial tolerance 
 of the jovial groups which frequented his shop, secured 
 him unbounded popularity with the yonng men of the 
 place. The latter determined to give their favourite 
 substantial proof of their admiration by electing him to 
 the office of alderman. A dozen of us accordingly met 
 one Saturday evening (election day being the following 
 Monday) at the counting-room where I was employed, 
 and there made up our ticket. The first name we put 
 down for alderman was Andy Johnson, the rest were 
 soon selected, and as there was no printing office in the 
 place we wrote out the ballots. We resolved to keep 
 everything secret until Monday morning, then we went 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 7 
 
 to the polls and worked for our candidates. Our whole 
 ticket was elected by a sweeping majority, and Andy 
 was then, with the others, installed, and held his office 
 with great credit to himself and much benefit to the 
 town." 
 
 After being twice re-elected to that office, 
 he was in 1830 chosen mayor, which posi 
 tion he held for three yearsj In 1835 Mr. John 
 son was elected member of the State Legislature 
 for the connty of his residence. He was at that 
 time just twenty-seven years of age. That even 
 at this early epoch of his history he must have 
 manifested talents above the common level, is 
 shown by the fact of his nomination for Speaker 
 of the House. He had, heretofore, acted with the 
 Whigs, but in 1839 he gave in his adhesion to the 
 Democratic party. But he was aJDemocrat^in a much 
 larger sense than that in which the term is under- ) 
 stood in America. With him it signified something/ 
 more than opposition to a national bank, and tol 
 a protective tariff and internal improvements by I 
 the general government. He was ever in favour of 
 extending the rights of the people, and increasing 
 the direct responsibility of government to the 
 peqple. From the very commencement of his 
 public life he raised his voice in indignant protest, 
 against the political encroachments of the slave-/ 
 holders, who had partially succeeded in erecting an 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 aristocracy in the very midst of the Kepublic. In 
 :834, when the State Constitution was undergoing 
 ^vision and amendment, he had used his influence 
 I feeble then in abrogating the three-fifths rules 
 )f representation ; and again, during his last 
 jrm in the Legislature, he made a similar at 
 tempt. 
 
 It is well-known that the Slave States at the 
 time of the formation of the Federal Constitution, 
 made it an indispensable condition of their accession 
 to the Union that their slaves should form a part 
 of the basis of representation, and that owing to 
 the absolute necessity of securing this additional 
 strength to the infant confederacy, the point was 
 yielded. Thus the only exception made to the 
 utter exclusion of property as a force in the 
 American National Legislature was made in favour 
 of property in man. It is not so generally known 
 that a similar anomaly was grafted on the local Con 
 stitutions of all the Slave States, with possibly one 
 or two exceptions. This feature of the Slave State 
 politics was not, however, always peacefully acqui 
 esced in, and even in South Carolina about twenty 
 years since, so formidable an opposition was aroused 
 against it in the northern part of the State that the 
 low-country planters were forced to seek refuge in 
 compromise. So immense had been the growth of 
 the slave power since that date, that Mr. Johnson s 
 
LIFE OF PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 9 
 
 attempt in the same direction in 1840 failed even in 
 the Border State of Tennessee. 
 
 Hitherto Mr. Johnson s political aspirations had/\ 
 been confined to the narrow arena of his own State. 
 His debut into Federal politics dates from the pre 
 sidential contest between General Harrison and 
 Martin Van Buren in 1840, when, in the capacity of 
 elector, he canvassed a large portion of Tennessee. 
 In this campaign some of the best oratorical talent 
 of the West canvassed that State in support of the 
 Whig candidate Harrison; and the boldness and 
 skill which Mr. Johnson, then young and compara 
 tively unknown, displayed in grappling with the 
 prestige and experience of his veteran adversaries, 
 greatly extended his reputation as a debater, and 
 already marked him as a man of promise. * 
 
 Mr. Johnson continued in the State Legislature 
 until 1843, when he was elected a member of 
 Congress. A striking proof of the confidence 
 reposed by his constituents in his integrity and 
 ability as a statesman, is found in the fact that for 
 ten years he continued, by successive re-elections, 
 to represent the Congressional district in which he 
 resided in East Tennessee. Steadily advancing in 
 his political career, he quickly rose to positions of 
 yet greater dignity and responsibility. In 1853 he 
 was elected Governor of Tennessee. Again in 
 1855 he was re-elected to the same office, which he 
 
10 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 filled until 1857, when he was chosen to a seat in 
 the United States Senate. The main features of 
 the early part of Mr. Johnson s Congressional career 
 are his opposition to a protective tariff, and his 
 earnest advocacy of the Homestead Bill. In 1855 
 he also strongly opposed the newly-formed " Know- 
 Nothing" party, whose principal design was the 
 restriction of the elective franchise to native 
 citizens. As a Democrat he was, of course, equally 
 hostile to the establishment of a United States 
 bank, all schemes of internal improvement by Con 
 gress, and, in short, every effort at investing the 
 general government with the attributes of a quasi- 
 parental authority to enable it to encourage and foster 
 commerce or manufactures.^ He was opposed to 
 governing overmuch in a Republic, and believed that 
 the " let alone" policy should pervade legislation in 
 all measures, not excepting those which pertained to 
 slavery. In common with the body of the Demo 
 cracy, North and South, he also maintained the doc 
 trine of the utter incompetency of Congress, under 
 the Constitution, to legislate upon the domestic in 
 stitutions of the States, either by way of changing, 
 abolishing, or preventing (by direct enactment) 
 their extension over the territories^ Accordingly 
 we find him voting in 1845 for the annexation of 
 
 O 
 
 Texas, which he, moreover, thought it probable would 
 prove to be the gateway out of which the sable 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 11 
 
 sons of Africa are to pass from bondage to freedom, 
 and become merged in a population congenial to 
 themselves/ Subsequently, basing his course on 
 the same idea of lack of power in the general 
 government, he supported the memorable compro 
 mise measures of 1850. For the benefit of those 
 Jiot specially conversant with American politics, 
 a brief statement of. the nature of this compro 
 mise may be acceptable, as well as necessary in 
 tracing satisfactorily the history of Mr. Johnson s 
 political creed. 
 
 The immediate occasion of the introduction of 
 the bill upon which was based the law known as the 
 Compromise of 1850, was the conquest of certain 
 territory from Mexico. The question arose, even 
 before the end of the Mexican war, whether that 
 territory should be devoted to slavery or freedom ? 
 The Abolitionists, as well as many Northern 
 Whigs the Kepublican party, eo nomine, not having 
 then been formed were in favour of excluding 
 slavery, by act of Congress, from the whole area ; 
 the Southern and great part of the Northern Demo 
 crats held that Congress had no right to inter 
 meddle with the question at all, while the extreme 
 pro-slavery Democrats claimed that slavery should be 
 admitted and protected in that as in all the common 
 territory. The bill referred to adopted middle 
 ground, proposing to leave the question to the 
 
12 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 people of the territories, or, in other words, to 
 admit the new States without reference to the ques 
 tion of slavery. Other provisions of great import 
 ance were incorporated in the bill, of which it will 
 suffice to name two. 
 
 Of these, one known afterwards as the Fugitive- 
 Slave Law, rendered more efficient the constitu 
 tional guarantee in regard to the rendition of ab 
 sconding Southern slaves, and the other abolished 
 the slave trade in the district of Columbia. Mr. 
 Johnson, in common with the mass of his party, 
 supported all these measures except the last. 
 He was not a member of Congress at the time 
 of the passage of the famous Kansas Nebraska 
 Act of 1856, but was known to favour that adjust 
 ment. This law only reiterated in more distinct 
 and unmistakable terms the proposition affirmed in 
 the Compromise of 1850 namely, that the choice 
 and formation of their own domestic institutions, 
 slavery included, should be left to the people most 
 interested; in other words, the inhabitants them 
 selves of the incipient States. It was but the 
 assertion and application of that broad Democratic 
 principle of self-government of which the subject 
 of this sketch had all his life been the earnest and 
 laborious advocate. There was one extension, one 
 application of this maxim which neither he nor any 
 other Southern statesman had attained. He had not 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 13 
 
 yet been able to leap the barrier of life-long habit. 
 The prejudices of early association early education 
 he had not still blinded him to the glaring incon 
 sistency of complete and perfect franchisement of 
 the white, but total abnegation of even the lowest 
 and most obvious rights to the black ! Not least 
 among the many benefits springing from the blood- 
 sodden soil of the American Revolution is the intel 
 lect-awakening, soul-untrammeling influence which 
 it has exerted, and will continue to exert, upon men 
 like Andrew Johnson, whose large and benevolent 
 minds have heretofore been dwarfed of their fair 
 proportions by the deadening incubus of an insti 
 tution at war with all the upward and progressive 
 tendencies of human nature. Mr. Johnson, how 
 ever, had never belonged to the Calhoun school of 
 slavery advocates. Even before the commencement 
 of the secession movement, at least before any 
 actual withdrawal had occurred, the future President 
 gave a very clear indication that he would never 
 consent to fraternize with that rapidly-growing 
 pro-slavery clique, which propounded the essential 
 righteousness of slavery in and for itself. That 
 doctrine he considered inconsistent with the prin 
 ciples of free government, and the boldly-uttered 
 sentiments of its leading advocates confirmed him 
 in the opinion. A social oligarchy was, indeed, 
 already fast forming in the South. Such men as 
 
14 LIFE OP PEESIDENT JOHNSON". 
 
 Rhett, Yancey, Hammond, and Benjamin, had thrown 
 off the mask of Democracy, and openly denounced 
 free institutions and free labour without reference 
 to race. They held that all bodily labour is slavery 
 except in name, and hinted that it would be better 
 if the masses everywhere, without reference to 
 colour, were placed in a position where contentment 
 should take the place of dangerous aspirations. In 
 short, negro slavery had revolutionized opinion in the 
 Cotton States. This iniquitous system had reacted 
 upon the people among whom it subsisted, and 
 resulted in the development among Southern planters 
 of more than patrician pride and exclusiveness. In 
 the very temple of freedom they had erected an 
 altar to slavery. 
 
 Such was the reductio ad absurdum to which the 
 infatuated advocates of slavery at last carried their 
 favourite theory. So madly enraptured were they 
 with this new hypothesis that it bereft them of 
 common prudence as well as consistency. They 
 were not satisfied to retain this odious doctrine 
 for the exclusive edification of the chosen hier 
 archy of slavery, but persisted in publishing it 
 before that very democracy which they held inca 
 pable of handling social questions of such mighty 
 import. The doctrine was industriously circulated 
 in almost every periodical, and ventilated in every 
 important debate. It startled and alarmed many 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 15 
 
 even in the South, but the hardihood to meet 
 and combat this unexpected assault by Democrats 
 upon the great principle of Democracy, was only 
 found in, here and there, a solitary individual of 
 courage as inflexible as his principles. Andrew 
 Johnson was one of these. An occasion arose soon 
 after his election in 185^^the Senate, to define 
 his position, and thus free himself and the Demo 
 cratic party from all complicity in such sentiments. 
 In the spring of 1858, during one of those prelusive 
 debates on the relative resources of the two sections, 
 in which North and South, like two trenchant 
 champions, sought to intimidate each the other with 
 much display of superabundant vigour, Senator 
 Hammond, of South Carolina, after exhausting the 
 statistical topics common on those occasions, pro 
 ceeded to exhibit the superiority of his section from 
 a moral point of view. For " the greatest strength 
 of the South," he averred, " arises from the harmony 
 of her political and social institutions." To enable 
 the reader to understand and appreciate the ap 
 propriateness, pith, and manly vigour of Mr. John 
 son s reply, we will give a brief extract of Senator 
 Hammond s remarks : 
 
 " In all social systems there must be a class to do 
 the menial duties, to peform the drudgery of life ; , that 
 is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect, and but 
 
16 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 little skill. Its requisites are vigour, docility, fidelity. 
 Such a class you must have, or you would not have 
 that other class which leads progress, civilization, and 
 refinement. It constitutes the very mud- sill of society 
 and of political government ; and you might as well 
 attempt to build a house in the air as to build either 
 the one or the other, except on this mud-sill. Fortu 
 nately for the South, she found a race adapted to that 
 purpose to her hand. A race inferior to her own, but 
 eminently qualified in temper, in vigour, in docility, in 
 capacity to stand the climate, to answer all her pur 
 poses. We use them for our purpose, and call them 
 slaves. We found them slaves by the common consent 
 of mankind, which, according to Cicero, lex naturae, est. 
 The highest proof of what is Nature s law. We are 
 old-fashioned at the South yet ; it is a word discarded 
 now by ears polite ; I will not characterize that class 
 at the North with that term ; but you have it ; it is 
 there it is everywhere it is eternal. 
 
 " The Senator from New York said yesterday that 
 the whole world had abolished slavery. By, the name, 
 but not the tiling ; all the powers of the earth cannot 
 abolish that. God only can do it when He repeals the 
 fiat, l the poor ye always have with you ; for the man 
 who lives by daily labour, and scarcely lives at that, 
 and who has to put out his labour in the market, and 
 take the best he can get for it ; in short, your whole 
 hireling class of manual labourers and operatives, as 
 you call them, are essentially slaves. The difference 
 between us is, that our slaves are hired for life, and well 
 compensated ; there is no starvation, no begging, no 
 want of employment among our people, and not too 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 17 
 
 much employment either. Yours are hired by the day, 
 not cared for, and scantily compensated, which may be 
 proved in the most painful manner, at any hour, in any 
 street, in any of your large towns. Why, you meet 
 more beggars in one day, in any single street of the city 
 of New York, than you would meet in a lifetime in the 
 whole South. We do not think that whites should be 
 slaves either by law or necessity. 
 
 " Our slaves are black, of another and inferior race. 
 The status in which we have placed them is an eleva 
 tion. They are elevated from the condition in which 
 God first created them, by being made our slaves. None 
 of that race on the whole face of the globe can be com 
 pared with the slaves of the South. They are happy, 
 content, unaspiring, and utterly incapable, from intel 
 lectual weakness, ever to give us any trouble by their 
 aspirations. Yours are white, of your own race ; you 
 are brothers of one blood. They are your equals in 
 natural endowment of intellect, and they feel galled by 
 their degradation. Our slaves do not vote. We give 
 them no political power. Yours do vote, and being the 
 majority, they are the depositaries of all your political 
 power. If they knew the tremendous secret, that the 
 ballot-box is stronger than an army with banners, 
 and could combine, where would you be ? Your society 
 would be reconstructed, your government overthrown, 
 your property divided, not as they have mistakenly 
 attempted to initiate such proceedings, by meetings in 
 parks, with arms in their bands, but by the quiet pro 
 cess of the ballot-box. You have been making war 
 upon us to our very hearthstones. How would you like 
 for us to send lecturers and agitators North, to teach 
 
18 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 these people this, to aid in combining, and to lead 
 them? 
 
 " Mr. WILSON and others Send them along. 
 
 " Mr. HAMMOND You say send them along. There 
 is no need of that. Your people are awaking. They 
 are coming here. They are thundering at our doors for 
 homesteads, one hundred and sixty acres of land for 
 nothing, and Southern Senators are supporting them. 
 ]S"ay, they are assembling, as I have said, with arms in 
 their hands, and demanding work at 1000 dols. a year for 
 six hours a day. Have you heard that the ghosts of 
 Mendoza and Torquemada are stalking in the streets of 
 your great cities ? That the inquisition is at hand ? 
 There is afloat a fearful rumour that there have been 
 consultations for Vigilance Committees. You know 
 what that means. 
 
 Transient and temporary causes have thus far been 
 your preservation. The great West has been open to 
 your surplus population, and your hordes of semi-bar 
 barian immigrants, who are crowding in year by year. 
 They make a great movement, and you call it progress. 
 Whither ? It is progress ; but it is progress towards 
 Vigilance Committees. The South have sustained you 
 in a great measure. You are our factors. You bring 
 and carry for us. One hundred and fifty million dollars 
 of our money passes annually through your hands. 
 Much of it sticks ; all of it assists to keep your ma 
 chinery together and in motion. Suppose we were to 
 discharge you ; suppose we were to take our business 
 out of your hands ; we should consign you to anarchy 
 and poverty. 
 
 " You complain of the rule of the South : that has 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 19 
 
 been another cause that has preserved you. We have 
 kept the government conservative to the great purposes 
 of government. We have placed it, and kept it, 
 upon the Constitution ; and that has been the cause of 
 your peace and prosperity. The Senator from ISTew 
 York says that that is about to be at an end ; that you 
 intend to take the government from us ; that it will 
 pass from our hands. Perhaps what he says is true ; 
 it may be ; but do not forget it can never be forgotten 
 it is written on the brightest page of human history 
 that we, the slaveholders of the South, took our country 
 in its infancy, and, after ruling it for sixty out of the 
 seventy years of its existence, we shall surrender it 
 to you without a stain upon its honour, boundless in 
 prosperity, incalculable in strength, the wonder and 
 the admiration of the world. Time will show what you 
 will make of it ; but no time can ever diminish our 
 glory or your responsibility." 
 
