The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1864-06-23
Speech Of Andy Johnson at Knoxville Tenn

/
We think the following extract from Gov
! ernor Johnson's speech to his fellow citizens
at Knoxville, Tenn, some time since, will
be read with new interest, now that his
name is presented to the people as a can
didate for the Office of Vice President. For
glowing patriotism and thrilling eloquence
it is rarely equalIed. .'' p.
''The time has arrived when treason must
be made odious; when traitors must be pun
ished-impoverished; their property taken
from, them whether it be their horses, their
lands, Or their negroes, and given to the
innocent the honest, the loyal, upon whom
the calamities of this unprovoked and wick
ed rebellion have fallen with such crushing
weight. 1t is easy to stand here and de-
claim, but | am not declaiming. 1t is easy
to utter mere bombast, but | am not utter
ing bombast. You know me. You know
something Of what I have done for you-for
Tennessee-for East Tennessee But will
not speak of that. If have made sacrifices
if have endured sufferings, if have under
gone hardships, so let it be- God grant
that | may have helped you, and that may
help you again. But you must
help yourselves You must join hands
with me and with one another, and swear
to do what have already told you must be
done-to make treason odious (this he said
with tremendous emphasis) and to make
traitors suffer, as you have suffered, as your
wives and children have suffered, as your
country ha sutfered.s
What has brought this war upon us?
Let me answer in one word let me speak
it so loud that the deafest man in this null
titude can hear me-Slavery. Hundreds Of
voices CHATS so, that's Gods TRUTH
Men talk about the Constitution and State
rights. They sneer at the Emancipation
Proclamation, and call it a tyrannical as
sumption Of authority, despotic usurpation
of power. Listen to what | now say: all
such talk is the language of treason. But
| am not here to discuss the constitutional
ty of slavery, or che constutionality of the
Presidents Proclamation of freedom. am
here to present facts; to address your intel
Iects; to appeal to your common sense.
Here is one fact to which | want you to at
tend: Why is the soil of our beloved Tennes-
sea- soil as rich as any in the world-so
far behind the States Of the North i'll its pro-
ductivenesss Why have you but few sucn
farms, but few scuh granaries as they have
all over Indiana and Ohio and Pennsylvania
Here is the explanation, and let me speak
it so loud that the deafest man in this null
titude can hear me-SIavery! Thank God,
the people are beginning to see that slave
labor has impoverished the soil Of Tennessee
about long enough. [Cries Of ''Good good
that's So"
Men sneer at the doctrine of emancipation.
Let them sheer; but this tell you-marH
met is the white man that we propose to
enancipate it is the white man that IS
even now being emancipated /; and may
heaven hasten the work of emancipation,
and carry it on till all are free. Loud and
prolonged applause.
Thanh, God that can say these things
to day III Knoxville that | can say them
and be appauded Thank God for free
speech and a free press, and the prospect of
free country! May He who is our Maker
and who will be our Judge, break every
yoke, loose every shackle, open every pris-
on door and let every bondlnan, white and
black, go freel loud applause.
Sometimes the clouds seem dark and low
ering-sometimes | confess to a feeling Of
gloom; but when | remember that there is
a God | am encouraged. Though not as
religious as l ought to be- | sometimes
walk by faith, and have found it conven-
lent way of walking when it is too dark to
see. And on the whole though our suffer
ing has been great, blessedness will be all the
greater when the day of our triumph shall
GOMEZ My couutrymen! my heart yearns to-
ward you il love you; | am one Of you. |
have climbed yonder mountains, that you
have climbed--yonder mountains, Fock-rib-
bed and glowing in the sunshne-in whose
gorges, in whose caverns, your sons, hunted
like wild beasts, have fallen to rise no more.
| do not speak of these things to draw
your tears. 1t is not time for tears but
for blows speak of them that | may fire
your heart with holy indignation, and nerve
your arms for unconquerable fight. And
sneak of them because the mountains seem
to talk to me- My home is among the
mountains, and though it is not far away,
! cannot 90 to it. tits the place where met
her and loved her, and married her who IS
the mother of my children. do not love
the mountains then? and if liberty IS to ex-
pire if freedom is to be destroyed II my
country, i'll all its length and breadth,is to
tremble beneath the oppressors tread, let
the flag, the dear old flag, the last flag, be
planted on yon rocky nights; and upon it
let there be this inscriptions 'Here Is the
end of all that is dear to the heart and sacred
to the memory Of man"
But | must not go on in this strain
Why is it that there is 50 much that is
mournful in the contemplation Of this broad,
beautiful country? Who are the men that
are to be held resp onsible for the terrible
war whose ravages we see to-day wherever
we cast our eyes? Jefferson Davis, Robert
Toombs, Yancy, Stevens--but will not
continue the hated list. You know them-you
have felt them. And for what cause have
they made us to suffer thus? | have told
again and again Shall | repeat it,
Well it is slavery What right have I,what
right have you, to hold fellow man in
bondage except for crime? What right have
YOU to use his labor without compen-
sation? to separate him from his wife and
children, and sell him, Or them, like dumb
beasts? And yet, because the whole ma
ton would not recognize this right
and bow to those who claimed it, we have
war, we have wasted fields, desolated
homes, broken hearts. There are those who
will sheer at me as / talk thus-who will
button their months aud think-not daring
to say it--"damned Abolition Yankee, he
wants ofice!" spun all such from me,
as | would filthy dog | trample them
under my feet, az would venomous rep
tile.
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Successful Union EXDeditiOn.