SPEECHES

; INSOX

JTTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY

SPEECHES

OF

ANDREW JOHNSON,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

WITH

A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION

BY FRANK MOORE.

BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

1866.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co.,

CAMBRIDGE.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION .... v

SPEECH TO THE COLORED MEN OF NASHVILLE,

TENN xxxvii

SPEECH AT WASHINGTON, April 3, 1865 . . xliii

SPEECH AT HIS INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT,

April 15, 1865 xlviii

ON THE VETO-POWER, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, August 2, 1848 ........ 1

ON THE HOMESTEAD BILL, delivered in the Senate

of the United States, May 20, 1858 . . 12

ON THE CONSTITUTIONALITY AND RIGHTFULNESS OF SECESSION, delivered in the Senate, De cember 18 and 19, 1860 .... 77

ON THE STATE OF THE UNION, delivered in the

Senate, February 5 and 6, 1861 . . . 176

REPLY TO SENATOR LANE OF OREGON, delivered

in the Senate, March 2, 1861 . . . 290"*

SPEECH AT CINCINNATI, OHIO, June 20, 1861 . 316

ON THE WAR FOR THE UNION, delivered in the

Senate, July 27, 1861 .... 328-

IV CONTENTS.

PAGE

ON THE PROPOSED EXPULSION OF ME. JESSE D.

BRIGHT, January 31, 1862 .... 405 APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE, March

18, 1862 451

INAUGURAL ADDRESS, delivered in the Senate of

the United States, March 4, 1865 . . 457 JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AMENDMENTS TO

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 461 REPLY TO THE ILLINOIS DELEGATION, April 18,

1865 468

REPLY TO THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR . . 473 SPEECH TO THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS . . . 476 ADDRESS TO LOYAL SOUTHERNERS . . . 477 SPEECH TO THE INDIANA DELEGATION 481

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

ANDREW JOHNSON was born on the 29th day of December, _1808, at JR,aieigh, North Carolina. While yet in his fifth year71iis~ fatTJer" TosT*^mife through generous and successful efforts to save Col. Thomas Henderson, editor of tlie ~" Raleigh Gazette," from drowning, leaving his wife and son dependent upon themselves for future support. The untoward event of his father's death prevented the lad from receiving even an ordinary education, and, at the age of ten years, he was apprenticecTto a tailor in his native town. Devoting himself steadily and earnestly to his new occupation, he thus began life by a struggle with its daily duties, brightened by probable visions of the future, but into which dreams the possibility of an attainment to his pres ent position presumed not to enter.

In. the society of his fellow-workmen he became conscious of his great ignorance, and was possessed with a desire to learn to read. The visits to the workshop of a gentleman who lightened the hours of toil by reading to the workmen, still further aroused the ambition of the young apprentice. The volume thus read, (a collection of speeches by

a*

vi BIOGEAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

British statesmen,) sowed in his mind a germ which in after-years was developed in the legislative halls. He devoted the hours after his day's work was done to mastering the alphabet, and then asked the loan of the volume that he might learn to spell. The gentleman, pleased at his earnestness and appreciat ing his ambition, presented to him the book, and otherwise assisted him in his studies. Through in dustry and patience, aided by a strong determina tion to overcome all obstacles, success crowned his efforts, and books were no longer sealed volumes to his youthful mind.

At the expiration of his apprenticeship in 1824, he went to Laurens Court House, S. C., where he worked as journeyman tailor until May, 1826, when he returned to Raleigh. There he remained until September of the same year, when with his mother he removed to Greenville, a small town in Eastern Tennessee, at which place he succeeded in obtaining work. Soon jafter his settlement in Greenville, he married a young woman whose attainments and de votion exerted a marked and beneficial influence on his future life. Sharing in the desires of her hus band to acquire knowledge, and in his ambition to rise to distinction, she read to him and instructed him by her conversation as he plied the needle on his work-bench, thus lightening his labor by her presence and encouragement. At night the instruc tions of the day were continued by lessons in writing and arithmetic. Actuated by the highest motives,

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. vii

his efforts seconded by unflagging perseverance and an indomitable will, he proved an attentive student and a good scholar, and his estimable wife realized the first-fruits of her teachings in his growing pop ularity with the workingmen of the town in which they lived.

Thinking to improve his fortunes he left Green ville and moved further West, but after an absence of about a year, he returned with his wife to his former home, where he permanently settled. Self- reliance and energy were early developed in his character, while the method of his education sharp ened and improved his reasoning faculties. The broad and comprehensive views of the more liberal British statesmen, implanted in his mind by the readings in the old workshop, took deep root ; and in his further studies, the principle of Republican government — the fact that it is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people — be came the centre around which clustered all his thoughts, hopes, and aspirations.

He saw that the aristocracy of the town, who were supported by slave labor, despised the white man who maintained himself and family by his own exertions ; that capital, represented by the few, was to rule, and not the intelligence of the many who earned their bread by their daily toil. This was contrary to all his preconceived ideas, and he de voted himself heart and soul to the correction of the fallacy. By his appeals to the laboring classes he

Vlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

aroused them to assert their right to representation in the town councils, and, in 1828, the young tailor was chosen as Alderman, which position he held un til 1830. In this latter year he was elected Mayor, and served in that capacity for the three succeeding years. He was also appointed Trustee of Rhea Academy by the County Court. In 1834 he in terested himself successfully in the adoption of a new constitution for Tennessee, hy which impor tant rights were guaranteed to the mass of the peo ple, the freedom of the press established, and other liberal measures adopted.

Andrew Johnson was now fairly^-^nli&tedr in public life. Identified with the interests of the working classes, he devoted himself earnestly to improving their condition, to raising them from the position to which the aristocrats had doomed them, to the independence and dignity of freemen. His zeal in their behalf secured for him their uni versal esteem ; they looked to him as their friend and champion, and were ever willing to advance his interests by their hearty support and by their votes. Consequently, in 1835, having proved himself in every way worthy~oFTheir suffrage, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State for the counties of Greene and Washington. He became an active member of this body, but was particularly noted for his opposition to a grand scheme of internal improvements, which he boldly denounced as a base fraud tending to impoverish

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. ix

the State treasury and increase State taxation. This course rendered him unpopular at the time, and at the election in 183T his place was filled by another representative. Time placed him right on the rec ord, however. The scheme he had opposed proved, as he had predicted, a useless burden on the peo ple, and in 1839 he was again returned to the Legislature.

During the Presidential contest of 1840, between Harrison and Van Buren, Mr. Johnson, in the ca pacity of Presidential Elector, canvassed the State in behalf of the latter candidate. He has been described as " an effective stump-speaker. His voice at first appears to be whining, but as he warms with his subject seems to entwine itself around the hearts of his followers and holds them spellbound."

In 1841 he was elected State Senator from Haw- kins and Greene counties^nd during the two ensu ing years labored efficiently for the improvement of Eastern Tennessee. In the Senate, as in the lower branch of the Legislature, he proved a useful and active member. He was not an jornamentaLiegis- lator or hackney politician, but an earnest and able advocate of all that he believed to be rigftt ; an open, honest, and hearty^ denouncer of that which lie deemed wrong.

The people, recognizing his abilities, respecting his character, and appreciating his services, deter mined to enlarge his sphere of usefulness, and in 1843 he was nominated for Congress from the First

X BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

District of Tennessee, embracing seven counties. He canvasse^TEe~3isfrict with his opponent, Col. John A. Asken, a popular gentleman of prominence and ability, and handsomely defeated him. He took his seat as member of the House of Representatives at Washington, in December, 1843, retaining that po sition by successive elections until 1853.

The State having been redistricted previous to the election of the latter year, that portion in which Mr. Johnson resided was so allotted as to place him in a district having a large Whig majority, and thus he lost his seat in Congress. Gustavus A. Henry, at that time the Whig candidate for Governor, was the leading spirit in this movement, and Mr. John son determined to defeat the man who had thus " Gerrymandered," or, as he called it, " Henryman- dered " him out of Congress. After an exciting canvass, M r. Jo h ns on __ wag_j;h oggjl _(r n ve r n ( ) r , and again in 1855 he was elected, this time defeating one of the ablest Whigs in the State, Meredith P. Gentry. During his administration of the guber natorial duties, which he performed in the most im partial manner, he was^activaJn iirging upon Con gress the Homestead Bill, and exerted his influence for the spread of popular education. Under his successive regimes, much was accomplished for the benefit and internal improvement of Tennessee, and the sons of toil still found in him a zealous defender of their rights and advocate of their wants.

In the year 1857 he was elected by the Legisla-

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRO-DUCHON. xi

ture of Tennessee United States

termjof_six Jfears, anT33

that office until the spring of 1862, when he was

appointed Military Governor of Tennessee. Prior

to his election to Congress, his public services had

been confined to the limits of his State, but from

this time he belongs to the country.

Andrew Johnson wus emphatically " a represent ative of the people" IJorii of the people, and at an early age "thrown upon his own resources, he lived and grew up amongst the people, becoming familiar with their every-day lives and deeds, their opinions, their wrongs and their asserted rights, their inmost thoughts and their highest aspirations. Feeling " the smart of the want of a proper edu cation while young," but proud in the consciousness that for the knowledge he possessed he was in debted solely to his own exertions, he stood in the legislative halls, — Andrew Johnson, Tailor and Statesman, the compeer of any member of either house. Modestly assuming, but thoroughly appre ciating the dignity of his position, he never permit ted any sneer at his calling, or any attempted dis paragement of the laboring classes, to pass unrebuked, and we find him breaking lances with the ablest debaters in Congress.

" Sir, I do not forget that I am a mechanic. I am proud to own it. Neither do I forget that Adam was a tailor, and sewed fig-leaves, or that our Saviour was the son of a carpenter."

xii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

He cordially hated aristocracy, and had decided objections to gentlemen, rearecT in affluence and idleness, arrogating to themselves the right to all the knowledge in the world. When Jefferson Davis superciliously asked, " What do you mean by 4 the laboring classes ' ? " Andrew Johnson answered, " Those who earn their bread by the sweat of their face, and not by fatiguing their ingenuity."

A true Democrat, he was a firm believer hi the sovereignty of the^people, and held that members of the loweTToIise^oTCohgress were next in power to the people. Respecting statesmen and hating poli ticians, he claimed that upon the floor of the House trie" people had a right to be heard. He was thoroughly imbued with the idea that legislation was for the many, not for the few ; for the good of the whole country, and not for the benefit of any party.

He was always consistently in favor of retrench ment in governmental expenses, and participated in nearly every debate upon appropriation bills, or acts requiring the expenditure of the public funds. He opposed the Smithsonian Institute, on the ground that it would be a burden on the public treas ury, without commensurate good results ; — voted against all direct appropriations for the District of Columbia, arguing that any city in the United States would cheerfully contribute to have the Na tional Capital removed to its limits ; — debated all bills to increase the clerical force of the different

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xiii

departments, declaring that if the clerks — many of whom he believed to be political vampires doing little or nothing for government during six hours per day, and devoting the remainder of their time to drink ing, gaming, and abusing honest legislators in the newspapers — were made to do a decent day's work there would be no necessity for such increase ; — introduced resolutions to reduce the salaries of mem bers of Congress, and all officers of the Government, civil, military, and naval, amounting to over 81000, twenty per cent. ; also a resolution instructing the Committee on Finance to investigate and report how much and wherein the expenses of all the departments might be reduced ; — opposed all appro priations for monuments and funeral expenses, and called for a statement of the items in the bill for funeral expenses of a distinguished member of the House ; — denied the right of members to vote them selves books, &c., saying they " might just as well vote to increase their salaries " ; — and refused his assent to the purchase of Mr. Madison's papers and Washington's Farewell Address, not from any want of respect for the services and memory of either, but from his dislike to " speculations and jobs."

He was the true and honest friend of the poor, and of the lahorjpg ^lafil**

gresj|_as their champion. He introduced the subject of Homesteads into the House of Representatives, and carried it to a successful issue in that branch. He also brought up the subject in the Senate, and

xiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

debated it at great length, but the bill, as passed, was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan.

Believing that the burdens of the Government should be borne by the rich and not by the poor, he proposed an amendment to the tariff bill, taxing capital instead of labor. He also opposed the tariff on tea and sugar.

He had no faith in caucuses, and held that they gave the controlling power to a few politicians, and prevented a true representation of the people. At different times he offered resolutions to amend the Constitution so that the people should vote directly for- President. He advocated the bill to refund the fine imposed upon Andrew Jackson by Judge Hall at New Orleans (H. R., January 8, 1844) ; was in favor of the Annexation .of Texas (H. R., January 21, 1845) ; discussed the Oregon question asserting our right to 54° 40', but sustained the administration in the final settlement of the question (H. R., Jan uary 31, 1846) ; addressed the House on the Mex ican question, in support of the administration, De cember 15, 1846, January 5", 1847, and August 2, 1848 ; delivered an able argument on the veto power (H. R., August 2, 1847) ; opposed the bill establishing the Court of Claims (H. R., January 6, 1849) ; made an, earnest plea for the -admissipn of California and the protection of slavery (H. R., June 5, 1850) ; debated the Mexican indemnity bill (H. R., January 21, 28, 1852) ; also the bill for right of way on rail and plank roads (H. R., July 20,

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XV

1852) ; made a speech on frauds in the Treasury Department (H. R., January 13, 1853), and an other on coinage (H. R., February 2, 1853).

While in the Senate, in addition to the measures alluded to more at length in this sketch, he opposed the increase of the regular army at the time of the Mormon difficulties (S., February 17, 18, 1857) ; had an earnest debate with Hon. John Bell, his col league, on the Tennessee resolutions inviting Bell to resign (S., February 23, 24, 1857) ; participated in the debate on the admission of Minnesota (S., April 6, 1858) ; opposed the Pacific Railroad bill, and repudiated the idea that it was imposed upon him as a Democratic measure (S., January 25, 1859) ; advocated retrenchment (S., January 4, and February 12, 1859) ; and warmly defended Tennessee (S., March 26, 1860).

Born and reared in a slave State, commencing and continuing his public career in another slave State, and himself the owner of slaves " acquired by the toil of his own hands," he accepted slavery as it existed and where it existed. Firm in the be lief that the agitation of the subject would ultimately lead to the abolition of slavery, and the consequent dissolution of the Union, he deprecated its introduc tion into the debates of Congress, and was amongst those who declared against the right to petition upon the matter, giving his reasons therefor in a speech delivered January 31, 1844.

He was not an advocate of the extension of

xvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

slavery, and was willing to leave the inhabitants of the Territories to decide whether it should or should not exist therein.

" My position is, that Congress has no power to interfere with the subject of slavery; that it is an institution local in its character and peculiar to the States where it exists, and no other power has the right to control it." *

Acting under these convictions, he zealously op posed any encroachments upon what he regarded as the rights of the slave States. He continued true to this belief, and was consistent in his course to the very last ; and in the stormy scenes in the Senate in December, 1860, we find him demanding new guaranties for the perpetuity of slavery.

But it required the fiery ordeal of the crisis of 1860 and 1861 to develop the strong points in his character, and to reveal his sincere love for and unswerving integrity to the Union. In those dark and terrible days, when each man distrusted his neighbor, the country demanded MEN, — men with comprehension to grasp the great question of the day, — men with foresight to discern its bearings upon the future, — men of strength, "bold to take up, firm to sustain " the glorious banner of a Re public of States, " one and indivisible." It is but stating truth to say, that, amongst the many who were tried in the crucible of those terrible hours, Andrew -TrJincnn paina fprt}j fl gfrg^r.ion an honest patriot, a true man.

1 Speech in House of Representatives, June 5, 1860.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xvii

An ardent admirer of Andrew Jackson, the mem orable Words of that indomitable patriot — " The Union; it must and shall be preserved" — were indelibly engraven on his heart. In a speech de livered in the House of Representatives, December 19, 1846, in support of the policy of Mr. Folk's administration in carrying the war into Mexico, he had said : —

/-• XSN

" I am in favor of supporting the administration in this ao&,

because I believe it to be right. But, sir, I care not whether \right or wrong, I am for my country always"

Thus fortified, with the Constitution for his shield he entered upon the stormy scenes preceding the rebellion. In December, 1859, he had denounced the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, and said he believed it to be the legitimate fruits of abolition teachings. He wished to have its leader punished under the Constitution, for an hostile irruption into a sovereign State. In 1860 he readily acquiesced in the election, under the same Constitution, of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency, and feared none of the phantoms which so disturbed the imag ination of a majority of the Southern Senators and Representatives, He believed in conciliation, andlh. view of the increasing excitement at the South, thought the North should be willing to give some new constitutional guarantees for the protection of slavery, and introduced resolutions to that effect,

December 13, 1860, which were referred to the

b*

XVlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

Select Committee of Thirteen. Five days later, in a powerful speech, he denounced secession, and de nied the right of any State to withdraw from the Union. He appealed to the Southern Senators to re main in the Union and " fight for their constitutional rights on the battlements of the Constitution." He did not mean to be driven out of the Union ; and if anvbody must go out, it must be those who had violated the Constitution by passing personal liberty bills and opposing the execution of the fugitive slave law.1 But treason had already begun its foul work, and he soon saw that the South in its madness would not listen to conciliation or compromise.

Rising above sectional prejudice, and freeing him self from old party associations, he looked beyond the present, and meeting the issue boldly, declared for the Union now and forever.

In the speech delivered in the Senate, February 5th, 1861, he alludes to his having been denounced for his speech in December, but says, " I feel proud. I feel that I have struck treason a blow ; " and adds, " I am for preserving the Union ; and if it is to be done on constitutional terms, I am ready to stand by any and every man without asking his antecedents, or fearing what may take place hereafter."

