The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-18

by different circumstances which pro-
duced results there and results here.
! President Lincoln foresaw the threat of
this revolution, hanging over both Sec
tions, with its perils there and its Diff
ferent perils here, and the accepted care
of his life was to avoid it. On April 10,
1865, three days only after Appomattox.
he with utmost emphasis assured w. C.
Bibb of Montgomery, in the privacy of his
office in the White House, that there were
to be no revenges following the fall of the
Confederacy. No soldier was to be pun
ished. No political leader was to be ar
rested. No state was to be reconstructed,
The President told Mr.. Bibb, face to
face, in the solitude of an appointed con-
ference, that Governor Watts of Alabama
should serve out the term to which he
had been elected; that he would expect
the legislature then in office to assemble,
senators to be chosen and elections or
dered for representatives in Congress and
the state restored without single other
preliminary
| Mr.. Lincoln fell victim to the most
disastrous pistol bullet that the annals
Of time recounts two days later. The
revolution he feared thereupon ripened
into awe-inspiring details, even yet, In the
second generation of men. unpacified.
Very soon after President Johnson sue
ceeded to the office he took alarm. He
realized what Lincoln had seen already,
that the government at Washington could
| not live without the statecraft of the
i south as balance wheel.
| In the summer of 1866, accordingly, Pres
! ident johnson set up governments in all
| the southern states which were practi-
Ally the same as those he had permitted
| the army to overthrow. Governor Par
sons, appointed by the President, served
the purpose in Alabama, as well as Cow
| ernor Watts, chosen at the polls, would
have done.
| But In 1857, over the Presidents veto,
| Congress cast out this work of Mr..
| Johnson, abolished the state govern
| ments, assigned the state to military
districts and put each district under a
major general of the army, with ar
| bitrary power over the life, liberty and
property of every man. woman and
child.
President Johnson in alarm, had be-
gun early to promote the recupera
! tion of the southern states and the re-
covery of their confidence in the gov
ernment at Washington. He sought to
have these states recuperate their lost
prosperity and regain their places in
the union.
His motive was twofold-he realized
their power of check upon the radical
ism of the republican party. SO neces-
| sary to the stability of the govern
| ment itself, and he was conscious that
the election he hoped to carry to the
presidency in 1868, depended on the
| eligibility of those states to vote.
So in November, 1865. President John
| son sent General Grant on tour of
political observation of -the south. The
general was then most friendly with
| the President The general would re-
| port in justification of the Presidents 8
southern policy of restoration and
paciflcation. The scheme worked well.
The desired report was ready for Con-
| gress in December.
The fraction of Congress on the very
day of assembling, December 4, 1865,
repudiated utterly the President 3
southern policy and put to scorn Gen.
eral Grants report.
Now President Johnson was man
of great courage and of ready re-
sources. He promptly resorted to "A
| fresh expedient.
At that time and for many years
later the government was without a
department Of agriculture with cab
| met position. The patent office con-
tained bureau which distributed rare
seeds and perhaps discharged other
minor parts in the line of help to ag-
riculture.
The President happened to know a
clerk in the agricultural bureau of the
patent office, O. III. Kelley by name
who came from Boston, So In January,
! 1856. when he saw the purpose Of Con-
gress to defeat his southern policy Of