The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-03-12
s. FREMONT SANDUSKY COUNTY. OHIO;
FAREWELL ADDRESS
10 Of HIS .Accide1Ecy
ANDREW JOHNSON.
THBnAsT OF my POLICY
He ExalteJh Himself Hugely
~ and Puffeth Himself
... Up Nightly. s r ai

| ne 6AdAAGGM hADAScAh EluRGlS y
~ and Puffeth Himself
Up Nightly qa 10 81
ar s..a - rd zlarolat
And then neparteth to Oblivion
-fsl Do Co., ss
To THE People OF THE UEITED STATES
The robe Of Office, by constitutions
limitation, this day falls from my shoul
ders, 10 be Immediately assumed by my
successor. For him the forbearance
and cooperation of the American peo-
pie in all his efforts to administer the
government within the pale of the fed.
eral constitution are sincerely invoked.
Without ambition to CRAFTY, or party
ends to subserve at the sacrifice Of the
peace and welfare Of the country, my
earnest desire is to see the constitution
of the republic again recognized and
obeyed as the supreme law of the land
and the whole people-nortb, south,
east and west-prosperous and happy
under its wise provisions. In surrender
ing the high Office to which l was called
four years ago, at memorable and
terrible crisis, it is my privilege, trust
to say to the people of the United
States a few parting words in vindics-
ton of an official course so ceaselessly
assailed and aspersed by political lead
ers to whose plans and wishes my
policy 10 restore the Union has been
obnoxious. In period Of difficulty and
turmoil, almost without precedent in
the history of any people, consequent
upon the closing scenes of great re-
bellion and the assassination of tie,
then, President it was perhaps too
much on my part to expect of devoted
psrtisans, who rode on the waves of ex-
element which at that time swept all
before them, that degree of liberation
and magnanimity which l sought to
recommend and enforce, and which I
believe in good time would have ad-
vanced US infinitely farther on the road
to permanent peace and prosperity than
we have thus far obtained. Doubtless,
had ], at the commencement of my
term of Office, unhssitatingly lent its
powers or perverted them to purposes
and plans outside of the constitution
and become an instrument to schemes
of confscation and of general and op-
pressiye disqualification, 1 would have
been hailed as all that was true, loyal
and deserving; as the reliable head of
a party, whatever I might have been as
the executive of a nation. Unwilling,
however, to acceed to propositions Of
and bound to obey at every
personal hazard my oath to defend the
constitution, I need not perhaps be
surprised at having met the fate of fothers
whose only rewards for upholding con-
stitutional rights and laws have been
The consciousness of having attempted
10 do their duty and the calm Judg-
ment of history.
At the time mysterious Providence |
to me the Office of President |
was by the terms of the constitution |
,he commander-in-chief of nearly mil
ion of men under arms. One of my first |
cts was to disband and restore to the
1ocstions of civil life this immense host, |
md to diVest myself as far as | could of
he unparalleled powers then incident
o the Office and the times. Whether
" not in this step was right and how
ar deserving of the appreciation of all
he people, all can now on reflection
udge, when reminded of the ruinous
ondition of public affairs that must
ave resulted from the continuance in
be military service of such vast num-
er of men. The close of our domestic
onflict found the army eager to dis
nguish itself in a new field by an eff
,rt to punish European Intervention in {
lexico. By many it was believed and {
rged, that aside from the assumed {
lstice Of the proceedings, a foreign {
ar, in which both sides would cheer '
lily unite to vindicate the honor of c
he national flag and further illustrate {
le national prowess, would be the sur 9
st and speediest way of awakening ma /
onal enthusiasm, reviving devotion to c
le Union, and occupying force con- e
9rning which grave doubts existed as {
its willingness, after four years of nc. t
We campaigning, at once to return to c
le pursuits of peace. Whether these Il
we're true or false, it will o
3 conceded that they existed, and that c
le predictions of the army were, for +
lie time being, in the direction indica- Ip
d. Taking advantage Of that feeling, 8
would have been easy, as the com p
ander-in-chief of the army and navy c
Id with the power and patronage Of r
Office at my disposal, 10 O
IN the concentrated strength of the F
ltion against French interference in &
exico and to inaugurate a movement p
hich would have been received with d
vor by the military and a large por- al
IN of the people. 1t is proper in this g
injection that I should refer to the to
most unlimited additional powers d.
ndered to the executive by the meas le
es relating to civil rights and the in
,edmen's bureau. Contrary to most is
ecedents in the experience of public il
en, the powers thus placed within my th
asp were declined, as being in viola th
N of the constitution, dangerous to b.
3 liberties of the people, and tending tn
aggravate rather than lessen the dis sc
rds naturally resulting from civil var. th
ith a large army and augmented hs
thority, it would have been no diff. m
It task to direct at pleasure the des- 10,
les of the republic, and to make Sc tn
re my continuance in the highest tn
Ice known to our laws. Let the peo- to-
whom / am addressing from the eru
esidentisl chair during the closing tw
lrs of laborious term, consider how al
erent would have been the present de
ldition had yielded to the dazzling ret
lptation of foreign conquests, of per- it
al aggrandizement, and the desire to gre
Id additional power. Let them with the
ice consider that if ! have unduly hai
gnifed mine Office, the public bur q
IS have not been increased by my acts ikr
other, and, perhaps, thousands or mi
) of thousands Of lives sacrificed to the
ons of vain glory. It Hcannot, there COZ
}, be charged that my ambition has PR
n of that ordinary or criminal kind int
ch, to the detriment of the people's dis