The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-01-16
ANDY JOHNSON.
NEWPORT, TENN. Jan. 1, '78.

70 the Editor Of the Morristown Gazette
| believe it has been said there
ire three classes of great mea.
First, those whs are born great;
those who have greatness
thrust upon them; thirdly. those
who achieve greatness
Daniel Webster and Charles sum
ner may possibly DE cla5sel among
the favored few who were bora great.
Ulysses S. Grant may. with great
propriety. be classei among those
who have had greatness thrust upon
them. OF Andrew Johnson it may
be truthfully said he is of that class
who achieved greatness. Certainly
the accident of birth vas in NJ
degree, so far as Johnson wa' c3n-
cerned, favorable to his future ele-
walton. His early life assuredly did
not attract that patronage and in
fluence, which Oftimes contributes
SO greatly to ones preferment. He
owed his own elevation to his in
domitable will aud energy, and his
greatness was simply aud solely
the result Of his own achievements.
Like Sir Galabad, he could say of
himself ...
"a Ny good blade carves the casquas of men,
NV tough lance tbrusteth sure,
Nv strength is the strength of ten,
| Because my heart is pure"
! T skilled in the arts of dissimu Ia
lion wanting, perhaps, the polish
of the scholar, his contests were Of
the "give aud take order. 1t was
An open, direct. hand-to-haad en-
counter. When enlisted in cause,
lie believed to be right. no man was
firmer and more uuyielding. His
opponent might as well understand
from the first that he had better en-
ter the lists armed aud prepared.
for with johnson it was simply,
Lay on MacDuf,
And damned be him who first cries
| Hold-enOugh J"
The whole life Of Andrew Johnson
was in truth one Of continuous strife
"a strife Cor what we considered to
be principle. Aud the great prln'
ciple for which he always struggled
was. that this government was {
government OF the people, made by
the people" and for "the people
, A pure representative Democrat
was his ideal ora perfect government
, Those expressive words leading o
in the preamble to the Constitutio
-"We, the people" the burde
=, of his life song and the theme of hi
, most impassioned appeals in tn
: Senate and on the stump" VIVA
ever legislation tended to take pow
-. er out of the hands OF his "fellev
citizen" he opposed; and one of th
:, strongest illustrate Ons he has give
Of his belief in the doctrine that a
power should be lodged in the PEI
pie, and emanate directly from ;hen
is afforded in his message to Coz
:, gress on the 9;h day Of Decembe
1868, wherein he recommend
amending the Federal Constitute
so as to provide /. For an Gle
7 ton OF Presi lent aud Vice-Presidei
= by direct vote Of the people instea
. of through the agency of elector
and making them ineligible for r
- election to second term. 3. F.
" the election OF Senators OF the Un
ted States directly by the people
:, the several States, instead Of by I'll
" legislatures. 3. For the limitati(
" to a period of years or the terms
Federal Judges" Thus it will
= seen that whatever helped make |
the complicated machinery OF go
eminent, in his opinion, should
" fashioned directly by the hands
- the people. and not through. or
the fundamentally Of any 9th
r body. The theory in our goVcI
ment that public officers are but
:. servants of the people. is, with |
:. vast majority of these oficials.
u theory only, but with Johnson it v
something more he believed in /
~ theory and reduced it to practi
IN The Casarism Of Grant was Joi
'h- sons special adherence; the gla
as the tinsel, the funkeyism, the Aep
Tor ism, the ravoriteism of that adm
On istration shocked and alarmed t
raj Great Commoner. and he took
he pains to conceal his disgust. /
Ter this is no time to write he hist'
I'VE of Andrew johnson. He has
OF too recently passed from the st'
III of American politics. The echo
as his voice. as it were, still I'll
sSi- through the corridors Of the CAPT
an The sound of his footsteps
to scarcely died away from the wi
the of his modest home in Greenevi
ne. and the grass has not yet sprl
* up over his new-made grave,
me w. W. LANGHoRNE
hat ....u.uua