 In striking contrast with the narrowness and acri 
 mony of Mr. Hammond s speech came Mr. Johnson s 
 reply, couched in the language of a wise modera 
 tion, and at once mildly rebuking and unmercifully 
 demolishing the heterodox and untenable positions 
 of the Southern aristocrat. The concluding portion 
 only is given : 
 
 " In this portion of the Senator s remarks I concur. 
 I do not think whites should be slaves ; and if slavery is 
 to exist in this country, I prefer black slavery to white 
 slavery. But what I want to get at is, to show that my 
 worthy friend from South Carolina should defend the 
 
 2 
 
29 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 homestead policy, and the impolicy of making the in- 
 vidions remarks that have been made here in reference 
 to a portion of the population of the United States. Mr. 
 President, so far as I am concerned, I feel that I can 
 afford to speak what are my sentiments. I am no aspirant 
 for anything on the face of God Almighty s earth. I have 
 reached the summit of my ambition. The acme of all 
 my hopes has been attained, and I would not give the 
 position I occupy here to-day for any other in the United 
 States. Hence I say I can afford to speak what I believe 
 to be true. 
 
 " In one sense of the term we are all slaves. A man 
 is a slave to his ambition ; he is a slave to his avarice ; 
 he is a slave to his necessities ; and, in enumerations of 
 this kind, you can scarcely find any man, high or low in 
 society, but who in some sense is a slave ; but they are 
 not slaves in the sense we mean at the South, and it will 
 not do to assume that every man who toils for his living- 
 is a slave. If that be so, all are slaves ; for all must toil 
 more or less, mentally or physically. But, in the other 
 sense of the term, we are not slaves. Will it do to 
 assume that the man who labours with his hands every 
 man who is an operative in a manufacturing establish 
 ment or a shop is a slave ? No, sir ; that will not do. 
 Will it do to assume that every man who does not own 
 slaves, but has to live by his own labour, is a slave r 
 That will not do. If this were true, it would be very 
 unfortunate for a good many of us, and especially so for 
 me. I am a labourer with my hands, and I never con 
 sidered myself a slave, in the acceptation of the term 
 slave in the South. I do own some ; I made them by 
 my industry, by the labour of my hands. In that sense 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 21 
 
 of the term I should have been a slave while I was earn 
 ing them with the labour of my hands. 
 
 " Mr. HAMMOND. "Will the Senator define a slave ? 
 
 " Mr. JOHNSOX, of Tennessee. What we understand 
 to be a slave in the South, is a person who is held to 
 service during his or her natural life, subject to, and 
 under the control of, a master who has the right to ap 
 propriate the products of his or her labour to his own 
 use. The necessities of life, and the various positions 
 in which a man may be placed, operated upon by avarice, 
 gain, or ambition, may cause him to labour ; but that 
 does not make a slave. How many men are there in 
 society who go out and work with their own hands, who 
 reap in the field, and mow in a meadow, who hoe corn, 
 who work in the shops ? Are they slaves ? If we were 
 to go back and follow out this idea, that every operative 
 and labourer is a slave, we should find that we have had 
 a great many distinguished slaves since the world com 
 menced. Socrates, who first conceived the idea of the 
 immortality of the soul, Pagan as he was, laboured with 
 his own hands yes, wielded the chisel and the mallet, 
 giving polish and finish to the stone ; he afterwards 
 turned to be a fashioner and constructor of the mind. 
 Paul, the great expounder, himself was a tent-maker, 
 and worked with "his hands : was he a slave ? Archi 
 medes, who declared that, if he had a place on which to 
 rest the fulcrum, with the power of his lever he could 
 move the world : was he a slave ? Adam, our great 
 father and head, the lord of the world, was a tailor by 
 trade : I wonder if he was a slave ? 
 
 " When we talk about labourers and operatives, look 
 at the columns that adorn this chamber, and see their 
 
22 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 finish and style. We are lost in admiration at the archi 
 tecture of your buildings, and their massive columns. 
 We can speak with admiration. What would it have 
 been but for hands to construct it ? Was the artisan 
 who worked upon it a slave ? Let us go to the South 
 and see how the matter stands there. Is every man that 
 is not a slaveholder to be denominated a slave because 
 he labours ? Why indulge in such a notion ? The 
 argument cuts at both ends of the line and this kind 
 of doctrine does us infinite harm in the South. There 
 are operatives there ; there are labourers there ; there 
 are mechanics there : are they slaves ? Who is it in 
 the South that gives us title and security to the institu 
 tion of slavery ? Who is it, let me ask every Southerner 
 around me ? Suppose, for instance, we take the State 
 of South Carolina and there are many things about her 
 and her people that I admire we find that the 384,984 
 slaves in South Carolina are owned by how many whites ? 
 they are owned by 25,556. Take the State of Tennes 
 see, with a population of 800,000 ; 239,000 slaves are 
 owned by 33,864 persons. The slaves in the State of 
 Alabama are owned by 29,295 whites. The whole num 
 ber of slaveholders in all the Slave States, when summed 
 up, makes 347,000, owning three and a half million 
 slaves. The white population in South Carolina is 
 274,000 ; the slaves greater than the whites. The 
 aggregate population of the State is 668,507. 
 
 " The operatives in South Carolina are 68,549. Now, 
 take the 25,000 slaveowners out, and a large propor 
 tion of the people of South Carolina work with their 
 hands. Will it do to assume that, in the State of South 
 Carolina, the State of Tennessee, the State of Alabama, 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 23 
 
 and the other slaveholding States, all those who do not 
 own slaves are slaves themselves ? Will this assump 
 tion do ? What does it do at home in our own States ? 
 It has a tendency to raise prejudice, to engender oppo 
 sition to the institution of slavery itself. Yet our own 
 folks will do it. 
 
 "Mr. MASON.* Will the Senator from Tennessee 
 allow me to interrupt him for a moment ? 
 
 "Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. 
 
 " Mr. MASON. The Senator is making an exhibition 
 of the very few slaveholders in the Southern States, in 
 proportion to the white population, according to the 
 census. That is an exhibition which has been made 
 before by Senators who sit on the other side of the 
 Chamber. They have brought before the American 
 people what they allege to be the fact, shown by the 
 census, that of the white population in the Southern 
 States, there are very few who are slaveholders. The 
 Senator from Tennessee is now doing the same thing. 
 I understand him to say there are but some I do not 
 remember exactly the numbers, but I think three hun 
 dred thousand or a fraction more of the whites in the 
 slaveholding States, who own three million slaves ; but 
 he made no further exposition. I ask the Senator to 
 Btate the additional fact that the holders of the slaves 
 are the heads of families of the white population ; and 
 neither that Senator nor those whose example he has fol 
 lowed on the other side has stated the fact that the white 
 population in the Southern States, as in the other States, 
 embraces men, women, and children. He has exhibited 
 only the number of slaveholders who are heads of families. 
 
 * J. M. Mason, " Confederate Commissioner" to England. 
 
24 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 " Mr. JOHNSON. I was stating the fact, that accord 
 ing to the census tables three hundred and forty- 
 seven thousand white persons owned the whole num 
 ber of slaves in the Southern States. I was about 
 to state that the families holding these slaves might 
 average six, or eight, or ten persons, all of whom are 
 interested in the products of slave labour, and many of 
 these slaves are held by minors and by females. I was 
 not alluding to the matter for the purpose the Senator 
 from Virginia seems to have intimated, and I should 
 have been much obliged to him if he had waited until he 
 heard my application of these figures. I was going to 
 show that expressions like those to which I have alluded 
 operate against us in the South, and I was following the 
 example of no one. I was taking these facts from the~\ 
 census tables, which were published by order of Con- / 
 gress, to show the bad policy and injustice of declaring \ 
 that the labouring portion of our population were slaves / 
 and menials. Such declarations should not be applied 1 
 to the people either North or South. I wished to say ) 
 in that connection, that, in my opinion, if a few men at 
 the North and at the South, who entertain extreme 
 views on the subject of slavery, and desire to keep up 
 agitation, were out of the way, the great mass of the 
 people, North and South, would go on prosperously and 
 harmoniously under our institutions." ^ 
 
 Meantime, Mr. Johnson intimates very plainly to 
 the extremists of his own party, among whom was 
 Mr. Hammond, that they need not count on him in 
 the revolutionary measures which they had already 
 predetermined. 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 6O 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Various Speeches in the Senate Crittenden s Resolutions Mr. 
 Johnson s plan of Pacification Progress of Secession Its 
 phase in Tennessee The coup d etat. 
 
 Two years after the debate above recounted, 
 the secession scheme was ripe. Most of the Gulf 
 States had, through their legislatures, pledged 
 themselves in advance to a declaration that the 
 election of a " black Republican " candidate to the 
 Presidency should be considered proof of a settled 
 design on the part of the people of the Northern 
 States to wage a perpetual conflict upon Southern 
 institutions, and resolutions were adopted making it 
 the duty of the governors of their respective States, 
 upon the happening of such an event, to forthwith 
 convene the legislatures for the purpose of devising 
 some adequate means of warding off its perils. This 
 important step effected, it only remained to ensure 
 the happening of the event ostensibly so much 
 dreaded, but secretly desired. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Freesoilers had received a 
 very great accession of strength from its coalition 
 with the Whigs thus forming the Republican party 
 no Southern politician entertained a doubt of the 
 ability of the Democratic party, should it continue 
 undivided, to prevent the election of a Republican 
 candidate ; and this confidence caused many to enter 
 
26 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 into the pledge of conditional secession just men 
 tioned who would otherwise have been far from 
 doing so. It was a part of the plan, however, that 
 the Democratic organization should be broken up. 
 Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, the originator of the 
 Kansas Nebraska Bill, and the great expounder and 
 advocate of the doctrine of popular sovereignty, as 
 the most prominent of the leaders of the Democratic 
 party, had heretofore been considered the most 
 eligible exponent of its principles in the coming 
 Presidential election. His nomination for the presi 
 dency had been tacitly or expressly agreed upon, and 
 had met almost universal approbation at the South. 
 His refusal to support the Kansas Lecompton 
 Constitution, and consequent misunderstanding 
 with Mr. Buchanan, had already injured his pro 
 spects, and the publication of his famous article in 
 <( Harper s Monthly Magazine" rendered the breach 
 with the extremists of his party complete. That 
 party, which had hitherto ignored, or conveniently 
 kept in the background the differences which, from 
 the compromise of 1850, had prevailed in its ranks 
 upon the subject of popular sovereignty, now broka 
 into open dissensions. And yet the point of differ 
 ence upon which the ultra wing of the party seceded 
 from the main body was so metaphysical, as to 
 strengthen the accusation of their opponents, that 
 they sought only a pretext to destroy the organiza- 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 27 
 
 tion. The Douglas Democrats held that the people 
 of a Territory, even before its admission as a State, 
 might keep slavery from their midst by refusing to 
 protect it ; but that this protection might be 
 attained by appealing in each particular case to the 
 United States courts, as in the Dred Scott decision. 
 The ultra, or Secession Democrats, on the other 
 hand, maintained that this question having once 
 been decided in the Dred Scott case, not only the 
 parties in that trial, but the Congress of the United 
 States through all time, were bound to legislate in 
 accordance with the decision, and protect slavery in 
 the Territories against the local courts and legis 
 latures. 
 
 The Democratic Convention assembled at Char 
 leston, South Carolina, on the 23rd of April, 1860, 
 and these two wings of the Democracy brought 
 forward two separate platforms, embodying the 
 conflicting views just described. The ultra, or pro- 
 slavery members found themselves in the minority, 
 withdrew from the body, and soon after nominated 
 a separate candidate in the person of John C. 
 Breckenridge. Meanwhile, the regular Convention, 
 after many ballotings during which Mr. Johnson, 
 among others, was put in nomination, and received 
 the entire vote of the Tennessee delegation united 
 upon Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 The Democratic party being thus shorn of half 
 
28 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 its strength, Mr. Lincoln s election was ensured. 
 Indeed, the secession leaders, assured of the result, 
 occupied the six months of the presidential canvass 
 not so much in attempting to affect its result, as in 
 secret preparations for precipitating the intended 
 revolution. 
 
 When Mr. Lincoln s election was announced in 
 the following November, everything was ripe, and 
 by a concerted movement the Cotton States with 
 drew almost simultaneously from the Union. With 
 the Cotton States, indeed, the leaders of the con 
 spiracy had but little difficulty ; but, when the last of 
 these had withdrawn from the Union, there was a 
 portentous lull. Notwithstanding the almost frantic 
 efforts of the ultra Democrats in the Border States, 
 these still sullenly stood aloof from all participation in 
 a movement which they wisely persisted in terming 
 precipitate and ill-advised. 
 
 Of all the Border States, that which Mr. Johnson 
 represented in the United States Senate namely, 
 Tennessee was perhaps the most opposed to a 
 dissolution of the Union. Unfortunately for that 
 State, however, Isham G. Harris, a Secessionist, at 
 that important crisis filled the office of Governor, 
 and he immediately inaugurated the movements 
 which had proved so successful in other States. He 
 issued an inflammatory appeal, in the shape of a 
 message, to the Legislature, urging the policy and 
 
LIFE OP PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 29 
 
 necessity of immediate co-operation with the other 
 Southern States, and recommending that a conven 
 tion of the people should be assembled to determine 
 upon the future course of the State. A preliminary 
 test vote was, however, allowed the people to decide 
 for themselves whether they would have such a con 
 vention. The people decided by an overwhelming 
 majority that it was needless to hold a convention. 
 This result did not take the Secessionists by sur 
 prise. Had it been at all probable that they could 
 count upon Tennessee, the question of " Secession 
 or no Secession " would have been put directly as it 
 was in other States ; but since a negative vote upon 
 this direct issue would have been, perhaps, final and 
 irrevocable, the policy of the course pursued is 
 obvious. The Eevolutionists had now satisfied 
 themselves that Tennessee was not to be withdrawn 
 from the Union by the ballot-box and ordinance 
 formula alone. A heroic remedy was required in 
 her case, and they determined in due time to 
 apply it. 
 
 In the meantime Andrew Johnson was battling 
 for the Union in the United States Senate. Had 
 he been in Tennessee at this juncture, he could have 
 done far more than any other man in that State in 
 the cause of moderation and peace. Whatever could 
 be done at a distance from the arena of the con 
 spiracy, by eloquent remonstrance, pathetic dis- 
 
30 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 suasion, and the force of distinguished example, he 
 did. On the occasion of the introduction of Mr. 
 Crittenden s resolutions,, December 19, 1860, for 
 an amendment of the constitution, Mr. Johnson 
 took emphatic ground against the right of seces 
 sion, and called for the employment of force in 
 upholding the laws. He said : 
 
 " The duties now are the same as in 1793 and 1832 ; 
 the consequences belong to God. He intended to dis 
 charge his duty, whatever the consequences may be. 
 Have we not the power to enforce the laws in the State 
 of South Carolina, as well as in the State of Vermont 
 or any other State ? And, notwithstanding they may 
 resolve and declare themselves absolved from all alle 
 giance to this Union, yet it does not save them from the 
 compact. If South Carolina drives out the Federal 
 Courts from the State, then the Federal Government 
 has a right to re-establish the Courts. If she excludes 
 the mails, the Federal Government has a right and the 
 authority to carry the mails. If she resists the collec 
 tion of revenue in the port of Charleston, or any other 
 ports, then the Government has a right to enter and 
 enforce the law. If she undertakes to take possession 
 of the property of the Government, the Government has 
 a right to take all means to retain that property. And 
 if they make any effort to dispossess the Government, 
 or to resist the execution of the judicial system, then 
 South Carolina puts herself in the wrong, and it is the 
 duty of the Government to see the judiciary faithfully 
 executed. Yes, sir, faithfully executed. In December, 
 1805, South Carolina made a deed of cession of the land 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 31 
 
 on which these forts stand a fall and free cession 
 with certain conditions, and has had possession of these 
 forts till this day. And, now, has South Carolina any 
 right to attempt to drive the Government from that 
 property ? If she secedes, and makes any attempt of 
 this kind, does she not come within the meaning of the 
 Constitution, where it speaks of levying war ? And in 
 levying war, she does what the Constitution declares to 
 be treason. We may as well talk of things as they are, 
 for if anything can be treason within the scope of the 
 Constitution, is not levying war upon the Government 
 treason ? Is not attempting to take the property of the 
 Government, and expel the Government soldiers there 
 from, treason ? Is not attempting to resist the collec 
 tion of the revenue, attempting to exclude the mails, 
 and driving the Federal court from her borders, treason ? 
 What is it ? I ask, in the name of the Constitution, 
 what is it ? It is treason, and nothing but treason." 
 