Thenceforward Andrew Johnson was to be found in the van, boldly fighting for the Union, and ready, if need be, to lay down his life for its preservation.

At the first session of the Thirty-seventh Con-

1 See page 77, Speeches.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xix

gress, in July and August, 1861, he presented the credentials of the Senators from West Virginia, with appropriate remarks ; on the 26th of July, 1861, he introduced a resolution defining the ob jects of the war, as follows : —

Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States, now in revolt against the Constitutional Government, and in arms around the Capitol ; that, in this national emer gency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; that this Avar is not prosecuted upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of authorizing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States, unim paired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease.

This was passed, after a long debate, by a vote of thirty to five.

On the 27th of July he delivered another memo rable speech, in which he arraigned his former asso ciates in the Senate as traitors, and by unanswerable arguments and an exhaustless statement of facts, convicted them by their own record. In his remarks on voting for the tariff, in August, he argued that it was no time to discuss details, and freely voted for the bill in order to sustain the Government.

On the 31st of January, 1862, he made an able speech on the comTuct of Senator r Bright, and

XX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

voted for the expulsion of the man, who, four years before, hacT administeredlo Mm the Senatorial oath.

Meanwhile, affairs in the Border States were becoming more and more complicated. From the outset of the rebellion, the Secessionists had been rampant in Tennessee. The State had been sold to the rebels by Governor Harris and his myrmi dons. Mob law prevailed, and ruffians, with all the malignity of hate and the ferocity of brutes, had in augurated a reign of terror, and citizens who remained true to the Union, were subjected to every possible indignity and persecution. This had been carried so far, and the State had received so little protec tion and assistance from the General Government, that many of the Unionists had become submis- sionists to rebel rule for the sole purpose of saving their lives. The course of Senator Johnson in Con gress, in 1860, had entailed upon him the wrath of the leading and most bitter Secessionists. In De cember, he had been burned in effigy at Memphis ; and on his return to Tennessee in April, 1861, at the close of the session of Congress, he was assailed at various places along his route, was threatened with lynching, and repeatedly insulted by mobs of infuriated men. A price was set upon his head, and personal violence threatened if he remained in the State.

In June, 1861, while on his way to Washington to attend the special session of Congress, he re ceived an ovation from the loyal citizens of Cincin-

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxi

nati, and in an able speech, defined his position, announcing his unalterable determination to stand

O

by the Union. While in Washington, he urged upon the President and Secretary of War the im portance and the justice of aiding and protecting the Unionists of East Tennessee. Returning to the West, in September, he addressed Union meetings at Newport, Ky., and at other places, and devoted himself zealously to arousing those Unionists who had fallen into or been forced into a state of apathy by the aspect of war.

Meanwhile Kentucky had been invaded, and the rebels were overrunning Tennessee, — plundering, burning, and murdering. In the Eastern portion of that State, they confiscated Mr. Johnson's slaves, went to his home, drove his sick wife with her child into the street, and turned their house, built by his own hands, into a hospital and barracks.

In February, 1862, General Grant entered Ten nessee, and captured Forts Henry and Donelson. The subsequent advance of General Buell's forces compelled the withdrawal of the main body of the rebels from Western and Middle Tennessee. The larger portion of the State having been thus re covered and in the occupation of the Federal forces, President Lincoln appointed Andrew Johnson Mili tary Governor, with the rank of Brigadier-General of Volunteers. This appointment was confirmed by the Senate, March 5th, and Governor Johnson left his seat in that body to enter upon the duties of his new position.

Xxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

It is difficult to conceive of a more fitting appoint ment than this. On the floor of the Senate, amidst the mountains of East Tennessee, and in the cities and towns of the State, he had openly denounced treason and boldly proclaimed that traitors should be hung. He had borne many personal indigni ties, had been outlawed by outlaws who had set a price on his head, his family had been merci lessly persecuted, and his friends and neighbors had been driven from their homes. Neither threats nor bullets could intimidate him. Fearless but just, reso lute but compassionate, he was the man of all men to " rule with a rod of iron " over traitors, to bring order out of anarchy, and to restore confidence where fear had had sway. Governor Johnson reached Nashville on the 12th of March, in company with Horace Maynard, Emerson Etheredge, and others who had been political exiles. He was enthusiasti cally received by the long suffering Unionists, and, in response to a serenade, addressed the assemblage, setting forth the views of the administration and shadowing his purposed policy. From his long and thorough acquaintance with Tennesseans, he knew the men with whom he had to deal. In a few days he published an " Appeal to the People," in which the subjects of secession, the state of affairs which then existed, and the promise of the future, were treated in a clear and comprehensive manner. This paper will be found in full in the following pages. Later in March, Governor Johnson ordered

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxiii

the Mayor and City Council of Nashville to take the oath of allegiance. Upon their declining so to do, their places were declared vacant, other officials were appointed, and they were subsequently incar cerated in the penitentiary. The press throughout the State was placed under proper supervision, and it was soon understood that spoken or written trea son would subject the offenders to justice. In April the editor of the u Nashville Banner" was arrested and his paper suppressed. Judge Guild, of the Chancery Court, was also imprisoned on a charge of treason.

On the 12th of May an important convention was held at Nashville, to consider the subject of the restoration of the State to the Union. The meeting was numerously attended by citizens from all parts of the State, and Governor Johnson made one of his impassioned and characteristic addresses. The Unionists continuing to suffer from the depre dations of guerrillas, Governor Johnson issued the following proclamation : —

EXECUTIVE OFFICE, NASHVILLE, TENN., ) May 9, 1862. }

Whereas, Certain persons, unfriendly and hostile to the Government of the United States, have banded themselves together, and are now going at large through many of the counties of this State, arresting, maltreating, and plundering Union citizens wherever found :

Now therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, Governor of the State of Tennessee, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested, do hereby proclaim that in every instance in which a Union man is arrested and maltreated by the marauding bauds

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

aforesaid, five or more rebels, from the most prominent in the immediate neighborhood, shall be arrested, imprisoned, and otherwise dealt with as the nature of the case may require ; and further, in all cases where the property of citizens loyal to the Government of the United States is taken or destroyed, full and ample remuneration shall be made to them out of the property of such rebels in the vicinity as have sympathized with, and given aid, comfort, information, or encouragement to the parties committing such depredations.

This order will be executed in letter and spirit. All citizens are hereby warned, under heavy penalties, from entertaining, receiving, or encouraging such persons so banded together, or in any wise connected therewith.

By the Governor: ANDREW JOHNSON.

EDWARD H. EAST,

Secretary of State.

An election for judge of the Circuit Court of Nashville having been ordered, Turner S. Foster, a well-known Secessionist, was chosen. The Gov ernor, too much of a law-abiding citizen to ignore an election ordered by himself, gave Foster his com mission as judge ; but fearing that he might abuse the power thus vested in him, ordered his arrest and sent him to the penitentiary on the same day. Early in June he issued an order that all persons guilty of uttering disloyal sentiments who should refuse to take the oath, and give bonds in §1000 for their future good behavior, should be sent South, and be treated as spies if again found within the Federal lines. During this month Union meetings were held in various districts of the State, at all of which Governor Johnson appeared and took an active part.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXV

Later in the same month six prominent clergy men of Nashville, who not only entertained treason able sentiments but boldly preached them from their pulpits, were summoned before the Governor, and desired to take the oath. They requested five days to decide as to their, course, which request was granted. At the expiration of that time they de clined to " turn from the error of their ways," whereupon five of them were sent to prison, and the sixth, on account of illness, paroled.

The next four months proved a dark and peril ous period for the citizens of Nashville and the safety of the Provisional Government. In addi tion to the guerrillas under Forrest, which had in fested the State, the confederate forces under Kirby Smith, Anderson, Marshall, and Bragg, moved northward through Tennessee, to invade Kentucky. At different times Nashville was wholly isolated, its communications cut off in every direction, and the city in a state of siege. Provisions became scarce, and prices ruled enormously high ; the laws were with difficulty enforced, and much suffering pre vailed. Through all these trying times Governor Johnson remained hopeful and self-reliant, inspiring confidence in all around him, and reviving courage by his calmness and determination. Among the inhabitants of Nashville were many whose fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons were in arms against the Government, leaving their families to be cared for by the authorities. To remedy this, Governor

XXvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

Johnson addressed the following circular to such of the avowed Secessionists of the city as were able pecuniarily to respond : —

STATE OF TENNESSEE, EXECUTIVE DEPAKTMENT, ) Nashville, August 18, 1862. )

SIR, — There are many wives and helpless children in the city of Nashville and county of Davidson, who have been re duced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of their husbands and fathers having been forced into the armies of this unholy and nefarious rebellion. Their necessities have become so manifest, and their demands for the necessaries of life so urgent, that the laws of justice and humanity would be violated unless something was done to relieve their suffering and destitute condition.

You are therefore requested to contribute the sum of dollars, which you will pay over within the next five days to James Whitworth, Esq., Judge of the County Court, to be by him distributed among these destitute families in such manner as may be prescribed.

Respectfully, &c.

ANDKEW JOHNSON,

Attest : Military Governor.

EDWARD H. EAST, Secretary of State.

The amounts so assessed varied from fifty to three hundred dollars.

In September General Buell evacuated his posi tion in Southern Tennessee, falling back on Nash ville, and then proposed to abandon that city. Governor Johnson earnestly protested against such a course, asserting that the city should be defended to the last extremity, and then destroyed to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. He was

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxvii

so disgusted with General Buell's movements that he addressed a letter to President Lincoln on the subject, and recommended his removal. General Thomas, who was placed in command of the city, heartily seconded Governor Johnson's determination, and the city was strongly fortified. Afterwards General Negley was assigned to the command, and under him the more important operations were con ducted. Governor Johnson encouraged and aided

O

General Negley in all his operations, and was active throughout the siege. He had no thought of retreating or of surrendering. "I am no military man," he said ; " but any one who talks of surren dering, I will shoot."

After several attacks upon the city which were gallantly repulsed by General Negley, the rebels were forced to retire, as General Rosecrans, who had relieved General Buell, was advancing from the direction of Bowling Green. Early in November the forces under command of the latter General entered the city, and found its defenders on half rations, but brave and determined still. In October Governor Johnson's family rejoined him, after a series of perilous adventures on their journey from Bristol, in the northeastern part of the State.

During the same month President Lincoln rec ommended an election for members of Congress in several districts in Tennessee, but the military opera tions then in progress prevented the accomplish ment of this design until December, \vhen Governor

XXVlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

Johnson issued a proclamation for elections in the Ninth and Tenth Districts. He had from the first opposed the idea of allowing rebel sympathizers to vote on any of the acts necessary to the restora tion of the State, and closed his proclamation thus: *' 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."

On the 13th of December Governor Johnson issued an order nearly identical with his circular of August 18, assessing the property of the Secession ists to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, for the support of the poor, the widows, and the orphans, made so by the war.

In the spring of 1863, and again in the fall, he visited Washington, to confer with President Lin coln on the restoration of Tennessee to the Union. The military operations during the year succeeded in freeing the State of all organized bodies of rebels, and it was thought the time had arrived for the ful-

O

filment of their hopes. Conventions were held at different places in the State, at which Governor Johnson and other leading men spoke in reference to the all-absorbing topic. The people, who had so long been subject to the tyranny of rebel thieves and murderers, were overjoyed at their deliverance, but needed instruction as to the method to be used for the accomplishment of the great and good work.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXIX

Governor Johnson pithily and tersely stated the case as follows : —

" Tennessee is not out of the Union, never has been, and never will be out. The bonds of the Constitution and the Federal power will always prevent that. This Government is perpetual ; provision is made for reforming the Government and amending the Constitution, and admitting States into the Union ; not for letting them out of it.

" Where are we now ? There is a rebellion ; this was antic ipated, as I said. The rebel army is driven back. Here lies your State ; a sick man in his bed, emaciated and exhausted, paralyzed in all his powers, and unable to walk alone. The physician conies. Don't quarrel about antecedents, but admin ister to his wants, and cure him as quickly as possible. The United States sends an agent, or a military governor, which ever you please to call him, to aid you in restoring your Gov ernment. 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 Government will be set in motion. A legislature will be elected ; judges will be ap pointed temporarily, 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, com mon-sense matter, and there is nothing in the way but obsti nacy."

On the 8th and 21st of Januar^l864, Governor Johnson addressed meetings at Nashville, and on the 26th of the same month issued a proclamation for a State election. April 12th he addressed the peo-

XXX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION'.

pie of Tennessee, at Knoxville, and again on the 16th of the same month, at which latter time the citizens of the State, in mass meeting assembled, declared in favor of emancipation, and for a con vention to alter the Constitution so as to make Ten nessee a free State.

On the 6th of June Governor Johnson was unani mously nominated by the National Union Conven tion, assembled "at Baltimore, as the candidate for the~Vice-P residency of the United States, Abraham Lincoln having been renominated for the Presi dency. When this intelligence reached Nashville, a mass meeting was held, and Governor Johnson invited to address them. He was greeted with the greatest enthusiasm. In the course of his remarks he spoke upon the topics of slavery and emancipa tion. Alluding to the nation as being " in the throes of a mighty revolution," he said : —

" While society is in this disordered state, and we are seek ing security, let us fix the foundations of the Government on principles of eternal justice, which will endure for all time. There are those in our midst who are for perpetuating the institution of slavery. Let me say to you, Tennesseans, and men from the Northern States, that slavery is dead. It was not murdered by me. I told you long ago what the result would be, if you endeavored to go out of the Union to save slavery, and that the result would be bloodshed, rapine, devas tated fields, plundered villages and cities ; and therefore I urged you to remain in the Union. In trying to save slavery you killed it, and lost your own freedom. Your slavery is dead, but I did not murder it. As Macbeth said to Banquo's bloody ghost, —

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXI

' Never shake thy gory locks at me, Thou canst not say I did it.'

*' Slavery is dead, and you must pardon me if I do not mourn over its dead body ; you can bury it out of sight. In restoring the State, leave out that disturbing and dangerous element, and use only those parts of the machinery which will move in harmony.

" Now, in regard to emancipation, I want to say to the blacks that liberty means liberty to work and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Idleness is not freedom. I desire that all men shall have a fair start and an equal chance in the race of life, and let him succeed who has the most merit. This, I think, is a principle of Heaven. I am for emancipation for two rea sons : first, because it is right in itself; and. second, because in the emancipation of the slaves we break down an odious and dangerous aristocracy. I think that we are freeing more whites than blacks in Tennessee. I want to^pp ^a^ry br^- ken up, and when its barriers are thrown down., T wa.pt to sfte industrious, thrifty emigrants pouring in from all parts of the country."

In formally accepting the nomination of the Con vention, Governor Johnson wrote as follows : —

" NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 2, 1864.

" HON. WILLIAM DEXNISON, Cliairman, and others, Committee of the National Union Convention:

" GENTLEMEN", — Your communication of the 9th ult, in forming me of my nomination for the Vice-Presidency of the United States by the National Convention held at Baltimore, and enclosing a copy of the resolutions adopted by that body, was not received until the 25th ult.

"A reply on my part had been previously made to the action of the Convention in presenting my name, in a speech deliv ered in this city on the evening succeeding the day of the adjournment of the Convention, in which 1 indicated my ac-

xxxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION".

ceptance of the distinguished honor conferred by that body, and defined the grounds upon which that acceptance wag based, substantially saying what I now have to say. From the comments made upon that speech by the various presses of the country to which my attention has been directed, I considered it to be regarded as a full acceptance.

" In view, however, of the desire expressed in your commu nication, I will more fully allude to a few points that have been heretofore presented.

"My opinions on the leading questions at present agitating and distracting the public mind, and especially in reference to the rebellion now being waged against the Government and authority of the United States, I presume are generally under stood. Before the Southern people assumed a belligerent at titude, (and repeatedly since,) I took occasion most frankly to declare the views I then entertained in relation to the wicked purposes of the Southern politicians. They have since under gone but little, if any, change. Time and subsequent events have rather confirmed than diminished my confidence in their correctness.

" At the beginning of this great struggle I entertained the same opinion of it I do now, and in my place in the Senate I denounced it as treason, worthy the punishment of death, and warned the Government and people of the impending danger. But my voice was not heard or counsel heeded until it was too late to avert the storm. It still continued to gather over us without molestation from the authorities at Washington, until at length it broke with all its fury upon the country. And now, if we would save the Government from being over whelmed by it, we must meet it in the true spirit of patriot ism, and bring traitors to the punishment due their crime, and, by force of arms, crush out and subdue the last vestige of rebel authority in every State. I felt then, as now, that the destruction of the Government was deliberately determined upon by wicked and designing conspirators, whose lives and fortunes were pledged to carry it out ; and that no compro-

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, xxxiii

mise, short of an unconditional recognition of the independence of the Southern States could have been, or could now be pro posed, which they would accept. The clamor for " Southern Rights," as the rebel journals were pleased to designate their rallying cry, was not to secure their assumed rights in the Union and under the Constitution, but to disrupt the Government, and establish an independent organization, based upon Slavery, which they could at all times control.

" The separation of the Government has for years past been the cherished purpose of the Southern leaders. Baffled in 1832 by the stern, patriotic heroism of Andrew Jackson, they sullenly acquiesced, only to mature their diabolical schemes, and await the recurrence of a more favorable opportunity to execute them. Then the pretext was the tariff, and Jackson, after foiling their schemes of nullification and disunion, with prophetic perspicacity warned the country against the renewal of their efforts to dismember the Government.

