The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-15

uCulS ltctNC CHu1liCu.
President Polk graduated from the
University in 1920 and his record there
showed that the boy was father to
the man" as in three years stay he
did not miss a duty. In his class were
such men as Hugh Waddell, father of
Col. A. NJ. Waddell, Col. H. c. Jones,
ST., w. M. Green, Bishop of Missis-
sippi, and DR.. Morrison, father-in-law
OF Stonewall Jackson.
President Buchanan at University.
In 1859 President James Buchanan
visited the State, also for the purpose
of delivering an address at the Uni
versity of North Carolina, and also
stopping by Raleigh on his way, where
he delivered an address at the capitol
from the place where Clay had spo-
ken. President Buchanans visit was
marked by some degree of pomp as he
was met at Weldon by the Whining
ton Light infantry, who conducted him
as an escort of honor to Chapel Hill
During his stay in the city of Raleigh
President Buchanan was the guest of
General Branch and was accompanied
on his visit by his Secretary of the IN
terror, Jacob Thompson, a native of
Caswell county, but who had been APP
pointed from Mississippi. In connec-
ton with Cabinet officers from North
Carolina, it may be interesting to note
that there have been only four resi-
dents of this State to occupy official
position in the family of the Presi-
dents, and, strangely enough, all four
of these were Secretaries of the Navy.
These were John Branch, 1929, George
Z. Badger, 1S41, w. A. Graham, 1859,
and James c. Dobbin, 1853.
Andy JOhnsOn's Strange Career.
In June, 1866, the State, newly out
of the great war, entertained as Pres
ident man who had been born of
obscure parentage in Raleigh-Presi-
dent Andrew Johnson-whose humble
birthplace has recently been removed
from the street on which it was sit
uated and preserved as an attraction
at Pullen Park in Raleigh The his
tory of Andy" Johnson is too well
known to be given in detail. He was
a man of wonderful strength and re-
markablc weaknesses. missing great
ness by a hairs breadth. Born in Raj
eigh illiterate and apprentice as a
tailor to James Litchford. the grand
father of Messrs. Henry and James
Litchford, of Raleigh, he ran aWay
while a boy to Tennessee, married,
gathered an education as it were from
the winds. went into politics and was
elected as viee-president on the ticket
with Abraham Lincoln. During the
war and for a time after the aSSassl-
nation of Lincoln he was hated with
intensity in the South as a traitor to
his section. After he became Presi-
dent. however. his fight against re-
construction measures led by AlsXail-
der Stevens changed the sentiment in
the South in his favor and the failure
of the effort to impeach him by the
partisan Northern Senate was hailed
as a victory in a measure in the South.
In the North he was hated with ran
cor that was far greater than that he
had previously suffered from the South
and, strangely enough, for attempt
ing to carry out the very policy OF
Cancellation and real Reconstruction
with which history has come unani-
mously to credit Lincoln. Perhaps.
it was the fact of his Southern birth
which intensified this feeling and left
him in the hands of the monster
Stevens we'll nigh helpless.
'5nlea 10 lJE0!uN 'uOsuuOr
johnson. also, was on his way to
Chapel Hill, when he stopped by RAJ
eigh and delivered an Grafton at the
cemetery on the occasion of the rails
of his father, who lived and died IN
Raleigh In his party were Secretary
of State Seward, Postmaster General
Randall. and General Sickles. COM
handing the military districts of North
and South Carolina.
While in Raleigh and at Chapel Hill,
President Johnson was wee bit ava
i tn wheesky and there are still cX-
tant tales and anecdotes which in a
art;a xVn1111 lxp rich
reading as to his doings and sayings
on his trip.
1t was at Chapel Hill that the Pres
ident is said to have spoken with one
arm twined in loving support around
pillar and to have exclaimed fer
vently. if with a somewhat husky in
tonation: North Ca'lina. with all her
faults-I love 'er still"
In a subsequent issue OF Harper S
Weekly, then rabidly anti-John5on,
there is said to have been striking
cartoon giving those words from the
Presidents Chapel Hill speech but
picturing the President standing with
one arm around the coil of distillery
while. with deep emphasis he was
quoted as saying:
North Carolina! 1 love her STILL!
Chapel Hill Spot for Presidents.
1t is a pity that Mr.. Roosevelt can
not during his stay in the State visit
Chapel Hill. He would find there a
place of inspiration. an illustration of
the fact that there is something more
in life, than size of riches. He would
find in the campus, in the faces of
the earnest boys who are attending
the old university, a power and a
faith that is beyond money; he would
feel the gentle spirit of the old hope,
the simple warmth and freshness of
the ideals of the fathers still alive,
floating into the consciousness of the
beholder as the still sweetness of an
ancient odor. The other Presidents
had more time, and they could visit
older places and touch the quiet of
a real student life. The President now
has not the time, but it is a pity.
At Chapel Hill he would see, too,
the simple old building of red brick
with it's purpose still showing in the
plate above it's Intel, Erected in
honor of President Polk the man
whose works, the result of whose con-
quests conceived in patriotism, the
present cncumbent, with the practical
annexation for political purposes
against a nation too weak to go to
war on his own hands, he has seen
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