USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 34
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number of votes cast for the respective candidates. That was supposed in that rude age to be democratic-republican gov- ernment. How benighted! Cimmerian darkness! Now what is called "the machine" manufactures as well as counts votes. It possesses the quality of throwing out the "tares" which the enemy may have sown, or of transmuting them into pure wheat. Further, it can duplicate the wheat, or multiply it to meet every demand. A singular peculiarity about this "machine" is, that, with almost human sensitiveness, it shrinks from public gaze. A single prying eye deranges the machinery. It loves shady retreats as do poets and lovers, and its most effective work is done in the darkness with no eye to see save that of the machine boss. Only two are needed to run it; indeed one skillful man is sufficient. It can be seen at a glance what a great invention the "machine" is. No need of a candidate's making speeches or spending money, if he will only grease the machine and set it running right. For more than fifteen years Balch and Bewley were the ruling spirits in the elections of Greene County. By these men was the Democracy of that county molded and pre- pared for the coming and long reign of Andrew Johnson, a greater man than either. When parties divided in 1835, Bewley became a Whig, Balch remaining always a genuine Democrat.
Another man, John McGaughey, sometimes figured in these contests, but, in contrast with Balch and Bewley, McGaughey was tall, grave, and dignified, and was possessed of fair ability and high integrity, considering the hazy political atmosphere of the time.
Amid such surroundings Andrew Johnson first opened his eyes on the political world. It is no great wonder that he sought to climb by the ladder he had seen Balch and Bewley successfully ascending. We are all more or less influenced by environment. How much the natural bent of Johnson's mind had to be twisted to make it conform to existing conditions need not trouble the historian, for if any such twisting, if any moral struggle ever took place, no one knew it. Judging him by the subsequent acts and words, he met the very conditions that suited his nature. He found the Greene County Democrats in a plastic, indeed in almost a chaotic state. They had one fixed belief only-an immutable faith in Andrew Jackson. Beyond this their sober minds had never learned to stray. Johnson seized on this fact to weld them into a compact mass.
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In the winter or spring of 1840 Johnson, having concluded that his chances of promotion were best in the Democratic party, called that party together in mass meeting in Greeneville. The time had come for him to proclaim himself and his mission. Henceforth he was to be a prophet unto this people. He sent out runners to let them know that he had a message to deliver. On the appointed day all the strongholds of Democracy sent forth their men. There was scarcely an able-bodied man left at home. They came on horseback, on foot, in wagons. They came with no music, with no banners, but silently, in the strength and simple power of an irresistible outpouring. A rude platform, made of goods boxes, posted against the court house, served as a rostrum. Between ten and eleven o'clock Johnson appeared on the scene, with weighty thought depicted on his brow. George W. Foute, Clerk of the County Court, came forward with the resolutions prepared under the immediate direction of Mr. Johnson. Foute was a clever fellow, had a clear, sonorous voice, and was an admirable reader. He always read the resolutions. These were an epitome of the speech which was to follow, for Johnson never allowed but one speech on such occasions, and that was his own.
The resolutions recited the controversy which had taken place between the two antagonistic forms of government that divided our fathers in framing the Federal Constitution. They gave the views of Hamilton in favor of a strong centralized government ; and held him up as the father of Federalism, and Jefferson as the father of the Democratic party. They assailed John Adams and the Alien and Sedition Laws; praised the resolutions of '98 and '99; charged bargain, intrigue, corrup- tion on Henry Clay. They portrayed General Jackson as the second Saviour of his country, especially eulogizing him for strangling the Bank of the United States, the great greedy monster that was about to destroy the liberties of the people ; and finally, these resolutions never failed to arraign the Whig party as the successor of the old Federal party, which had hung out blue lights to the enemy, and had worn black cockades in the war of 1812, and had tried to paralyze the war by the Hartford Convention.
Mr. Johnson's speech followed in the same line. He spoke usually from two to three hours. He commenced in a low, soft tone, and grew louder as he warmed up. After an hour
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or so, his voice rang out on the air in loud, not unmusical tones, heard distinctly a great distance, and seemed particu- larly adapted to the open air. There was no hurried utter- ance, yet no hesitation, no dragging, no effort after words. The speech went right on, the exact language coming to his lips to express the idea in his mind. Altogether, on such occasions, he was forcible and powerful, without being eloquent. He held his crowd spellbound. There was always in his speeches more or less wit, humor, and anecdote, which relieved them from tedium and heaviness.
