The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-03-01
ANDREW JOHNSON.
..savoyard'' in Nashville Banner

Jackson and Andrew Johnson Will
| be added TO those that now grace
"Statuary Hall' in the United
States capitol. They were no ordi-
nary men and they illustrated the
exalted possibilities of American
citizenship. They sprang from the
ranks and attained to the highest
station in the gift of the freest,
most enlightened and most progress
i've people in the history of man
kind, now become the mightiest
and most opulent nation of the
earth.
There Is about the capitol an ell
derby gentleman, cultivated man,
from East Tennessee, who is full of
reminiscence of the political strug-
gle of the ante bellum period. Ia
those days he was Wing, follow
er of John Bell and James G. Jones,
CO. worker with William G. Brown
low, Thomas A. r. Nelson and
Horace Maynard. And though OPP
posed TO johnson, he is fully con-
WINGED that, save in the person of
Abraham Lincoln, no state in the
Union has yet produced his full
match as a tribune of the common
people. Every impulse, every con-
/ clusiOn of the man was for the mass
es. lie was one of the people, and
he acted the part because it was his
nature to act it and the people saw
in him their own. He was the ia
Their of the American homestead sys-
tenn and every pulsation of his heart,
every aspiration of his soul, was for
the ennobling of American citizen
ship. Ii bonored toll, for he was
a laborer; he respected the burden,
for ne had borne it. He had eaten
the honest bread of poverty and
been the honored guest in many a
lowly cabin.
From scenes like these old Scotia
grandeur springs;
That makes her loved at home, re-
vered abroad"
Johnson's race for Governor
against Gustavas A. Henry in 1858
was one of the most exciting con-
tests in our political annals, not sur
passed in thrilling interest by that
between Wise and Flournoy in Vir-
ginia in 1865, or the canvass Of Illi-
nois by Lincoln and Douglas in
1858. johnson had been in Con
gress ten years and the Wings de-
termined to get rid of him. They
gerrymandered him into a Wing
district and the Democrats nominal
ed him for Governor. The author
of the gerrymander was Henry, then
a member of the State Senate. The
Wings nominated Henry for Gov.
ernor ana tie two held joint discus
sions '.from Bristol to Memphis. .
Henry was fervent orator-one OF
the most captivating stump-speakers
of his day, the golden age of stump.
oratory. Few men had greater sway
over an audience, but that influence
did not last. The effect of his most
successful effort was dispelled al
most before its echo died away
The following day the Wings would
boast of the skinning Henry gave
Johnson; but no Wing, not the
most cultivated, could tell point
his champion had made. On the
other hand the most lowly cottagel
of the Eastern mountains, when he
returned to his humble cottage,
could, and did, tell his wife and
children what Johnson said and al
the eloquence aud all the logic OF
all the Wings of all Tennessee
could not extirpate the paintings OF
Andy Johnson in the confidence and
esteem of the plain people of the
State. Two years later he defeated
Meredith Gentry, and the superb
orator, for Governor.
1t was by slow degree that John
son rose to eminence. He fought
his way 10 the front. One of the
men he defeated for Congress was
William @. Brownlow and every
body knows that was fight worth
going miles to hear. There was in
! East Tennessee in those days a
mountain orator of the Cicero ilk.
In his speech were gorgeous sun
beams, babhling brooks, dulcet mu-
sic and so on. He was the uncle of
Bob and ALE Tayl and when Bob
was in Congress he used 10 enter
lain his committee by the hour de
claiming passages from the orations
of his maternel uncle, Landon c..
lIayne. He, too, was a Democrat