Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1861-04-03
The Standard.
AN EIooUFNT APPEALFoR THE UNION.
Estract from speech delirered in the Senate q
the United States March I'd, 1861, r@
ANDREW JOHNSON, OF TENNESSEE.

the UnItSG OLdLeS MuTCIt Aut 1ooA1
ANDREW JOHNSON, OF TENNESSEE.
"I have been held up, and indirectly censured,
because have stood by the people; because nave
advocated those measures that are someeimes |"eeu
aou.goo;caI 7 wouId to God that we had few
more men here who were for the people IN iacI ana
who would legisate in conformity with tneir WIN
and wishes IF we had, the difficulties and dan
gers that surround now, would be postPoneu'
and set aside; they would not be upon u.s. But IN
Nav last. we could not vote that it was necessary
70 mass slave code for the Territories. Oh, no; the
presidential election was on hand. We were very
willing then to try to get northern votes to secure
their influence in the passage OF resolutions; anu
to crowd some men down, and let others up; IL
was all very well then; but since the people nave
determined that somebody else should be President
of the United States, all at once the grape mas got
20 be yery sour and gentlemen do not have as good
an on;nion of the people as they had before; we
have changed our views about it They nave not
thought quite as well Of US as we desired tney
should, and if could not get to be President OF
vice President of all these United States, rather
than miss it altogether, would be perfectly willing
to be President Of part; and therefore we will
diyide--yes we will divide. | am in favor OF Sc
cession of breaking up the Unon of having the
rights of the States out of the linton; ana as sig
naIy failed in being President of all, as the people
have decided against me, we have reached that pre-
q
to be broken up. 1t looks little that way
But sir. I alluded to the fact that secession has
been brought about by usurpation During. the
last forty DAYS six States of this Confederacy have
been taken out of the Union; how? By the voice
Of the people? No; it is demagogism to talk OF
the people By the voice of the freemen of the
country? No By whom has it been done? Have
the people of South Carolina passed upon the ordi-
nance adopted by their convention? No; but
system of usurpation was instituted, and relgn-ot
terror naugurated. How was it in Georgia? Have
the people there passed upon the ordinance OF Sc
cession? No. We know that there was power
full party there of passive, conservative men, who
have been overslaughed borne down; and tyranny
and usurpation have triumphed. A convention
passed an ordinance to take the State out OF the
Confederacy; and the very same convention appoint
ed delegates to go to congress to make conSttu-
ton, without consulting the people So with Louisi
ana so with Mississippi; so with all the six States
which have undertaken to form a new confederacy
Have the people been consulted? Not in a single
instance We are in the habit of saying that man
is capable Of selfgovernment that he has the right
the unqueStioned right to govern himself; but
here government has been assumed over him; it
has been taken out of his bands, and at Montgomery
set of usurpers are enthroned legislating, and
making constitutions and adopting them without
consulting the .freemen of the country. Do we not
know it to be so? Have the people of Alabama, of
Georgia, of any of those States, passed upon IT,
No; but a constitution is adopted by those men,
with = provision that it may be changed by vote
of two thirds. Four votes, in convention of six,
can change the whole organic law of people con-
stitutng six States. Is not this coup detGt equal
to any Of Napoleon? Is it not usurpation of the
peoples rights? In some of those States, even
stars and our stripes have been changed. One State
has palmetto another has q pelican, and the last
that can enumerate on this occasion, is State
that has the rattlesnake up as emblem. On
former OCCASION spoke of the origin of secession;
and traced early history to the garden of Eden,
when the serpent's vile and the serpents wicked
ness beguiled and betrayed our first mother After
that occurred, and they hnew light and knowledge,
when their Lord and Master turned to them, they
seeded and hid themselves from his presence
The serpents vile and the serpents wckedness first
started secession; and now, secession brings about
a return of the serpent Yes sir; the willy serpent
the rattesnake, has been substituted as the emblem
on the flag of one Of the seeding States; and that
old flag, the stars and the stripes, under which our
fathers fought and bled and conquered and achieved
cur rights and our liberties is pulled down and
trailed in the dust and the rattlesnake substituted.
Will the American people tolerate it They will
be indugent time, think, is wanted; but they
will not submit to it.
word more in conclusion. Give the border
States that security which they DESIRE and the time
will come when the other States will come back
when they will be brought back-how? Not by
the coercion of the border States but by the coer-
cion of the people; and those leaders who have
taken them out will fall beneath the indignation and
the accumulating force of that public opinion which
will ultimately crush them. The gentlemen who
have taken those States out not the men to bring
them back
have already suggested that the idea may have
entered into some minds "if we cannot get to be
President and Vice-Presdent of the whole United
States, may divide the Government, set I'D a
establishment hova
them ourselves when we take our States out" Here
we see President made, Vice President made
cabinet officers appointed, and yet the great mass
OF the people not consulted their assent obtain
ed IN any manner whatever The people of the
country ought to be aroused to this condition of
things; they ought to buckle on their armor; and,
as Tennessee has done, God bless her y by the
exercise of the elective franchise by going to the
ballotbox under new set of leaders, they will
repudiate and put down those men who have car
ried these States out and usurped government
over their heads. | trust in God that the old flag
OF the Union will never be struck. | hope it NAV
long wave and that we may long hear the national
air sung:
The starspangled banner, long may il wave
Yer the land Of the free and the home of the bravew
Long may we hear old Hail Columbia, that good
old national air, played all our martial instru-
mentsl long may we hear, and never repudiate the
old tune of Yankee DOode Long may wave that
gallant old flag which went through the Revolution,
and which was borne by Tennessee and Kentucky
at the battle Of New Orleans, upon that soil the
right to navigate the Mississippi near which they
are now denied. Upon that bloody field the stars
and stripes waved in triumph and, in the language
of another, the Goddess of Liberty lowered around
when the rockets red glare" went forth, indicat-
ing that the battle was raging and watched the
ISSUE and the conflict grew fierce, and the issue
was doubtful; but when, at length, victory perched
upon your stars and your stripes it was then on the
plains OF New Orleans that the Goddess of Liberty
made her loftiest flight and proclaimed victory in
strains Of exultat:on. Will Tennessee ever desert
the grave of him who bore it in triumph, or desert
the flag that he waved with success? No, we were
in the Union before of these States were spoken
into existence and we intend to remain in, and in
sst upon-as we have the confident belief we shall