" In a letter, dated May 1, 1833, to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, after demonstrating the heartless insincerity of the Southern nullifiers, he said : ' Therefore the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or Slavery question.'

u Time has fully verified this prediction, and we have now not only ' the negro, or Slavery question,' as the pretext, but the real cause of the rebellion, and both must go down to gether. It is vain to attempt to reconstruct the Union with the distracting element of Slavery in it. Experience has dem onstrated its incompatibility with free and republican govern ments, and it would be unwise and unjust longer to continue it as one of the institutions of the country. While it remained subordinate to the Constitution and laws of the United States, I yielded to it my support ; but when it became rebellious, and attempted to rise above the Government, and control its action, I threw my humble influence against it.

"The authority of the Government is supreme, and will ad mit of no rivalry. No institution can rise above it, whether

XXXIV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

it be Slavery or any other organized power. In our happy form of government all must be subordinate to the will of the people, when reflected through the Constitution and laws made pursuant thereto — State or Federal. This great prin ciple lies at the foundation of every government, and cannot be disregarded without the destruction of the government itself. In the support and practice of correct principles we can never reach wrong results ; and by rigorously adhering to this great fundamental truth, the end will be the preservation of the Union, and the overthrow of an institution which has made war upon, and attempted the destruction of the Govern ment itself.

" The mode by which this great change — the emancipation of the slave — can be effected, is properly found in the power to amend the Constitution of the United States. This plan is effectual and of no doubtful authority ; and while it does not contravene the timely exercise of the war power by the President in his Emancipation Proclamation, it comes stamped with the authority of the people themselves, acting in accord ance with the written rule of the supreme law of the land, and must therefore give more general satisfaction and quietude to the distracted public mind.

" By recurring to the principles contained in the resolutions so unanimously adopted by the Convention, I find that they substantially accord with my public acts and opinions hereto fore made known and expressed, and are therefore most cordi ally indorsed and approved, and the nomination, having been conferred without any solicitation on my part, is with the greater pleasure accepted.

" In accepting the nomination I might here close, but I cannot forego the opportunity of saying to my old friends of the Demo cratic party proper, with whom I have so long and pleasantly been associated, that the hour has now come when that great party can justly vindicate its devotion to true Democratic policy and measures of expediency. The war is a war of great principles. It involves the supremacy and life of the

BIOGRAPHICAL INTEODUC TION. XXXV

Government itself. If the rebellion triumphs, free government — North and South — fails. If, on the other hand, the Gov ernment is successful, — as I do not doubt, — its destiny is fixed, its basis permanent and enduring, and its career of honor and glory just begun. In a great contest like this for the existence of free government, the path of duty is patriot ism and principle. Minor considerations and questions of administrative policy should give way to the higher duty of first preserving the Government ; and then there will be time enough to wrangle over the men and measures pertaining to its administration.

" This is not the hour for strife and division among ourselves. Such differences of opinion only encourage the enemy, pro long the war, and waste the country. Unity of action and concentration of power should be our watchword and rallying cry. This accomplished, the time will rapidly approach when their armies in the field — that great power of the rebellion — will be broken and crushed by our gallant officers and brave soldiers ; and ere long they will return to their homes and fire sides to resume again the avocations of peace, with the proud consciousness that they have aided in the noble work of re establishing upon a surer and more permanent basis the great temple of American Freedom.

"I am, gentlemen, with sentiments of high regard, " Yours, truly,

"ANDREW JOHNSON."

On the 4tli_of_October ^Governor Johnson ad dressed a meeting at Logansport, Indiana, and on the 24th of the same month spoke to the colored. people at Nashville, denouncing the arislacraQVj and prom ising that their "condition should be improved and their rights guaranteed and protected. This 'speech, and the circumstances attending it, are reported as

Xxxvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

follows, by a correspondent of the " Cincinnati Ga zette " : —

I have said the speech of Governor Johnson, delivered to the colored population of Nashville on Monday night, was one of the most remarkable to which it was ever my fortune to listen. The time, the place, the circumstances, the audience, the man, all combined to make a powerful impression upon a spectator's mind.

The time was the fourth year of the rebellion, — the eve of a great political contest which was to determine for all time •whether freedom or slavery in America should be over thrown.

The place was the proud city of the slaveholders, and im mediately in front of the haughty Capitol of Tennessee.

The circumstances were such as exist only amid the throes and struggles of a mighty revolution.

The audience were men and women who only three years ago were abject, miserable slaves, for whom there was appar ently no future and no hope.

The man was he who in a few days was certain to be chosen to the second highest office within the gift of the American people.

And this man, whose views and those of the President, soon to be rechosen, are known to be in exact accord, and who, from the position he holds, represents, more than any other man save Lincoln, the power and majesty of the Republic, — this man, standing before that audience of trembling, crouch ing bondsmen, — tore in pieces the last lingering excuse for outrage and wrong ; threw from him the dishonored and dis honorable fragments, and planting himself squarely upon the principles of justice and eternal right, declared that so far as he was concerned there should henceforth be no compromise with slavery anywhere ; but that the hour had come when worth and merit, without regard to color, should be the stand ard by which to judge the value of a man.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXVU*

Governor Johnson had already commenced speaking when I succeeded in forcing my way through the dense crowd of men and women who surrounded him, and stood within a few feet of him. I have said that he spoke from the steps leading up from the street (Cedar) to the State-House yard. Jn front the street was filled up by a mass of human beings, so closely compacted together that they seemed to compose one vast body, no part of which could move without moving the whole. The State-House yard itself, and the great stone wall which separates it from the street, were also thronged. Over this vast crowd the torches and transparencies, closely gathered together near the speaker, cast a ruddy glow ; and, as far as the light extended, the crowd could be seen stretching either way up and down the street.

I had heard cheers and shouts long before I could distin guish the words of the speaker ; but when at last I succeeded in getting close to the spot where he stood, a dead silence prevailed, unbroken save by the speaker's voice. I listened closely, and these, as far as my memory serves me, were the Tponderful words : —

" COLORED MEN OF NASHVILLE, — You have all heard of the President's Proclamation, by which he announced to the world that the slaves in a large portion of the seceded States were thenceforth and forever free. For certain reasons, which seemed wise to the President, the benefits of that Proclamation V did not extend to you or to 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 passing away ; but the hour has come when the last vestiges of it must be removed. Con sequently, 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^d^jiereby^rpclaim free dom, full, broad, and~uriconditional, to every man in Ten nessee!" ""

d

XXXviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

It was one of those moments when the speaker seems in spired, 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 utterance sounded to those uncul tivated ears, I feel convinced that not one of them was misun derstood. 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 description. One simul taneous roar of approval and delight burst from three thousand throats. Flags, banners, torches, and transparencies were waved wildly over the throng, or flung 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 rejoic ing for their race, woke up the slumbering echoes of the cap- itol, vibrated throughout the length and breadth of the city, rolled over the sluggish waters of the Cumberland, and rang out far into the night beyond.

I am not attempting to repeat the Governors speech. I had neither note-book nor pencil when I listened to him ; and if I had both of them I could not have used them in the midst of that closely wedged crowd. I wish only to describe a few of the points in his speech which made the deepest im pression on my mind.

t Who has not heard of the great estate of Mack Cockrill, situated near the city of Nashville, — an estate whose acres are numbered by the thousand, whose slaves were once counted by the score ? Mack Cockrill being a great slave-owner, was of course a leading rebel, and in the very wantonness of wealth, wrung from the sweat and toil and stolen wages of others, gave fabulous sums at the outset of the war to aid Jeff. Davis in overturning the Government.

Who has not heard of the princely estates of Gen. W. D. Harding, who, by means of his property alone, outweighed in influence any other man in Tennessee, no matter what were that other's worth, or wisdom, or ability. Harding, too, early

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXIX

espoused the cause of treason, and made it his boast that he had contributed, and directly induced others to contribute, millions of dollars in aid of that unholy cause.

These estates suggested to Governor Johnson one of the most forcible points of his speech : —

u I am no agrarian," said he. " I wish to see secured to every man, rich or poor, the fruits of his honest industry, ef fort, or toil. I want each man to feel that what he has gained by his own skill, or talent, or exertion, is rightfully ms, 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 Mack Cockrill and W. D. Harding, by means of forced and unpaid labor, should have monopolized so large a share of the lands and wealth of Tennessee ; and I say if their immense planta tions were divided up and parcelled out amongst a number of free, industrious, and honest farmers, it would give more good citizens to the Commonwealth, increase the wages of our me chanics, enrich the markets of our city, enliven all the arteries of trade, improve society, and conduce to the greatness and glory of the State."

And thus the Governor discussed the profoundest problems of politics and social life in the presence of the despised blacks of Nashville ; in their hearing denounced the grasping and bloated monopoly of their masters ; and used the overgrown estates of Harding and Cockrill to illustrate his doctrines, in the presence of Harding's and CockrilFs slaves.

That portion of the Governor's speech in which he de scribed and denounced the aristocracy of Nashville, I cannot hope to render properly ; but there was one point which I must not overlook.

" The representatives of this corrupt, (and if you will per mit me almost to swear a little,) this damnable aristocracy, taunt us with our desire to see justice done, and charge us with favoring negro equality. Of all living men they should

xl BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

be the last to mouth that phrase ; and, even when uttered in their hearing, it should cause their cheeks to tinge and burn with shame. Negro equality, indeed ! "Why, pass, any day, along the sidewalks of High Street where these aristocrats more particularly dwell, — these aristocrats, whose sons are now in the bands of guerillas and cut-throats who prowl and rob and murder around our city, — pass by their dwellings, I say, and you will see as many mulatto as negro children, the former bearing an unmistakable resemblance to their aristo cratic owners !

" Colored men of Tennessee ! This, too, shall cease ! Your wives and daughters shall no longer be dragged into a concu binage, compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy the brutal lusts of slaveholders and overseers ! Henceforth the sanctity of God's holy law of marriage shall be respected in your persons, and the great State of Tennessee shall no more give her sanction to your degradation and your shame !"

" Thank God ! thank God ! " came from the lips of a thou sand women, who in their own persons had experienced the hellish iniquity of the man-seller's code. " Thank God ! " fer vently echoed the fathers, husbands, brothers of these women.

" And if the law protects you in the possession of your wives and children, if the law shields those whom you hold dear from the unlawful grasp of lust, will you endeavor to be true to yourselves, and shun, as it were death itself, the path of lewdness, crime, and vice ? "

" We will ! we willl" cried the assembled thousands; and joining in a sublime and tearful enthusiasm, another mighty shout went up to heaven.

" Looking at this vast crowd of colored people," continued the Governor, " and reflecting through what a storm of perse cution 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 ex-

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xli

clamation was caught up and cheered until the Capitol rung again.

" God," continued the speaker, " no doubt has prepared somewhere an instrument for the great work he designs to per form in behalf of this outraged people, and in due time your leader will come forth ; your Moses will be revealed to you."

k> We want no Moses but you ! " again shouted the crowd.

" Well, then," replied the speaker, " 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 Tennes see. 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. Rebellion and slavery shall, by God's good 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 labor 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 followed these words. Joy beamed in every countenance. 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.

A man might have exchanged an ordinary immortality to have made such a speech to such an audience, and been much the gainer.

It was a speech significant of one of the loftiest positions to which mankind, struggling upward toward universal freedom, has as yet attained.

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 curses d*

xlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

and execrations of the traitor and oppressor, and with the blessings of the oppressed and poor.

The result of the Presidential election on the 14th of November, 1864, is well known. All of the States voting save three, gave immense majorities for Lincoln and Johnson, thus indorsing the former administration of Mr. Lincoln and promising renewed and continued support.

On the 4th of March, 1865, the ceremonies of inauguration were performed at Washington, in the presence of an immense concourse of people. Vice-President Johnson was duly qualified, and assumed the duties of President of the Senate. The affairs of the nation were progressing in the most auspicious manner. The military operations of Generals Grant and Sherman attracted and absorbed the attention of the nation. President Lincoln, who was at the front with the Lieutenant- General, had sent despatch after despatch containing words of good cheer, culminating with the news of the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, and the occupation of those cities by the Federal troops. The country was wild with delight, and throughout the loyal States the people gathered together to give expression to their satisfaction. At the meeting in Washington on the 3d of April, Vice-President Johnson spoke as follows : —

"As I have been introduced, I will make one or two remarks, for I feel that no one would be justified in attempting to make an address on such an occasion, when the excitement is justly at so great a height.

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION". xlili

" We are now, my friends, winding up a rebellion, — a great effort that has been made by bad men to overthrow the Govern ment of the United States, — a Government founded upon free principles, and cemented by the best blood of the Revolution. [Cheers.] You must indulge me in making one single remark in connection with myself. At the time that the traitors in the Senate of the United States plotted against the Government, and entered into a conspiracy more foul, more execrable, and more odious than that of Catiline against the Romans, I happened to be a member of that body, and, as to loyalty stood solitary and alone among the Senators from the Southern States.

" I was then and there called upon to know what I could do with such traitors, and I want to repeat my reply here. I said, if we had an Andrew Jackson he would hang them as high as Haman ; but as he is no more, and sleeps in his grave in his own beloved State, where traitors and treason have even insulted his tomb and the very earth that covers his remains, humble as I am, when you ask me what I would do, my reply is, I would arrest them — I would try them — I would convict them, and I would hang them.

"As humble as I am and have been, I have pursued but one, undeviating course. All that I have — life, limb, and property — have been put at the disposal of the country in this great struggle. I have been in camp, I have been in the field, I have been everywhere where this great rebellion was ; I have pursued it until I believe I can now see its termination. Since the Avorld began, there never has been a rebellion of such gigantic proportions, so infamous in character, so diabolical in motive, so entirely disregardful of the laws of civilized war. It has introduced the most savage mode of warfare ever prac tised upon the earth.

" I will repeat here a remark, for which I have been in no small degree censured. What is it, allow me to ask, that has sustained the nation in this great struggle ? The cry has been, you know, that our Government was not strong enough for a, time of rebellion ; that in such a time she would have to con-

xliv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

tend against internal weakness as well as internal foes. We have now given the world evidence that such is not the fact ; and when the rebellion shall have been crushed out, and the nation shall once again have settled down in peace, our Gov ernment will rest upon a more enduring basis than ever be fore.

" But, my friends, in what has the great strength of this Gov ernment consisted. Has it been in one-man power ? Has it been in some autocrat, or in some one man who held abso lute government ? No ! I thank God I have it in my power to proclaim the great truth, that this Government has derived its "strength from the American people. They have issued the edict ; they have exercised the power that has resulted in the overthrow of the rebellion, and there is not another govern ment upon the face of the earth that could have withstood the shock.

" We can now congratulate ourselves that we possess the strongest, the freest, and the best Government the world ever saw. Thank God that we have lived through this trial, and that, looking in your intelligent faces here to-day, I can an nounce to you the great fact that Petersburg, the outpost to the strong citadel, has been occupied by our brave and gallant officers and our untiring, invincible soldiers. And not content with that, they have captured the citadel itself, — the strong hold of traitors. Richmond is ours, and is now occupied by the forces of the United States ! Her gates have been en tered, and the glorious Stars and Stripes, the emblem of Union, of power, and of supremacy, now float over the enemy's capitol !

" In the language of another, let that old flag rise higher and higher, until it meets the sun in his coming, and let the parting day linger to play upon its ample folds. It is the 'flag of your country, it is your flag, it is my flag, and it bids defiance to all the nations of the earth, and the encroachments of all the powers combined. It is not my intention to make any im prudent remarks or allusions, but the hour will come when those nations that exhibited toward us such insolence and

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlv

improper interference in the midst of our adversity, and, as they supposed, of our weakness, will learn that this is a Gov ernment of the people possessing power enough to make itself felt and respected.

" In the midst of our rejoicing, we must not forget to drop a tear for those gallant fellows who have shed their blood that their Government must triumph. We cannot forget them when we view the many bloody battle-fields of the war, the new-made graves, our maimed friends and relatives, who have left their limbs, as it were, on the enemy's soil, and others who have been consigned to their long narrow houses, with no winding-sheet save their blankets saturated with their blood.

" One word more, and I have done. It is this : I am in favor of leniency ; but, in my opinion, evil-doers should be punished. [Cries of ' That 's so.'] Treason is the highest crime known in the catalogue of crimes, and for him that is guilty of it — for him that is willing to lift his impious hand against the au thority of the nation — I would say death is too easy a pun ishment. My notion is that treason must be made odious and traitors must be punished and impoverished, their social power broken, though they must be made to feel the penalty of their crime. You, my friends, have traitors in your very midst, and treason needs rebuke and punishment here as well as elsewhere. It is not the men in the field who are the greatest traitors. It is the men who have encouraged them to imperil their lives, while they themselves have remained at home, expending their means and exerting all their power to overthrow the Government. Hence I say this : ' The halter to intelligent, influential traitors/ But to the honest boy, to the deluded man, who has been deceived into the rebel ranks, I would extend leniency ; I would say, ' Return to your alle giance, renew your support to the Government, and become a good citizen ; ' but the leaders I would hang. I hold, too, that wealthy traitors should be made to remunerate those men who have suffered as a consequence of their crime, — Union men who have lost their property, who have been driven from their

xlvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

homes, beggars and •wanderers among strangers. It is well to talk about these things here to-day, in addressing the well- informed persons who compose this audience. You can, to a very great extent, aid in moulding public opinion, and in giv ing it a proper direction. Let us commence the work. We have put down these traitors in arms ; let us put them down in law, in public judgment, and in the morals of the world."

The fall of Richmond was followed by the sur render of Lee's army on the 9th of Ajml. Five days after, on the evening of the 14th, the bullet of the assassin struck down the head of the Na tion, but it did not still the pulsations of its heart nor paralyze the action of its limbs. As the dreadful intelligence flashed over the electric wire, throughout the length and breadth of the land, the whole country stood for a moment, speechless and breathless, appalled by the dastardly outrage. The first thought of the Nation was for the safety of its Government. Self-perpetuating, the Government received, but scarcely felt, a shock which would have overthrown the dynasties of the Old World. The wires were yet trembling with the burden of the sad message, " Abraham Lincoln died this morn ing at twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock." when they were again called to proclaim that " Andrew Johnson was sworn into office as President of the United States, by Chief Justice Chase, to-day at eleven o'clock."

