Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-09-07
NASHVILLE UNION AND AMERICAN SATURDAY SEPTEMBER

e ''virtue to vice, !" "honor TO dishonor," and o
tjustice to injustice" / was then, my
g friends, the active editor of his party organ
| at Nashville. l cencurred with and ap.
: plauded the speech. The sentiment anC
3 policy of the UNION AND AMERICAN wa.
4 in full accord with Mr.. johnson. We pro
: posed TO stand by the Constitution and
4 | make no concession. Thus instructed. the
! States-Rights Democracy of Tennessee
/ took MI. johnson upon their shoulders and
elevated him to the Senate of the United
States. For reasons which did not seem ia
me at the time justifable, he failed to com
in that august body. Mr.. Bell treated him
| with naughty disdain. Jefferson Davis
spoke of him ss desiring a stump-tail race
, for the Presidency, that he might be can
didate. speak Of these facts not to irri-
tate, but as matters of history. As
a friend Of Mr.. johnson, 1 was, at
the time, offended. regarded him
as sincere in his Democratic
creed and saw no reason for doubling bis
integrity. l knew his personal dislike to
certain Southern politicians, but 1 supposed
it attached to them as individuals, and that
in a great national emergency it would new
er influence his course as a statesman.
Soon, however, saw evidences of unrest.
knew him well. had studied him US a
little boy studies his primer. As has al
ways been his custom, when preparing for
"new departure" he occasioned certain
resolutions to be passed by public meet
ing in his own town of Greeneville. In de-
filming his position in the Senate, Feb. 5,
1861, he held up those resolutions and said:
Sin fighting this battle l shall do it upon the
basis laid down by portion of the people
of my own State, in large and very intel
ligent meeting: A committee Of the most
intelligent men in the county reported in
the shape of resolutions, to this meeting, the
basis upon which intend to fight this great
battle for our rights. They reported this
resolution:
| "Resolved, that we deeply sympathize
with our sister Southern States, and freely
admit that there is good cause for dissatis-
faction aud complaint Oh their part, on &C.
count OF the recent election of sectional
candidates to the Presidency and Vice
Presidency of the United States; yet we as
portion Of slave-holding community are
not for rending or breaking up the union
OF these States, until every fair and honor
able means has been exhausted in trying to
obtain on the part of the non-slaveholding
States compliance with the spirit and let
ter of the Constitution and all its guaran-
ties; and tchen this shall haze been done,
and States, now in open rebellion against
the laws of the United States in refusing to
execute the fugitive slave laws, shall persist
In their present unconstitutional course, and
the Federal Government shall fail or refuse
to execute the laws in good faith, it (the
GoVernment) will not have accomplished
the great design of its creation, and tciU, |
therefore, IN fact, be q practical dissolution, |
and all the States as parties be released |
from the compact ,otich forms the Union" |
NOW, fellow-citizens, look carefully at |
this. Here it is admitted that the North |
ern States were then in open rebellion"
against the laws of the United States; and |
that if they should 'persevere in their un-
constitutional course" and the Federal /
Government "failed or refused to execute |
the laws in good faith" it, the Govern
ment, would "be practically dissolved"
and call the States as parties be released
from the compact which forms the Union"
Who ever claimed more in Tennessee?
Where Is the man? Was it not broad as
sertion Of the right of all the States as par
ties to the compact to declare themselves
released from the terms which formed the
Union? The only practical difference be-
tween MIR. johnson and the most extreme
OF bis constituents being, not as to the
right of the States to declare the CON-
pact dissolved, but simply as to
the time when they should so declare: and
that was matter not for Senator johnson
to determine, but for his "sovereign peo-
ple," the State, for whose voice he had
ever claimed the profoundest respect. But
did Mr.. johnson slight this great battle
for our rights" upon this basis, as he said
he would? Did he stand fast to the creed
of Bourbon Democracy" as defined by
Jefferson and Madison, and of which he
now claims to have been the only living
consistent member? Travel but a short
piece farther in his history and you will
see:
The troubles thickened, the sky grew
more murky. In few months his State,
after much elaboration, asserted the doc
trine which he had avowed in the Senate
chamber she had the right to assert
Where was he then? DID he come to his
people as father seeks for his unhappy
children? Did he come with the |
temper of true states
man of age and soberness-
patient when others were excited, conside-
rate when Others were rash, saying in his
heart: These are my people; from poverty
they have raised me to fortune, and from
obscurity to positions of high honor and
trust; they have never deserted me and
will never desert them; here is my hearth
stone, here center all my domestic and So
cial ties; come veal or woe, through evil or
good report, l will stay with them, and
when die will rest with them in the !
same church yard My countrymen, was
such the course of Andrew johnson +?
Would to God it was. Would that could l
blot out that dark and bloody chapter of {
history that records his subsequent career.
Would that there were no prison walls to l
speak, no clanking of chains still reyerbera-
ting in the memory of many of our grey
haired sires; no scars from the heel of the
military usurper.
Fellow-citizens, would gladly spare you /
the pain of recurrence to the unhappy l
past. want to arouse no animosities; to I
kindle no passions. 1t was in this spirit, {
as one of your delegates to the recent Bal I
timore Convention, that | accepted Horace {
Greeley as cur standard bearer. The De- S
of the South-the so-called rebel
element of the South-are for reconcilia- '
ton and peace, looking alone to the future.
But this is not the policy Of Andrew John
son. 1t is not his element. Like the tabled 6
Salamander, he can live only in fire. He
has forced upon the people of Tennessee {
the alternative of giving a virtual endorse s
ment to his course and policy during the
war, and the qualification and dishonor of
or the unpleasant agitation of I
passions which every good man should de-
sire to let sleep. 1 say be has purposely,
and ingeniously forced such an {
issue upon the people of Tennessee, in the t
of that policy which he de- I
clared when President, and which he has {
never abandoned, "of making treason {
odious."
THE CONSTITUTION.
Remember that am discussing him in
the light of ga consistent DemOcratn-a
defender of the constitutional which he
now lays special claim. After he had {
pledged himself to the principle declared in {
the resolution l have read to you, and his &
State had acted, and the war came on, what {
did he do? Go read the journals of Con-
gress and you will there find that be had 8
abandoned the Northern Democrats in the
Senate, and with all the zeal of a new con-
vert, became leader in the van of the {
ppnt raliZjDp Federal MARTY haoda5 h. | ,