On Mr. Johnson's great days Richard M. Woods, for many years high Sheriff of Greene County, and at one time United States marshal, was always present to preserve order, and to give the sign by nods and smiles when to shout or when to laugh. A good man he was, brave and upright. He had been Captain under General Jackson in 1812. In many respects he was like the old Chief, being a natural leader of men, and was a venerable patriarch in the ranks of Democracy.
As Mr. Johnson grew warm and hurled the terrible thunder of his wrath against the old Federalists, the shouts sent up by the Democracy could be heard far and wide among the surrounding hills. As he pictured the old Federal party in fearful colors, and pathetically entreated the people to stand firm upon the Constitution, his hearers would huddle closer together, as if for mutual protection, and plant their feet more firmly upon the ground. When he informed them, as he never perhaps once in his life failed to do, that "eternal vigilance was the price of liberty," and that "power was always stealing from the many to give to the few," they would furtively glance around to see if anyone was trying to steal from them!
After traversing the whole wide field of politics, Mr. Johnson wound up by the use of a figure drawn from the road, ex- horting the party in an impassioned appeal to stand together "hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, foot to foot, and to make a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether." This delicate allusion to the honored custom among the wagoners of that day of doubling teams, and assisting one another out of mudholes by all lending a helping hand in pushing and pull- ing, seemed to set the old wagoners wild with delight. The crowd became tumultuous. Its hurrahs were like the sound of many waters. The din and uproar became almost infernal.
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But, after all, these things were, as someone has said of Wag- ner's music, "not so bad as they sounded."
It was usually nearly night when the crowd dispersed. In their boundless enthusiasm they tarried late. Many of those present lived fifteen or twenty miles away, or even farther. For such a long journey, a supply of strength was laid in at the saloons. When night overtook them on their homeward way, in the bewildered condition of their intellects, they recalled dim images of "blue lights and black cockades," and in every dark wood they feared to see these monsters, whatever they were, confront them!
While the resolutions of this first meeting were not patented, or secured by copyright, they were kept and preserved for the next meeting. These meetings were held biennially. Substan- tially the same resolutions were always brought out and used. Why not? They were constructed by the best workmen and out of the best material. As they dealt with no living issue, it was never necessary to alter them. They also formed the text for Johnson's speech and as that was always in those days in substance the same, it was manifestly best that the resolu- tions should assume and hold a permanent form also. This had one great advantage-they became, like a sun dial, a regulator from year to year. By them the Democracy of that county could always find out where it stood, "where it was at." Other- wise there was danger of straying and getting lost.
The picture I have given of the Jacksonian Democracy of Greene County as it was in olden times was more or less true of the party in all upper East Tennessee at that period.
I have never quite understood how these Democrats man- aged to change front so suddenly in December, 1860. In October Johnson told them that Breckinridge, Davis, & Co., were right, that Lincoln and Seward were traitors, trying to overthrow the Constitution. In a little over one month later, he told them that Breckinridge and Davis were traitors, and that Lincoln and Seward were patriots. He had swung clear around the circle. When his followers saw what he had done, they quickly and obediently did the same. It was truly touch- ing to see the devotion of the "old guard" to their leader. I shall not inquire too closely into this change on his part, or on theirs, because it brought over to the Union side as thoroughly a disciplined set of veteran soldiers as ever went into
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battle. Nor can I exactly account for the fact that the long- trained band of Whigs of Greene County, who had always been Union men, turned and fled to the other side when they saw Johnson and his old followers approaching as friends. Perhaps they feared the gift-bearing Greeks: "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." To use Mr. Johnson's favorite figure, when these scarred Democratic veterans looked across the "circle" and saw their old Whig enemies standing on the Democratic camping ground, directly facing them, it must have been a curious as well as a puzzling reflection to Johnson's followers to know how the Whigs got there. Some of these Democrats no doubt, were perplexed as much as Landon C. Haynes' cow- boy, who, when lost in the depths of the forest, exclaimed : "Good Lord! on which side of the creek am I?" But it mat- tered not if the new situation was not clear to the bewildered intellects of these staunch Johnson worshippers; they followed the star of Cæsar, and that was enough !