The formal ceremonies were brief but dignified, promptly performed, but invested with an unusual solemnity by the sad event which had rendered

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlvii

them necessary. Immediately on the death of President Lincoln, Hon. James Speed, Attorney- General of the United States, waited upon Vice- President Johnson with the following official com munication : —

" WASHINGTON CITY, April 15, 1865. " ANDREW JOHNSON, Vice-President of the United States.

" SIR, — ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, was shot by an assassin last evening at Ford's Theatre, in this city, and died at the hour of twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock. About the same time at which the President was shot, an assassin entered the sick chamber of Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, and stabbed him in several places in the throat, neck, and face, severely, if no tmortally, wound ing him. Other members of the Secretary's family were dan gerously wounded by the assassin, while making his escape.

" By the death of President Lincoln the office of President has devolved, under the Constitution, upon you. The emer gency of the Government demands that you should immedi ately qualify according to the requirements of the Constitution, and enter upon the duties of President of the United States. If you will please make known your pleasure, such arrange ments as you deem proper will be made.

" Your obedient servants,

" HUGH McCuLLOCH, Secretary of the Treasury; ED WIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War; GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of the Navy; WILLIAM DEN- NISON, Postmaster- General; J. P. USHER, Secre tary of the Interior; JAMES SPEED, Attorney- General."

Mr. Johnson suggested ten o'clock as the hour, and his apartments at the Kirkwood House as the place, where, at the hour designated, the ceremony was performed.

xlviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

After the oath had been administered, President Johnson delivered the following address : —

O

"GENTLEMEN, — I must be permitted to say that I have been almost overwhelmed by the announcement of the sad event which has so recently occurred. I feel incompetent to perform duties so important and responsible as those which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me. As to an in dication of any policy which may be pursued by me in the administration 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. The only assurance that I can now give of the future, is by reference to the past. The course which I have taken in the past, in connection with this rebellion, must be regarded as a guarantee of the future. My past public life, which has been long and laborious, has been founded, as I in good conscience believe, upon a great principle of right, which lies at the basis of all things. The best energies of my life have been spent in endeavoring to establish and perpetuate the principles of free government, and I believe that the Government, in passing through its present trials, will settle down upon principles consonant with popular rights more permanent and enduring than heretofore. I must be permit ted to say, if I understand the feelings of my own heart, I have long labored to ameliorate and alleviate the condition of the great mass of the American people. Toil, and an honest advocacy of the great principles of free government, have been my lot. The duties have been mine — the consequences are God's. This has been the foundation of my political creed. I feel that in the end the Government will triumph, and that these great principles will be permanently established.

In conclusion, gentlemen, let me say that I want your en couragement and countenance. I shall ask and rely upon you and others in carrying the Government through its present perils. I feel, in making this request, that it will be heartily responded to by you, and all other patriots and lovers of the rights and interests of a free people."

SPEECH ON THE VETO-POWER.

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, AUGUST 2, 1848.

MR. CHAIRMAN : — I have for some days attempted to obtain possession of the floor when the House has been in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and having at length succeeded, I may not confine myself to the pending question, but diverge to others of a more general character, as other gentlemen have done who have preceded me in debate. I make the admission frankly that I shall introduce some general topics of discussion in the course of my argument, if anything that I shall say may be dignified with the appella tion of an argument. However, as an hour is but a very limited time in which to speak on such varied and important questions as present themselves to my mind, I shall directly address myself to those ques tions, and if I cannot embody all my views, I may be able to present the outline, the bones, the general contour of those subjects, and leave to those who may feel sufficient interest in them to listen to my remarks to fill up the outlines and clothe the bones with suitable muscles and flesh.

For the last two or three days, and I may say i

'2; ; ; ;/, THE SPEECHES

weeks, the more immediate subjects of discussion have been twofold. The first was the veto-power ; and the next was the origin, progress, and conse quences of the war with Mexico. To these ques tions, then, I shall confine myself. And, in relation to the veto-power, I confess I feel great diffidence in approaching a subject of so much importance ; for at one period of my life I entertained some doubts as to the exercise of the veto-power myself. But from the most thorough investigation, I have become entirely satisfied as to the propriety of the creation and establishment of this power by the Constitution.

In the discussion of the veto-power, and tracing it from its origin to the present time, I may be charged with something of ultraism ; for, upon a more complete examination, I find it to be of plebeian origin.

Where did the veto-power originate ? It was established to enable the people to resist and repel encroachments on their rights. The veto-power had its origin in old Rome 3507 Anno Mundi ; and be fore Christ 497 ; and from the building of the city of Rome 255 ; which would make, since its origin, 2345 years. These dates will show that the people of Rome had been submitting to gradual encroach ments two hundred and fifty-five years, until further submission was insupportable. At this period the levies and laws of the Roman Senate were so enor mous and oppressive that the people were compelled

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 3

to employ means to resist their further encroach ment. The people en masse retired to a mountain three miles distant from Rome, called Monsacer, and were there addressed by Junius Lucius and Sicinius Bellerus with masculine eloquence, — • always the child of nature, — which induced the people to compel the Roman Senate to yield the power to them to establish five tribunes from among themselves, which, in process of time, were increased to ten, who should be clothed with the veto-power. These tribunes were placed at the Senate-door, and all laws passed by the Roman Senate were pre sented to them for their approval or rejection. If they approved a law, it was signed with the letter T ; but if not approved, they used the word veto, which signifies u I forbid." This is the origin of the veto-power ; and so long as it was exercised by tribunes or officers immediately responsible to the people for their election or appointment, the end that the people designed was successfully accom plished — that is, resistance to encroachments on their rights. And so long as this power wras pre served in its original purity and simplicity, it was exercised to the advancement of the people's rights and interests.

Augustus, 706 years from the building of the city of Rome, or four hundred and fifty-one years after the establishment of the. veto-power by the people, so managed as to have the power in practice con ferred upon himself; and here is the first union of

4 THE SPEECHES

the veto-power and royalty. The tribunes were still elected, and existed nominally, but in fact they ex ercised no tribunitian power. The tribunes, in fact, continued to exist until the reign of Constantine, which was nine hundred and thirty-three years from the building of the city, or six hundred and seventy- eight years from the creation of the veto, when the office of tribune was completely merged in royalty, and abolished.

We may now pass on from this period of time to the exercise of the veto-power in modern Europe ; and, from the days of Augustus, we shall see that the exercise of this power has passed to the opposite end of the line, — that is, from the people to the Crown.

In England, by a resolution of parliament, this power was conferred upon the King, and has not been exercised by him since 1692, which makes one hundred and fifty-six years ; and from this an argu ment is drawn to prove that even the King of Eng land is afraid to exercise the veto-power, and there fore it is dangerous, and should never be exercised in a democracy or a republic.

The King of England is not immediately respon sible to the people for the exercise of this power, or responsible to them for the position he holds. He ascends the throne in the course of hereditary suc cession ; and, when the power is exercised by him, in most instances it is to resist popular will, instead of carrying it out; hence the great fear of exercising the veto-power in England, lest the popular will

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 5

should become so strono- that it would overturn the

?D

throne ; and consequently the King resorts to the liberal bestowment of the immense patronage at his disposal to defeat those measures, on their passage, which would require the exercise of the veto-power, as necessary to protect the other prerogatives of the Crown.

The Constituent Assembly of France conferred the veto-power on the King in 1789, but the very first exercise of it proved his ruin ; it was in opposi tion to popular will, and in protection of the pre rogatives of the Crown. The same power was also vested with the King of Norway, and in this in stance it was exercised twice to sustain the family upon the throne, until at last the popular will be came so strono- that it resulted in his overthrow.

O

I might go into detail, or more at length, in the cases enumerated, and even refer to others, but time will not permit.

I wrill now pass to a point of time when this power returns to its original source, — the people.

The patriots and sages of the Revolution, who were perfectly familiar with the veto-power as it existed in the colonies and the mother-country, after effecting our separation from Great Britain, were called upon to form a Constitution, and in that Constitution we find the veto-power established, and to be exercised by the people. This Consti tution was submitted to the States, and, after mature and deliberate consideration by them, it was adopted, i*

6 THE SPEECHES

On the 4tli of March, 1789, George Washington, the father of his country, delegate to and president of the Convention that framed the Constitution, was inaugurated President of the United States, and, for the first time under the Constitution, the veto-power was exercised, — or, according to our opponents of this day, the " one-man " or " despotic power, " and that, too, upon the ground of convenience and econ omy, and the second time upon constitutional grounds. And in this connection, although Mr. Jefferson never exercised the power while Presi dent, we can adduce proof which shows that he approved of the incorporation of the power into our Constitution, and of its exercise afterwards. In his letter to Mr. Madison, written when he was in Paris, dated December 20, 1787, he takes decided ground in favor of the veto.

In his opinion, as written out whilst Secretary of State during General Washington's administration, he urged its exercise, upon the ground that its omission might be construed into a non-user, or an official negligence. We find, then, that these two men, whose patriotism and purity of purpose no mortal man can doubt, were in favor of the veto-power, as established in the Constitution.

James Madison, the third Republican President, and, as he is called by some, " the great Apostle of Liberty," who was a member of the Convention that framed the great chart of American liberty, and afterwards President of the United States, and

OF ANDREW JOHXSOX. 7

that, too, while all was fresh and green on his memory of the oppressions and outrages that had been committed by the British Government, under every pretence whatever, exercised this power six times daring his eight years' administration.

Next, we come to Mr. Monroe ; and, during his administration, it will be remembered that it was called " the era of good-will and conciliation of all parties " ; who, it may be said, came into power almost without opposition, and under whose ad ministration parties were almost merged, — a man that no one will charge wTith possessing the first element of the tyrant or the despot, and of whom it might be said, that he was a war-hating and peace-loving man ; he ventured to exercise this power once.

We then pass over Mr. J. Q. Adams's adminis tration to that of Andrew Jackson ; and, notwith standing he has been denounced as arbitrary and tyrannical, — that his will was iron and his nerves were steel, — even he, in the use of this power, always exercised it in defence of the people's inter ests, and in resisting encroachments on their rights. By this man it was exercised nine times, and the people said, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

We will pass by the administration of Mr. Van Buren to that of John Tyler, called by some — but not by me — in derision, " the Accidency Presi dent," who exercised this power four times ; and

8 THE SPEECHES

under his administration is the only instance in which a law was passed over a veto, by two thirds of the two Houses of Congress, since the origin of the government, and that an unimportant law. Next comes Mr. Folk's administration, and since he came into power it has been exercised three times.

Thus it will be seen, that from the origin of the government to the present time this power has been exercised twenty-five times. The whole num ber of laws passed, from the organization of the government, and approved, is about seven thou sand ; which would make one veto to every two hundred and eighty acts, — a very small propor tion ; and I think I may appeal with confidence to all those who are conversant with legislation here, whether it would not have been better for the peo ple and the country if five thousand out of the seven thousand had been vetoed. I have been thus particular in giving the origin and exercise of the veto-power to prove, that whenever it has been exercised in compliance with the popular will, by a tribune or president, or by any other name you may think proper to give him, so that he is immediately responsible to the people, it operates well. And to show further, that whenever this power is retained in the hands of the people, men entertaining certain principles, without any regard to their party name, make war upon this power when at this end of the line ; but whenever it is transferred to the other

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 9

end, and placed in the hands of irresponsible per sons, they become its defenders and advocates. And this brings me up directly to one of the issues between the parties in this government.

By an examination of the Constitution, we find the veto-power lodged in another department of the government, as well as with the Executives ; and that department is irresponsible to the people. I mean that the Judiciary, who are appointed to office during life, — or, tantamount thereto, dur ing good behavior, — exercise the veto-power abso lutely. They are men, and subject to all the prej udices and influences of other men, according to their construction of the Constitution. They can veto every act of Congress, after its approval by the President, and that veto is final. But against the exercise of this power by this department of the government the Federal party make no complaint; but think it a perfectly safe place for the lodg ment of the power, as it is beyond the reach of the people ; which will at once show to every reflecting and intelligent mind the sincerity of the Opposition in making war on the exercise of the veto-power, when exercised by that department of the Government immediately responsible to the people.

I cannot, Mr. Chairman, though pressed for time,

dismiss the subject without noticing the figure or

simile of the snag-boat used by the gentleman from

Ohio.1 In this illustration he represents the Con-

1 Mr. Schenck.

10 THE SPEECHES

stitution as the Mississippi, and the veto-power as a " snag " ; and he comes forward making great preparation with his snag-boat, throwing out his grappling-irons, raising the steam, the wheels revolv ing, determined to extract this principle, the veto, from the Constitution.

Tliis is an illustration of what I have just before said, that where the people, either directly or indi rectly, can exert their power through the Constitu tion by an officer chosen by themselves, the snag- boat of Federal power is brought forward to tear it out by the roots. But I do not look upon the veto power as a " snag " on the Mississippi, to obstruct the navigation to our commerce ; but as a break water, to use the figure, placed on the people's sea or Constitution, to arrest the mighty current of Fed eral power, heavily setting in, or to break the dash ing waves of encroachments upon their liberties and their interests. The veto, as exercised by the Ex ecutives, is conservative, and enables the people, through their tribunitian officer, the President, to arrest or suspend for the time being unconstitutional, hasty, and improvident legislation, until the people, the sovereigns in this country, have time and oppor tunity to consider of its propriety. But the member from Ohio seems determined to tear out that portion of the Constitution where the people can be heard and felt.

But in that other department of government where they have no voice, they are compelled to

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. H

submit to its absolute exercise, unless they resort to a revolution or to an amendment of the Constitution.

For myself, I will take the instrument as it is handed down by Washington and his compeers ; and if it is tyranny to exercise this power as it has been, — approved by every Republican President from Washington's inauguration down to the pres ent time, not even excepting General Harrison, who was brought into power by the Whigs, out of that chaotic state of things which existed in 1840, I am willing to abide by it, and await the ultimate decision of the people on the subject. If the gen tleman from Ohio could succeed with his Federal snag-boat in extracting the people's power, the veto, from the Constitution, the harmony of our beautiful though complex form of government would be lost, — the equilibrium would be gone, and some of the departments would absorb the others, or become liquids, and result in the concentration of all power in one department.

Time will not permit, if I were disposed and capable, of going into an analysis of the power of this Government. I have not the time to take it down and examine each element, and then set it up again. I must content myself with what I have hastily and crudely said, and pass on to the next proposition I propose to discuss.

12 THE SPEECHES

SPEECH ON THE HOMESTEAD BILL.

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 20, 1858.

The Senate having under consideration the bill to grant to any person who is the head of a family, and a citizen of the United States, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the public domain," upon the condition of occu pancy and cultivation of the same for the period of five years, MR. JOHNSON said : —

MR. PRESIDENT : — The immediate proposition before the Senate is an amendment offered by the honorable Senator from North Carolina,1 which provides that there shall be a land-warrant issued to each head of a family, by the Secre tary of the Interior, and distributed among those who do not emigrate to the public domain and take possession of and cultivate the land for the term of years specified in the bill. I have something to say in reference to that amendment, but I will not say it in this connection. I will take it up in its order. I propose, in the first place, to explain briefly the provisions of the bill.

The first section provides for granting one hun dred and sixty acres of land to every head of a family who will emigrate to any of the public do-

1 Mr. Clingman.

OF ANDREW JOHNSOX. 13

main and settle upon it, and cultivate it for a term of five years. Upon those facts being made known to the register of the land-office, the emigrant is to be entitled to obtain a patent. The second section pro vides that he shall make an affidavit, and show to the satisfaction of the officer that his entry is made in good faith, and that his intention is to cultivate the soil and become an actual settler. The sixth section of the bill provides that any person who is now an inhabitant of the United States, but not a citizen, if he makes application, and in the course of five years becomes a citizen of the United States, shall be placed on a footing of equality with the native-born citizens of the country in this respect. The third section provides that those entries shall be confined to land that has been in market, and subjected to private entry ; and that the persons entering the land shall be confined to each alternate section.

These are substantially the leading provisions of this bill. It does not proceed upon the idea, as some suppose, of making a donation or gift of the public land to the settler. It proceeds upon the principle of consideration ; and I conceive, and I think many others do, that the individual who emigrates to the West, and reclaims and reduces to cultivation one hundred and sixty acres of the public domain, subjecting himself to all the privations and hardships of such a life, pays the highest considera tion for his land.

But, before I say more on this portion of the

14 THE SPEECHES

subject, I desire to premise a little by giving the history of this homestead proposition. Some per sons from my own region of the country, or, in other words, from the South, have thrown out the intimation that this is a proposition which partakes, to some extent, of the nature of the Emigrant Aid Society, and is to operate injuriously to the Southern States. For the purpose of making the starting- point right, I want to go back and show when this proposition was first introduced into the Congress of the United States. I am not sure but that the Presiding Officer1 remembers well the history of this measure.

In 1846, on the 27th day of March, long before we had any emigrant aid societies, long before we had the compromises of 1850 in reference to the slavery question, long before we had any agitation on the subject of slavery in 1854, long before we had any agitation upon it in 1858, this proposition made its advent into the House of Representatives. It met with considerable opposition. It scarcely received serious consideration for a length of time ; but the measure was pressed until the public mind took hold of it ; and it was still pressed until the 12th day of May, 1852, when it passed that body by a two-thirds vote. Thus we see that its origin and its consummation, so far as the House of Representatives was concerned, had nothing to do with North or South, but proceeded upon that 1 Mr. Foot of Vermont in the chair.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 15

great principle which interests every man in this country, and which, in the end, secures and pro vides for him a home. By putting these dates together, it will be perceived that it was just six years five months and fifteen days from the introduc tion of this bill until its passage by the House of Representatives.

