Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-03-29
EVOLUTION OF A MESSAGE.
Some Points About Making the Annual
Communication to Congress.

interesting paper on the first annual
message of Andrew Johnson. That
| public document was, in fact, written
| by George Bancroft. This is the
strange discovery which Professor
Dunning made while rummagfng
among the Johnson papers in the Con
gressional Library. His story of the
identification has almost a detective
flavor. The notes and rough sketches
OF all of Johnson's messages were pre-.
served in large envelopes, but the one
covering the message of 1865 had
little in it but a complete draft. I ais
was in handwriting not Johnson S.
or that of any person in his employ at
the time. While Professor Dunning
was mildly wondering at this manu-
script, Mr.. Worthington Ford came up
and, noticing the writing, said, why.
that is George Bancroft's hand. !.
Thereupon it flashed upon the profes-
sor that he had seen in the files OIL
Johnson's letters note from George
Bancroft marked private and conf
Dental It ran as follows.
My task will be done tomorrow, but
| as no one knows what am about and
as am my own secretary, must ask
day or two more for careful revfs-
ion and for making a clean copy,
which must be done with my own
hand
The date of that letter was Nov. 8,
1855. 1t was on Dec. S that the mes
| sage was sent to Congress. The inter-
val was, therefore, just about what
| would have been natural if Bancroft
We're writing it. And we have the
| draft of it in the same handwriting AS
the note speaking of his task and
referring to copy which must be
done with my own hand" Careful col,
| lation of the Bancroft draft with the
message as actually sent in and pub
lished shows that there were only a
| few notifications of the phrasing,
with here and there the insertion of a
routine paragraph summarizing the
| work of a department. The dem On
stration is complete. The real author
of the Presidents annual message Of
1865 was not Andrew Johnson, but
| George Bancroft.
This fact we can now easily see had
much to do with the high favor With
| which the message was received BY
the country. Johnson was in trying
! position. Not only had his unequal
hand to be put to the work dropped by
the mighty Lincoln, but he had, if pos
sible, to overcome the unhappy i'm
preston made by his public behavior
on entering Office. 1t was feared he
would prove to be boor of low habits.
Hence 1t was certainly a stroke of luck
for him that his first important state
paper should bear the hall mark OF
dignified writing. 1t won instant and
wide praise. Professor Dunning
| quotes some of the current approval
The Evening Post, he reports, found
the message frank, dignified, direct
and manly" with mot single ambig.
nous sentence" He notes also:
| The Nation-and here was praise
from the very throne itself-declared
that any American might read it with
pride, and found solid hope for dem.
ocracy in the fact that such docu
ment should have been produced by
this Tennesseean tailor" who was
toiling for his daily bread in the hum,
best of employments when the chiefs
of all other countries were reapins
every advantage which school, college,
or social position could furnish.
| Probably no other message was
ever conveyed" SO boldly by wise
President, yet our Chiefs of State
have usually been ready to exercise {,
sort OF literary eminent domain.
Whenever friend or adviser had a
happy thought or well-written pas
sage, apt for message or speech
Presidents have made it their own BY
| appropriating it. There is more oil
Hamilton than Washington in the
Farewell Address. Many of Andrew
Jackson's utterances came hissine
hot from the fire of his kitchen cab.
met. Mr.. Cleveland was, no doubt,
much beholden to the pens of others.
Daniel Manning and David A. Wells
are supposed to be responsible for
some of the phraseology of his ia
nous tariff message; and Gresham
and Olney left their sign manual on
the Hawaiian and Venezuelan mes
sages. But Presidents have always
leaned heavily, in such matters, upon
| their Secretaries of State. It was
noted that President Mckinley $
speeches and state papers gained an
unwonted and welcome literary quality
after Mr.. Hay had entered the state
| department. In Boston speech, that
least poetical of presidential orators
dropped into verse from a little.
known poem Of Mr.. Hays own. As
for our present voluminous producer
in the White House, no one living
man will have the audacity to claim
J personal responsibility for anything
but few drops of that mighty flood !:
vet there are literary claimants. even
here ranging all the way from Jacob
| Riis to President Mellen.
We are dealing, of course. with no
/ vulgar system of plagiarism The