In 1840 Andrew Johnson occupied a high position in the Democratic party of the State. He had ceased to be a Calhoun Democrat, and had identified himself with the Democracy of Ten- nessee. He had by this time become well known throughout the State, having served two terms in the Legislature, and when the party, in the winter of 1840, selected electors for the State at large on the Van Buren ticket, he was made one of them. This selection was a notable one and very honorable to him. He was only thirty-two years of age, and had been in public life but five years ; indeed, only three, for from 1837 to 1839 he was retired, having failed in an election. In the State at that period the Democratic party had such great men as Felix Grundy, James K. Polk, Aaron V. Brown, Cave Johnson, A. O. P. Nicholson, Andrew Ewing, and others, nearly all of whom were then, or afterward, Senators in Congress or Governors of the State. Yet over the heads of these men Johnson was selected to bear the Democratic banner in the bitter contest of 1840.
The electors for the State at large on the Whig side were Ephraim H. Foster and Spencer Jarnagin. Foster had lately been a United States Senator. The Democratic Legislature had instructed him and his colleague, the venerable Judge Hugh L. White, to vote for the subtreasury bill in Congress, and to support all the leading measures of Van Buren's administration.
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They declined to obey instructions, resigned, and came home, to appeal to the people. Judge White died soon afterward. Early in the spring of 1840, Foster entered upon the most memorable and brilliant canvass ever conducted in the State. He was a splendid speaker, commanding in appearance, mag- netic and captivating in address, a veritable knight in honor and courage. The political conditions of the spring of 1840 were all favorable to such a canvass as Foster inaugurated. He was bitter in denunciation, fiery and eloquent in his appeals. Wherever he went he aroused a resistless enthusiasm never wit- nessed before nor since in this State. He swept through the counties on the high tide of popular excitement, with the éclat of a conqueror. Literally thousands upon thousands followed him. His speeches, while perhaps equaled occasionally by others, -though unquestionably of a very high order,-were so ex- actly in harmony with the spirit of the times and the temper of the people, that they produced by far the greatest effect ever produced by any public speaker in the State.
Foster's associate on the electorial ticket, Spencer Jarnagin, was his intellectual superior, but greatly his inferior as a speaker and a leader. I doubt if the State has ever produced the intellectual superior of Jarnagin. He deserved to be ranked below only such men as Webster. But he had no ambition, no high purpose, no great driving, moral force. He reached the United States Senate, but achieved no lasting fame.
Johnson, in this canvass, undertook to follow Foster and Jarnagin in their triumphal march. The latter would not divide time with him. Johnson, therefore, did what was under the cir- cumstances the wisest thing-he followed on, and drew off all the hearers he could from Foster and Jarnagin. His speeches, though not wanting in a certain Johnsonian ability, were tame in comparison with the stirring battle cry of Foster. I heard the latter often during this canvass. Johnson certainly never appeared to a more sorry disadvantage, than when thus trail- ing after the magnificent Foster, to whom the shouting thousands were doing homage. But no small obstacle could daunt John- son's courage, nor prevent him from going forward in his des- tined career. Long afterward, in 1861, I saw him, apparently the very impersonation of noble patriotism, followed by nearly as large crowds-crowds of determined Union men-as followed Foster in 1840.