I shall not detain the Senate by any lengthy re marks on the general principles of the bill ; for I do not intend to be prolix, or to consume much of the Senate's time. What is the origin of the great idea of a homestead of land ? We find, on turning to the first law-writer, — and I think one of the best, for we are informed that he wrote by inspiration, — that he advances the first idea on this subject. Moses made use of the followins language : —

o o o

" The land shall not be sold forever ; for the land is mine — for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." — Leviticus, chapter xxv. verse 23.

We begin, then, with Moses. The next writer to whom I will call the attention of the Senate is Vattel — one of the ablest, if not the ablest writer upon the laws of nations. He lays down this great principle : l

" Of all the arts, tillage or agriculture is the most useful and necessary. It is the nursing-father of the State. The culti vation of the earth causes it to produce an infinite increase ; it forms the surest resource, and the most solid fund of rich commerce for the people who enjoy a happy climate.

" This affair, then, deserves the utmost attention from gov-

1 Vattel, Book I. ch. 7.

16 THE SPEECHES

ernment. The sovereign ought to neglect no means of rendering the land under his obedience as well cultivated as possible. Pie ought not to allow either communities or private persons to acquire large tracts of land to leave uncultivated. These rights of common, which deprive the proprietor of the free liberty of disposing of his lands, — that will not allow him to farm them, and cause them to be cultivated in the most advantageous manner, — these rights, I say, are contrary to the welfare of the state, and ought to be suppressed or reduced to a just bound. The property introduced among the citizens does not prevent the nation's having a right to take the most effectual measures to cause the whole country to produce the greatest and most advantageous revenue possible.

" The government ought carefully to avoid everything capable of discouraging husbandmen, or of diverting them from the labors of agriculture. Those taxes, those excessive and ill-proportioned impositions, the burden of which falls almost entirely upon the cultivators, and the vexations they suffer from the commissioners who levy them, take from the unhappy peasant the means of cultivating the earth, and depopulate the country. Spain is the most fertile, and the worst cultivated country in Europe. The Church possesses too much land, and the undertakers of royal magazines, who are authorized to purchase at low prices all the corn they find in possession of a peasant, above what is necessary for the sub sistence of his wife and family, so greatly discourage the husbandman, that he sows no more corn than is necessary for the support of his own household. Whence arises the greatest scarcity in a country capable of feeding its neighbors.

"Another abuse injurious to agriculture is, the contempt cast upon husbandmen. The inhabitants of cities, even the most servile artist and the most lazy citizen, consider him who cultivates the soil with a disdainful eye ; they humble and discourage him ; they dare to despise a profession that feeds the human race — the natural employment of man. A stay-maker places far beneath him the beloved employment of the first consuls and dictators of Rome.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 17

" China lias wisely prevented this abuse. Agriculture is there held in honor ; and to preserve this happy manner of thinking, every year, on a solemn day, the Emperor himself, followed by the whole court, sets his hands to the plow and sows a small piece of land. Hence China is the best cultivated country in the world. It nourishes an innumerable multitude of people that at first appears to the traveller too great for the space they possess.

" The cultivation of the soil is not only to be recommended by the government on account of the extraordinary advan tages that flow from it, but from its being an obligation im posed by nature on mankind. The whole earth is appointed for the nourishment of its inhabitants, but it would be incapa ble of doing it was it uncultivated. Every nation is then obliged by a law of nature to cultivate the ground that has fallen to its share, and it has no right to expect or require assistance from others, any further than the land in its pos session is incapable of furnishing it with necessaries. Those people, like the ancient Germans and modern Tartars, who, having fertile countries, disdain to cultivate the earth, and rather choose to live by rapine, are wanting to themselves, and deserve to be exterminated as savage and rapacious beasts. There are others who avoid agriculture, who would only live by hunting and flocks. This might doubtless be allowed in the first ages of the world, when the earth produced more than was sufficient to feed its few inhabitants; but at present, when the human race is so greatly multiplied, it would not subsist if all nations resolved to live in this manner. Those who still retain this idle life, usurp more extensive territories than they would have occasion for were they to use honest labor, and have, therefore, no reason to complain if other nations, more laborious and too closely confined, come to possess a part. Thus, though the conquest of the civilized empires of Peru and Mexico was a notorious usurpation, the establishment of many colonies in North America may, on their confining themselves within just bounds, be extremely lawful. The 2*

18 THE SPEECHES

people of those vast countries rather overran than inhabited them."

I propose next to cite the authority of General Jackson, who was believed to be not only a friend to the South but a friend to the Union. He inculcated this great doctrine in his message of

1832: —

" It cannot be doubted that the speedy settlement of those lands constitutes the true interest of the Republic. The wealth and strength of a country are its population, and the best part of the population are cultivators of the soil. Independent farmers are everywhere the basis of society, and the true friends of liberty."

" It seems to me to be our true policy that the public lands shall cease, as soon as practicable, to be a source of revenue ; and that they be sold to settlers in limited parcels, at prices barely sufficient to reimburse the United States the expense of the present system, and the cost arising from our Indian contracts."

" It is desirable, however, that the right of the soil, and the future disposition of it, be surrendered to the States respect ively in which it lies.

" The adventurous and hardy population of the West, be sides contributing their equal share of taxation under the impost system, have, in the progress of our Government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the treasury a large propor tion of forty million dollars, and of the revenue received there from but a small portion has been expended among them. When, to the disadvantage of their situation in this respect, we add the consideration that it is their labor alone that gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds arising from these sales are chiefly distributed among States that had not originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the un divided emoluments arising from the sales of their own lands,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 19

it cannot be expected that the new States will remain longer contented with the present policy, after the payment of the public debt. To avert the consequences which may be appre hended from this cause, to stop forever all partial and inter ested legislation on this subject, and to afford every American citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an inde pendent freehold, it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea of raising a future revenue out of the public lands."

Tims we have standing before us, in advocacy of this great principle, the first writer of laws, Moses ; next we have Vattel ; and in the third place we have General Jackson.

Now, let us see whether there has been any homestead policy in the United States. By turn ing to our statutes, we find that the first Homestead Bill ever introduced into the Congress of the United

&

States was in 1791. I know that it is said by some, and it is sometimes cantingly and slurringly reiterated in the newspapers, that this is a dema gogical movement, and that some person has intro duced and advocates this policy purely for the pur pose of pleasing the people. I want to see who some of these demagogues are ; and, before I read the section of this statute, I will refer, in connection with Jackson and these other distinguished indi viduals, to the fact that Mr. Jefferson, the philos opher and statesman, recognized and appreciated this great doctrine. In 1791, the first bill passed by the Congress of the United States recoo-nizins tlfe

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homestead principle, is in the following words : — " That four hundred acres of land be given " —

20 THE SPEECHES

that is the language of the statute. We do not assume in this bill to give land. We assume that a consideration passes ; but here was a law that was based on the idea that four hundred acres of land were to be given

— " to each of those persons who, in the year 1 783, were heads of families at Yincennes, or the Illinois country, or the Missis sippi, and who, since that time, have removed from one of the said places to the other ; but the Governor of the Territory northwest of the Ohio is hereby directed to cause the same to be laid out for them at their own expense," &c.

Another section of the same act provides, —

" That the heads of families at Vincennes, or in the Illinois country, in the year 1 783, who afterwards removed without the limits of said Territory, are nevertheless entitled to the donation of four hundred acres of land made by the resolve of Congress," &c.

That act recognized the principle embraced in the Homestead Bill. If this is the idea of a dema gogue, if it is the idea of one catering or pandering to the public sentiment to catch votes, it was intro duced into Congress in 1791, and received the approval of Washington, the father of his country. I presume that if he lived at this day, and were to approve the measure, as he did in 1791, he would be branded, and put in the category of those per sons who are denominated demagogues. Under his administration there was another bill passed of a similar import, recognizing and carrying out the great homestead principle. Thus we find that this

OF ANDREW JOHNSON". 21

policy, so far as legislation is concerned, commenced with Washington, and received his approval as early as 1791. From General Washington's ad ministration there are forty-four precedents running through everv administration of this Government, down to the present time, in which this principle has been recognized and indorsed.

We discover from this historical review that this is no new idea, that it is no recent invention, that it is no new movement for the purpose of making votes ; but it is a principle wellnigh as old as the Government itself, which was indorsed and ap proved by Washington himself.

This would seem, Mr. President, to settle the question of power. I know it has been argued by some that Congress had not the power to make donations of land ; but even the statute, to which I have referred, makes use of the word " give " with out consideration. It was considered constitutional by the early fathers to give away land. We pro ceed in this bill upon the principle that there is a consideration. If I were disposed to look for prec edents, even for the donations of the public lands, I could instance the bounty-land act, I could take you through other acts donating land, showing that the principle has been recognized again and again, and that there is not now a question as to its con stitutionality.

I believe there is a clear difference in the power of the Federal Government in reference to its ap-

22 THE SPEECHES

propriatlons of money and its appropriations of the public land. The Congress of the United States has power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare. I believe it has the power to lay and collect duties for these legitimate purposes ; but when taxes have been laid, collected, and paid into the treasury, I do not think it has that general scope or that latitude in the appropriation of money that it has over the public lands. Once converted into revenue, Con gress can only appropriate the revenue to the spe cific objects of the Constitution. It may derive revenue from the public lands, and being revenue, it can only be appropriated to the purposes for which revenue is raised under the Constitution.

But when we turn to another provision of the Constitution, we find that Congress has power " to dispose of and make all needful rules and regula tions respecting the territory or other property be longing to the United States." Congress has, in the organization of all the Territories and in the admission of new States, recognized most clearly the principle of appropriating the public lands for the benefit of schools, colleges, and academies. It has granted the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in every township for school purposes ; it has granted lands for public buildings and various other improvements. I am very clear on this point, that in the disposition of the public lands they should be

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 23

applied to national purposes. If we grant the pub lic lands to actual settlers, so as to induce them to settle upon and cultivate them, can there be any thing more national in its character ? What is the

C5

great object of acquiring territory ? Is it not for settlement and cultivation ? We may acquire ter ritory by the exercise of the treaty-making power. We may be engaged in a war, and as terms or conditions of peace we may make large acquisi tions of territory to the United States. But what is the great idea and principle on which you ac quire territory ? Is it not to settle and cultivate it ? I am aware that the argument is used, if you can dispose of the public lands for this purpose or that purpose, cannot you sell the public lands and apply the proceeds to the same purpose ? I think there is a clear distinction between the two cases. It is equally clear to me that, if the Federal Gov ernment can set apart the public lands for school purposes in the new States, it can appropriate lands to enable the parent to sustain his child whilst en joying the benefits conferred upon him by the Gov ernment in the shape of education. The argument is as sound in the one case as it is in the other. If we can grant lands in the one case, we can in the other. If, without making a contract in advance, you can grant your public lands as gratuities, as donations to men who go out and fight the battles of their country, after the services have been rendered, is it not strange, passing strange, that you cannot

24 THE SPEECHES

grant land to those who till the soil and make pro vision to sustain your army while it is fighting the battles of the country ? It seems to me that the argument is clear. I do not intend to argue the constitutional question, for I think there can be really no doubt on that point. I do not believe any one at this day will seriously make any point on that ground against this bill. Is its purpose a national one? The great object is to induce per sons to cultivate the land, and thereby make the soil productive. By doing this, you induce hundreds of persons throughout the United States, who are now producing but little, to come in contact with the soil and add to the productive capacity of the country, and thereby promote the national weal.

I come now to the amendment offered by the Senator from North Carolina. I have not looked over the Globe this morning to read his remarks of yesterday ; but if I understood him correctly, he advocated the proposition of issuing a warrant for a hundred and sixty acres of land to each head of a family in the United States. I am inclined to think the Senator is not serious in this proposition. It has been offered on some occasions heretofore, and rejected by very decided votes. Let us compare it with the proposition of the bill. The idea of the honorable Senator seems to be that this bill was designed to force or compel, to some extent, the citizens of other States to go to the new States. Why, sir, there is no compulsory process in the

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 25

bill. It leaves each man at his own discretion, at his own free will, either to go or to stay, just as it suits his inclinations.

The Senator seems to think too — and the same idea was advanced by his predecessor — that at this time such a measure would have a tendency to diminish the revenue. He intimates that the na tion is now bankrupt, that we are borrowing money, that the receipts from customs have been greatly diminished, and that therefore it would be danger ous to pass this bill, because it would have a ten dency to diminish the revenue. Let us compare the Senator's proposition and that of the bill, in this respect. His amendment is to issue warrants to each head of a family. The population of the United States is now estimated at about twenty- eight millions. Let us assume, for the sake of illustration, that there are three million heads of families in the United States. His proposition, then, is to issue and throw upon the market three millions of warrants, each warrant entitling the holder to one hundred and sixty acres of land. If that were done, and those warrants were thrown upon the market, what would they sell for ? Little or nothing. If such land-warrants were thrown broadcast over the country, who would enter an other acre of land at. $1.25 ? Would not the war rants pass into the hands of land speculators and monopolists at a merely nominal price? Would they bring more than a quarter of a dollar an acre ?

26 THE SPEECHES

If you were to throw three millions of land-warrants into the market at one time, would they bring any thing ? Then the effect of that proposition would be to do but little good to those to whom the war rants were issued, and by throwing them into the market, it would cut off the revenue from public lands entirely, for no one would enter land for cash as long as warrants could be bought. That propo sition, then, is to aid and feed speculation. I do not say that is the motive or intention, but it is the tendency and effect of the Senator's proposition to throw a large portion of the public lands into the hands of speculators, and to cut them off from the treasury as a source of revenue.

But what does this bill propose ? Will it dimin ish the receipts into the treasury from the public lands ? The bill provides that the entries under it shall be confined to the alternate sections, and that the person who obtains the benefit of the bill must be an actual settler and cultivator. In proportion as you settle and cultivate any portion of the public lands, do you not enhance the value of the remain ing sections, and bring them into the market much sooner, and obtain a better price for them than you would without this bill ? What is the principle upon which you have proceeded in all the railroad grants you have made ? They have been defended upon the ground that by granting alternate sections for railroads, you thereby brought the remaining lands into the market, and enabled the Govern-

OF ANDREW JOHN SOX. 27

ment to realize its means at a much earlier period, making the remainder of the public lands more valuable than they were before. This bill pro ceeds upon the same idea. You have granted an immense amount of lands to railroads on this principle, and now why not do something for the people ?

I say, that instead of wasting the public lands, instead of reducing the receipts into the treasury, this bill would increase them. In the first place, it will enhance the value of the reserved quarter- sections. This may be illustrated by an example. In 1848 we had nine million quarter-sections ; in 1858 we have about seven millions. Let us suppose that our population is twenty-eight mill ions, and that under the operation of this bill one million heads of families who are now producing but very little, and who have no land to cultivate, and very scanty means of subsistence, shall each have a quarter-section of land, what will the effect be ? At present these persons pay little or nothing for the support of the Federal Government, under the operation of our tariff system, for the reason that they have not got much to buy with. Plow much does the land yield to the Government while it is lying in a state of nature, uncultivated ? Noth ing at all. At the rate we have been selling the public lands, about three million dollars' worth a year, estimating them at $1.25 an acre, it will take a fraction less than seven hundred years to dispose of the public domain.

28 THE SPEECHES

I will take a case that will demonstrate as clearly as the simplest sum in arithmetic that this is a reve nue measure. Let us take a million families who can now hardly procure the necessaries of life, and place them each on a quarter-section of land, — how long will it be before their condition will be improved so as to make them able to contribute something to the support of the Government ? Now, here is soil producing nothing, here are hands producing but little. Transfer the man from the point where he is producing nothing, bring him in contact with a hundred and sixty acres of produc tive soil, and how long will it be before that man changes his condition ? As soon as he gets upon the land he begins to make his improvements, he clears out his field, and the work of production is commenced. In a short time he has a crop, he has stock and other things that result from bringing his physical labor in contact with the soil. He has the products of his labor and his land, and he is enabled to exchange them for articles of consump tion. He is enabled to buy more than he did be fore, and thus he contributes more to the support of his Government, while, at the same time, he becomes a better man, a more reliable man for all governmental purposes, because he is interested in the country in which he lives.

To illustrate the matter further, let us take a family of seven persons in number who now have no home, no abiding place that they can call their

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 29

own, and transfer them to a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land which they are to possess and cultivate. Is there a Senator here who does not believe, that, by changing their position from the one place to the other, they would produce at least a dollar more than they did before ? I will begin at a point scarcely visible, — a single dollar. Is there a man here or anywhere else who does not know the fact to be, that you increase a man's abil ity to buy when he produces more, by bringing his labor in contact with the soil. The result of that contact is production ; he produces something that he can convert and exchange for the necessities of his family. Suppose the increase was only a dollar a head for a million of families, each family consist ing of seven persons. By transferring a million of families from their present dependent condition to the enjoyment and cultivation of the public domain, supposing it \vould only increase their ability to buy foreign imports to the extent of a dollar each, you would create a demand for seven millions' worth of imports. Our rates of duties, under the tariff act of 1846, are about thirty per cent., and thus, at the almost invisible beginning of a single dollar a head, you, in this way, increase the pecuniary and finan cial means of the Government to the extent of $2,100,000.

