Union and American. [volume] (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1875-1877, 1876-01-13
ANDREW JOHNSON.
Eslogy Pronounced In the House
by Mr.. Mcfarland.

III Jne House, representative
Mcfarland spoke as follows
Mr.. Speaker the duty devolves
on me, as the Representative of
the first congressional district of
Tennessee, to announce to the
House the death Of a 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 4 now have the honor to
represent in this House. l allude
to the death of the Hon. Andrew
johnson, late a Senator from Ten
nessee, Ex President of the United
States, and for ten years member
of this House, which occurred at
the residence of his daughter,
Mrs. Brown, in Carter county,
Tennessee, on the morning OF the
3lst Of July last.
Mr.. Johnson was called to his
final account and closed his con
nection with time and earthly
things without that protracted
sickness and suffering which give
prcmonition Of approaching disso-
luton, He was stricken with
parGlysis a day or two previous to
his death, and almost as soon as
his sickness was known the mel
.anchely tidings were flashed to
the most distant parts OF our
country that Andrew johnson was
dead. Not to our country only,
but to the whole civilized world
abroad, was the sad intelligence
carried with lightning speed that
the "Great Commoner' was no
more. ...it.
His remains were inferred on a
lofty eminence west of the town Of
GreeneRille, a spot selected by
himself commanding an extended
view of the surrounding country,
and there amid those mountain
heights all that is mortal Of An
drew johnson 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 shadow of
which he fought the great political
battles of his life, and whose trl.
umphant folds were ever to him an
object of alteration which he
worshiped with unswerving devo1
tion, far from the din and strife
and turmoil Of the outer world he
quietly sleeps that last, long,
peaceful sleep which knows no
waking.
Andrew Johnson's career as a
public man is the most remarkable
and wonderful in all our history,
aud is perhaps unprecedented in
modern times. 1t cannot be ex-
pected in the few briet 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 q
few Of the prominent facts in his
history.
Mr. Johnson was born in Raleigh,
North Carolina, on the goth day of
December, 1903. His father died
when he was a child, leaving the
future statesman to tue care of a
widowed mother in poverty and
obscurity. AT ten years of age he
was apprenticed to a tailor'in his
native town. He was then unable
to read, and his first effort to learn
were made during this apprentice
ship. A gentleman read to him
some sketches from an old book
known as "The American Speak
er." These extracts aroused the
attention of the poor apprentice
and first fired his ambition. He
determined and did learn to read
them for himself. That book was
presented to him, and is still pre-
served in the library of Mr.. John
son,
Iu the fall of the year 1926, on
the evening of a dark, gloomy day,
a wheeled cart, drawn by a
blind pony, was driven into the
village of Greeneville, East Ten
nessee, from the direction oil the
mountains of North Carolina.
With it were two men and woman.
The younger of the two, who
drove the pony, stopped at the
house of a citizen whose sons are
now living in that town, and asked
for forage to feed his horse, which
he procured, and then inquired
for suitable camping-groun for
the night TO which he drove and
encamped, near where now stands
the mansion of the johnson fam
ily. In a little less than forty
years from that night that home