 ^ This speech caused Mr. Johnson to be assailed 
 with the utmost virulence, both by the secessionists 
 who still lingered in Congress and throughout the 
 seceded States. He was met with a shower of 
 taunts, hisses, reproaches, and, lastly, threats. He 
 was denounced by the Southern press as a traitor 
 who deserved nothing short of hanging, and, even 
 in his own State, Tennessee, was burnt in effigy.* 
 In fine, all the hackneyed artifices of terrorism were 
 brought to bear in order to bully him into a partici 
 pation with the conspiracy, or at least silence his 
 
 * At Memphis, December 22nd. 
 
32 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 opposition to it. The plan had succeeded with 
 thousands of loyal Southerners, who were left the 
 alternative of fleeing the country and thus leaving 
 their substance to be sequestered by the pseudo- 
 governments of the seceded States, or yielding a 
 pretended acquiescence in the rebellion. Andrew 
 Johnson was made of sterner material. Regardless 
 alike of taunts, vituperation, and menaces, he con 
 tinued to denounce secession as treason veiled in a 
 specious fallacy. On the 5th of February, 1861, he 
 again addressed the Senate in a most forcible and 
 vehement speech : 
 
 " In his former speech he had planted himself on the 
 Constitution, beside its fathers, and against the doctrine 
 of nullification and secession, which he considered to be 
 a national heresy. As far back as 1833 he had planted 
 himself on the same principles, and believed the doctrine 
 of secession to be a heresy, which, if sustained, would 
 lead to the destruction of the Government ; and he op 
 posed this doctrine to-day for the same reasons. He 
 believed that it would be the destruction also of any 
 Government which might be formed subsequently. He 
 looked upon this doctrine as a prolific political sin ; as a 
 production of anarchy, which was the next step to 
 despotism. For his speech on the 19th of December 
 he had been attacked and denounced ; but he was in 
 spired with a confidence that he had struck treason a 
 blow, and men who were engaged in being traitors felt 
 the blow. His object now was to meet attacks. 
 
 " He then referred to Benjamin s speech of the pre- 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 33 
 
 vious day regarding Louisiana s right to leave the 
 Union, showing that the General Government had paid 
 sixty millions of francs for the soil and sovereignty of 
 the State had given her constant protection ever since, 
 even to levying a sugar duty for her special benefit ; 
 and what was the return ? Let the pages of history 
 tell ! Let robbed mints, pillaged arsenals, seized forts, 
 and usurpations over the people tell ! Benjamin, but a 
 short time previous to his lugubrious lamentations over 
 Louisiana s wrongs, had characterized disunionists as 
 those who shot arrows at the bright sun. What had 
 made him so oblivious to his late sentiments ? Had 
 any wrongs been perpetrated in the mean time ? 
 
 " The speaker then quoted from the Richmond 
 Enquirer of 1814, where, discussing the proceedings 
 of the Hartford Convention, it assumed the position 
 that no State had a right to withdraw from the Union 
 that resistance against the laws was treason, calling on 
 the Government to arrest the traitors, for the Union 
 must be saved at all hazards. Mr. Johnson said he 
 subscribed fully to those opinions. But what is Treason ? 
 The Constitution says, Treason consists in levying war 
 against the United States, or adhering to an enemy, and 
 giving him aid and comfort. Does it need any search 
 to find men levying war, and giving aid and comfort to 
 enemies against the United States ? Treason ought to 
 be punished, North and South ; and if there are traitors, 
 they should be entitled to traitors reward. He said 
 that South Carolina early had a prejudice against a 
 Government by the people, and that secession was no 
 new thing in that State. He referred to the early 
 history of South Carolina, who claimed, at one time, 
 
34 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 that they were ready to go back under the dominion of 
 King George. He read an address of the people of 
 Charleston to King George, 1780, saying that they 
 never intended to dissolve that union, lamenting the 
 struggle of independence, professing affection and zeal 
 for that Government, the King, etc. He then referred 
 to the attempt to break up the Government, in 1833, by 
 South Carolina. Then they were restrained and their 
 pride humbled, and men who speak in their Convention 
 now say they have had an intention to dissolve the 
 Union for forty years. The question now is, Are the 
 other States going to allow themselves to be precipi 
 tated into ruin by South Carolina ?" 
 
 It will be seen from the tenor of this as well as 
 his preceding speech, that Mr. Johnson took no 
 half-way grounds upon the question of secession. 
 He did propose, indeed, with Mr. Crittenden of 
 Kentucky, to appease the discontent of the Seceding 
 States by constitutional amendments for the better 
 security of the rights of the South in respect to 
 slavery. That discontent, he himself held to be 
 to some extent well founded, but the Southern 
 States had placed themselves in an attitude of 
 rebellion, and he maintained that, as long as they 
 continued to defy the Government with arms in 
 their hands, a firm as well as conciliatory policy 
 became the administration. 
 
 While, therefore, he warmly and earnestly sup 
 ported the measures introduced by Mr. Crittenden, 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 35 
 
 as well as their modification by tlie Peace Con 
 ference, he did not the less continue to wholly deny 
 the right of Secession in any event. But as the 
 election of Mr. Lincoln had been determined upon, 
 and carried by the efforts of the Secessionists them 
 selves, in order to manufacture a factitious ground 
 of discontent, so they deliberately defeated the con 
 ference resolutions with a like object. Those reso 
 lutions granted the South everything which could 
 reasonably be demanded, and more than they had 
 ever before dreamed of asking. They proposed 
 to embody the Dred Scott decision* in the Consti 
 tution, prohibited the abolition of slavery in the 
 district of Columbia, and surrounded the Fugitive- 
 Slave Law with such guarantees as would secure in 
 all future time the full benefit of its provisions to 
 the slave interest. It was all in vain, for whatever 
 the other benefits which might flow from this com 
 promise, it had one feature which doomed it to 
 defeat. It would, if adopted, have pacified the 
 sections, and for ever prevented the birth of that 
 new slave empire which had now been fully deter 
 mined upon. 
 
 Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, having introduced 
 
 an amendment to the resolutions, which, if passed, 
 
 would nullify them, six Southern Senators purposely 
 
 withheld their votes, whereupon the amendment 
 
 * Vide Greeley s " American Conflict." 
 
 3 
 
36 LIEE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 was carried by a majority of only two, tlius demon 
 strating that the Southern members could have 
 carried the measures of pacification by four votes. 
 Indignantly reverting, a year after the event, to the 
 duplicity and fraud which characterized the conduct 
 of the Southern Senators on that occasion, Mr. 
 Johnson said : 
 
 u I sat right behind Mr. Benjamin, and I am not sure 
 that my worthy friend [Mr. Latham] was not close by, 
 when he refused to vote, and I said to him, Mr. Benja 
 min, why do you not vote ? Why not save this propo 
 sition, and see if we cannot bring the country to it ? 
 He gave me rather an abrupt answer, and said he would 
 control his own action without consulting me or any 
 body else. Said I, Vote, and show yourself an honest 
 man. As soon as the vote was taken, he and others 
 telegraphed South, We cannot get any compromise. 
 Here were six Southern men refusing to vote, when the 
 amendment would have been rejected by four majority 
 if they had voted. Who then has brought these evils 
 on the country ? Was it Mr. Clark ? He was acting 
 out his own policy ; but with the help we had from the 
 other side of the chamber, if all those on this side had 
 been true to the Constitution and faithful to their con 
 stituents, and had acted with fidelity to their country, 
 the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire 
 could have been voted down, the defeat of which the 
 Senator from Delaware says would have saved the 
 country. Whose fault was it ? Who is responsible for 
 it? I think that it is not only getting the nail through, 
 but clinching it on the other side, and the whole staple 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 37 
 
 commodity is taken out of the speech. Who did it ? 
 Southern traitors, as was said in the speech of the 
 Senator from California. They did it. They wanted 
 no compromise. They accomplished their object by 
 withholding their votes ; and hence the country has 
 been involved in the present difficulty. Let me read 
 another extract from the speech of the Senator of 
 California [Mr. Latham] : 
 
 " I recollect full well the joy that pervaded the faces 
 of some of those gentlemen at the result, and the sorrow 
 manifested by the venerable Senator from Kentucky 
 [Mr. Crittenden]. The record shows that Mr. Pugh, 
 from Ohio, despairing of any compromise between the 
 extremes of ultra-Republicanism and disunionists, work 
 ing manifestly for the same end, moved, immediately 
 after the vote was announced, to lay the whole subject 
 on the table. If you will turn to page 443, same 
 volume, you will find, when at a late period Mr. 
 Cameron, from Pennsylvania, moved to reconsider the 
 vote, appeals having been made to sustain those who 
 were struggling to preserve the peace of the country, 
 that vote ivas reconsidered ; and when, at last, the Crit 
 tenden propositions were submitted on the 2nd day of 
 March, these Southern States having nearly all seceded, 
 they were then lost by but one vote. 
 
 " If these seceded Southern States had remained, 
 there would have passed, by a large vote (as it did 
 without them), an amendment, by a two-third vote, 
 forbidding Congress ever interfering with slavery in the 
 States. The Crittenden proposition would have been 
 indorsed by a majority vote, the subject finally going 
 before the people, who have never yet, after considera- 
 
38 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 tion, refused justice, for any length of time, to any 
 portion of the country. 
 
 " I believe more, Mr. President, that these gentle 
 men were acting in pursuance of a settled and fixed 
 plan to break up and destroy the Government. 
 
 " When we had it in our power to vote down the 
 amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire, and 
 adopt the Crittenden resolutions, certain Southern 
 Senators prevented it ; and, yet, even at a late day of 
 the session, after they had seceded, the Crittenden pro 
 position was only lost by one vote. If rebellion, and 
 bloodshed, and murder have followed, to whose skirts 
 does the responsibility attach ? I summed up all these 
 facts myself in a speech during the last session, but I 
 have preferred to read from the speech of the Senator 
 for California, he being better authority, and having 
 presented the facts better than I could." 
 
 Amongst the various plans of adjustment now 
 brought forward to save the government from 
 destruction, Mr. Johnson himself submitted a 
 scheme of a somewhat unique description. 
 
 The whole was embodied in a proposition of 
 amendment of the Constitution of the United 
 States. One of the projected changes provided that 
 the Supreme Court should be divided into three 
 classes ; the term of the first class to expire in 
 four years from the time that the classification 
 is made ; of the second class in eight years ; 
 and of the third in twelve ; and as these vacancies 
 occurred, they were to be filled by persons chosen, 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 39 
 
 one half from the Slave States, and the other half 
 from the non-slaveholding States ; also that either 
 the President or Vice-President should be chosen 
 from the slaveholding States. 
 
 Besides these provisions of a merely local charac 
 ter, there were other features of a far more general 
 scope, which might appear at first glance to have 
 but little bearing upon the great and difficult con 
 troversy then agitating the Republic. One of these 
 proposed to change the mode of election of the 
 President and Yice-President of the United States, 
 by transferring it from the electoral college to the 
 direct vote of the people. The other amendment 
 proposed that the Senators of the United States 
 should also be elected by the people instead of by 
 the Legislatures of the several States. 
 
 The unavoidable effect of these modifications in 
 the Federal Constitution would have been to render 
 the Government at once more democratic and more 
 consolidated. The result of a presidential election, 
 if conducted in accordance with this scheme, would 
 reflect the wishes of the people as one undivided 
 unit rather than of the States as distinct sovereign 
 ties. Mr. Johnson indeed was a Democrat of the 
 Jacksonian rather than the State Rights school, and 
 was desirous that some means should be adopted to 
 strengthen the hands of the general Government. 
 He had but little faith in the many special and 
 
40 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 empirical remedies for the cure of party dissensions 
 that were brought forward at this juncture. Such 
 temporary expedients would be futile to ensure 
 future peace and security to the Republic, as long 
 as the fallacious and disintegrating doctrine of the 
 right of secession was allowed to manifest itself in 
 open acts of defiance to the general authority. It 
 was to this mistaken idea, that a State could com 
 mit no treason, that he attributed much of the 
 trouble then perplexing the councils and threaten 
 ing the existence of the nation. He preferred rather 
 to strike at the root of the evil by some measure, 
 lessening, if possible, that overweening State pride, 
 which preferred, on every slight provocation, to 
 menace the Government with rebellion rather than 
 approach it in the attitude of petition for the redress 
 of wrong. 
 
 In his remarks accompanying his proposition of 
 pacification, he professed to aim at the same objects 
 with his Southern friends, but hoped to secure 
 them by far different means. Secession was no 
 remedy for the evils complained of. " I think/ 3 
 said he, this battle ought to be fought not out 
 side but inside of the Union, and upon the battle 
 ments of the Constitution itself. So far as I am 
 concerned and I believe I may speak with some 
 degree of confidence for the people of my State 
 we intend to fight that battle inside and not out- 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 41 
 
 side of the Union ; and if anybody must go out of 
 the Union, it must be those who violate it. We do 
 not intend to go out. It is our Constitution it is 
 our Union, growing out of the Constitution; and 
 we do not intend to be driven from it or out of the 
 Union." 
 
 He was opposed to seceding or breaking up the 
 Union until all honourable means had been ex 
 hausted in trying to obtain from the Northern 
 States a compliance with the spirit and letter of the 
 Constitution and all its guarantees. He denied the 
 right of any State to secede from the Union without 
 the consent of the other States which made the 
 compact. Believing that the opinion that a State 
 had a right to secede, had resulted from the Vir 
 ginia resolutions of 1798 and 1799, he examined the 
 subject, and said : (( Take the resolutions ; take the 
 report of Mr. Madison upon them ; take Mr. Madi 
 son s expositions of them in 1832 and 1833 ; his 
 letter to Mr. Trist ; his letter to Mr. Webster; his 
 letter to Mr. Rives ; and when all are summed up, 
 this doctrine of a State, either assuming her highest 
 political attitude or otherwise, having the right of 
 her own will to dissolve all connection with this 
 Confederacy, is an absurdity, and contrary to the 
 plain intent and meaning of the Constitution of the 
 United States. I hold that the Constitution of the 
 United States makes no provision, as said by the 
 
42 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 President of tlie United States,, for its own destruc 
 tion. It makes no provision for breaking up the 
 Government, and no State has the constitutional 
 right to secede and withdraw from the Union. 
 
 " I know that the inquiry may be made, how is 
 a State, then,, to have redress ? There is but one 
 way, and that is expressed by the people of Ten 
 nessee. You have entered into this compact ; it 
 was mutual ; it was reciprocal ; and you of your 
 own volition have no right to withdraw and break 
 the compact, without the consent of the other 
 parties. What remedy, then, has the State ? It 
 has a remedy that remains and abides with every 
 people upon the face of the earth when grievances 
 are without a remedy, or without redress, when 
 oppression becomes intolerable, they have the great 
 inherent right of revolution, and that is all there 
 is of it, 
 
 " Sir, if the doctrine of secession is to be carried 
 out upon the mere whim of a State, this Govern 
 ment is at an end. I am as much opposed to a 
 strong, or what may be called by some a consoli 
 dated Government, as it is possible for a man to be ; 
 but while I am greatly opposed to that, I want a 
 Government strong enough to preserve its own 
 existence ; that will not fall to pieces by its own 
 weight, or whenever a little dissatisfaction takes 
 place among its members. If the States have the 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 43 
 
 right to secede at will, for real or imaginary evils 
 or oppressions, I repeat again, this Government is 
 at an end ; it is not stronger than a rope of sand ; 
 its own weight will tumble it to pieces, and it 
 cannot exist." 
 
 This position was fortified by reference to the 
 views of Mr. Jefferson, Chief-Justice Marshall, 
 Mr. Webster, and General Jackson. 
 
 " In travelling through the instrument," he con 
 tinued, " we find how the Government is created and 
 perpetuated, and how it may be enlarged in refer 
 ence to the number of States constituting the Con 
 federacy ; but do we find any provision for winding 
 it up, except on that great inherent principle that it 
 may be wound up by the States not by a State, but 
 by the States which spoke it into existence, and by 
 no other means. That is a means of taking down 
 the Government that the Constitution could not 
 provide for. It is above the Constitution; it is 
 beyond any provision that can be made by mortal 
 man. 
 
 The Constitution was intended to be perpetual. 
 In reference to the execution of the laws, what do 
 we find? As early as 1795, Congress passed an 
 excise law, taxing distilleries throughout the country, 
 and what were called the whiskey boys of Penn 
 sylvania resisted the law. The Government wanted 
 means. It taxed distilleries. The people of Penn- 
 
44 LIFE OP PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 sylvania resisted it. "What is the difference between 
 a portion of the people resisting a constitutional 
 law, and all of the people of a State doing so? 
 But because you can apply the term coercion in one 
 case to a State, and in the other call it simply the 
 execution of the law against individuals, you say 
 there is a great distinction. We do not assume the 
 power to coerce a State, but we assume that Con 
 gress has power to lay and collect taxes, and 
 Congress has the right to enforce that law when 
 obstructions and impediments are opposed to its 
 enforcement. Such was the action of Washing 
 ton, and similar was the action of Jackson in 
 1832." 
 