This would be the result, supposing that there would only be an addition of one dollar per head to the ability of each family by being taken from a con-

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30 THE SPEECHES

dition of poverty and placed upon one hundred and sixty acres of land. This is the result, supposing them to have seven dollars more, with which to buy articles of consumption, than they had when they had no home, no soil to cultivate, no stimulant, no inducement to labor. If you suppose the effect would be to increase their ability two dollars per head, you would increase their consumption to the amount of $14,000,000, which, at thirty per cent, duty, would yield 84,200,000. If you supposed it increased the ability of a family four dollars per head, the total amount would be $28,000,000, which would yield a revenue of $8,400,000. I think that this would be far below the truth, and if you gave a family one hundred and sixty acres of land to culti vate, the effect would be to increase the ability of that family so as to buy fifty-six dollars' worth more than they bought before, — eight dollars a head. That would be a small increase to a family who had a home, compared with the condition of that family when it had none. The effect of that would be to run up the amount they buy to $56,000,000, which, at a duty of thirty per cent., would yield the sum of $16,800,000.

I show you, then, that, by taking one million families, consisting of seven persons each, and put ting them each upon a quarter-section of land, mak ing the soil productive, if you thereby only added to their capacity to buy goods to the amount of fifty-six dollars per family, you would derive a revenue of

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 31

nearly seventeen million dollars. When you have done this, how much of the public lands would you have disposed of? Only one million quarter-sec tions, and you would have nearly six million quarter- sections left. By disposing of one sixth of your pub lic domain in this way, upon this little miniature estimate, you bring into the coffers of the Federal Government by this bill $16,800,000 annually.

Does this look like diminishing the revenue ? Does it not rather show that this bill is a revenue measure ? I think it is most clearly a revenue measure. Not only is this the case in a money point of view, so far as the imports are concerned, but, by settling the alternate sections with actual cultivators, you make the remaining sections more valuable to the Government, and you bring them sooner into market. In continuation of this idea, I will read a portion of the argument which I made upon this subject when I first introduced the bill into the other House. I read from the report of my speech on that occasion : —

" Mr. J. said, it will be remembered by the House that he had already shown, that by giving an individual a quarter-sec tion of the land, the Government would receive back, in the shape of a revenue, in every seven years, more than the Government price of the land ; and, upon this principle, the Government would, in fact, be realizing two hundred and ten dollars every subsequent term of seven years. The whole number of acres of public land belonging to the United States at this time, or up to the 30th of September, 1848, is one billion four hundred and forty-two millions two hundred and

32 THE SPEECHES

sixteen thousand one hundred and sixty-eight acres. This amount, estimated at $1.25 per acre, will make $1,802,770,000. To dispose of $3,000,000 worth per annum, which is more than an average sum, would require seven hundred years, or a frac tion less, to dispose of the entire domain. It will now be per ceived at once, that the Government would derive an immense advantage by giving the land to the cultivator, instead of keeping it on hand this length of time. We find by this pro cess the Government would derive from each quarter-section in six hundred years, (throwing off the large excess of nearly one hundred years,) $17,000, — seven going into six hundred eighty-five times. This, then, shows on the one hand what

the Government would gain by giving the land away

He said that this expose ought to satisfy every one, that instead of violating the plighted faith of the Government, it was en larging and making more valuable, and enabling the Govern ment to derive a much larger amount of revenue to meet all its liabilities, and thereby preserving its faith inviolate."

I do not think there can be any question as to the revenue part of this proposition. We show that by granting a million quarter-sections you derive more revenue upon the public lands than you do by your entire land system, as it now stands. In 1850, it was estimated that each head of a family consumed $100 worth of home manufactures. If we increase the ability of the cultivator and occupier of the soil fifty-six dollars in the family, of course it is reason able to presume that he would consume a corre spondingly increased proportion of home manufac tures. Can that proposition be controverted ? I think not. Then we see on the one hand, that we should derive more revenue from granting the land,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 33

on the principle laid down in the bill, and also that we should open a market for articles manufactured in our own country. Then, taking both views of the subject, we see that it is an advantage to the manu facturing interest, and that it is also an advantage to the Government, so far as imports are concerned. I should like to know, then, where can the objection be, upon the score of revenue.

But, Mr. President, the question of dollars and cents is of no consideration to me. The money view of this subject does not influence my mind by the weight of a feather. I think it is clear, though ; and this view has been presented to prove to Sena tors that this bill will not diminish, but, on the con trary, will increase the revenue.

But this is not the most important view of the subject. When you look at our country as it is, you see that it is very desirable that the great mass of the people should be interested in the country. By this bill you provide a man witli a home, you increase the revenue, you increase the consumption of home manufactures, and you make him a better man, and you give him an interest in the country. His condi tion is better. There is no man so reliable as he who is interested in the welfare of his country ; and who are more interested in the welfare of their country than those who have homes ? When a man has a home, he has a deeper, a more abiding interest in the country, and he is more reliable in all things that pertain to the Government. He is more reli-

34 THE SPEECHES

able when he goes to the ballot-box ; he is more reliable in sustaining in every way the stability of our free institutions.

It seems to me that this, without the other con sideration, would be a sufficient inducement. When we see the population that is accumulating about some of our cities, I think it behooves every man who is a statesman, a patriot, and a philanthropist, to turn his attention to this subject. I have lately seen some statistics with reference to the city of New York, in which it is assumed that one sixth of the population are paupers ; that two sixths of the popu lation are barely able to sustain themselves ; leaving one pauper to be sustained by three persons in every six in the city of New York. Does not that present a frightful state of things ? Suppose the population of that city to be one million : you would have in the single city of New York one hundred and sixty- six thousand paupers.

I do not look upon the growth of cities and the accumulation of population about cities, as being the most desirable objects in this country. I do not believe that a large portion of this population, even if you were to offer them homesteads, would ever go to them. I have no idea that they would ; for a man who has spent most of his life about a city, and has sunk into a pauperized, condition, is not the man to go West, reclaim one hundred and sixty acres of land, and reduce it to cultivation. He will not go there on that condition. Though

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 35

we are satisfied of this, may not our policy be such as to prevent, as far as practicable, the further accu mulation of such an unproductive population about our cities ? Let us try to prevent their future ac cumulation ; let these live, have their day, and pass away, — they will ultimately pass away, — but let our policy be such as to induce men to become mechan ics and agriculturists. Interest them in the country ; pin them to the soil ; and they become more reliable and sustain themselves, and you do away with much of the pauperism in the country. The population of the United States being twenty-eight millions, if the same proportion of paupers as in the city of New York existed throughout the country, you would have four million six hundred and sixty-six thou sand paupers in the United States. Do we want all our population to become of that character? Do we want cities to take control of this Government ? Unless the proper steps be taken, unless the proper direction be given to the future affairs of this Govern ment, the cities are to take charge of it and control it. The rural population, the mechanical and agri cultural portions of this community, are the very salt of it. They constitute the " mud-sills," to use a term recently introduced here. They constitute the foundation upon which the Government rests ; and hence we see the state of things before us. Should we not give the settlement of our public lands and the population of our country that direction which will beget and create the best portion of the popu lation ? Is it not fearful to think of four million

36 THE SPEECHES

six hundred and sixty-six thousand paupers in the United States, at the rate they have them in the city of New York? Mr. Jefferson never said a truer thing than when he declared that large cities were eye-sores in the body-politic : in democracies they are consuming cancers.

I know the idea of some is to build up great populous cities, and that thereby the interests of the country are to be promoted. Sir, a city not only sinks into pauperism, but into vice and immorality of every description that can be enumerated ; and I would not vote for any policy that I believed would build up cities upon this principle. Build up your villages, build up your rural districts, and you will have men who rely upon their own industry, who rely upon their own efforts, who rely upon their own ingenuity, who rely upon their own economy and application to business for a support ; and these are the people whom you have to depend upon. Why, Mr. President, how was it in ancient Rome ? I know there has been a great deal said in denuncia tion of agrarianism and the Gracchi. It has been said that a doctrine something like this led to the decline of the Roman empire ; but the Gracchi never had their day until a cancerous influence had destroyed the very vitals of Rome ; and it was the destruction of Rome that brought forth Tiberius

O

Gracchus. It was to prevent land monopoly, not agrarianism, in the common acceptation of the term, — which is dividing out lands that had been ac quired by individuals. They sought to take back

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 37

and put in the possession of the great mass of the people that portion of the public domain which had been assumed by the capitalists, who had no title to it in fact. The Gracchi tried to carry out this policy, — to restore that which had been taken from the people. The population had sunk into the con dition of large proprietors on the one hand, and dependants on the other ; and when this dependent condition was brought about, as we find from Nie- buhr's History, the middle class of the community was all gone ; it had left the country ; there was nothing but an aristocracy on the one hand, and de pendants upon that aristocracy on the other ; and when this got to be the case, the Roman empire went down.

Having this illustrious example before us, we should be warned by it. Our true policy is to build up the middle class, to sustain the villages, to populate the rural districts, and let the power of this Government remain with the middle class. I want no miserable city rabble on the one hand ; I want no pampered, bloated, corrupted aristocracy on the other. I want the middle portion of society to be built up and sustained, and to let them have the control of the Government. I am as much op posed to agrarianism as any Senator on this floor, or any individual in the United States ; and this bill does not partake in the slightest degree of agra rianism ; but, on the contrary, it commences with men at the precise point where agrarianism ends,

38 THE SPEECHES

and it carries them up in an ascending line, while that carries them down. It gives them an interest in their country, an interest in public affairs ; and when you are involved in war, in insurrection, or rebellion, or danger of any kind, they are the men who are to sustain you. If you should have occasion to call volunteers into the service of the country, you will have a population of men hav ing homes, having wives and children to care for, who will defend their hearth-stones when invaded. What a sacred thing it is to a man to feel that he

O

has a hearth-stone to defend, a home, and a wife and children to care for, and to rest satisfied that they have an abiding place. Such a man is inter ested individually in repelling invasion ; he is inter ested individually in having good government.

I know there are many, and even some in the Democratic ranks, whose nerves are a little timid in regard to trusting the people with too much power. Sir, the people are the safest, the best, and the most reliable lodgment of power, if you have a population of this kind. Keep up the mid dle class ; lop off an aristocracy on the one hand, and a rabble on the other ; let the middle class maintain the ascendency, let them have the power, and your Government is always secure. Then you need not fear the people. I know, as I have just remarked, that some are timid in regard to trusting the people ; but there can be no danger from a people who are interested in their Govern-

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 39

ment, who have homes to defend, and wives and children to care for. Even if we test this propo sition by that idea of self-interest which is said to govern and control man, I ask you if a man, who has an interest in his country, is not more reli able than one who has none ? Is not a man who is adding to the wrealth of his country more reli able than one who is simply a consumer and has no interest in it ? If we suppose a man to be gov- erned only by the principle of self-interest, is he not more reliable when he has a stake in the coun try, and is it not his interest to promote and ad vance his own condition ? Is it not the interest of the great mass to have everything done rightly in reference to Government ? The great mass of the people hold no office ; they expect nothing from the Government. The only way they feel, and know, and understand the operations of the Gov ernment is in the exactions it makes from them. When they are receiving from the Government protection in common, it is their interest to do right in all governmental affairs ; and that being their interest, they are to be relied upon, even if you suppose men to be actuated altogether by the principle of self-interest. It is the interest of the middle class to do right in all governmental affairs ; and hence they are to be relied upon. Instead of requiring you to keep up your armies, your mounted men, and your footmen on the frontier, if you will let the people go and possess this public land on the

40 THE SPEECHES

conditions proposed in this bill, you will have an army on the frontier composed of men who will defend their own firesides, who will take care of their own homes, and will defend the other portions of the country, if need be, in time of war.

I would remark in this connection, that the pub lic lands have paid for themselves. According to •i &

the report of Mr. Stuart of Virginia, the Secre tary of the Interior in 1850, it was shown that then the public lands had paid for themselves, and sixty millions over. We have received into the treasury since that time about thirty-two million dollars from the public lands. They have, there fore, already paid the Government more than they cost, and there can be no objection to this bill on the ground that the public lands have been bought with the common treasure of the whole country. Besides, this bill provides that each individual mak ing an entry shall pay all the expenses attending it. We see, then, Mr. President, the effect this pol icy is to have on population. Let me ask here, — looking to our popular elections, looking to the proper lodgment of power, — is it not time that we had adopted a policy which would give us men interested in the affairs of the country to control and sway our elections ? It seems to me that this cannot long be debated ; the point is too clear. The agricultural and mechanical portion of the community are to be relied upon for the preserva tion and continuance of this Government. The

OF ANDREW 'JOHNSON. 41

great mass of the people, the great middle class, are honest. They toil for their support, accept ing no favor from Government. They live by labor. They do not live by consumption, but by production ; and we should consume as small a portion of their production as it is possible for us to consume, leaving the producer to appropriate to his own use and benefit as much of the product of his own labor as it is possible in the nature of things to do. The great mass of the people need advocates — men who are honest and capable, who are willing to defend them. How much legislation is done for classes, and how little care seems to be exercised for the great mass of the people. When we are among our constituents, it is very easy to make appeals to the people and professions of patri otism, and then — I do not mean to be personal or invidious — it is very easy, when we are removed from them a short distance, to forget the people and legislate for classes, neglecting the interest of the great mass. The mechanics and agriculturists are honest, industrious, and economical. Let it not be supposed that I am against learning or edu cation, but I might speak of the man in the rural districts in the language of Pope, —

" Unlearned, he knew no schoolman's subtle art, No language but the language of the heart; By nature honest, by experience wise; Healthy by temperance and exercise."

This is the kind of men whom we must rely upon. Let your public lands be settled ; let them

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42 THE SPEECHES

be filled up ; let honest men become cultivators and tillers of the soil, I do not claim to be pro phetic, but I have sometimes thought that if we would properly direct our legislation in reference to our public lands and our other public policy, the time would come when this would be the greatest government on the face of the earth. Go to the great valley of the Mississippi ; take the western slope of the mountains to the Pacific Ocean ; take the whole area of this country, and we find that we have over three million square miles. Throw off one fourth as unfit for cultivation, reducing the area of the United States to fifteen hundred million acres, and by appropriating three acres to a person, it will sustain a population of over five hundred million people ; and I have no doubt, if this conti nent was strained to its utmost capacity, it could sustain the entire population of the world. Let us go on and carry out our destiny ; interest men in the soil ; let your vacant land be divided equally so that men can have homes ; let them live by their own industry ; and the time will come when this will be the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Let agriculture and the mechanic arts maintain the ascendency, and other professions and pursuits be subordinate to them, for on these two all others rest. Since the crucifixion of our Saviour, emigration has been westward ; and the poetic idea might have started long before it did, —

" Westward the star of empire takes its way."

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 43

It has been taking its way westward. The United States are filling up. We are going on to the Pa cific coast. Let me raise the inquiry here, when, in the history of mankind, in the progress of na tions, was there any nation that ever reached the point we now occupy ? When was there a nation in its progress, in its settlement, in its advance in all that constitutes and makes a nation great, that occupied the position we nowT occupy ? When was there any nation that could look to the East and behold the tide of emigration coming, and, at the same time, turn around and look to the mighty West, and behold the tide of emigration approach ing from that direction. The waves of emigration have usually been running in one direction, but we find the tide of emigration now changed, and we are occupying a central position on the globe. Emigration is coming to us from the East and from the West ; and when our vacant territory shall be filled up, when it shall reach a population of one hundred and fifty or five hundred millions, who can say what will be our destiny ?

When our railroad system shall progress on proper principles, extending from one extreme of the country to the other, like so many arteries ; when our telegraphic wires shall be stretched along them as the nerves in the human frame, and they shall run in parallel lines, and be crossed at right angles, until the whole globe, as it were, and especially this great centre, shall be covered like

44 THE SPEECHES

a net-work with these arteries and nerves ; when the face of the globe shall flash with intelligence like the face of man ; we, occupying this important point, may find our institutions so perfected, science so advanced, that instead of receiving immigration, instead of receiving nations from abroad, this will be the great sensorium from which our notions of religion, our notions of government, our improve ments in works of every description shall radiate as from a common centre, and revolutionize the world.

Who dares say that this is not our destiny, if we will only permit it to be fulfilled ? Then let us go on with this great work of interesting men in becoming connected with the soil ; interesting them in remaining in your mechanic shops ; prevent their accumulation in the streets of your cities ; and in doing this, you will dispense with the necessity for all your pauper system. By doing this you enable each community to take care of its own poor. By doing this you destroy and break down the great propensity that exists with men to hang and loiter and perish about the cities of the Union, as is done now in the older countries.

It is well enough, Mr. President, to see where our public lands have been going. There seems to be a great scruple now in reference to the ap propriation of lands for the benefit of the people ; but the Federal Government has been very lib eral heretofore in granting lands to the States for railroad purposes. We can pass law after law,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 45

making grant after grant of the public lands to corporations, without alarming any one here. We have already granted to railroad monopolies, to corporations, twenty-four million two hundred and forty-seven thousand acres. Those grants hardly meet with opposition in Congress ; but it seems to be very wrong, in the estimation of some, to grant lands to the people on the conditions proposed in the bill before us. We find, furthermore, that there have been granted to the States, as swamp lands, — and some of these lands will turn out to be the most productive on the globe, — forty million one hundred and thirty-three thousand five hun dred and sixty-five acres.

In relation to the public lands, and the grants which have been made by the Government, I have obtained from the Commissioner of the General Land-Office several tables, which I now submit.

Estimate of the Quantities of Land which will inure to the Stales under Grants for Railroads, up to June 30, 1857.

States. Acres. Date of Law.

Illinois 2,595,053 September 20, 1850.

Missouri 1,815,435 June 10, 1852; Feb. 9, 1853.

Arkansas 1,465,297 February 9, 1853.

Michigan 3,096,000 June 3/1856.

Wisconsin 1,622,800 June 3, 1856.

Iowa 3,456,000 May 15, 1856.

Louisiana 1,102,560 June 3 and Aug. 11, 1856.

Mississippi • • • « 950,400 August 11, 1856.

