Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1865-04-28
gGa:ctman & State Journai.
BY E.P. WALTON
MONTPELIER. APRIL IS, 1865.
ANDREW JOHNSON

construction--tho presidency has Providen-
TALLY fallen to two men, born within less than
seven weeks Of each other, in slave States,
and Of that class Of the white population Of
the country which has borne the heaviest
curse Of slavery. We mean the class called
by slsvocrats poor white trash" Slavery
degraded labor by exacting it from the blacks
at the point Of the lash, and so sentenced
the poor white man to pride. Incidence and
hopeless dependence upon the slavehold-
ers. The masters stole the bodies Of the
blacks, and the souls OF the poor whites.
Some of them had sense enough, like the
father Of Abraham Lincoln, to quit the house
Of bondage entirely and others, like Johnson,
migrated to newer region, though cursed
with slavery, but where the poor man had
better chance to rise, since the laboring
whites far out-numbered the masters at the
start. The sons Of such men are the Presi-
dents Of these times, and both are the gifts Of
Providence. In the ordinary course Of events
Abraham Lincoln would not have been elect
ed President in 1860; but slavery was then
stricken with madness, and his election was
the result. just now, single mad man, the
black devil of slavery incarnate, has murdered
Abraham Lincoln, and thus Andrew johnson
is President Of the United States. Has sla-
very had nothing to do with all this Is not
all this evidence that He, which executeth
judgment for the oppressed" has had, and is
having, much TO do with slaveryi We do
not doubt it,
Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, ".
c., Dec 29, 1908. At ten years OF age he
was apprenticed to tailor for seven years ;
at seventeen he commenced working as a
journeyman, and worked in North and South
Carolina and Tennessee, to which State he
took his mother in 1926, and there he sup.
ported her by working at his trade. He never
went to school day in his life; but while
an apprentice, citizen Of Raleigh, who was
good reader, was in the habit Of visiting the
shop and reading aloud from a volume Of
speeches OF British statesmen. This attract
ed the COY Johnson, so with aid from shop
men, he taught himself the knowledge Of
letters, and in the same way subsequently,
learned to write. Those speeches thus made
johnson a self-reliant man, a successful poll
tieian, legislator, Congressman, Governor,
and United States Senator. 1t is his expert
ence in national affairs which most concerns
everybody; so we will say that he served in
Congress ten years as a member of the House,
from lS43 to 1858, when he served as Gov
ernor of Tennessee four years. In 1857 he
was elected U. S. Senator and served until
1858, when President Lincoln appointed him
Military Governor of Tennessee, which po-
sltion he held till he was inaugurated Vice
President on the 4th of March last. 1t is
useless to say,that man who had stamina
enough TO raise himself from zero to all these
positions in the short period of forty years,
Is not to be easily broken down, even by the
vast labor and responsibility of the Presiden-
cy. He will manfully grapple with the diff
culties of his position, and, God helping and
H'NoSi ing uiuii master lutm ALL
Mr.. Johnson's course in the Senate in the
winter Of 1861 first drew the attention Of the
nation to him and extorted the admiration
of all loyal men. He alone of all the SEN
ators from the slave states stood brayely be-
fore the traitors and denounced their treason
to their faces. We saw him, heard him. in
this sublimely heroic and patriotic. act, and
we know that there is no heart truer to the
country than that of Andrew Johnson-1o
man more independent, fearless, brave, than
be is
Mr.. President" he exclaimed Z" | was
going on to remark, in reference to general
alluslon to treason, that if individuals were
pointed out to me who were engseed in
nightly conspiraces, in secret oonelaves, and
issuing orders directing the capture of our
forts, and the taking of our custom houses.
would show who were the traitors and
that being done, the persons pointed out to
me as coming within the purview and scope
of the provision of the Constitution which /
have read, were the President Of the United
States, | would do as Thomas Jefferson did
with Aaron Burr in 1906; ! would have them
arrested, and if convicted, within the mean
ing and scope of the Constitution, by the
Eternal God, would execute them. Sir,
treason must be punished. Its enormity and
he extent and depth of the offence must be
made known. The time is not distant, il
this government is preserved, its Constitu-
tion obeyed, and its laws executed in every
department, when something of this kind
must be done"
For hum to say that, there and then,
was to put his life in the hands of his
enemies. From that day till he left Tennes-
see to take his high office at Washington, he
has been in constant struggle to wrest that
state from the grasp of the traitors, and he
has done it. She is redeemed aud free, with
Constitution which prohibits the restoration
of slavery forever hereafter and thus would
be have every reconstructed state Of the
South. But he is not content to leave this
great question to state action alone, know
ing full well the power of the Shareholders
when they shall again obtain the political
control OF their states hence, in his letter