Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-04-25
PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND FHE 0HIO
DELEGAT ON,
Speech OF Governor BrOngh-Re-
spOnse OF the President.

preston Of their confidence and support
upon his assuming the duties OF the E1-
ecutive chair, msde vacant by the death Of
Mr.. Lincoln, our lamented President,
These gentlemen met st the Office of
Jsmes q. Wetmore, Esq, Military Agent
for the State, and headed by Governor
BrOugh, proceeded to the room of the Sec
retsry Amobg the personsges were
Judge Johnston, A. G. Riddle, Hon. VIII
liam Helmick, Hon. Mr.. Thscker, Mr.. Bar
rett, Commissioner of Pensions, Rev. Mr.
Morris, and Colonel g. j. Young, late
Military Secretary of Governor Tod. The
introductions were severslly made by Mr..
Weim1re.
Governor BroIgh then said :
Mr.. PRESIDENT: 1 have been requested
by small body of my constituents to pre-
sent them to you this morning, that they
may tender to you assurances of their
uppoIt and confidence in this hour
of trial and of labor. l am aware, sir,
that the pressure of these presentations is
severe upon you, yet could not forego
the request.
We come here with the assurance, as
have before said, of entire support and con-
Rdence in your trial and labor, and in your
guidance in the cause committed TO your
hands. We say to you frankly that We
sincerely and earnestly mourn Ehe loss that
has fallen on the country by which you
nave been elevated to the position yen oe
cupy; but we beg to assure you that in
our tears there is no bitterness or unkind-
ness toward yourself. In our sorrow there
is no shadow of fear or apprehension that
the banner of our country will fail to be
borne in your hands with the same cour-
age, the same fesrlessness, the same integri-
ty and honesty Of purpose that distinguish
ed our leader so lately fallen.
We do not care to ssk of you any pledge
or guarantee for the future. We do not
come to ask any manifestation Of the line
of policy which it would PROBABLY be futile
for you 20 attempt at this time, and which
future circumstances may entirely change
or remodle; we simply come to say that
we have an abiding trust and faith that the
sacred purposes of our Government will be
carried out by you; We come to congrstu
la,e you upon the assumption of the power
of the country, not because We have for
gotten the melancholy csnse that produced
Il, but because we feel that the vital priu-
eiple Of our Govornment is illustrated in
the change so quietly and hGrmoniously
made, under the workings Of our Constitu-
tion. We come to say 10 you that we only
ask that This rebellion shall be entirely
crushed-that with the rebellion, Its seeds
and potent cause shall shall be snnihilated
h.
tuition and the laws shall be once more
made TO resume their places over the peo-
pie of the country; and to suggest to you
that this struggle has been so bloody and
so terrble-so mourn 'ul in its consequences
so severe on the people o. this land, that
we shall not feel satisfied with the triumphs
of our Constitution and our laws, unless in
its record we have some indemnity that
such rebellion shall not occur again, not
only in ths lifetime Of this generation, but
while hitlry shall live TO record what is
already pssE, that the history which records
the rise and fall of the rebellion shall, in its
closing pages present to the people of the
land such an example and such record,
that no man, in future times while that
record lives, shall dare to raise his hand
against the life of our nation, for the de-
sttuction of the best Government God ever
gave TO man.
We do not ask this in any spirit of re-
venge- We do not ask thatsny monument
shsli BE- raised to our dead hero bearing
inscriptions Of the snDihiation Of those
who inaugurste1 this great contest but
we simply ask, In the name of our L8tion,
that the example and the record shall en-
dr1pa oil fho4 4ho
most fearful crime men can commit is the
destruction of the nation God has given US
for our protection, and that has shed moth
ing but blessings from the date of its foun-
dstion to the present day.
The State OF Ohio, therefore, greets you,
and assures you that the same confkence
the same energy and reliance, with which
she came to your support last fall, for the
second ofice of the Government, will be
extended to you throughout sll your exer-
tions, while you occupy the position now
conferred upon you.
The President responded briefly and
ably. We mske some extracts from his
able and fOrcible remarks:
RESPECTED SIR might adopt all that
you have said on this occasion, and present
it as mine. respond most cordially, and
endorse every sentiment you have uttered
and might thus conclude what l have to
say in much better manner than can
other wise expressit, adopting your remarks
as my reply to yourself. The sad cslsmi-
ty, the sf1ctiDg occurrence of the assassin
alton of the President of the United States,
is not more deeply felt by sny one than
myself and especially so while occupy
the position do, being thrown into it by
that sad event. And in entering upon the
discharge of the duties that are imposed on
me in the Office thus conferred, 1 feel and
know the responsibility, and have on vari-
Gus occasions felt as it were overwhelmed;
and stand before you to-day emba raised
exceedinl ly ss to how the responsibility
shall be fulfilled. Hence the importance
snd value of the encouragement that you
give here to-day. start sir-though it
msy be considered by come ss kind of
wild enthusiasm or uperstition--with the
idea that this government was founded by
our fathers upon a great principle of right
that it was founded upon the principles
Of free government proper, with the es-
sentisl and leading principles running
through it.
We nave been sent on great mission,
and that mission must be fulfilled. We
look st this gigantic rebsllion, and see that
the government has struggled with it and
carried it slongj and just at the time that
We believe, and substantially know, that
the rebellion was about to be ended, and
the nation was rejoicing, with its banners
unfurled and its artillery laundering
through every town and hrmlet through
the length and breadth of the Confsderacy,
then, in the midst of jubilant feelings and
the exultstion Of free people, the Chief
Magistrate is struck, like star from its
sphere in death. Here we receive an in
timstion of the eternal principle that sent
forth this government rejoicing on the one
hand at rebellion crushed, and on the other
:of