 In considering the complications which might 
 arise in consequence of secession, he alluded to the 
 free navigation of the Mississippi. 
 
 " Was it at all probable that the people of the 
 United States, after purchasing the territory of 
 Louisiana, partly with the very view of holding and 
 controlling the navigation of that great river from 
 its source to its mouth, would allow that territory 
 to set up a separate government, and exclude the 
 other States from the free use of the Mississippi ? 
 Mr. Slidell had said that it was not the intention of 
 Louisiana to do so ; but what guarantee was fur 
 nished the United States against the possibility of 
 such an event ? If Louisiana is an independent 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 45 
 
 nationality, she necessarily has the absolute control 
 of all streams flowing through her territory." 
 
 The right has been claimed by the United States 
 to occupy foreign territory on the ground of its 
 importance to the safety of the institutions of the 
 country. On this principle the Government acted 
 in the case of Florida. This was the principle 
 announced at Ostend, where the American ministers 
 to the three principal courts of Europe met and 
 considered the grounds upon which the Government 
 would be justified in acquiring Cuba. How would 
 this doctrine bear upon Louisiana when out of the 
 Union and holding the key to the Gulf the outlet of 
 the commerce of the West. 
 
 While Andrew Johnson, in the Senate of the 
 United States, was thus straining every nerve to 
 prevent the dismemberment of the Union, by the 
 withdrawal of the Cotton States, increased efforts 
 were being made for involving the Border States in 
 the movement. It had become evident, however, 
 that everything would prove unavailing, unless some 
 step should be taken which would render the 
 neutral position assumed by these States untenable. 
 In case of war between the extreme sections, it was 
 evident that the intermediate sections must take 
 sides, and war was therefore determined on. On 
 the evening of the day previous to its inauguration 
 by the attack on Fort Sumter, Mr. Pryor, of 
 
46 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 Virginia, the leading Secessionist of that State, in a 
 speech, to the citizens of Charleston, made the fol 
 lowing declarations : 
 
 " As sure as to-morrow s sun shall rise upon us, 
 just so sure will old Virginia be a member of this 
 Southern Confederation. And I will tell you, 
 gentlemen, what will put her in the Southern Con 
 federation in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock. 
 Strike a blow ! . . . The moment the conflict 
 begins, old Virginia will dispute with South Caro 
 lina the precedence in this great combat." 
 
 The revolutionists displayed in this measure 
 much of astuteness, if not of wisdom. In five days 
 after the event, Virginia had passed an ordinance of 
 secession, and Arkansas and North Carolina followed 
 in quick succession. Tennessee seceded about 
 the same time, but she, even yet, clung to the 
 Union with such tenacity, that it was considered 
 necessary to resort to the devious arts of the 
 diplomatist to effect her co-operation. 
 
 As Mr. Johnson s history is almost identical with 
 that of his State, from the date of his appointment 
 to the office of military governor, it will serve 
 materially, to elucidate the account hereafter 
 given of his administration of the delicate and 
 important duties of that office, to present here a 
 brief summary of the main events which accom 
 panied and closely followed the act of secession in 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 47 
 
 Tennessee. The narrative will also serve another 
 purpose ; it will illustrate, by a simple statement of 
 facts, the true nature of the Southern rebellion ; it 
 will demonstrate that, in the instance of the State 
 of Tennessee at least, fraud, dissimulation, terror 
 ism, and a shameless disregard of law characterized 
 the whole movement from beginning to end. 
 
 It has been seen that the test-vote had failed, 
 the people having decided, that so far from desiring 
 to secede from the Union, they were even unwilling 
 that a convention should be called to consider the 
 question. No further movement was made, either 
 to test the willingness of the people of the State to 
 embark their fortunes in the new Confederacy, or to 
 urge them to that course. The leaders quietly 
 waited for that first blood which they believed would 
 have the effect they desired. Fort Sumter was 
 bombarded on the 12th April, and on the 15th of 
 the same month Mr. Lincoln issued his memorable 
 proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand 
 troops to put down the rebellion. The looked-for 
 opportunity had now arrived. The secession 
 (f stump orators " and newspapers, who had been 
 husbanding their wrath and indignation for this 
 express and long-expected occasion, now joined in 
 a chorus of philippics against the Union, and vehe 
 ment exhortations to the people of Tennessee to 
 dissolve at once their political connection there- 
 
48 LIFE OF PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 with.. Governor Harris, with a show of honest 
 indignation, peremptorily refused to furnish his 
 quota of troops in answer to Mr. Lincoln s call, and 
 summoned an extra Session of the Legislature 
 instead, upon whom he urged the policy and abso 
 lute necessity of immediate secession. It was now 
 determined that the question of separation or no 
 separation should be submitted directly to the 
 people. Still it was feared that Tennessee might 
 not be quite ripe; that she might even yet 
 prefer to remain in the Union, although at the risk 
 .of being compelled to assist in putting down the 
 rebellion of her sister Southern States. Something 
 must be done to influence, if not command the 
 ballot-box. The policy adopted to this end was 
 little less than a coup d etat on the part of the 
 State Executive and Legislature. It comprised 
 three distinct measures to wit, the seizing and 
 appropriating to the use of the State all the funds 
 of the United States in the hands of the collector 
 at Nashville ; the organization of an army ; and 
 lastly, the formation of an alliance with the Con 
 federate States. The first measure was assumed by 
 the Governor on his own responsibility. The two 
 latter were the offspring of the Legislature. Mr. 
 Henry W. Hilliard, of Alabama, Commissioner 
 from the Confederate States," on the 30th of April, 
 appeared before the Legislature with a proposition 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 49 
 
 for a " temporary" alliance between Tennessee and 
 the Confederate States, "to continue until Ten 
 nessee, in primary convention, should decide for or 
 against adopting the Constitution of that Govern 
 ment, and becoming one of the Confederate States." 
 
 The Legislature did not hesitate to close with 
 this astonishing proposal. 
 
 In secret session on the day following that on 
 which Mr. Hilliard s proposition was submitted for 
 consideration, a joint resolution of both Houses was 
 passed, directing the Governor to enter into a 
 military league with the Confederate States, and to 
 place under their control the whole military force of 
 the State. 
 
 Governor Harris immediately appointed three 
 Commissioners, instructed as follows : " To enter 
 into a military league with the authorities of the 
 Confederate States, and with the authorities of such 
 other slaveholding States as may wish to enter into 
 it, having in view the protection and defence of the 
 entire South against the war that is now being 
 carried on against it/ 
 
 On May 7th, but six days after the resolution 
 was passed, the Governor stated the result in a 
 message to the Legislature : " The said Com 
 missioners met the Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, the 
 accredited representative of the Confederate States 
 at Nashville on this day, and have agreed upon and 
 
50 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 executed a military league between the State of 
 Tennessee and the Confederate States of America, 
 subject, however, to the ratification of the two 
 Governments, one of the duplicate originals of 
 which I herewith transmit for your ratification or 
 rejection. For many cogent and obvious reasons, 
 unnecessary to be rehearsed to you, I respectfully 
 recommend the ratification of this league at the 
 earliest practicable moment." 
 
 The following is the Convention or League 
 referred to : 
 
 " Convention between the State of Tennessee and the 
 Confederate States of America. 
 
 " The State of Tennessee, looking to a speedy 
 admission into the Confederacy, established by the 
 Confederate States of America, in accordance with 
 the Constitution for the Provisional Government of 
 said States, enters into the following temporary 
 convention, agreement, and military league with 
 the Confederate States, for the purpose of meeting 
 pressing exigences affecting the common rights, 
 interests, and safety of said States, and said Con 
 federacy : 
 
 " 1st. Until the said State shall become a 
 member of said Confederacy, according to the 
 Constitutions of both powers, the whole military 
 
LIFE OP PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 51 
 
 force and military operations, offensive and defen 
 sive, of said State, in the impending conflict with 
 the United States, shall be under the chief control 
 and direction of the President of the Confederate 
 States, upon the same basis, principles, and footing, 
 as if said State were now and during the interval a 
 member of the said Confederacy; said forces, 
 together with those of the Confederate States, to be 
 employed for the common defence. 
 
 " 2nd. The State of Tennessee will, upon 
 becoming a member of said Confederacy, under the 
 permanent Constitution of said Confederate States, 
 if the same shall occur, turn over to said Confederate 
 States, all the public property, naval stores, and 
 munitions of war, of which she may then be in 
 possession, acquired from the United States, on 
 the same terms and in the same manner as the 
 other States of said Confederacy have done in like 
 cases. 
 
 " ord. Whatever expenditure of money, if any, 
 the said State of Tennessee shall make before 
 she becomes a member of said Confederacy, shall 
 be met and provided for by the Confederate 
 States." 
 
 This Convention was ratified by a vote of 14 to 
 6 in the Senate, and 42 to 15 in the House. 
 
 In the meantime, May 6th, the Legislature 
 passed an ordinance, entitled An Act to submit to 
 
 4 
 
52 LIFE OF PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 a vote of the people a Declaration, of Independence, 
 and for other purposes." 
 
 The first section provided that the polls should 
 be opened throughout the State on the 8th of the 
 following June. 
 
 The second section provided a Declaration of 
 Independence,, to be submitted to the voters for 
 their ratification or rejection. 
 
 The third section provided that the voting should 
 be by ballots, inscribed " Separation " and ee No 
 separation" ; and, if the majority were given for 
 separation, the Governor should issue his proclama 
 tion, declaring all connection by the State of Ten 
 nessee with the Federal Union dissolved, and that 
 Tennessee is a free, independent Government, free 
 from all obligations to or connection with the Federal 
 Government." 
 
 The fifth section submitted to the popular vote 
 an ordinance making Tennessee a member of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Another Act required the Governor to raise, 
 organize, and equip a force of 55,000 men, and by 
 this Act he was authorized to call out the whole 
 available military strength of the State, to deter 
 mine where it should serve and to direct it accord 
 ingly. He was further provided with the sinews of 
 war in the power to issue and dispose of 5,000,000 
 dollars in the bonds of the State. 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 53 
 
 Before the day on which the people were 
 nominally to decide their destiny the Governor had 
 about 25,000 men on foot and in camp, equipped 
 with United States munitions which were in the 
 State, and with a part of those which had been 
 seized at the United States arsenal at Augusta, 
 Georgia. Let us now examine the character of 
 these proceedings. 
 
 The State Constitution contained a provision 
 that the Governor and each member of the Legis 
 lature, with every Tennessee official, before assuming 
 his office should take an oath to support the Consti 
 tution and Laws of the United States. The State 
 Declaration of Eights acknowledges the supremacy 
 of the Constitution of the United States, and most 
 clearly declares that the people of tlie State have not 
 the right of exercising sovereignty, except in so far as 
 is consistent with the Constitution of the United 
 States. This Constitution had been ordained by 
 the people of Tennessee, and it provided the only 
 legal method for its own amendment. By its pro 
 visions the General Assembly could only recommend 
 an amendment. This recommendation could not be 
 made in secret session, but must be entered on the 
 journal of the General Assembly, with the " ayes" 
 and { noes " thereon. The proposal must then be 
 referred by the General Assembly originating it to 
 the General Assembly next chosen, havino- been first 
 
54 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 published six months before their election. If the 
 proposal should be agreed to by two-thirds of all 
 the members elected to each House of such second 
 General Assembly, then it must be submitted to the 
 people,, and if the people approved and ratified it 
 by a majority of all those who voted for the mem 
 bers of the Assembly,, then,, and then only, could it 
 legally become a part of the Constitution of the 
 State of Tennessee. 
 
 Legally the people were, therefore, fully protected. 
 The Governor and Legislature had no power to alter 
 or infringe the State Constitution, or to absolve 
 themselves from their oaths of office, and therefore 
 in establishing a league with the enemies of the 
 Federal Government they perjured themselves, and 
 committed treason against the express laws of the 
 State of Tennessee, as well as those of the United 
 States. This would be none the less true whether 
 there be a legal right of secession or not, for this 
 league was made while Tennessee was still a mem 
 ber of the Federal Union, not only by the express 
 vote of the people, but by the admission of the 
 Governor and Legislature themselves in the very 
 terms of the ordinance requiring another vote of the 
 people to rescind the one but lately taken. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States prescribes 
 that This Constitution, and the laws of the United 
 States made in pursuance thereof, shall be the 
 
LIFE OP PKE3IDENT JOHNSON. 55 
 
 supreme law of the land, and the judges in every 
 State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the 
 Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary 
 notwithstanding." Article VI. 
 
 This " Supreme law of the land :) further de 
 clares that No State shall enter into any treaty, 
 alliance, or confederation." .... "No State 
 shall, without the consent of Congress, keep troops 
 or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 
 agreement or compact with another State, or with a 
 foreign power, or engage in war unless actually in 
 vaded, or in such imminent danger as will admit 
 of no delay." Article I., Sec. 10. 
 
 Yet they not only entered into a treaty with 
 other States, but raised troops, and equipped them 
 from the arsenals of the Government which they 
 sought to overturn. 
 
 Thus there was an utter disregard of oaths, and 
 the most solemn obligations of legal and constitu 
 tional duty. It was a gigantic conspiracy against 
 the Federal Government, and also against the liber 
 ties of the people of the State. By a combination 
 of fraud and violence, its leaders had obtained the 
 absolute control of the Legislature, and the people 
 went to the polls on the morning on which they 
 were required to rescind their former votes, con 
 scious for the first time that they were no longer 
 free. With the whole power of the State Govern- 
 
56 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 ment, and a formidable army in the hands of their 
 officials, the people might reverse their vote of 
 February 9th and be taken into the favour of their 
 self-constituted masters ; but by declining to reverse 
 that vote, by refusing to absolve their officers from 
 their broken oaths, by declining to accept the Con 
 federate Constitution, they could not break the fetters 
 that bound them. The coup d etat was already 
 accomplished, and by their struggling against it 
 they could scarcely expect to reap anything but 
 danger or disaster to themselves. But the leaders 
 of the conspiracy were not satisfied with the accom 
 plished fact j they required the prestige of a strong 
 popular vote in their favour, and to obtain it they 
 did not scruple to use direct violence and fraud at 
 the polls. Secession was consequently accepted by 
 au apparent majority of 57,667 votes, and at first 
 sight it is surprising that over 47,000 men had the 
 courage to vote against it. 
 
 But while terrorism was thoroughly established 
 in the middle and western portions of the State, 
 East Tennessee, being a mountainous region far 
 removed from the headquarters of the conspiracy, 
 enjoyed a greater degree of freedom, and about two- 
 thirds of the votes against separation were cast in 
 that sparsely settled portion of the State. 
 
 No sooner had the East Tennesseans manifested 
 the audacity to vote in favour of retaining their 
 
LIFE OP PKESIBENT JOHNSON. 57 
 
 allegiance to the Federal Government, and to the 
 Constitution of Tennessee, than the leaders of the 
 movement put in vigorous operation that system 
 of terrorism which had wrought so well in other 
 portions of the State. 
 
 But although this short method had succeeded 
 elsewhere in producing that wonderful unanimity so 
 much boasted of by the Confederates, it was not 
 successful with the hardy mountaineers of East 
 Tennessee. Many thousands fled their homes tc 
 serve as common soldiers in the armies of the Union, 
 and, wrought to the highest pitch of indignation by 
 the recollection of their wrongs, fought with a deter 
 mination which went far to establish that wonderful 
 morale for which the Federal armies in the West 
 soon became noted. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Johnson is appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, and 
 immediately repairs to the scene of action His efforts to 
 reclaim his State His Emancipation Proclamation The State 
 is restored and Slavery abolished. 
 
 THE Confederate supremacy in Tennessee was of 
 short duration. The capture of Fort Donelson in 
 February, 1862, rendered Nashville untenable, and 
 on the 23rd of the same month, that city, the capital 
 
58 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 of the State, was evacuated by the Confederate 
 troops. Martial law was immediately proclaimed by 
 General Grant, and the organized armies of the 
 Confederates were soon driven out of a large por 
 tion of the State. 
 
 It was now the part of Mr. Lincoln, by clemency 
 and conciliation, tempered with firmness,, to bring 
 order out of the chaos of lawlessness and passion 
 which was raging in the State of Tennessee. To 
 carry out these designs he could find no other per 
 son so well qualified as Andrew Johnson. Twice 
 Governor, by the choice of the people, he was well- 
 known in the State. His ability and firmness had 
 shone conspicuous when he had stood alone among 
 Southern senators, battling for the Union. His 
 expatriation, the subsequent loss of his property, his 
 personal perils, and the sufferings of his family had 
 sealed his devotion. He was appointed military- 
 Governor with the rank of Brigadier- General of 
 Volunteers. Pie reached Nashville on May 12th, 
 and the next evening delivered an address, which 
 he afterwards published as an u Appeal to the 
 People of Tennessee." 
 