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In 1841 Johnson was elected a State Senator. In 1843 he was first elected a member of Congress. In 1845 he was again elected. It was during his second term that he introduced his "Homestead Bill," which proposed to give to every head of a family, out of the public domains, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, provided he would settle on it. Session after session Johnson continued to introduce this measure. Finally in 1862 the Bill, or a somewhat similar one, was taken up, passed, and became a law. A vast majority of the people of the United States ridiculed this measure at first. I regarded it as an act of pure demagogism. It was believed that the motive which actuated Johnson was to gain popularity rather than a sincere sympathy with the people. But the measure has proved to be in some respects a most beneficent law. Under it the distant territories have been settled by an industrious and hardy class, who are adding greatly to the annual wealth of the na- tion. It has given homes to hundreds of thousands of people, who otherwise would be homeless. It has, also, to some extent, arrested the policy that was becoming dangerous of bestowing vast subsidies on grasping railroad corporations. This at one time threatened to absorb all our public domain, and has ab-
sorbed a large part of it. Johnson was unquestionably the author of the Homestead policy, or, more correctly, the author of the first bill introduced in Congress, giving to each actual settler a homestead. The credit of the passage of the measure is sometimes given, and in a certain sense correctly, to Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania. But Johnson had been advocating and introducing homestead bills long before Grow entered Con- gress. Johnson introduced the first bill on the subject in 1846. He continued to press the matter on the attention of the House as long as he remained a member of that body. Mr. Grow did not enter Congress until 1851. The Republican party finally adopted the measure as a part of their platform, and it was passed mainly by Republican votes. The only members of the House from Tennessee, besides Johnson, who ever voted for this measure were George W. Jones and Mr. Clements. To John Quincy Adams belongs the credit of first advocating the policy of giving our public lands to actual settlers. Johnson probably caught the idea from him.
When Johnson became a candidate for Congress the district had recently been changed, so as to make it Democratic, by
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about fifteen hundred majority. For ten years he continued to represent the first district, being elected by about fifteen hundred majority each time except in 1847, when his majority dropped down to 314. In 1851 Johnson was opposed by Lan- don C. Haynes, a leading Democrat, who was his bitter enemy, and had long desired to have his seat in Congress. Haynes was a lawyer, a fluent, ready speaker, and regarded as a man of great eloquence. His voice was excellent, and he graced his speeches with wit and humor. Altogether he was a very tak- ing popular orator, but glittering rather than solid. The cam- paign was intensely bitter and personal, the rival candidates accusing each other of every dishonorable act they had ever committed, or had been charged with committing. For six hours each day they bandied epithets and exchanged accusations, any one of which, if true, was sufficient to render the culprit unfit to represent an honest people in Congress. Let it be kept in mind that this canvass was conducted between two of the lead- ing Democrats of the State. Johnson had already served eight years in Congress. Haynes had been in the Legislature several times, and had been a Speaker of the lower house. He was regarded by some of his too partial friends as a greater man than Johnson. When Tennessee left the Union in 1861, he was honored by an election as a Senator to the Confederate Con- gress.
The result of the canvass was just as I would have expected. The superior ability, courage, and tact of Johnson triumphed. Although Haynes was the better speaker, he lacked the force, the steady courage of Johnson, and the latter constantly got the advantage of his eloquent competitor. In truth, eloquence never availed much against the irresistible logic of facts always so dexterously used by this artful man. No rhetoric, no amount of word painting could withstand the trenchant blows he struck. Neither Haynes, nor Gustavus A. Henry, the most effective speaker in the State, could counteract the impression produced by the array of facts used by Johnson. With these there was always served a sufficient amount of demagogism to give them an exceedingly agreeable flavor. It was no surprise, therefore, that Johnson was elected, he receiving the larger part of the Whig votes of the district.
In 1853 Andrew Johnson was nominated by his party for Governor. He earnestly sought the nomination. Outside of
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East Tennessee neither the leaders nor the mass of the party favored his nomination. In the middle part of the State, where a majority of the party resided, delegates were appointed to the nominating convention favorable to the Hon. Andrew Ewing of Nashville. Ewing was an eminent lawyer, a man of the purest and the most exalted character. He had represented the Nashville district in Congress while it was Whig in politics, and was very popular, being a member of an old aristocratic family .*
Johnson's nomination came about in this wise. Ewing, some- time in the past, had carelessly assented to an opinion ex- pressed by a third party that Johnson ought to be nominated for Governor, as a rebuke to the Whigs for gerrymandering his district. It was a mere thoughtless expression, by which he had no intention of committing himself to Johnson. This casual remark was communicated to Johnson, who artfully chose to treat it as a pledge in his favor. Ewing had no recollection of ever making such a pledge. When the convention assembled, Johnson, by letter or verbal message, said to Ewing, "I place my interests in your hands." Ewing arose in the convention, when it was on the point of nominating him, and having read Johnson's letter, withdrew from the contest, saying that a sense of delicacy forbade his being any longer a candidate, and ad- vising his friends to support Johnson. Thereupon the latter was nominated. Yet in 1857, Johnson aided in electing Nichol- son Senator over Ewing.
