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

PRESIDENT, nIleQ with. so mucn QlStlnc
ton the chair in which you sit to
day. -
Mr.. johnson has gone from thf
presence and this Chamber, and viii
return no more. The ''insatiatt
archer has no respect for persons
station, or rank. The king and tht
president and the beggar alike be
come his victims but, among all the
country's dead, this Government ha:
never lost, and never will lose, {
more loyal and fearless defender Oh
its people a more devoted frienC
than ANDREW JOHNSON.
In the House, Representative Me
Farland spoke as follows: -
Mr.. Speaker. the duty devolves
on me, as the Representative of The
first congressional district of Ten.
nessee. to- announce to the House
the death of distinguished citizen
of Tennessee, whose home, from his
first appearance in that State in
1926 to the day of his death, was in
the congressional district 1 have now
the honor to represent in this House.
[ allude to the death Of the Hon.
Andrew Johnson, late a Senator
from Tennessee, Ex-President of the
United States, and for ten years a
member of this House. which occur
red at the residence of his daughter.
Mrs. Brown. in Carter county, Ten
nessee, on the morning of the 31st
of July last.
Mr.. johnson was called to his f.
nal account and closed his connec-
tion with time and earthly things
without that protracted sickness and
suffering which gives premonition of
approaching dissolution. He was
stricken with paralysis day or two
previous to his death, and almost as
soon as his sickness was known the
melancholy tidings were flashed to
the most distant pal is Of our coun-
try that Andrew Johnson was dead.
Not to our country Only. but to the
whole civilized world abroad, was
the sad intelligence carried with
speed that the Great
CommOner" was no more.
His remains were inferred on a
.ofty eminence west of the town Of
Greeneville, a spot selected by him
self commanding an extended view
of the surrounding country, and
there amid those mountain heights
all that is mortal of Andrew John
son is crumbling into dust. The
voice that has been so often heard
in this Chamber is silenced forever.
The form that was SO familiar in
these halls has disappeared, and
will be seen no more Shrouded in
the flag of his country, beneath the
of which he fought the great
political battles Of his life, and
whose triumphant folds were ever to
him an object of alteration which he
worshiped with nnswcl wing devotion,
far from the din and strife and tur-
moil of the outer world he quietly
sleeps that last, long. peaceful sleep
which knows no waking.
public man is the most remarkable
and wonderful in all our history, and
is perhaps Unprecedented in modern
times. 1t cannot be expected in the
few brief remarks we are to submit
to the House now that justice can
be done to Mr.. Johnson's public life,
or that we can take more than a
glance at a few of the prominent
facts in his history.
Mr.. johnson was born in Raleigh,
North Carolina, on the 29th day of
December, 1903. His father died
when he was a child, leaving the
future statesman to the care of a
widowed mother in poverty and OBJ
scurity. At. ten years of age be was
to tailor in his native
town. He was then unable to read,
and his first efforts to learn were
made during this apprenticeship.
A gentleman read to him some
sketches from an old book known as
" The American Speaker These
extracts aroused the attention of the
poor apprentice. and first fired his
He determined and did
learn to read them for himself. That
book was presented to him. and is
still preserved in the library of Mr..
johnson.
In the fall of the year 1926, on the
evening of a dark, gloomy day. a
two-wheeled cart, drawn by a blind
pony. was driven into the village of
Greeneville. East Tennessee, from
the direction of the mountains of
North Carolina, With it were two
men and a woman. The younger of
the two, who drove the pony, STOP
ped at the house of citizen whose
sons are now living in that town, and
asked forzforage to feed his horse,
which he procured, and then inquired
for suitable camping-ground for the
night TO which he drove and encamp-
ed, near where now stands the mans
sion of the johnson family. In. a
little less than forty years from that
night, that homeless wanderer, then
about eighteen years of age, shroud-
ed in obscurity and poverty, q stran-
ger in strange land, without the
of common education,
out under the broad canopy
of the heavens, in the village of
Greeneville, became the occupant of
the building at the far end of this
avenue, and the chief executive off,
GER of a great eonfederacy of States
100000 Of people!
That youth was ANDREw JOHNSON.
Such was his first appearance in Ten
nessee, and thus the first night AN
DREW JOHNSON passed in Greene
vile, which became his future home !
Mr.. johnson established himself
in business as q tailor. BY his in
1ustry, energy, answering integrity,
and promptness he was successful.
As a mechanic, that fidelity to duty