 In this appeal he recounted the history of seces 
 sion, and the repressive measures thus far adopted by 
 the Federal Government. He said that the national 
 flag again floated undisputed over the capital of the 
 State, but the State Government had disappeared ; 
 
LIFE OF PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 59 
 
 the Executive had abdicated ; the Legislature dis 
 solved, and judiciary was in abeyance. The ship of 
 State with its precious cargo of human interests and 
 hopes, had been abandoned by its officers and 
 mutinous crew, and left to the winds and the rovers 
 of the deep. The archives had been desecrated, 
 the public property stolen and destroyed, the State 
 Bank violated and its treasures robbed even of the 
 funds carefully gathered and consecrated for all time 
 
 for the education of the children The 
 
 National Government was now attempting to dis 
 charge its high constitutional obligation to guarantee 
 to every State in the Union a Republican form of 
 Government. He (Mr. Johnson) had been appointed 
 in the absence of the regular authorities as military 
 Governor for the time being, to preserve the public 
 property, to give to the citizens the protection of 
 the law, and to restore the Government to the con 
 dition obtaining before the rebellion. He invited 
 the people to aid him in this arduous undertaking ; 
 he should temporarily fill the offices vacated by 
 abandonment, or by subversion of their functions to 
 a power in hostility to the fundamental law of the 
 State, and he required that these temporary officers 
 should be respected. " To the people themselves," 
 he said, " the protection of the Government is ex 
 tended. All their rights will be duly respected, and 
 their wrongs redressed when made known. Those 
 
60 LIFE OP PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 who through the dark and weary night of the rebel 
 lion have maintained their allegiance to the Federal 
 Government, will be honoured. The erring and 
 misguided will be welcomed on their return ; and 
 while it may become necessary in vindicating the 
 violated majesty of the law, and in re-asserting its 
 imperial sway, to punish intelligent and conscious 
 treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vin 
 dictive policy will be adopted. To those especially 
 who, in a private unofficial capacity, have assumed 
 an attitude of hostility to the Government, a full 
 and complete amnesty for all past acts and declara 
 tions is offered upon the one condition of their 
 again yielding themselves peaceful citizens to the 
 just supremacy of the laws. This I advise them to 
 do for their own good, and for the peace and wel 
 fare of our beloved State, endeared to me by the 
 associations of long and active years, and by the 
 enjoyment of her highest honours." 
 
 The measures of Governor Johnson had great 
 effect in restoring order in the State. There were 
 thousands whose hearts had never been enlisted in 
 the Confederate cause, but who, led away by the 
 excitement of the hour, and by sympathy for 
 friends, neighbours, and relatives among the Con 
 federates, had been imperceptibly drawn into the 
 current of revolution they scarcely knew how or 
 why. They had long since repented, and they were 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 61 
 
 now glad to take the oath of allegiance, which was 
 tendered them, in condonation of their offence. 
 
 Many prominent leaders of secession who would 
 not voluntarily retrace their steps welcomed the 
 compulsory oath as at once saving their pride of 
 consistency, and furnishing a valid excuse for repair 
 ing what they now regarded as a serious blunder. 
 Among these was ex- Governor Neil S. Brown, who 
 afterwards became a prominent advocate of the 
 Union. But notwithstanding these encouraging 
 signs, it must not be supposed that the task of 
 Governor Johnson was an easy one. Secession 
 still claimed among its earnest supporters, covert or 
 open, nearly every slaveholder of Tennessee, and 
 the power of that class was as yet by no means 
 broken. They were used to act in concert, and 
 thoroughly skilled in the arts of domination. 
 Paradoxical as it may seem, they derived a double 
 strength from the fact that their peculiar privilege 
 of holding slaves laboured under the moral repro 
 bation of mankind, for while that fact did not affect 
 their consciences, it caused them to watch with 
 sleepless vigilance, and to guard against the 
 slightest indication of danger to their interest. 
 They had become in effect a gigantic trades union, 
 and almost the entire wealth and intelligence of 
 the State was directed to the protection of the one 
 trade in forced labour. 
 
62 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 Despite the opposition and counter efforts of 
 this class of citizens, and the still more serious 
 obstacles thrown in his path by con inual incursions 
 of Confederate cavalry sent into the State for the 
 express purpose of hindering and controlling the 
 action of the people, the work of restoring Ten 
 nessee to the Union steadily prospered. Towards 
 the latter part of the year 1862, the State was 
 deemed to be sufficiently reclaimed to render 
 advisable the initiation of formal steps of re-organi 
 zation. In a speech delivered in September, 1862, 
 at Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Johnson foreshadowed 
 the measures for reconstruction shortly afterwards 
 set on foot by Mr. Lincoln. He said : 
 
 " Where are we now ? There is a rebellion ; this 
 was anticipated as I said. The rebel army is driven 
 back. Here is your State ; a sick man in his bed, 
 emaciated and exhausted, paralyzed in all his powers, 
 and unable to walk alone. The physician comes. 
 Don t quarrel about antecedents, but administer 
 to his wants ; and cure him as quickly as possible. 
 The United States sends an agent, or a military 
 governor, whichever you please to call him, to aid 
 you in restoring your Government. Whenever you 
 desire, in good faith, to restore civil authority, you 
 can do so, and a proclamation for an election will 
 be issued as speedily as it is practicable to hold 
 one. One by one all the agencies of your State 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 63 
 
 Government will be set in motion. A Legislature 
 will be elected; judges will be appointed tem 
 porarily, until you can elect them at the polls ; and 
 so of sheriffs, county-court judges, justices, and 
 other officers, until the way is fairly open for the 
 people, and all the parts of civil Government resume 
 their ordinary functions. This is no nice, intricate, 
 metaphysical question. It is a plain, common- 
 sense matter, and there is nothing in the way but 
 obstinacy." 
 
 President Lincoln soon afterwards (October 21st) 
 recommended an election for members of Congress 
 to be held in several districts of the State, and in 
 structed the military commanders to take measures 
 to facilitate the execution of the order. Accordingly, 
 Governor Johnson, in the early part of December, 
 issued a proclamation, calling for an election of repre 
 sentatives to the thirty-seventh Congress, to be held 
 on the 29th, in the ninth and tenth Congressional 
 district of Tennessee. Ever on the watch against 
 the insidious designs of Secessionists, he was careful 
 to accompany his proclamation with notice that ( no 
 person will be considered an elector qualified to vote 
 who, in addition to the other qualifications required 
 by law, does not give satisfactory evidence to the 
 judges holding the election of his loyalty to the 
 Government of the United States." 
 
 And thus at last, chiefly by the exertions of 
 
64 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 Andrew Johnson, the wealthy and important State 
 of Tennessee was in great part restored to the 
 Union, and, by the liberal and clement policy of 
 Mr. Lincoln, promptly allowed to resume her old 
 place in the national councils. 
 
 In a few months after this event came the famous 
 emancipation proclamation, formally abrogating the 
 institution of slavery in certain specified States 
 declared to be in rebellion against the United States. 
 Tennessee was excluded from the operation of this 
 executive measure by Mr. Lincoln, who was doubtless 
 fearful of extending too far a policy only justified by 
 military necessity. This restriction of the generality 
 of the measure, however, was not free from serious 
 objection. Thousands of slaves in Tennessee, belong 
 ing to loyal as well as rebellious masters, had done, 
 and were still doing, good service in the United 
 States armies. It was the height of absurdity to 
 expect them to continue the true and zealous 
 adherents of a cause which contemptuously ignored 
 their rights, and threatened, when the term of their 
 service was expired, to remand them to a degrading 
 bondage. Moreover, viewed in the light of policy 
 alone, such a course held out poor encouragement to 
 the thousands of coloured men on the estates, who 
 only awaited a favourable opportunity to flock to the 
 armies of the Union. Apart from all these consi 
 derations, it was an inconsistency, an anomaly nay, 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 THEKE is perhaps no one living individual about 
 whom, at the present moment, centres more 
 interest than the President of the American 
 Eepublic. The painfully tragic circumstances 
 which placed him in his present position, and the 
 magnitude of the duties and responsibilities which 
 at the present juncture attach to that position, are 
 alone sufficient to attract towards Andrew Johnson 
 the gaze of the whole civilized world. But apart 
 from those considerations, and as a narrative of the 
 upward struggles of a strong and earnest nature 
 battling successfully with every disheartening ele 
 ment of repression, and finally achieving, sans 
 friends, sans patrimony, and worst of all, sans 
 education, the very summit of social and political 
 eminence, a biography of Mr. Johnson must 
 
 227188 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 be replete with a purely personal interest of its 
 own. 
 
 In connection with his administration of the 
 affairs of Tennessee while military governor, are in 
 troduced some details in reference to the Secession 
 movement in that very important theatre of the 
 great conflict, which throws new light upon its 
 secret workings, and the means and appliances by 
 which it achieved its success. 
 
 For the materials of the work it has been neces 
 sary to resort to many scattered sources ; but we 
 have chiefly to acknowledge our indebtedness to 
 Appleton s " American Cyclopaedia/ and Annuals 
 for 1861-2-3-4, and private American sources. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 His parentage and early history Deatli of his father Apprentice 
 ship Lack of education Learns the alphabet Becomes a 
 student Removes to South Carolina Emigrates to Tennessee, 
 where he continues to exercise his trade Becomes Alderman 
 of Greenville State Legislator in the Lower House ; in the 
 Upper Elected Member of Congress Twice Governor of 
 Tennessee Becomes United States Senator Opposition to 
 Secession in the Senate Debate with Senator Hammond, of 
 South Carolina 1 24 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Various Speeches in the Senate Crittenclen s Resolutions Mr. 
 Johnson s plan of Pacification Progress of Secession Its 
 phase in Tennessee The coup d etat . . . 25 57 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Johnson is appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, and 
 immediately repairs to the scene of action His efforts to 
 reclaim his State His Emancipation Proclamation The State 
 is restored and Slavery abolished .... 57 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Elected Vice-President of the United States Mr. Lincoln s death 
 Mr. Johnson s Inauguration His policy Personal charac 
 teristics and anecdotes Domestic relations . . 71 88 
 
 APPENDIX , 89 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 65 
 
 an impossibility that slavery could retain vitality in 
 an insignificant member after its very trunk had 
 been destroyed. The proclamation had pierced its 
 heart ; how then could a remote and feeble limb be 
 saved ? And why at last so much solicitude to fan 
 this dying flicker of slavery. Was not that sin at 
 the foundation of the rebellion ? Was it not this 
 baleful excrescence,, this corroding canker, that had 
 poisoned the arteries of the republic and threatened 
 its death ? Thus thought Andrew Johnson, and 
 with him to think and to act are one. " You have 
 killed slavery/ said he,, <c by engaging in this 
 rebellion. I did all I could to prevent you, but you 
 would kill slavery, and now you may bury it." He 
 was not long in exercising what he considered to be 
 his power, as Military Governor of Tennessee, in 
 finishing what Mr. Lincoln had left undone. Mr. 
 Lincoln, as President of the United States, and 
 commander-in-chief of its armies, had proclaimed 
 universal emancipation in the rebellious States, con 
 fident that Congress would ratify and sanction the 
 act. Impelled by a like noble impulse, and a like 
 confidence in the loyal citizens of Tennessee, 
 Andrew Johnson determined, in his capacity as Mili 
 tary Governor, to assume the responsibility of the 
 immediate and complete abolition of slavery in the 
 particular State which he controlled. It was a scene 
 worthy of the age in which we live a spectacle 
 
66 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 filled with moral grandeur when Andrew Johnson 
 stood upon the steps of the State Capitol, in the 
 midst of a vast multitude of the oppressed but long- 
 suffering and meek children of Africa, and solemnly 
 proclaimed them free. " Never," says Mrs. Harriet 
 Beecher Stowe, t( in any other moment of his life did 
 he pronounce words more worthy of the higher and 
 better nature with which he was so largely endowed." 
 
 " Coloured men of Nashville," he said, " you have 
 all heard of the President s proclamation, by which he 
 announced to the world that the slaves in a large por 
 tion of the Seceded States were thenceforth and for ever 
 free. For certain reasons which seemed wise to the 
 President, the benefits of that proclamation did not 
 extend to you or your native State. Many of you, 
 consequently, were left in bondage. The taskmaster s 
 scourge was not yet broken, and the fetters still galled 
 your limbs. Gradually this iniquity has been passed 
 away ; but the hour has come when the last vestiges of 
 it must be removed. Consequently I, too, without 
 reference to the President or any other person, have a 
 proclamation to make ; and, standing here upon the 
 steps of the Capitol, with the past history of the State 
 to witness, the present condition to guide, and its future 
 to encourage me, I, Andrew Johnson, do hereby pro 
 claim freedom, full, broad, and unconditional, to every 
 man in Tennessee !" 
 
 An eye-witness thus describes the scene that 
 followed : 
 
 " It was one of those moments when the speaker 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 67 
 
 seems inspired, and when his audience, catching the 
 inspiration, rises to his level and becomes one with him. 
 Strangely as some of the words of this immortal utter 
 ance sounded to those uncultivated ears, I feel con 
 vinced that not one of them was misunderstood. With 
 breathless attention those sons of bondage hung upon 
 each syllable ; each individual seemed carved in stone 
 until the last word of the grand climax was reached, 
 and then the scene which followed beggars all descrip 
 tion. One simultaneous roar of approval and delight 
 burst from three thousand throats. Flags, banners, 
 torches, and transparencies were waved wildly over the 
 throng, or hung aloft in the ecstasy of joy. Drums, 
 fifes, and trumpets added to the uproar, and the mighty 
 tumult of this great mass of human beings rejoicing for 
 their race, woke up tho slumbering echoes of the 
 Capitol, vibrated throughout the length and breadth of 
 the city, rolled over the sluggish waters of the Cum 
 berland, and rang out far into the night beyond." 
 
 " I am no agrarian, continued the speaker, I wish 
 to see secured to every man, rich or poor, the fruits of 
 his honest industry, effort, or toil. I want each man to 
 feel that what he has gained by his own skill, or talent, 
 or exertion is rightfully his, and his alone. But if, 
 through an iniquitous system, a vast amount of wealth 
 has been accumulated in the hands of one man, or a few 
 men, then that result is wrong, and the sooner we can 
 right it the better for all concerned. It is wrong that 
 Mark Cockrill and W. D. Harding, by means of forced 
 and unpaid labour, should have monopolized so large a 
 share of the lands and wealth of Tennessee ; and I say 
 if their immense plantations were divided up and par 
 celled out among a number of free, industrious, and 
 honest farmers, it would give more good citizens to the 
 commonwealth, increase the wages of our mechanics, 
 
68 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 enrich the markets of our city, enliven all the arteries 
 of trade, improve society, and conduce to the greatness 
 and glory of the State. . . . Looking at this vast 
 crowd of coloured people, and reflecting through what 
 a storm of persecution and obloquy they are compelled 
 to pass, I am almost induced to wish that, as in the 
 days of old, a Moses might arise who should lead them 
 safely to their promised land of freedom and happiness. 
 
 " You are our Moses ! shouted several voices, and 
 the exclamation was caught up and cheered until the 
 Capitol rung again. 
 
 " * God, no doubt, continued the speaker, has pre 
 pared somewhere an instrument for the great work He 
 designs to perform in behalf of this outraged people ; 
 and in due time your leader will come forth; your 
 Moses will be revealed to you. 
 
 " We want no Moses but you ! shouted the as 
 sembly. 
 
 " Well, then, replied the speaker, c humble and 
 unworthy as I am, if no other better shall be found, I 
 will indeed be your Moses, and lead you through the 
 Red Sea of war and bondage to a fairer future of liberty 
 and peace. I speak now as one who feels the world his 
 country, and all who love equal rights his friends. I 
 speak, too, as a citizen of Tennessee. I am here on my 
 own soil ; and here I mean to stay and fight this great 
 battle of truth and justice to a triumphant end. Rebel 
 lion and slavery shall, by God s help, no longer pollute 
 our State. Loyal men, whether white or black, shall 
 alone control her destinies ; and when this strife in 
 which we are all engaged is past, I trust, I know, we 
 shall have a better state of things, and shall all rejoice 
 that honest labour reaps the fruit of its own industry, 
 and that every man has a fair chance in the race of life. 
 
 "It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm which 
 
LIFE OF -PRESIDENT JOHNSON* 69 
 
 followed these words. Joy beamed in every counte 
 nance. Tears and laughter followed each other in 
 quick succession. The great throng moved and swayed 
 back and forth in the intensity of emotion ; and shout 
 after shout rent the air. 
 