Ahlvirm 1 01 q qOO 5 Ma-V l 7' JunG 3' and Au£'

•1,913,39 - |Uj 1856. March3?1857

Florida 1,814,400 May 17, 1856.

Minnesota 4,416,000 March 3, 1857.

Total -..-24,247,335

46 THE SPEECHES

Statement showing the Quantity of Swamp-land approved to

the several States, up to 30th June, 1857. States. Acres.

Ohio 25,650.71

Indiana 1,250,937.51

Illinois . 1,369,140.72

Missouri 3,615,966.57

Alabama 2,595.51

Mississippi 2,834,796.11

Louisiana 7,601 ,535.46

Michigan 5,465,232.41

Arkansas 5,920,024.94

Florida 10,396,982.47

Wisconsin 1,650,712.10

Total 40,133,564.51

Estimate of unsold and unappropriated Lands in each of the States and Territories, including surveyed and unsurveyed, offered and unoffered Lands, on the 30th June, 1856.

States and Territo- Number of quarter-

ries. Acres. sections.

Ohio 43,553.34 272

Indiana 36,307.41 227

Illinois 511,662.85 3,198

Missouri 13,365,319.81 83,533

Alabama 9,459,367.74 59,121

Mississippi 5,519,390.69 34,496

Louisiana 5,933,373.83 37,083

Michigan 10,056,298.06 62,852

Arkansas 15,609,542.84 97,560

Florida 18,067,07-2.75 112,919

Iowa 6,237,661.03 38,985

Wisconsin 15,222,549.50 95,141

California 113,682,436.00 710,515

Minnesota Ten tory 82,502,608.33 515,641

Oregon Washington New Mexico Utah Nebraska ' Kansas ' ' Indian *

•118,913,241.31 743,208

• 76,444,055.25 477,775

• 155,210,804.00 970,067

• 134,243,733.00 839,023 206,984,747.00 1,293,655

• 76,361,058.00 477,256 42,892,800.00 268,080

Total • • • 1,107,297,572.74 6,920,607

OF ANDREW JOHNSOX. 47

The table giving the estimated quantity of all our public lands, shows the feasibility of the plan in favor of which I have been speaking. I know that some gentlemen from the Southern States object to this bill because they fear that it will carry emigrants from the free States into those States. Well, sir, on this point I have drawn some conclusions from figures, which I will present to the Senate. In the State of Alabama there are now undisposed of fifty- nine thousand one hundred and twTenty-one quarter- sections of land. I ask my Southern friends, would it not be better if a man in the State of Alabama would select a quarter-section there, and take the two hundred dollars it would have cost him, and expend it there, even though it might be inferior land, than to compel him to pay 81.25 an acre, and emigrate from the State of Alabama to a place where he could get better land ? If you compel him to pay the higher price, it becomes his interest to leave his native State ; but by permitting him to take the land and expend on its improvement what he would otherwise have to pay, and what it would cost him to move, the chances are that he will remain where he is. In the State of Mississippi here are thirty-four thousand four hundred and ninety-six quarter-sections ; in Louisiana, thirty- seven thousand ; in Arkansas, ninety-seven thou sand ; in Florida, one hundred and twelve thousand. Altogether, the quarter-sections of public lands belonging to the Government amount to six million

48 THE SPEECHES

nine hunch1 sd and twenty thousand. How feasible the plan is. I have shown, too, that it would take over six hundred years to dispose of the public lands at the rate we have been disposing of them, and that if you take one million quarter-sections and have them settled and cultivated, you will obtain more revenue, and you will enhance the remaining public lands more than the value of those the Government gives.

I live in a Southern State ; and, if I know my self, I am as good a Southern man as any one who lives within the borders of the South. It seems to be feared that by this bill we compel men to go on the lands. I want to compel no man to go. I want to leave each and every man to be controlled by his own inclination, by his own interest, and not to force him ; but is it statesmanlike, is it philanthropic, is it Christian, to keep a man in a State, and refuse to let him go, because, if he does go, he will help to populate some other portion of the country ? If a man lives in the county in which I live, and he can, by crossing the line into another county, better his condition* I say let him go. If, by crossing the boundary of my State and going into another, he can better his condition, I say let him go. If a man can go from Tennessee into Illinois, or Louisiana, or Mississippi, or Arkansas, or any other State, and better his condition, let him go. I care not where he goes, so that he locates himself in this great area of freedom, becomes attached to our institutions,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 49

and interested in the prosperity and welfare of the country. * I care not where he goes, so that he is under the protection of our Stars and Stripes. I say, let him go where he can better the condition of himself, his wife, and children ; let him go where he can receive the greatest remuneration for his toil and for his labor. What kind of a policy is it to say that a man shall be locked up where he was born, and shall be confined to the place of his birth ? Take the State of North Carolina, represented by the honorable Senator before me,1 — and I have no doubt it is his intention to represent that people to their satisfaction, — would it have been proper to require the people of North Carolina, from her early settlement to the present time, to be confined within her boundaries ? Would they not have looked upon it as a hard sentence ? Would they not have looked upon it as oppressive and cruel ? North Carolina has supplied the Western States with a large proportion of her population, for the reason that by going West they could better their condition. Who would prevent them from doing it ? Who would say to the poor man in North Carolina, that has no land of his own to cultivate, that lives upon some barren angle, or some piny plain, or in some other State upon some stony ridge, that he must plough and dig the land appointed to him by his landlord, and that he is not to emigrate to any place where he can better his condition ?

1 Mr. Clingman.

50 THE SPEECHES

What is his prospect? He has to live poor; he has to live hard ; and, in the end, when he dies, poverty, want, is the only inheritance he can leave his children. There is no one who has a higher appreciation of North Carolina than I have ; she is my native State. I found it to be my interest to emigrate, and I should have thought it cruel and hard if I had been told that I could not leave her boundary. Although North Carolina did not afford me the advantages of education, though I cannot speak in the language of the schoolmen, and call her my cherishing mother, yet, in the language of Cowper, " with all her faults, I love her still." She is still my mother ; she is my native State ; and I love her as such, and I love her people, too. But what an idea is it to present, as influencing the action of a statesman, that people may not emigrate from one State to another ! Sir, I say let a man go anywhere within the boundaries of the United States where he can better his condition.

Mr. President, if I entertained the notions that some of my friends who oppose this bill do, I should be a more ardent advocate of its policy than I am now, if that were possible. My friend from Ala bama l entertains some strange notions in reference to democracy and the people ; and in his speech on the fisheries bill, he gave this proposition a kind of side-blow, a lick by indirection. I do not object to that ; but if I entertained his opinions, I should be

i Mr. Clay.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 51

a more determined and zealous advocate of the policy of this bill than I am now, if that were possi ble. In his speech upon the Lecompton Constitution, that. Senator, in speaking of the powers of the con vention which framed the Constitution, said : —

" In my opinion, they would have acted in stricter accordance with the spirit and genius of our institutions if they had not submitted it in whole or in part to the popular vote. Our governments are republics, not democracies. The people exercise their sovereignty not in person at the ballot-box, but through agents, delegates, or representatives. Our fathers founded republican governments in preference to democra cies, not so much because it would be impracticable as because it would be unwise and inexpedient for the people themselves to assemble and adopt laws."

I have always thought the general idea had been that it was not practicable to do everything in a strict democratic sense, and that it was more con vergent for the people to appear through their del egates. But the Senator said further : —

" They were satisfied, from reading and reflection, of the truth of Mr. Madison's observation about pure democracies, that they ' have ever been spectacles of turbulence and con tention ; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property ; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.' ......

" They knew that a large body of men is more

liable to be controlled by passion or by interest than a single individual, and is more apt to sacrifice the rights of the minor ity, because it can be done with more impunity. Hence they endeavored to impose restraints upon themselves. Hence they committed the making of all their laws, organic or municipal,

52 THE SPEECHES

to their delegates or representatives, whose crimes they could punish, whose errors they could correct, and whose powers they could reclaim.

" The great security of our rights of life, liberty, and prop erty, is in the responsibility of those who make and of those who execute the law. Establish as a principle that, to give sanction to law, it must be approved by a majority at the ballot-box, and you take away this security and surrender those rights to the most capricious, rapacious, and cruel of tyrants. I regret to see the growing spirit in Congress and throughout the country to democratize our government ; to submit every question, whether pertaining to organic or municipal laws, to the vote of the people. This is sheer rad icalism ; it is the Red Republicanism of revolutionary France, which appealed to the sections on all occasions, and not the American Republicanism of our fathers. Their Republicanism was stable and conservative ; this is mutable and revolutionary. Theirs afforded a shield for the minority; this gives a sword to the majority. Theirs defended the rights of the weak ; this surrenders them to the power of the strong. God forbid that the demagogism of this day should prevail over the philan thropic and philosophic statesmanship of our fathers."

In the same speech, the Senator said, — "Property is the foundation of every social fabric. To

preserve, protect, and perpetuate rights of property, society

is formed, and government is framed."

Now, if I entertained these notions, I should un questionably go for the Homestead Bill. I am free to say, here, that I do not hold the doctrine ad vanced by the honorable gentleman from Alabama, to the extent that he goes. I believe the people are capable of self-government. I think they have demonstrated it most clearly ; and I do not think the Senator's history of democracy states the case as

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 53

it should be. I presume in the Senator's own State the people acted directly upon their Constitution at the ballot-box. That is the organic law. If they did not there, they have done so in most of the States of the Union ; not, perhaps, in their original formation of their governments, but as the people have gone on and advanced in popular government. The honorable Senator seems to be opposed to democratizing, — in other words, he is opposed to popularizing our institutions ; he is afraid to trust the control of things to the people at the balfot-box. Why, sir, the organic law which confers all the power upon your State legislatures, creates the different divisions, different departments of the State. The government is controlled at the ballot - box, and the doctrine set forth in the Constitution of Alabama is, that the people have a right to abolish and change their form of government when they think proper. The principle is clearly recognized ; and on this my honorable friend and myself differ essentially. I find a similar doctrine laid down in a pamphlet which I have here : —

" In the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, Gouverneur Morris said, that ' Property is the main object of society.' Mr. King said, ' Property is the primary object of society.' Mr. Butler contended strenuous ly that ' Property was the only just measurer of representa tion. This was the great object of government; the great cause of war ; the great means of carrying it on.' Mr. Madison said, that ' In future times a great majority of the' people will not only be without landed, but any other sort of property. These will either combine under the influence of 5*

54 THE SPEECHES

their common situation, — in which case the right of property and the public liberty will not be secure in their hands, — or, what is more probable, they will become the tools of opu lence and ambition.' Gouverneur Morris again said, ' Give the votes to the people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich who will be able to buy them. We should not confine our attention to the present moment. The time is not far distant when this country will abound with mechanics and manufacturers, who will receive their bread from their employers. Will such men be the secure and.faithful guardians of liberty ? ' Madison remarks, that those who opposed the property basis of representation, did so on the ground that the number of people was a fair index to the amount of property in any district."

These are not notions entertained by me ; but they are important as the notions of some of our public men at the early formation of our Govern ment. I entertain no such notions. If, however, the Senator from Alabama holds that property is the main object and basis of society, he, above all other men, ought to go for this bill, so as to place every man in the possession of a home and an interest in his country. The very doctrine that he lays down appeals to him trumpet-tongued, and asks him to place these men in a condition where they can be relied upon. His argument is unanswerable, if it be true, in favor of the Homestead Bill. It is taking men out of a dependent condition ; it is pre venting this Government from sinking into that con- .dition that Rome did in her decline. I ask him now, if he entertains these opinions, as promulgated in his speech, to come up and join with us in the

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 55

passage of this bill, and make every man, if possible, a property-holder, interested in his country ; give him a basis to settle upon, and make him reliable at the ballot-box.

His speech is a fine production. I heard it with interest at the time it was delivered. I hold the opposite to him. Instead of the voice of the people being the voice of a demon, I go back to the old idea, and I favor the policy of popularizing all our free institutions. We are Democrats, occupying a posi tion here from the South ; we start together, but we turn our backs upon each other very soon. His policy would take the Government further from the people. I go in a direction to popularize it, and bring it nearer to the people. There is no better illustration of this than that old maxim, which is adopted in all our ordinary transactions, that " if you want a thing done, send somebody to do it ; if you want it well done, go and do it yourself." It applies with great force in governmental affairs as in individual affairs ; and if we can advance and make the workings and operation of our Government familiar to and understood by the people, the better for us. I say, when and wherever it is practicable, let the people transact their own business ; bring them more in contact with their Government, and then you will arrest expenditure, you will arrest corruption, you will have a purer and better gov ernment.

I hold to the doctrine that man can be advanced ;

56 THE SPEECHES

that man can be elevated ; that man can be exalted in his character and condition We are told, on high authority, that he is made in the image of his God ; that he is endowed with a certain amount of divinity. And I believe man can be elevated ; man can be come more and more endowed with divinity ; and as he does he becomes more God-like in his character and capable of governing himself. Let us go on elevating our people, perfecting our institutions, until democracy shall reach such a point of perfec tion that we can exclaim with truth that the voice of the people is the voice of God.

As I said, I have entertained different notions from those inculcated by the honorable Senator. If I entertained his notions, then I should be for the Homestead. I hold in my hand a document, by which it was proclaimed in 1776, —

" We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights govern ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Is property laid down there as the great element and the great basis of society ? It is only one ; and Mr. Jefferson laid it down in the Declaration of In dependence, that it was a self-evident truth that government was instituted — for what ? To protect men in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is what Mr. Jefferson said. And who in-

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 57

dorsed it ? The men who framed the Declara tion of Independence, who did not go upon the idea that property was the only element of society. The doctrine established by those who proclaimed our independence, was, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were three great ends of gov ernment, and not property exclusively. When the declaration came forth from the old Congress Hall, it came forth as a column of fire and li^ht. It

O

declared that the security of life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, were the three great ends of government. Mr. Jefferson says, in his first In augural Address, which is the greatest paper that has ever been written in this Government, — and I commend it to the reading of those who say they are Democrats, by way of refreshing their memories, that they may understand what are correct Demo cratic principles, —

u Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the

government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the

government of others ? Or have we found angels in the form

of kings to govern him. Let history answer this question. "

Mr. Jefferson seems to think man can be trusted with the government of himself. In the Declara tion of Independence he does not embrace property ; in fact, it is not referred to. But I am willing to concede that it is one of the primary and elementary principles in government. Mr. Jefferson declares the great truth that man is to be trusted ; that man is capable of governing himself, and that he has a

58 THE SPEECHES

right to govern himself. In the same Inaugural Address of Mr. Jefferson, we find the passage usually attributed to Washington's Farewell Address, which has got universal circulation, — that we should pur sue our own policy ; that we should promote our own institutions, maintaining friendly relations with all, entangling alliances with none. Let us carry out the doctrines of the Inaugural Address of Mr. Jefferson ; let us carry out the great principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence, which this Homestead Bill embraces.

But I wish to call attention to some other author ity on this subject. As contradistinguished from the views of the Senator from Alabama, I present the views of a recent writer 1 as in accordance with my own notions of Democracy : —

" The democratic party represents the great principle of progress. It is onward and outward in its movements. It has a heart for action, and motives for a world. It constitutes the principle of diffusion, and is to humanity what the centrifugal force is to the revolving orbs of a universe. What motion is to them, democracy is to principle. It is the soul in action. It conforms to the providence of God. It has confidence in man, and an abiding reliance in his high destiny. It seeks the largest liberty, the greatest good, and the surest happiness. It aims to build up the great interests of the many, to the least detriment of the few. It remembers the past, without neglect ing the present. It establishes the present, without fearing to provide for the future. It cares for the weak, while it permits no injustice to the strong. It conquers the oppressor, and pre pares the subjects of tyranny for freedom. It melts the bigot's

1 Lamartine.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 59

heart to meekness, and reconciles his mind to knowledge. It dispels the clouds of ignorance and superstition, and prepares the people for instruction and self-respect. It adds wisdom to legislation, and improved judgment to government. It favors enterprise that yields a reward to the many and an industry that is permanent. It is the pioneer of humanity — the con servator of nations. It fails only when it ceases to be true to itself. Vox populi, vox Dei, — has proved to be both a prov erb, and a prediction.

" It is a mistake to suppose that democracy may not be ad vanced under different forms of government. Its own, it should be remembered, is the highest conventional form, that •which precedes the lofty independence of the individual, spoken of by the Apostle to the Hebrews, who will need government but from the law which the Lord has placed in his heart.

" In one respect, all nations are governed upon the same principle ; that is, each adopts the form which it has the under standing and the power to sustain. There is in all a greater or lesser powTer, and it requires no profound speculation to decide which will control. A tyrannical dictator may do more to advance the true interests of democracy than a moderate sovereign who is scrupulously guarded by an antiquated con stitution ; for the tyrant adds vigor to his opponents by his deeds of oppression.

" The frequent question as to what form of government js best, is often answered without any reference to condition or application of principles. There can be properly but one answer, and yet the application of that answer may lead to great diversity of views.

" When it is asserted that the democratic form of govern ment is unquestionably the best, it must be considered that the answer not only designates the form preferred, but implies a confident belief in the advanced condition of the people who are to be the subjects of it. It premises the capacity for self- control, and a corresponding degree of knowledge in regard to the rights, balances, and necessities of society. It involves a

60 THE SPEECHES

discriminating appreciation of the varied duties of the man, the citizen, and the legislator. It presupposes a reasonable knowl edge of the legitimate means and entls of government, en larged views of humanity, and of the elements of national existence.