The leaders throughout the State, with rare exceptions, then and ever afterward, were opposed to Johnson. They had also been opposed to him in his race for Congress. They despised his methods and hated him. He had, however, a solid support among the common people, and with this backing he easily secured the submission of the leaders. He had a way of either winning over the latter, or intimidating them into silence. The little ones he won by coaxing and flattery ; the powerful, he se- cured as masters in those days secured obedience from their slaves. Many a proud slaveholder in Tennessee had to submit to Johnson's castigation. His defeat at any time would have de- lighted them, but they did not dare move a little finger against him.
When Democrats crossed the path of his advancement, John-
*The celebrated Henry Watterson married the daughter of Andrew Ewing.
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son was as ready to fight them as he was the Whigs He bristled all over with fight. His life had been a desperate struggle, first with poverty, afterward with political and personal foes. All along the line of his public career lay the bodies of his slain enemies. Party, to him, as to most politicians, was valu- able only because it enabled him to mount upon the shoulders of his followers and thus rise to power. What a mass of cor- ruption party sometimes makes men carry! The boasted love of the people, with most politicians, is an empty pretense for the sake of authority, and "hath this extent, no more." The people often rejoice under the load they bear, supposing they are bearing aloft a divinity, when in fact they are carrying only an "Old Man of the Sea," whom they cannot shake off.
Johnson's Whig competitor for Governor was Gustavus A. Henry. He was decidedly the most delightful orator as well as one of the most elegant men in the State. At mass meet- ings, where oratory was needed, he was always the hero of the day. Frank and manly, in person he was grand, in counte- nance fascinating, in manner electrical, with a voice of sur- passing melody.
But when it came to logic, facts, and hard licks, in daily debates, with his adroit competitor, Henry's best friends could hardly say he was Johnson's full match. The result was, John- son was elected by a majority of 2250 votes. From that time until the breaking out of the Civil War, Henry was never prominent in the politics of the State. When the war came on, he was elected a Senator to the Confederate Congress. The incident that occurred in this canvass for Governor worth men- tioning, was a good-humored passage between the two candi- dates, in their speeches at Knoxville. Johnson in his closing rejoinder said: "They call my competitor 'The Eagle Orator.' The eagle is a bird of prey. Where is his prey? I see no blood on his beak, I do not feel his talons in my flesh." "No," said Henry, as quick as thought, "the eagle is a royal bird, and never preys on carrion."
William B. Campbell was the retiring Governor. For some cause he had not been a candidate for re-election. He was an honorable gentleman, and possessed great personal popularity. As a Colonel of the 1st Tennessee Regiment in the Mexican War, he had won distinction as a gallant officer and soldier. No man in the State stood better with the people. When
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the day for inauguration of the new Governor arrived, Gov- ernor Campbell, with true courtesy, called at Johnson's hotel, and informed him that he was ready with the carriage to escort him to the inaugural ceremonies. Mr. Johnson replied, as was correctly reported, that he did not want a carriage, that he was going to walk with the people. And walk he did! What was the astonishment of the stately Campbell, who so highly respected the dignity of the office he was about to relinquish!
But, confounded as Campbell must have been at the unex- ampled precedent set by the new Governor, this was as nothing in comparison with what his feelings must have been when he heard from the lips of the new dignitary what is known as the "converging lines," or "Jacob's Ladder" Inaugural Address. Such a document it is impossible to find among grave State papers anywhere on this continent during our entire history. Johnson in this drew a picture of a new Commonwealth, under the reign of Democracy, or a Theocracy, for it is impossible to tell which he meant. The lines are so drawn as to leave a confused impression of what was intended. The idea appears to have been to draw an analogy between the Christian Religion and the "Democracy" of Tennessee, of which Mr. Johnson was the type as well as the exemplification. Imagine the extreme absurdity of comparing any political party to the Christian religion ! If any less prominent person had written this address, he would have been set down as a crank. It was in fact a ridiculous production, mere idle vaporing. It might well be consigned to that vast receptacle of nonsense, of light and airy nothings, described by Milton
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