 " The great Tribune descended from the steps of the 
 Capitol. As if by magic, the dense throng parted to 
 let him through. And all that night long his name was 
 mingled with the execrations of the traitor and oppressor, 
 and with the blessings of the oppressed and poor." 
 
 In six months from the date of this address, the 
 people of Tennessee met in primary convention for 
 the purpose of remodelling the State Constitution. 
 In doing this the chief object was the abolition of 
 slavery. For although this measure had already 
 been practically accomplished through Mr. Johnson s 
 proclamation, it was deemed advisable that the 
 people themselves should add their sanction. That 
 they were ripe for the change Mr. Johnson was 
 satisfied, when, in the capacity of Military Governor, 
 he assumed the responsibility of anticipating their 
 wishes. Many thousands of the negroes were 
 already free, thousands were in the Union army, 
 where they had fought side by side with those who 
 had formerly been their masters. Nay, there were 
 those in the Convention itself who had served with 
 them and messed with them. The prejudice of 
 colour dissipated, few difficulties remained. Indeed, 
 as Mr. Johnson remarked in his Speech to the Con- 
 
70 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 vention,* slavery was tc already a huge offensive 
 carcase, and needing only to be put out of the way, 
 and buried out of sight." The Convention were 
 quite unanimous, and the requisite amendment was 
 speedily draughted and incorporated in the Consti 
 tution. 
 
 This great work accomplished, the question of 
 the future status of the negro in the Commonwealth 
 arose. Should he at once be politically as well as 
 socially franchised ? Shall he be entrusted with a 
 vote ? Upon this point the same unanimity by no 
 means prevailed as in the discussion of the great 
 question of emancipation. The debate became 
 vehement and heated. Mr. Johnson, with his 
 habitual and natural conservatism, counselled the 
 postponement of this issue. " First," he said, "let 
 us re-organize ; time and experience will regulate 
 the rest. Let us, like wise men, hold ourselves in 
 readiness to manage the new questions which may 
 rise in the future." Upon another question of even 
 greater difficulty and delicacy he displayed equal 
 moderation and good temper. The question arose 
 whether those who had been engaged in the rebel 
 lion should be disfranchised. Upon this point his 
 remarks are worthy to be quoted at some length : 
 
 " He advised them to make as few changes in the 
 organic law as possible. These are revolutionary times ; 
 * See Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 71 
 
 the minds of men are agitated and feverish, and it 
 would be dangerous to attempt too much. There would 
 
 be no end of it As to the disfranchisement 
 
 of the rebels, he would advise them, if they desired to 
 exclude any from the polls, not to do so by any pro 
 vision permanently incorporated in the Constitution, but 
 by temporary enactments to that effect. The day would 
 soon come when such allusion, if found in the Constitu 
 tion, would awaken unpleasant recollections. Permanent 
 changes should be made sparingly. Public opinion is 
 subject to rapid changes. Five years ago, if five hun 
 dred men had come into that hall, and giving forth such 
 utterances as they have touching slavery, they would 
 have been hanged in the city. Such modifications as 
 were not absolutely necessary for present safety and 
 consistency should be left to the slow correction of 
 years." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Elected Yice-President of the United States Mr. Lincoln s death 
 Mr. Johnson s Inauguration His policy Personal cha 
 racteristics and anecdotes Domestic relations. 
 
 MR. JOHNSON S services in restoring to the Union one 
 of its most important members were too important 
 to pass without recognition. He had worked for 
 the cause of nationality at a time and under cir 
 cumstances which made it dangerous to be neutral, 
 and impossible to be loyal without expatriation. 
 
72 LIFE OP PKESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 This he had braved and suffered, and the people 
 gave a proof of their appreciation of trath and 
 fidelity by placing him npon the ticket with Mr. 
 Lincoln, in the election of 1864, and making him 
 Vice-PresicTent of the United States. In a speech 
 delivered at Nashville, soon after his nomination 
 June 9, 1864 he marked out the policy which he 
 should favour, if elected. He said that c the 
 representatives of all the States in that Convention 
 had declared in his nomination that they did not 
 recognize that one State could withdraw or secede 
 from the United States. He had held that doctrine 
 from the first, and now the nation s representatives 
 had, in Convention assembled, declared with him 
 that no State could secede, and, in going into a 
 State which had rebelled to select a candidate for 
 the Vice-Presidency, had asserted that Tennessee 
 never had been out of the Union, and had never a 
 right to secede. They had acted as the representa 
 tives, not of States, but of the whole Government, 
 and recognized no right of a part to dismember the 
 whole. In accepting the nomination, I shall stand 
 on the principles I here enunciate, let the conse 
 quences for good or evil be what they may. 
 A distinguished Georgian had told him in Wash 
 ington, after the election of Mr. Lincoln, and just 
 before his inauguration, that the people of Georgia 
 would not submit to be governed by a man who 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 73 
 
 had risen from the ranks. It Was one of the prin 
 cipal objections of the people of the South to Mr. 
 Lincoln. What would they do now, when they had 
 to take two rulers who had risen from the ranks ? 
 This aristocracy was antagonistic to , the principles 
 of free Democratic government, and the time had 
 come when it had to give up the ghost." After 
 condemning severely the conduct of those com 
 manders who had protected rebel property, he 
 returned to the rebel aristocracy, and announced, 
 in the cold, impressive manner of a judge pronounc 
 ing sentence upon a criminal, cc that the time had 
 come when this rebellious element of aristocracy 
 must be punished. The time had come when then- 
 lands must be confiscated. The day when they 
 could talk of their three and four thousand acres of 
 land, tilled by their hundreds of negroes, was past, 
 and the hour for the division of these rich lands 
 among the energetic and labouring masses was at 
 hand. The field was to be thrown open, and he 
 now invited the energetic and industrious of the 
 North to come and occupy it, and apply here the 
 same skill and industry which had made the North 
 so rich. He was for putting down the aristocracy, 
 and dividing out their possessions among the 
 worthier labourers of any and all colours." 
 
 Addressing himself to any black man who might 
 be within the reach of his voice, he then told them 
 
74 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 that they were set loose and free. They had been 
 admitted into the great field of competition, where 
 industry and energy alone thrived, and advised 
 them, that if they were not industrious and econo 
 mical, they would have to give way to those of such 
 habits, and that they would be driven from the field 
 if they did not work. Freedom," he said, " means 
 liberty to work, and then to enjoy the fruits and 
 products of your labour. This is the philosophy of 
 it. Let all men have a fair start and an equal 
 chance in the race of life, and let merit be rewarded 
 without regard to colour." 
 
 He further declared, that in the reorganization 
 of the State as a member of the Union, with all her 
 former rights and privileges, he was heartily in 
 favour of discarding the discordant and incongruous 
 element of slavery that curse which had brought 
 war and misery upon the land, which had caused 
 the shedding of so much innocent blood, and made 
 so many widows and orphans. He advised the 
 people now to leave slavery out. He graphically 
 pictured the condition of the State, resulting from 
 the war, and again urged them, in reorganizing the 
 State, to leave slavery out of the code of its 
 regenerated laws. 
 
 The convention adjourned on the 14th of January, 
 1865. On the 4th of March following, Mr. Johnson 
 was inaugurated Yice-President of the United 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 75 
 
 States. It had even now become evident to all that 
 the term of the new administration would be passed 
 in a state of peace. That decisive train of military 
 events ushered in with the Georgia campaign, had 
 already brought to the war-worn people an assurance 
 that the end was near. It was indeed nearer than 
 was supposed. The energy of the rebellion had far 
 exceeded its resources, and still maintained the 
 semblance of strength when the reality was gone. 
 Many expected that the decadence though so sure 
 and near would be gradual. Fortunately the des 
 truction of the factitious organization of the Con 
 federacy was as sudden as it was complete and 
 overwhelming. In one brief month from the inau 
 guration the war was virtually over. 
 
 Scarcely had the fate of the rebellion been 
 sealed, by the surrender of Lee and his army, 
 when the nation was precipitated from the very 
 summit of ecstatic jubilation to the lowest depth 
 of grief, by the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. It 
 had been the fond wish of the people that the 
 well-tried and faithful ruler, who had restored 
 peace and nationality to the country, should also 
 lead the way in the work of re-organizing the 
 Union. It was a task which well befitted the calm, 
 dispassionate, and judicial character of his catholic 
 mind. But Providence had ordained otherwise, and 
 the high duties and immense responsibilities of the 
 
76 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 position- devolved upon Andrew Johnson^ An in 
 dividual better fitted for the place could hardly have 
 been selected. Of his administrative abilities he 
 had given most ample and convincing proof, and his 
 integrity and patriotism had been tried in the fierce 
 flames of civil war. He had already restored one re 
 bellious State to the Union under circumstances the 
 most difficult and trying ; and he had presented that 
 State to the nation wan and emaciated, indeed, from 
 the terrible ordeal through which she had passed, yet 
 renovated by the infusion into her Constitution of 
 wider and loftier principles of freedom. Was it not 
 a reasonable inference that he would be equally 
 successful with the other revolted States ? That 
 Mr. Lincoln s loss could be wholly compensated no 
 one hoped, but it was fortunate for the American 
 people that an able and experienced statesman, who 
 though a Southerner, had refused to be factious, who 
 though a slaveowner had refused to prefer slavery to 
 liberty and Union, and who, though fond of popu 
 larity, had freely sacrificed that too upon the altar 
 of his country, submitting to be burnt in effigy and 
 driven with hisses and execrations from amidst that 
 people whose idol he had been, was now by the 
 mere act of the constitutional law of succession to 
 take the place of the great and good man of whom 
 the nation had been bereaved. 
 
 Mr. Johnson s published utterances give a very 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 77 
 
 clear indication of the policy likely to characterize his 
 administration. Upon the leaders of the rebellion 
 will be visited condign punishment. Clearly com 
 prehending the tremendous and terrible conse 
 quences of their acts, they deliberately plunged a 
 happy and prosperous people into the terrible abyss 
 of civil war. As a retribution upon " that greatest 
 of crimes treason/ and as a terrible warning to all 
 ambitious leaders who might hereafter be tempted 
 to conspire against their country, they will doubtless 
 suffer the extreme penalty denounced by the laws 
 against crime. On the other hand, policy as well as 
 justice will doubtless dictate the exercise of leniency 
 to those who have been driven into participation by 
 terrorism, the force of circumstances, or a Vague and 
 misplaced sympathy with their friends and neigh 
 bours. It is not to be expected that a perfectly 
 deliberate and well considered system of measures 
 should be matured so soon after the termination of 
 the conflict. Nay, it would be unwise and rash in 
 the midst of the fierce passions engendered by it to 
 lay down beforehand any fixed and unalterable rule 
 of policy in dealing with a question of so much 
 gravity. It is satisfactory to the friends of America 
 to know that in the most cautious and deliberate ex 
 pressions of Mr. Johnson may be found indications 
 of a wise and conservative disposition to be swayed 
 by circumstances as they rise. In his inaugural 
 
78 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 address lie said, "As to any indication of any 
 policy which may be pursued by me in the adminis 
 tration of the Government, I have to say that that 
 must be left for development as the administration 
 progresses. The message or declaration must be 
 made by the acts as they transpire/ 5 These are 
 wise utterances, and strongly and agreeably remind 
 one of the instinctive prudence of his great pre 
 decessor, in whose footprints he has promised 
 his countrymen to tread. That he will redeem 
 this promise is all that could be desired by the 
 lovers of progress and humanity throughout the 
 world. 
 
 Of Mr. Johnson s ability to fulfil honourably 
 and with distinction all the functions of his high 
 office, no one can doubt, after being acquainted 
 with his career. ^Few men from so low a starting 
 point in life have ever attained so great an elevation. 
 Born in utter obscurity and poverty, thrown entirely 
 upon his own resources while yet in childhood, lite 
 rally ignorant of the very alphabet of the English 
 language at that period of life when more for 
 tunate youths are engaged in completing their 
 collegiate course, toiling at a mechanical trade until 
 mature age, at no period of his life receiving any 
 of those adventitious aids which constitute some 
 thing of the elements of almost every success, he 
 yet progressed step by step through nearly every 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 79 
 
 intermediate grade of civil promotion to the highest 
 office in the gift of a great nation.)( Successively 
 the alderman of a village, State legislator, first in 
 the Lower, then in the Upper House, Member of 
 the Lower House of Congress, Governor of his 
 State, member of the Federal Senate, Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and finally, President of the United States 
 the whole career accomplished between the age of 
 twenty- seven and fifty- seven years he certainly 
 cannot be considered a new man in the American 
 sense of the term. He who, in the face of such 
 obstacles, is capable of achieving such a success, 
 must be possessed of all the sturdiest qualities 
 of the Anglo-Saxon type of intellect. Energy^ 
 boldness, and tenacity, with perfect honesty anti 
 directness of purpose, form the groundwork of 
 Andrew Johnson s character, and constitute the/ 
 main elements of his success. To these qualities of 
 mind and disposition he added a thorough sympathy 
 and consequent assimilation with the tone of the 
 society and institutions of the American Republic. 
 He was both by circumstance and nature a Democrat 
 in the fullest and strongest sense of the term, and 
 he felt towards his sovereign the people all the 
 enthusiastic loyalty, respect, and veneration which 
 in monarchies is concentrated upon the "Lord s 
 Anointed." With him, therefore, to court the favour 
 of the people was a pleasant and not an irksome 
 
80 LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 task ; and what from others would liave been adu 
 lation, fell from his lips as a natural effusion of 
 devoted loyalty. Who that reads his life can doubt 
 the sincerity with which, in his address before the 
 great primary Convention of Tennessee,* wherein 
 the people had resumed those functions of inherent 
 sovereignty which had hitherto been delegated to a 
 faithless Legislature, Mr. Johnson said What are 
 governments ? They come from the people. You 
 are the people ; hence you can do no wrong." 
 
 It has been said that Mr. Johnson belonged to 
 the Jacksonian type of Democracy. The resem 
 blance between Andrew Jackson and Andrew 
 Johnson is very striking ; and Mr. Johnson appa 
 rently recognizes this resemblance to his prototype, 
 and models himself to make the resemblance more 
 visible. He is always talking of him, and always 
 quoting him. The analogy of career is not confined 
 to similarity of views and principles. Both were of 
 plebeian origin, born of poor and obscure parents ; 
 both were natives of the Carolinas ; both migrated 
 beyond the Alleghanies in early youth, and settled 
 in Tennessee ; both had defective education ; and 
 both were attracted to political life as soon as they 
 were entitled to a vote; neither of them sought 
 the alliance of wealthy or influential families as a 
 stepping-stone for promotion j and both have shown 
 * See Appendix. 
 
LIFE OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 81 
 
 themselves the unwavering champions of the people 
 from whom they rose, and with whom they ever 
 retained an unbounded popularity. 
 
 As executive officers, the resemblance is as 
 marked as in the facts of their personal history. 
 No magistrate was ever more firm in his positions 
 than General Jackson. No blaze of eloquence, no 
 pressure of personal influence, no social blandish 
 ments, could avail to turn him from a line of policy 
 which he had once deliberately adopted. During 
 the past four years, Mr. Johnson has displayed 
 similar qualities. A man who, born a Southerner, 
 raised himself into the idol of slave-owning Demo 
 crats, and then, convinced that slavery was an evil, 
 flung himself down from his position down to the 
 very bottom, a homeless, landless, friendless man 
 and then fought his way back to the very top, as 
 chief of the anti-slavery Democrats, is not a man to 
 be " guided" by softer politicians. 
 
 While there appeared many years ago, in Mr. 
 Johnson, qualities which were thought likely to 
 raise him to high place, it is to his bearing during 
 the Kebellion that his present position is mainly 
 due. Of all the public men in the revolting States 
 he only from the first, and at all stages of the 
 struggle, kept his allegiance firm and pure, indif 
 ferent alike to the promises and the threats of the 
 plotters of Secession. Not only so, but he kept 
 
82 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 with him and with the fortunes of the Union the 
 hearts and minds of his constituents in that part of 
 Tennessee which had been the theatre of his earlier 
 political aspirations. He recognized in the move 
 ment the doctrines of the school of politics which 
 he had steadily opposed from the outset of his 
 career ; the creed of the Virginia and South Caro 
 lina aristocrats ; the system that makes Govern 
 ment an engine for lifting the soft-handed man of 
 ease and fortune to high place, and clothing him 
 with arbitrary power over the labouring man,, of 
 whatever colour; the system that creates mono 
 polies, and masses capital in the hands of the few ; 
 that builds np great estates, establishes gigantic 
 banks, and aids in the accumulation of colossal 
 private fortunes. 
 
