The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-01-19

The death of Andrew Johnson
was announced in Congress yester-
day, and eulogies were delivered on
E his life and charactersby members of
both Houses. In the Senate,
Senator Key spoke as follows Mr..
President, Andrew johnson was a
very remarkable man. The qualities
of his mind and disposition we're go
unique and peculiar as to lead those,
acquainted with him to entertain diff
ferent opinions as to their compost
tion and tendencies.
As is well known. Mr.. Johnson's s
birth was in the midst of poverty and
obscuri4y. His father died when
Andrew was but four years old. The
son never passed day in school.
At the age Of ten years he was ap-
prenticed to a tailor. This species
of servitude CALLED the spirit of the
proud boy, and he escaped from it
by fight. Unable subsequently to
come to terms with his master he
left North Carolina, the State of his
nativity, and, crossing its mountains,
came to East Tennessee, then sort
of terra incOgnita. In September,
1926, in his eighteenth year, Mr..
Johnson arrived at Greeneville, Ten
nessee, accompanied by his mother.
An old wooden cart, drawn by q
worthless horse, carried all their
worldly goods. He could scarcely
read and could not write. Unprom-
ising as the prospect appeared, this
youth was destined to address listen
ing Senators, to preside over the
destinies of the grandest and great
est Republic the world has ever seen,
at most critical period of its histo-
ry, and to send his name and fame to
the farthest limits OF civilization.
Born and reared under the most
adverse circumstances, it was not
possible that the features and gener-
al contour of his mind should be sha-
ped in complete harmony or perfect
regularity. Something of rugged
ness and angularity Of mental, moral, !,
and social characteristics must re
suit from such surroundings as en-
compassed his early life. His pow
erty and want of education fettered
bold and ambitious spirit, ca
liable of the highest aspirations.
The very unequal distribution Of ad
vantages doubtless appeared to him
in the aspect of wrong. A rest
less and longing mind, ,,shackled and
imprisoned, is not apt to be always
reasonable and just when it discovers.
in Gn
pirations lead, obstacles which seem
TO be insurmountable and beholds
beyond them those who have been
favored by fortune.
Mr. Johnson's associations from
his birth to his manhood were with
the poor aud unlearned. Rising
thence by his uuaidcd exertions, he
was under no obligation to those who
had moved in a sphere superior to
his, and felt none. His sympathies
were and they remained with the
class Of society in which he had
been trained. He had not in youth
fallen under the refining Influences
which do so much to soften, enlarge,
and diversy mans habitudes and
tendencies. His predjucies in favor
of the feebler ranks of population
became a mental habit before he
was able to raise himself into more
liberal and enlightened companion
ship. OF this kinship with the hum
ble he was never ashamed. but it
produced in him a distrust of the
leaders of society and parties, and
led him to the utterance of senti-
nents on some occasions which were
charged to be agrarian in tendency
and caused many TO aIlege that he
was a dema9ogue. Mr.. johnson
was neither an agrarian nor q dem
agogue. He never put his trust in
princes or courted the favor of party
leaders, nor was he loved by them.
His whole life was a scene of con
fiict and his triumphs were in spite of
leaders. His faith was in the peo-
pie. Them he loved and trusted.
He reposed upon their honor, homes
ty, patriotism, and virtue. His tri
bunal of last resort was the people,
and to them he appealed. When
parties and platforms displeased
him he turned bis back upon them
and rallied his coWntrymen around
him. They loved him, and whether
he followed party or not they follow
ed him In multitudes.
On the day of his funeral, if one
had stood by the grave of our late
President, and had seen the process
sion which came to it with the body
of the dead statesman, among the
thousands there he would have dis
covered not many of eartb's great
ones not many in Office no dis
play of ''pomp and circumstance"
A plain hearse carried the remains
of the great dead. Two or three
carriages held the members Of his
family. In that vast procession
there was no other vehicle. But
the people whom Mr.. johnson had
loved were there. They had gath
cred from the fields and workshops,
from the mountains and the valleys,
their faces Drowned by the sun and
their hands hardened by toll. They
had all come; the old, those Of mid
die age, the youthful, and the chill
dren. There was none of the pa
geantry aud display which usually
follows earth's great ones to sepul.
ture, but in their stead were sad
faces and tears, such as go only with
loved ones to the tomb. In the
solemnity of that hour the moun-
tains, which had stood the sentinels
of Mr.. Johuson's home and now
look down upon his sepulcher, seem
cd to join in the general sorrow.
Ia the beginning of our recent
civil lstruggie Mr.. Johnson's influence
contributed most powerfully to car