" The democratic form of government is the best, because its standard of moral requisition is the highest. It claims for man a universality of interest, liberty, and justice. It is Chris tianity with its mountain beacons and guides. It is the stand ard of Deity based on the eternal principles of truth, passing through and rising above the yielding clouds of ignorance, into the regions of infinite wisdom. As we live on, this 'pillar of the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night,' will not be taken from before the people, but stand immovable, immeasurable, and in the brightness of its glory continue to shed increasing light on a world and a universe.

" The great objects of knowledge and moral culture of the people are among its most prominent provisions. Practical religion and religious freedom are the sunshine of its growth and glory. It is the sublime and mighty standard spoken of by the Psalmist, who exclaims, in the beautiful language of poetical conception, —

" ' The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high ; who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth ? He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of the people.'

" Democracy is a permanent element of progress, and is present everywhere, whatever may be the temporary form of the ruling power. Its inextinguishable fires first burst forth in an empire, and its welcome lights cheer the dark domains or despotism. While tyrants hate the patriot and exile him from their contracted dominions, the spirit of democracy invests him as a missionary of humanity, and inspires him with an elo quence which moves a world. Its lightning rays cannot be

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 61

hidden ; its presence cannot be banished. Dictators, kings, and emperors, are bi4 its servants ; and, as man becomes elevated to the dignity of self-knowledge and control, their administration ceases. Their rule indicates an imperfect state of society, and may be regarded as the moral props of the builder, necessary only to sustain a people in their different periods of growth. One cannot speak of them lightly, nor in dulge in language that should seem to deny their fitness as the instruments of good in the hands of Providence. Their true position may be best gathered from the prediction which is based upon a knowledge of the past and present condition of man, — that all kingdoms and empires must cease whenever a people have a knowledge of their rights, and acquire the power of a practical application of principles. This is the work of time. It is the work of constant, repeated trial. The child that attempts to step an hundred times and falls ; the new- fledged bird that tries its feeble wings again and again before it is able to sweep the circle of the sky with its kindred flock, indicate the simple law upon which all strength depends, whether it be the strength of an insect, or the strength of a nation.

u Because a people do not succeed in changing their form of government, even after repeated trinls, we are not to infer that they are indulging in impracticable experiments, nor that they will be disappointed in ultimately realizing the great ob jects of their ambition. Indeed, all failures of this class are indicative of progressive endeavor. They imply an increasing knowledge of the true dignity of man, and a growing disposi tion to engage in new and more and more difficult endeavors. These endeavors are but the exercise of a nation, and without them, no people can ever command the elements of national existence and of self-control. But inquiries in regard to so extensive a subject should be shaped within more practical limits."

" The triumphs of democracy constitute the way-marks of the world. They demand no extraneous element of endurance for permanency, no fictitious splendor for embellishment, no

62 THE SPEECHES

borrowed greatness for glory. Originating in the inexhaust ible sources of power, moved by the spirit of love and liberty, and guided by the wisdom which comes from the instincts and experience of the immortal soul, as developed in the people, democracy exists in the imperishable principle of progress, and registers its achievements in the institutions of freedom, and in the blessings which characterize and beautify the realities of life. Its genius is to assert and advance the true dignity of mind, to elevate the motives and affections of man, and to extend, establish, protect, and equalize the common rights of humanity.

" Condorcet, although an aristocrat by genius and by birth, became a democrat from philosophy."

A few years since a Whig member of the United States Senate sneeringly asked Senator Allen, of Ohio, the question, " What is democracy ? " The following was the prompt reply :

" Democracy is a sentiment not to be appalled, corrupted, or compromised. It knows no baseness ; it cowers to no danger ; it oppresses no weakness ; destructive only of despotism, it is the sole conservator of liberty, labor, and property. It is the sentiment of freedom, of equal rights, of equal obligations — the law of nature pervading the law of the land."

" ' What, sir,' asked Patrick Henry, in the Virginia Con vention of 1778, ' is the genius of democracy ? Let me read that clause of the Bill of Rights of Virginia, which relates to this (third clause) : That government is or ought to be in stituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community ; of all the various modes and forms of gov3rnment, that is best which is capable of produ cing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the dangers of mal-administration ; and that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to those principles, or contrary to those purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 63

and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged the most conducive to the public weal.' " !

In the same convention Judge Marshall said, —

" What are the favorite maxims of democracy ? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue ; - - these, sir, are the principles of a good govern ment."2

" ' Democracy,' says the late Mr. Legare, of South Caro- lina, in an article published in the ' New York Review,' ' in the high and only true sense of that much-abused word, is the des tiny of nations, because it is the spirit of Christianity.'" 3

I have referred to the remarks of the Senator from Alabama to show that if his doctrines were true, he should go for the passage of the Homestead Bill, because, in order to sustain the Government on the principles laid down by him, every man should be a property-holder. I want it understood that I enter a disclaimer to the doctrine presented by him, and merely present his argument to show why he, above all others, ought to go for the Homestead policy. I refer to Mr. Legare, Judge Marshall, and the author of the "History of Democracy," as laying down my notions of democracy, as con tradistinguished from those laid down by the dis tinguished Senator from Alabama. We are both members from the Democratic party. I claim to be a Democrat, East, West,. North, or South, or any where else. I have nothing to diso-uise. I have re-

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ferred to the Declaration of Independence, and to Mr.

1 Elliot's Debates, Vol. III. p. 77. 2 Ibid. p. 223.

3 Ibid. Vol. V. p. 297.

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Jefferson's Inaugural Address, for the purpose of showing that democracy means something very dif ferent from what was laid down by the distinguished Senator from Alabama. I furthermore refer to these important documents to show that property is not the leading element of government and of society. Mr. Jefferson lays down, as truths to be self-evident, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap piness are the leading essentials of government.

But it is not my purpose to dwell longer on that ; and I wish to pass to the speech of the Senator from South Carolina.1 I disagree in much that was said

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by that distinguished Senator ; and I wish to show that he ought to go for the Homestead policy, so as to interest every man in the country. If property is the leading and principal element on which society rests ; if property is the main object for which government was created, the gentlemen who are the foremost, the most zealous, and most distinguished advocates of that doctrine should sustain the Home stead policy. The honorable Senator from South Carolina, in his speech on the Lecompton Constitu tion, by innuendo or indirection, had a hit at the Homestead — a side-blow. He said : —

" 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. Nay, they are assembling, as I have said, with arms in their hands, and demanding work at $1000 a year for six hours a day. Have you heard that the ghosts of

1 Mr. Hammond.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 65

Mendoza and Torquemada are stalking in the streets of your great cities ? That the Inquisition is at hand ? "

If this be true, as assumed by the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, is it not an argument why men should be placed in a condition where they will not clamor, where they will not raise mobs to threaten Government, and demand home steads ? Interest these men in the country ; give them homes, or let them take homes ; let them be come producers ; let them become better citizens ; let them be more reliable at the ballot-box. I want to take them on their ground, their principle, that property is the main element of society and of gov ernment ; and if their doctrine be true, the argu ment is still stronger in favor of the Homestead than the position I assume. But the distinguished Sena tor from South Carolina goes on : —

" In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class re quiring but a low order of intellect, and but little skill. Its requisites are vigor, 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.

" ' The poor ye always have with you ' ; for the man who lives by daily labor, and scarcely lives at that, and who has to put out his labor in the market, and take the best he can get for it — in short, your whole hireling class of manual laborers and ' operatives,' as you call them, are essentially slaves. The difference between us is, that our slaves are hired for life

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and well compensated 5 there is no starvation, no begging, no want of employment among our people ; and not too 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."

In this portion of the Senator's remarks I concur. I do not think whites should be slaves ; and if sla very 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 Homestead policy, and the im policy of making the invidious 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 rny 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,

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 67

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 labors with his hands, every man who is an operative in a manufacturing establishment 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 labor, is a slave? 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 laborer with my hands, and I never considered myself a slave, in the acceptation of the term slave in the South. I do own some ; I acquired them by my industry, by the labor of my hands. In that sense of the term I should have been a slave while I was earning them with the labor of my hands.

Mr. HAMMOXD. Will the Senator define a slave?

Mr. JOHNSON. What we understand to be a slave in the South, is a person who is held to ser vice during his or her natural life, subject to, and under the control of, a master who has the right to appropriate the products of his or her labor 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 labor; but that does not make a slave. How

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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 laborer is a slave, we should find that we have had a great many distinguished slaves since the world commenced. Socrates, who first conceived the idea of the immortality of the soul, Pagan as he was, labored 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 ex pounder, himself was a tent-maker, and worked with his hands : was he a slave ? Archimedes, 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 laborers and operatives, look at the columns that adorn this chamber, and see their finish and style. We are lost in admiration at the architecture of your buildings, and their mas sive columns. We can speak with admiration. What would it have been but for hands to con struct 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

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 69

labors ? Why indulge in such a notion ? The argument cuts at both ends of the line, arrd this kind of doctrine does us infinite harm in the South. There are operatives there ; there are laborers there ; there are mechanics there. Are they slaves ? Who is it in the South that gives us title and secur ity to the institution 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 Tennessee, 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 number of slaveholders in all the slave States, when summed up, makes 347,000, owning three and a half million slaves. The white popu lation 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 slave-owners out, and a large proportion 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, and the other slaveholding States, all those who do not own slaves are slaves themselves ? Will this assumption do ? What

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does it do at home in our own States ? It has a tendency to raise prejudice, to engender opposition 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 exhibi tion of the very few slaveholders in the Southern States, in proportion to the white population, ac cording 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 Ten nessee is now doing the same thing. I understand him to say there are but some — I do not remem ber exactly the number, but I think three hundred 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 Sen ator to state 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 followed 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

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 71

the number of slaveholders who are heads of fam ilies.

Mr. JOHNSON. The Senator says I have not made an exhibit of the fact. The Senator inter rupted me before I had concluded. I gave way as a matter of courtesy to him. Perhaps his speech would have had no place, if he had waited to hear me a few moments longer.

Mr. MASON. I shall wait. I thought the Sen ator had passed that point.

Mr. JOHNSON. I was stating the fact, that ac cording to the census-tables three hundred and

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forty-seven thousand white persons owned the whole number 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- labor, 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 wras going to show that expressions like those to which I have alluded, operate against us in the South, and I was follow ing the example of no one. I was taking these facts from the census-tables, which were published by order of Congress, to show the bad policy and injustice of declaring that the laboring portion of our population were slaves and menials. Such

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declarations should not be applied 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 pros perously and harmoniously under our institutions.

Sir, carry out the Homestead policy, attach the people to the soil, induce them to love the Govern ment, and you will have the North reconciled to the South, and the South to the North, and we shall not have invidious doctrines preached to stir up bad feelings in either section. I know that in my own State, and in the other Southern States, the men who do not own slaves are among the

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first to take care of the institution. They will sub mit to no encroachment from abroad, no interfer ence from other sections.

I have said, Mr. President, much more than I intended to say, and, I fear, in rather a desultory manner, but I hope I have made myself under stood. I heard that some gentleman was going to offer an amendment to this bill, providing that the Government should furnish every man with a slave. So far as I am concerned, if it suited him, and his inclination led him that way, I wish to God every head of a family in the United States had one to take the drudgery and menial service off his family.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 73

I would have no objection to that ; but this intima tion was intended as a slur upon my proposition. I want that to be determined by the people of the respective States, and not by the Congress of the United States. I do not want this body to inter fere by innuendo or by amendment, prescribing that the people shall have this or the other. I de sire to leave that to be determined by the people of the respective States, and not by the Congress of the United States.

I hope, Mr. President, that this bill will be passed. I think it involves the very first princi ples of the Government : it is founded upon states manship, humanity, philanthropy, and even upon Christianity itself. I know the argument has been made, why permit one portion of the people to go and take some of this land and not another ? The law is in general terms ; it places it in the power of every man who will go to take a portion of the land. The Senator from Alabama suggests to me that a person, in order to get the benefit of this bill, must prove that he is not the owner of other land. An amendment was yesterday inserted in the bill striking out that provision. Then it places all on an equality to go and take. Why should this not be done ? It was conceded yesterday that the land was owned by the people. There are over three million heads of families in the United States ; and if every man who is the head of a family were to take a quarter-section of public land, there would

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still be nearly four million quarter-sections left. If some people go and take quarter-sections, it does not interfere with the rights of others, for he who goes takes only a part of that which is his, and takes nothing that belongs to anybody else. The domain belongs to the whole people ; the equity is in the great mass of the people ; the Government holds the fee and passes the title, but the beneficial interest is in the people. There are, as I have said, two quarter-sections of land for every head of a family in the United States, and we merely propose to permit a head of a family to take one half of that which belongs to him.

I believe the passage of this bill will strengthen the bonds of the Union. It will give us a better voting population, and just in proportion as men become interested in property, they will become reconciled to all the institutions of property in the country, in whatever shape they may exist. Take the institution of slavery, for instance : would you rather trust it to the mercies of a people liable to be ruled by the mobs of which my honorable friend from South Carolina spoke, or would you prefer an honest set of landholders ? Which would be the most reliable ? Which would guarantee the greatest security to our institutions, when they come to the test of the ballot-box ?

Mr. President, I hope the Senate will pass this bill. I think it will be the beginning; of a new

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state of things — a new era.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 75

So far as I am concerned, — I say it not in any spirit of boasting or egotism, — if this bill were passed, and the system it inaugurates carried out, of granting a reasonable quantity of land for a man's family, and looking far into the future I could see resulting from it — a stable, an industrious, a hardy, a Christian, a philanthropic community, I should feel that the great object of my little mission was fulfilled. All that I desire is the honor and the credit of being one of the American Congress to consummate and to carry out this great scheme that is to elevate our race and to make our insti tutions more permanent. I want no reputation as some have insinuated. You may talk about Jacobinism, Red Republicanism, and so on. I pass by such insinuations as the idle wind which I regard not.

a

I know the motives that prompt me to action. I can go back to that period in my own history when I could not say that I had a home. This being so, when I cast my eyes from one extreme of the United States to the other, and behold the great number that are homeless, I feel for them. I be lieve this bill would put them in possession of homes ; and I want to see them realizing that sweet conception when each man can proclaim, " I have a home ; an abiding place for my wife and for my children ; I am not the tenant of another ; I am my own ruler ; and I will move according to my own will, and not at the dictation of another."

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Yes, Mr. President, if I should never be heard of again on the surface of God's habitable globe, the proud satisfaction of having contributed my little aid to the consummation of this great measure is all the reward I desire.

The people need friends. They have a great deal to bear. They make all ; they do all ; but how little they participate in the legislation of the country ? All, or nearly all, of our legislation is for corporations, for monopolies, for classes, and individuals ; but the great mass who produce while we consume, are little cared for ; their rights and interests are neglected and overlooked. Let us, as patriots, as statesmen, let us as Christians, consum mate this great measure which will exert an in fluence throughout the civilized world in fulfilling our destiny. I thank the Senate for their atten tion.

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 77.

THE CONSTITUTIONALITY AND RIGHTFUL- NESS OF SECESSION.

SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, ON TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18 AND 19, 1860.

The question pending being the Joint Resolution introduced by Mr. Johnson, on Thursday, the 13th of December, 1860, proposing amendments to the Constitution of United States.1

Mr. PRESIDENT : By the joint resolution now be fore the Senate, three amendments to the Consti tution of the United States are proposed. One proposes to change the mode of election of Presi dent and Vice-President of the United States from the electoral college to a vote substantially and directly by the people. The second proposes that the Senators of the United States shall be elected by the people, once in six years, instead of by the Legislatures of the respective States. The third provides that the Supreme Court shall be divided into three classes, — the term of the first class to expire in four years from the time that the classifi cation is made ; of the second class in eight years ; and of the third class in twelve years ; and as these vacancies occur they are to be filled by per sons chosen, one half from the slave States and the other half from the non-slaveholding States,

1 See Appendix, p. 1.

7*

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thereby taking the judges of the Supreme Court from the respective divisions of the country.

Mr. President, if these amendments had been made, and the Constitution had been in the shape now proposed, I think the difficulties that are now upon the country would have been obviated. It would have been required that either the President or the Vice-President should be taken from the South, and that would have destroyed, to some ex tent, the sectional character of our recent election.

The next provision of the amendment would re quire the votes cast for President and Vice-Presi dent to be cast by districts ; and if we are to take as an indication the returns to the House of Rep resentatives of a majority of twenty-seven against the incoming Administration, it is pretty conclu sive that a President differing in politics and sen timents from the one who has been recently elected would have been chosen. Each district would have voted directly for the President and Vice- President of the United States. The individual having a majority of the votes in that district would be considered as receiving one electoral vote, just as we count the votes for one member of Congress. Hence, if all the votes in the re spective districts had been cast on the same prin ciple, we should in the next Congress have a majority of twenty-seven in opposition to the incoming Administration in the House of Rep resentatives ; for they would have given us a ma-

OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 79

jority in the electoral colleges. It seems to me, if these propositions were adopted and made a part of the Constitution, that, to a very great extent, the difficulty and complaint that are now manifested in different portions of the country would be ob viated, and especially so with some improvement or modification of the law which provides for the restoration of fugitives from labor.

It is not my purpose, sir, to discuss these prop ositions to amend the Constitution in detail to-day, and I shall say but little more in reference to them and to their practical operation ; but, as we are now, as it were, involved in revolution, (for there is a revolution, in fact, upon the country,) I think it behooves every man, and especially every one occu pying a public place, to indicate, in some manner, his opinions and sentiments in reference to the ques tions that agitate and distract the public mind. I shall be frank on this occasion in giving my views and taking my position, as I have always been upon questions that involve the public interest. I believe it is the imperative duty of Congress to make some effort to save the country from impending disso lution ; and he that is unwilling to make an effort to preserve the Union, or, in other words, to pre serve the Constitution, and the Union as an incident resulting from the preservation of the Constitution, is unworthy of public confidence, and the respect and gratitude of the American people.

In most that I