 He saw in the Secession movement, if successful, 
 only an agency that would make the rich richer, 
 and the poor poorer ; that would widen the interval 
 between the labourer and the employer, and accu 
 mulate the lands into the hands of a few, and reduce 
 non-slaveholding whites to the level of the African 
 slave. Against such a movement, and the establish 
 ment of a system with such tendencies, his whole 
 nature rose in unflinching antagonism. Let those 
 who have failed to discover during this crisis those 
 outbursts of glowing eloquence that characterize 
 revolutionary epochs, read the appeals of Andrew 
 
 i/: 
 
LIFE OP PEESIDENT JOHNSON 83 
 
 Jolmson to the people of Tennessee in the dark 
 months of 1861 and 1862. He was at that time 
 cordially hated by all the South, but his own neigh 
 bours, persecuted, driven from his State, hunted 
 like a wild beast through the fastnesses of the 
 mountains; yet, wherever he could collect a group 
 of Tennessee Unionists, he exhorted them to die on 
 the mountain-tops, and make the everlasting hills 
 their sole monument, rather than give up those 
 lovely valleys to the unresisted march of armed 
 bands of traitors. Such was the power of these 
 appeals, and the weight of his personal influence, 
 that East Tennessee not only refused to join the 
 Secession movement, but remained heartily loyal to 
 the Union. 
 
 Out of a voting population of thirty-five thou 
 sand, only five thousand votes were cast for 
 disunion ; and from that population, almost with 
 out exception poor and rural, twenty-five thousand 
 men enlisted in the Union armies. 
 
 While Mr. Johnson is thoroughly Democratic in 
 , his principles and bearing, his manner as a public 
 man is ever grave, collected, and dignified. He has 
 nothing to do with the ad captandurn arts by which 
 American politicians often seek votes, by stooping 
 from their natural decorum. 
 
 Whether in the Senate Chamber or before the 
 people, Mr. Johnson carefully abstains from per- 
 
 6 
 
84 LIFE OF PEESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 sonalities, and never uses the weapons of sarcasm 
 and ridicule except in self defence. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has never ceased to think and 
 labour and speak in behalf of the poor man. In 
 Congress, his great work was to advocate, modify, 
 and finally to procure the enactment of the ( Home 
 stead Bill/ the effect of which is to donate one 
 hundred and sixty acres of the public land to the 
 emigrant who will settle thereon, erect buildings, 
 and make it his permanent home. Until the break 
 ing out of the Rebellion, this Act had constituted 
 his principal claim to national reputation, and he 
 was called by the thousands whom this Act had 
 so benefited "Andy Johnson, the Poor Man s 
 Friend." 
 
 Mr. Johnson s Democratic proclivities followed 
 him in his private and domestic relations. He has 
 ever been plain, unostentatious, and inexpensive in 
 his habits and mode of life, though, like nearly all 
 East Tennesseeans, keeping "open house," and 
 extending a profuse hospitality to all comers. It is 
 almost needless to say that, like Mr. Lincoln, he 
 was and is proud of his origin, and fond of revert 
 ing to it. An anecdote is often told of him which 
 humorously illustrates his peculiarly American 
 pride of origin. While Governor of Tennessee, 
 Mr. Johnson, betaking himself for a season to 
 the exercise of his old craft, turned out a splendid 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 85 
 
 suit of clothing in the latest fashion, which he 
 sent as a present to his friend Governor M Goffin, 
 of Kentucky. The Kentucky governor, who had 
 once been a blacksmith of no mean skill, at once 
 returned the compliment, by forging with his 
 own hands and sending to Mr. Johnson a very 
 serviceable shovel and pair of tongs, which he 
 hoped would serve to keep alive the flame of their 
 old friendship. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has always paid marked attention to 
 men of his own trade, and can hardly pass a tailor s 
 shop without going in and exchanging compliments 
 with the knights of the goose and needle, with whom 
 he once wrought. In the heat of a hard-fought 
 political campaign, a friend asked him what he 
 should do if by chance he were defeated ? {C Open a 
 tailor s shop and go to work/ was his prompt reply. 
 In person, Mr. Johnson is a little above the average 
 height, compactly framed, and capable of great and 
 protracted exertion, either of mind or body. He is 
 M I ^abstemiou^l in his personal habits, and indifferent to 
 tlu pleasures of the senses. The iirst impression 
 his presence gives is that his extraction is plebeian, 
 and that he is largely endowed with rugged and 
 hardy sense. Afterwards you see signs of power in 
 , the strong features, and impression is made upon 
 you that there is no predicting what such a man may 
 not achieve, what difficulties he may not overcome, 
 
86 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 what position he may not win. There is, also, in his 
 face an expression of great self-reliance and firmness, 
 as though no influence could be made to swerve him 
 from what he conceives to be the path of duty or of 
 sound policy. Yet there is nothing vindictive in 
 the temperament of Mr. Johnson ; his hatreds are 
 for obnoxious principles, not for political antagonists. 
 And so, too, of his aggressiveness, he does not care 
 to enlarge the domains of the Great Eepublic, or to 
 propagate American Republicanism, even though he 
 reveres it as the best of all existing governments. 
 The political subjects on which he has been most 
 interested relate to the domestic interests of the 
 Eepublic, rather than to its relations with foreign 
 countries. yAt present, and for the earlier months 
 of his administration, his attention is and will be 
 quite engrossed with the great and absorbing pro 
 blem of the reorganization of society in those States 
 that have recently been the theatre of civil war. 
 Questions of foreign policy will of course arise, but 
 to their adjustment Mr. Johnson brings no pet 
 theories of international policy, no special admira 
 tion for what Americans call " the Monroe Doctrine." 
 He has not defined the foreign policy that will in 
 general rule his administration, except so far as to 
 express the utmost cordiality towards Great Britain. 
 His speech to Sir Frederick Bruce, in which he 
 declared the amity of the two countries essential to 
 
LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 87 
 
 civilization, was little more than a repetition of a 
 speech he made when Military- Governor of Tennes 
 see. He then made an admission not frequent with 
 American politicians, " that the British Government 
 was in essence popular ; that the fresh infusions of 
 popular ideas kept it continually vigorous and 
 flourishing." His tone was full of friendliness ; as 
 full as the remarkable saying in which, addressing 
 Sir F. Bruce, he recognized the States-men and the 
 Canadians as branches of the same American people, 
 though swayed by two governments, who, in their 
 joint responsibility, ought to find a reason for an 
 enduring peace. Mr. Johnson s main work is at 
 home, and here he finds ample scope for his promi 
 nent political proclivities, his love of the masses, 
 and his radical antipathy to aristocracy. 
 
 In his relations with his family, Mr. Johnson 
 exhibits the same estimable qualities which won for 
 him among the people that great personal popu 
 larity for which he was noted. In his intercourse 
 with his children, he is at once firm and affection 
 ate, dignified and yet free, natural and playful. The 
 family of the President is small. He has now only four 
 children namely, Andrew, Robert, Mrs. Patterson 
 and Mrs. Stover. One of his sons, Dr. Charles 
 Johnson, while a surgeon in the volunteer service, 
 was suddenly killed in 1863 by being thrown from 
 his horse. Mrs. Stover is a widow, her husband, 
 
88 LIFE OP PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 Colonel Stover, of 4th Tennessee Volunteers, having 
 been killed on the 18th of December, 1864, while 
 gallantly leading his regiment at the battle of 
 Nashville. This lady, in consequence of the ad 
 vanced age and ill health of Mrs. Johnson, pre 
 sides at the White House. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 In a reply to the speech of Senator Lane, of Oregon, 
 the following remarks on secession, coercion, the Terri 
 torial question, and the Peace Conference propositions, 
 were made by 
 
 Senator JOHNSON, of Tennessee : Mr. President, it 
 is painful for me to be compelled, at this late hour of 
 the session, to occupy any of the time of the Senate upon 
 the subject that has just been discussed by the Senator 
 from Oregon. Had it not been for the extraordinary 
 speech he has made, and the singular course he has 
 taken, I should forbear from saying one word at this 
 late hour of the day and of the session. But, sir, it 
 must be apparent, not only to the Senate, but to the 
 whole country, that, either by accident or by design, there 
 has been an arrangement, that any one who appeared in 
 the Senate to vindicate the Union of these States should 
 be attacked. Why is it that no one, in the Senate or 
 out of it, who is in favour of the Union of these States, 
 has made an attack upon me ? Why has it been left to 
 those who have taken both open and secret ground, in 
 violation of the Constitution, for the disruption of the 
 Government ? Whv has there been a concerted attack 
 
90 APPENDIX. 
 
 upon me from the beginning of this discussion to the 
 present moment, not even confined to the ordinary 
 courtesies of debate and of senatorial decorum ? It is a 
 question which lifts itself above personalities. I care 
 not from what direction the Senator comes who indulges 
 in personalities toward me ; in that I feel that I am 
 above him, and that he is my inferior. [Applause in the 
 galleries.] Mr. President, they are not arguments ; 
 they are the resort of men whose minds are low and 
 coarse. Cowper has well said 
 
 " A truly sensible, well-bred man 
 "Will not insult me ; no otlier can." 
 
 Sir, have we reached a point at which we cannot 
 talk about treason ? Our forefathers talked about it ; 
 they spoke of it in the Constitution of the country ; 
 they have defined what treason was ; is it an offence, is 
 it a crime, is it an insult to recite the Constitution that 
 was made by Washington and his compatriots ? What 
 does the Constitution say : 
 
 " Treason against the United States shall consist 
 only in levying war against them, or in adhering to 
 their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." 
 
 There it is defined clearly that treason shall consist 
 only in levying war against the United States, and 
 adhering to and giving aid and comfort to their enemies. 
 Who is it that has been engaged in conspiracies ? Who 
 is it that has been engaged in making war upon the 
 United States? Who is it that has fired upon our 
 flag? Who is it that has given instructions to take 
 our arsenals, to take our forts, to take our dock-yards, 
 to take the public property ? In the language of the 
 
APPENDIX. 91 
 
 Constitution of the United States, have not those who 
 have been engaged in it been guilty of treason ? We 
 make a fair issue. Show ine who has been engaged in 
 these conspiracies, who has fired upon our flag, has 
 given instructions to take our forts and our custom 
 houses, our arsenals and our dock-yards, and I will show 
 you a traitor. [Applause in the galleries.] 
 
 Mr. President, if individuals were pointed out to me 
 who were engaged in nightly conspiracies, in secret 
 conclaves, and issuing orders directing the capture of 
 our forts and the taking of our custom-houses, I would 
 show who were the traitors ; and that being done, the 
 persons pointed out coming within the purview and 
 scope of the provision of the Constitution which I have 
 read, were I the President of the United States, I would 
 do as Thomas Jefferson did, in 1806, with Aaron Burr ; 
 I would have them arrested, and, if convicted, within 
 the meaning and scope of the Constitution, by the 
 Eternal God I would execute them. Sir, treason must 
 be punished. Its enormity and the extent and depth of 
 the offence must be made known. The time is not 
 distant if this Government is preserved, its Constitu 
 tion obeyed, and its laws executed in every department 
 when something of this kind must be done. 
 
 We know how the Senator from Oregon stands upon 
 popular or squatter sovereignty. On that subject he 
 spoke at Concord, New Hampshire, where he main 
 tained that the inhabitants of the Territories were the 
 best judges ; that they were the very people to settle 
 all these questions ; but when he came here, at the last 
 Congress, he could make a speech in which he repeated, 
 I cannot tell how many times, " the equality of the 
 
92 APPENDIX. 
 
 States, the rights of the States in the Union, and their 
 rights out of the Union ;" and he thus shifted his 
 course. If the conflict between his speech made in 
 Concord in 1856, and his speech made here on the 25th 
 day of May last, can be reconciled, according to all rules 
 of construction, it is fair to reconcile the conflict. If 
 the discrepancy is so great between his speech made 
 then and his speech on the 25th of May last, of course 
 the discrepancy is against him ; but I am willing to let 
 one speech set off the other, and to make honours easy, 
 so far as speech-making is concerned. 
 
 Then, how does the matter stand ? There is one 
 speech one way, and there is another speech the other 
 way. Now, we will come to the sticking-poiiit. You 
 have seen the equivocation to-day. You have seen the 
 cuttle-fish attempt to becloud the water, and elude the 
 grasp of his pursuer. I intend to stick to you here 
 to-day as close and as tight as what I think I have heard 
 called somewhere "Jew David s Adhesive Plaster." How 
 does your vote stand as compared with your speeches ? 
 Your speeches being easy, I shall throw in the scale 
 against you the weight of what you swore. How does 
 that matter stand? I intend to refer to the record. 
 By referring to the record, it will be found that Mr. 
 Clingman offered the following as an amendment to the 
 fourth resolution of the series introduced by Mr. Davis : 
 
 " Resolved, That the existing condition of the Terri 
 tories of the United States does not require the inter 
 vention of Congress for the protection of property in 
 slaves." 
 
 What was the vote on the amendment proposed to 
 that resolution by Mr. Brown, to strike out the word 
 
APPENDIX. 93 
 
 " not" ? I want the Senator s attention, for I am going 
 to stick to him, and if he can get away from me he has 
 got to obliterate the records of his country. How would 
 it read to strike out the word " not" ? 
 
 " That the existing condition of the Territories of 
 the United States does require the intervention of Con 
 gress for the protection of property in slaves." 
 
 Among those who voted against striking out the 
 word "not," who declared that protection of slavery in 
 the Territories by legislation of Congress was unneces 
 sary, was the Senator from Oregon. When was that ? 
 On the 25th day of May last ? The Senator, under the 
 oath of his office, declared that legislation was not 
 necessary. Now where do we find him ? Here is a 
 proposition to amend the Constitution, to protect the 
 institution of slavery in the States, and here is the pro 
 position brought forward by the Peace Conference, and 
 we find the Senator standing against the one, and I 
 believe he recorded his vote against the other. 
 
 But, let us travel along. We have only applied one 
 side of this plaster. The Senator voted that it was not 
 necessary to legislate by Congress for the protection of 
 slave property. Mr. Brown then offered the amendment 
 to the resolution submitted by Mr. Davis, to strike out 
 all after the word " resolved," and to insert in lieu 
 thereof 
 
 " That experience having already shown that the 
 Constitution and the common law, unaided by statutory 
 enactment, do not afford adequate and sufficient pro 
 tection to slave property some of the Territories 
 having failed, others having refused, to pass such 
 enactments it has become the duty of Congress to 
 
94 APPENDIX. 
 
 interpose, and pass such laws as will afford to slave pro 
 perty in the Territories that protection which is given 
 to the other kinds of property." 
 
 We have heard a great deal said here to-day of 
 " other kinds," and every description of property. There 
 is a naked, clear proposition. Mr. Brown says it is 
 needed ; that the court and the common law do not give 
 ample protection ; and then the Senator from Oregon 
 is called upon ; but what is his vote ? We find, in the 
 vote upon this amendment, that but three Senators 
 voted for it ; and the Senator from Oregon records his 
 vote, and says " no," it shall not be established ; and 
 every Southern man, save three, voted against it also. 
 When was that? On the 25fch day of May last. Here 
 is an amendment now, to protect and secure the States 
 against any encroachment upon the institution within 
 the States ; and there the Senator from Oregon swore 
 that no further legislation was necessary to protect it in 
 the Territories. Well, his speeches in honours being- 
 easy, and he having sworn to it in the last Congress, I 
 am inclined to take his oath in preference to his 
 speeches, and one is a fair set-off against the other. 
 Then, all the amendments being voted down, the Senate 
 came to the vote upon the resolution 
 
 " That if experience should at any time prove that 
 the judicial and executive authority do not possess 
 means to insure adequate protection to constitutional 
 rights in a Territory, and if the territorial government 
 should fail or refuse to provide the necessary remedies 
 for that purpose, it will be the duty of Congress to 
 supply such deficiency, within the limits of its constitu 
 tional powers." 
 
APPENDIX. 95 
 
 Does not the resolution proceed upon the idea that 
 it was not necessary then ; but if, hereafter, the Terri 
 tories should refuse, and the courts and the common 
 law could not give ample protection, then it would be 
 the duty of Congress to do this thing ? What has 
 transpired since the 25th day of May last ? Is not the 
 decision of the court with us ? Is there not the Con 
 stitution carrying it there ? Why was not this resolu 
 tion, declaring protection necessary, passed during the 
 last Congress ? The Presidential election was on hand. 
 
 I have been held up and indirectly censured, because 
 I have stood by the people ; because I have advocated 
 those measures that are sometimes called demagogical. 
 I would to God that we had a few more men here who 
 were for the people in fact, and who would legislate in 
 conformity with their will and wishes. If we had, the 
 difficulties and dangers that surround us now would be 
 postponed and set aside ; they would not be upon us. 
 But in May last we could not vote that it was necessary 
 to pass a slave code for the Territories. Oh, no ; the 
 Presidential election was on hand. We were very 
 willing then to try to get Northern votes ; to secure 
 their influence in the passage of resolutions ; and to 
 crowd some men down, and let others up. It was all 
 very well then ; but since the people have determined 
 that somebody else should be President of the United 
 States, all at once the grape has got to be very sour, 
 and gentlemen do not have as good an opinion of the 
 people as they had before ; we have changed our views 
 about it. They have not thought quite as well of us as 
 we desired they should ; and if I could not get to be 
 President or Vice-President of all these United States, 
 
96 APPENDIX. 
 
 rather than miss it altogether, I would be perfectly 
 willing to be President of a part ; and therefore we will 
 divide yes, we will divide. I am in favour of secession ; 
 of breaking up the Union ; of having the rights of the 
 States out of the Union ; and as I signally failed in 
 being President at all, as the people have decided against 
 me, we have reached that precise point .of time at which 
 the Government ought to be broken up. It looks a 
 little that way. 
 
 But, sir, I alluded to the fact that, secession has been 
 brought about by usurpation. During the last forty 
 days, six States of this Confederacy have been taken 
 out of the Union. How ? By the voice of the people ? 
 No ; it is demagogism to talk of the people. By the 
 voice of the freemen of the country ? No. By whom 
 has it been done ? Have the people of South Carolina 
 passed upon the ordinance adopted by their Conven 
 tion ? No ; but a system of usurpation was instituted, 
 and a reign of terror inaugurated. How was it in 
 Georgia ? Have the people there passed upon the ordi 
 nance of secession ? No. We know that there was a 
 powerful party there, of passive, conservative men, who 
 have been overslaughed, borne down ; and tyranny and 
 usurpation have triumphed. A Convention passed an 
 ordinance to take the State out of the Confederacy ; and 
 the very same Convention appointed delegates to go to 
 a congress to make a Constitution, without consulting 
 the people. So with Louisiana ; so with Mississippi ; so 
 with all the six States which have undertaken to form a 
 new Confederacy. Have the people been consulted ? 
 Not in a single instance. We are in the habit of saying 
 that man is capable of self-government ; that he has the 
 
APPENDIX. 07 
 
 right, the unquestioned right, to govern himself; but 
 here a government has been assumed over him ; it has 
 been taken out of his hands, and at Montgomery a set of 
 usurpers are enthroned, legislating, and making Consti 
 tutions, and adopting them without consulting the free 
 men of the country. Do we not know it to be so ? 
 Have the people of Alabama, of Georgia, of any of those 
 States, passed upon it ? No ; but a Constitution is 
 adopted by those men, with a provision that it may be 
 changed by a vote of two-thirds. Four votes in a con 
 vention of six can change the whole organic law of a 
 people constituting six States. Is not this a cowp d etat 
 equal to any of Napoleon ? Is it not a usurpation of 
 the people s rights ? In some of those States even our 
 Stars and our Stripes have been changed. One State 
 has a palmetto, another has a pelican, and the last that 
 I can enumerate on this occasion is one State that has 
 the rattlesnake run up as an emblem. On a former 
 occasion I spoke of the origin of secession, and I traced 
 its early history to the Garden of Eden, when the 
 serpent s wile and the serpent s wickedness beguiled 
 and betrayed our first mother. After that occurred, and 
 they knew light and knowledge, when their Lord and 
 Master turned to them, they seceded, and hid them 
 selves from his presence. The serpent s wile and the 
 serpent s wickedness first started secession; and now 
 secession brings about a return of the serpent. Yes, 
 sir ; the wily serpent, the rattlesnake, has been substi 
 tuted as the emblem on the flag of one of the seceded 
 States ; and that old flag, the Stars and Stripes, under 
 which our fathers fought, and bled, and conquered, and 
 achieved our rights and our liberties, is pulled down 
 
98 APPENDIX. 
 
 and trailed in the dust, and the rattlesnake substituted. 
 Will the American people tolerate it ? They will be 
 indulgent ; time, I think, is wanted, but they will not 
 submit to it. 
 
 SPEECH BEFORE THE PRIMARY CONVENTION 
 OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 The Governor said he appeared before them, by invi 
 tation, to address them, or rather to hold a familiar 
 conversation with them, upon the great topics which 
 were at present engaging their attention. He had no 
 set speech prepared, as he had not intended to address 
 them. The people of Tennessee had assembled to con 
 sult together. He felt that this was simply a primary 
 meeting, and that, as one of their own number, he might 
 speak freely and familiarly to them. He had no other 
 motive than to express to them his honest sentiments. 
 What had he to ask of them ? Without arrogance, he 
 might say he had achieved all that was in their gift ; he 
 had attained the highest honours, and no one could 
 accuse him of seeking aught else than to find out what 
 was the best for the country. He had no motive for 
 double-dealing or demagogism to-night. Our country 
 has passed through great and fiery trials trials which 
 should unite us all, and make us all put far away from 
 us all petty jealousies and discords, and unite in a hearty 
 and honest effort to promote the welfare of our common 
 country. All his life long he had fought rebellion and 
 traitors, and he was not willing to cease yet ; he would 
 pour out his last libation, he would offer up his last 
 
APPENDIX. 99 
 
 tribute on the altar of his country. In past times there 
 had been parties and warring factions. Let us, to-night, 
 forget all these things ; let us not quarrel while the old 
 ship still struggles in the breakers ; when she safely 
 rides in the port of safety, then quarrel, if we must. 
 Let parties sink to-night, and be forgotten ; let prin 
 ciples living and eternal principles alone engage our 
 attention. 
 
 Of all governments that obtain among men, a demo 
 cracy is the strongest, the most enduring. Not a 
 monarchy in all the world would have stood the test 
 that ours has in this war. England would have fallen 
 to pieces long since, and gone to dissolution, but for the 
 democratic element in her Government. Men talk of 
 the fickleness and instability of the populace, the ingrati 
 tude of Republics, and all that ; but where is there a 
 government more firm and enduring than ours ? Eng 
 land changes her rulers oftener than we ; every time she 
 calls for a change in the Ministry there is a radical 
 change in her policy. Her Ministers are changed oftener 
 than we elect a new President. And yet it was that 
 same feature that gave the Government strength that 
 fresh infusion of popular ideas kept it continually 
 vigorous and nourishing. So long as the popular voice 
 was heard, and the popular influence felt in her councils, 
 so long would she continue to be potent and respected 
 among the nations. Democracies best conduct wars. 
 How has President Lincoln conducted this war ? He 
 has not conducted it at all. It is the democracy of the 
 country that has conducted it ; not democracy of the 
 Yallandigham sort ; not democracy of the George B. 
 M Clellan sort ; but the true, the real, the national 
 
 7 
 
100 APPENDIX. 
 
 democracy. It was the throbbing of the great popular 
 heart which had furnished and strengthened the sinews 
 of this war. We should not distrust the indications of 
 the popular heart ; they were right, they were whole 
 some. The people had decreed that the rebellion should 
 be put down for ever. If the war had rested on Mr. 
 Lincoln alone if the people had not sustained him he 
 would have fallen beneath his burden. Fox said, in the 
 English Parliament, that the strength of his Government 
 was in the people; when it was attacked they were 
 attacked, because they were the Government, and not 
 the king. So in our country. Attack the nation, the 
 Constitution, you attack the people; and you will 
 fail, because they will preserve their lives at all 
 hazards. 
 
 It had been often charged by the enemies of the 
 administration the enemies of the people, he called 
 them that it has assailed the Constitution, and violated 
 its provisions, habeas corpus, etc., and that its safe 
 guards have been trampled under foot. But this was 
 necessary. The people have been forced to commit some 
 irregularities that law might be preserved that the life 
 of the nation itself might be maintained. When a man 
 is thrust back to the wall by a bloody assassin, who 
 clutches at his throat and brandishes a knife in the air, 
 and threatening his life, it was a violent and desperate 
 act to take that assassin s life, but it must be done to 
 save his own. So the people must, sometimes, take the 
 law in their own hands, and commit desperate and irre 
 gular acts to save the life of the nation. 
 
 It is pre-eminently an age of invention. We are a 
 nation of inventors. We had been engaged in it too 
 
APPENDIX. 101 
 
 exclusively. "We should turn our attention more to dis 
 covery. Discovery it was, and not invention, which 
 opened up this great hemisphere to the world. Dis 
 covery is more fruitful than invention. There are great 
 and deep laws governing the mechanism of the world, 
 and if we can only find out those laws, we shall see that 
 all things go on smoothly. So in governments. They 
 obey laws, and if we can only discover those laws and 
 respect them, we shall have harmony and peace. "What 
 are those laws ? Are monopolies, entails, perpetuations, 
 in accordance with them ? They are contrary to the 
 first principles of free government. Now is a time, 
 above all others, when we should recur to first prin 
 ciples ; now, when all is chaos and distraction. Entails 
 are mischievous, fatal, ruinous to any country. By them 
 property passes along through centuries, accumulating 
 in the hands of a family, till finally there comes agrarian- 
 ism of the worst sort, and the very foundations of society 
 are broken up. So with monopolies. They are unjust, 
 and injustice will always work the ruin of any people 
 who practice it. Slavery is a monopoly a vast and 
 infamous monopoly and one of such audacity that it 
 reared its head defiantly, and struck at the life of the 
 nation that had tolerated it. It is a devouring and in 
 satiable monopoly insatiable as the grave and either 
 it or the Government on which it made war must go 
 down. Which shall it be? The great popular heart 
 had said that slavery should go down, and that the 
 Government should live. The day has come when the 
 issue was to be tried, and the issue was a vital one, not 
 an abstraction and a myth. There was a great consti 
 tutional question to be tested. Slavery should go down, 
 
102 APPENDIX. 
 
 not only because it is a monopoly, but also because it is 
 slavery. 
 
 The Governor again protested against any charges 
 of demagoguery being made against him. He had no 
 other possible motive than to speak the truth in honesty ; 
 he had no favours to ask, no offices to win, no honours 
 to aspire for. In days agone they might, perhaps, have 
 charged it against him with a show of plausibility that 
 he sought simply to tickle the ears of a dominant party, 
 but now no longer. His highest ambition had been 
 gratified ; and now, in the presence of high Heaven, he 
 disclaimed for himself any other purpose than to advise 
 them for their good. He would devote his remaining 
 years and the best energies of his life to the work of 
 crushing the great curse for ever. 
 
 Even if they should commit some irregularities, they 
 must remember that their Government must have a 
 beginning somehow. What are governments ? They 
 come from the people. You are the people ; hence you 
 cannot do wrong. Violate constitutional law ! Hard 
 to do that when there is none to violate ! If you do 
 some irregular things none can blame you, for law you 
 must have, and that speedily. Lincoln was charged 
 with irregularity in saving the law ; but he saved it, and 
 alt the people said "Amen !" He quoted, as Mirabeau 
 did, the example of the Roman consul, when he had 
 found it necessary, in order to crush a great conspiracy 
 against the life of his country, to overstep the laws, he 
 had been brought before the tribunes of the people, and 
 required to swear that he had not violated the laws of 
 the country. Holding up his hands to heaven, he said to 
 them " I swear to you that I have saved the Republic !" 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 May it be your proud privilege to claim that for your 
 selves ! Let it be uppermost in your plans to save the 
 Republic. Put away from you the petty bickerings and 
 the wranglings which you have allowed to disturb your 
 deliberations, and give yourselves like men to the great 
 business of saving the Republic. 
 
 We stand to-night en the edge of a sepulchre, full of 
 all rottenness and dead men s bones. We want a State 
 Government. We have had among us a lot of croakers 
 and fault-finders who would not put their shoulders to 
 the wheel, and who have done nothing and proposed 
 nothing to bring us out of our calamities. Put them 
 aside. Several attempts had been made to call a Con 
 vention to reorganize the Government before this, but 
 each time it had been frustrated by the presence of a 
 hostile army in the midst Longstreet, Forrest, Wheeler, 
 and, lastly, Hood. They had tried faithfully to do the 
 work that needed to be done, but had been kept back 
 from it by these occurrences. ISTow there was a time of 
 quiet, let them strike at once and earnestly. 
 
 To be practical, then, he would recommend to them 
 certain measures. First, there was slavery the mon 
 strous monopoly already a huge, offensive carcase, and 
 needing only to be put out of the way and buried out of 
 their sight. He would submit a simple proposition to 
 the people, abolishing it for ever and unconditionally 
 (grea.t cheers) and denying to the Legislature the 
 power ever to establish property in human flesh. The 
 fiat had gone forth that it should die, and if they were 
 not speedy in their action there would be an amendment 
 in the national constitution in advance of them. He had 
 received a despatch to-day from Governor Fletcher, 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 announcing in brief and glorious words, " Missouri is 
 free !" (Loud cheers.) God bless Missouri. Should 
 Tennessee be behind her sister State ? You stand here 
 to-night representing the whole State. Your declara 
 tion of the same great and happy consummation going 
 forth to the people of the North would send such a thrill 
 among them, such as would sound its death-knell 
 through the land. Do not deny yourself this proud 
 honour. When the soothsayer and the jugglers pass 
 each other they laugh and smirk at the tricks they play 
 upon the people. To-day is no time for deception, we 
 meet here to speak together as honest men, dealing with 
 the facts as they are. Let us be honest, and confess 
 there are among us some who claim to be Union men, 
 but still have a lingering fondness for their negroes a 
 hankering for the flesh-pots of Egypt. The negro is the 
 only remaining cord that binds them to their idols. 
 Cut that cord and they ll feel better they ll feel relieved 
 (laughter) they ll wonder they didn t have it done 
 before. It was with them just as it was with the wives 
 and mothers of rebels. If once they could get their 
 husbands and sons out of the rebel army, their love for 
 the rebellion was gone, gone forever. While Hood was 
 in front of Nashville, tearful and pleading mothers had 
 come to him, beseeching him to get their erring sons out 
 of the rebel ranks ; but it was in vain. At Franklin, 
 and in front of Nashville, and all along the disastrous 
 road of their retreat, they had fallen out, never to rise 
 more, or had been taken captive ; and now that they 
 were no more, or were in Northern prisons, the stricken 
 relatives had given over all thoughts of continuing in 
 rebellion. So it would be with the slaveholder. Cut 
 
APPENDIX. 105 
 
 off from him all hope of holding his negroes as property, 
 and he will abandon them at once, fall into the Union 
 ranks, and leave his treasonable ways. Do it at once. 
 These men counsel delay, for in it there is hope. Slavery 
 is naught in the present ; but they will not abandon their 
 hopes that the future may, by a fortunate turn, give 
 them again their chattels. There will be no trouble in 
 disposing of them. We will make apprentices of them. 
 It won t hurt them. He was one himself once, and 
 could pick more cotton than two of the best of them. 
 Men were finding out, too, tbat white men could pick 
 cotton as well as black. 
 
 Is there any impropriety in making this proposition 
 to the people ? They are the source of law, and can 
 make and unmake it as they will. Why want another 
 Convention ? It would only be doing at a later day 
 what must be done in any event. Their whole work 
 must be submitted to them. He who did not propose to 
 do this is a usurper and a despot. Delays are danger 
 ous. You are a part of the people the same material 
 out of which another Convention would be composed. 
 He had always found that if he wanted anything undone, 
 he had only to leave it to another ; if he wanted it done, 
 he had to do it for himself. So must they do. Then, 
 too, there used to be some talk in past times of such a 
 thing as economy ; and if ever a people were in need of 
 paying attention to that, they were just about in that 
 condition. Another Convention would cost much, and 
 for two years now the Government had been making 
 heavy drafts on the future to meet expenses. 
 
 He advised them to make as few changes in the 
 organic law as possible. These are revolutionary times ; 
 
 

 106 APPENDIX. 
 
 the minds of men are agitated and feverish, and it would 
 be dangerous to attempt too nrnch. There would be no 
 end of it. Let them first sweep the rebellion and its 
 cause, get the State righted tip and in running order, 
 and the law corrected in the essentials, and afterward 
 let the smaller changes be made. 
 
 As to the disfranchisement of rebels, he would advise 
 them, if they desired to exclude any from the polls, not 
 to do so by any provision permanently incorporated in 
 the Constitution, but by explicit and temporary enact 
 ments to that effect. The day would soon come when 
 such allusion, if found in the Constitution, would awaken 
 unpleasant recollections. Permanent changes should be 
 made sparingly. Public opinion is subject to rapid 
 changes. Five years ago, if 500 men had come in that 
 room and given forth such utterances as they had touch 
 ing slavery, they would have been hanged in the city. 
 Such modifications as were not absolutely necessary for 
 present safety and consistency should be left to the slow 
 correction of years. 
 
 He did not believe in the doctrine that the State had 
 ever voted itself out of the Union. Such a thing was 
 impossible. Still, as a matter of form as a solemn 
 declaration of the popular condemnation of those -trea 
 sonable acts, he was in favour of passing a formal reso 
 lution declaring the Acts of Secession, the League with 
 . the Confederate States, and all subsequent laws made 
 under them, void from the beginning. 
 
 HARBII/D, PRINTER, LONDON. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKE 
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GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. 
 
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