USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 40
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Mr. Johnson's masterful spirit could brook no opposition. It kindled his uncontrollable ambition, and drove him forward in a course of headlong fury. Naturally he considered his plan of reconstruction the best. He may have thought the Four- teenth Amendment unjust; he overlooked the fact that if that were rejected, greater evils might follow, as they did follow.
Admitting that he was honest in his change of views ; that Mr. Seward had converted him; that his heart had undergone a remarkable change-a change from a state of the most virulent hate to one of love and sympathy-why, then, did he, as a practical statesman, as a man of common sense, exasperate and provoke to utter madness the overwhelming majority in Con- gress and in the North by opposing with a violence incon- ceivable in one of his exalted position the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment? Why did he not advise the South, if he was sincerely its friend, as General Grant did, that that measure was the best then attainable, and that if rejected, there was danger that it would be followed by much harder terms. His position demanded, on his part, the utmost calmness and impartiality, the highest justice and equipoise, as a mediator
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between the two sections. A truly great man, one who rose to the height and breadth of the momentous occasion like the great Washington, would have acted the part of an impartial and a loving father of the people of both sections. In 1860-61, he had been pre-eminent in strengthening the national cause ; in 1865-69 he was pre-eminent in perpetuating national dis- cord.
That the Southern people resisted the governments subse- quently imposed upon them by military force, was only the impulse of brave freemen. In a brief period they overthrew these governments, and once more regained their independence, but they took this independence not only with the Fourteenth Amendment, but with the Fifteenth Amendment as well. Thus their last state was worse than the first could possibly have been under the Fourteenth Amendment. At the end of many years of desolation the Southern States were, in respect to their independence, only where they would have been at the end of one year under this Amendment. But in other respects what a loser? Who can estimate their losses? The calamities of reconstruc- tion and negro rule, the Fifteenth Amendment and negro suffrage, the Civil Rights Bill and the postponement of the day of reconciliation-these were some of the evils of the rejection of the first term offered the South. What did the South gain-what good did she accomplish-by the rejection? Rather, what multiplied evils did she not suffer as the direct proof of her unwisdom?
And as it was, the magnitude of the misfortune, growing out of the failure on the part of the secession States to return to their true relations with the Union by accepting the Four- teenth Amendment, and the subsequent enforcement of the Con- gressional plan of reconstruction, by military, negro, and car- pet-bag rule, can never be estimated.
None of the parties to the schemes of reconstruction-neither Mr. Johnson, nor the people of the lately seceding States, nor the Republican Congress-saw the calamitous consequences of their equally unwise acts. If they had done so, we must believe their humanity would have shrunk back aghast at the sight. Neither party accomplished, except in a small degree, what it sought. All were in the end deluded, frenzied with bitterness and rage. Mr. Johnson retired from his office a disappointed man, the most unpopular President we ever had, possibly excepting
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John Tyler. The Southern people, after years of suffering and disfranchisement, came out of the great tragedy of reconstruc- tion, broken in all things except in spirit. The Republican party, so strong and haughty in 1865-1867, emerged from this contest in 1872-73 with its prestige dimmed, its power threat- ened, with scarcely courage to defend the reconstruction measures from that day to this. The Government, too, when, in 1876, the Southern people rose up in arms and overthrew the negro and carpet-bag rule, looked on in cold indifference, either impotent to prevent the wreck, or unwilling to risk any- thing for such governments.
It is hard to conceive the motive of the opposition of Mr. Johnson to the Fourteenth Amendment. Following the pre- cedent set in the case of Tennessee, its ratification by the seceded States would have secured, it is confidently believed, their restoration to the Union, the very consummation he was so loudly and earnestly demanding. Further and more important, as it required two-thirds of each House of Congress to propose Amendments to the Constitution, the Fifteenth Amendment, con- ferring the ballot on colored men, could not have passed the Sen- ate after the return of Southern Senators without their votes, therefore never would have become a part of our Constitution. Even if it had passed, it could not have received the assent of three-fourths of the States, and thus the evil would have been escaped.
How grandly Mr. Johnson might appear in history to-day : the "Author of Reconstruction; the Restorer of Concord." These might have been his proud titles to glory. If he had thrown the weight of his immense influence in the South, as President, on the side of reconciliation and submission, he might have accomplished this work of restoration without a jar. When he opposed the ratification of the Amendment, and induced in part at least the secession States to reject it, he defeated his own plan of reconstruction, and threw away a chance for fame rarely falling to the lot of men. He missed an oppor- tunity such as does not occur to rulers once in a century. The path of duty and the path of permanent fame ran parallel to each other, but unfortunately he missed them both. Johnson might have had all the glory of this great work, and gone down in history throughout all coming time as a benefactor of his country, worthy to be named with Washington and Lincoln.
CHAPTER VII.
Johnson Defeated for United States Senate by Henry Cooper, 1869- Defeated for Lower House of Congress by James White, 1870-De- feated for Congress from State at Large by Horace Maynard, 1872- January, 1875, elected to United States Senate-Assails President Grant in the Extraordinary Session Convened March 4-Johnson's Views as to Payment of National Bonds-Bonds Issued by Tennessee.
SCARCELY had Mr. Johnson left the Presidency before he began looking for another office. The first one of sufficient dig- nity for his ambition presented itself in 1869. The term of Hon. Joseph S. Fowler as a United States Senator was soon to expire. He became a candidate for re-election. Notwith- standing Mr. Fowler's vote had saved President Johnson from conviction on the impeachment trial, the latter did not hesitate to become a candidate against him. T. A. R. Nelson was urged to become a candidate, and it was believed that he could have been elected had he yielded to the request of his friends. But he had expressed to Mr. Johnson a wish that he (Johnson) might me elected, and with that high sense of honor which dis- tinguished him, he refused to allow his name to be used. The contest was very exciting and bitter. The Democrats were in the majority in the Legislature, but were divided, while the Republicans held the balance of power. Finally, Henry Cooper, a Democrat, was nominated in a caucus as the straight Demo- cratic candidate. Mr. Cooper was not prominent in his party, but favorable circumstances and negative rather than positive qualities gave him the possibilities of success. His brother, Edmund Cooper, at one time the Private Secretary of Mr. John- son while he was President, and an intimate friend, was a mem- ber of the Legislature. He had been voting for Johnson and was his special champion. On the nomination of his brother, however, he deserted Johnson and voted for the former. The result was Johnson was defeated by four votes. The Senator- elect was an upright man and had a fair reputation for talents, but never became distinguished as a Senator. Johnson was very indignant against Edmund Cooper, and never forgave him. He denounced him in the bitterest words for his desertion.
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Mr. Johnson's next effort was to be elected to the Lower House of Congress in 1870, from his old district, but he was defeated in the nominating Convention by James White. Two years later he was a candidate for Congress from the State at large. The ultra wing of the Democratic party nominated General B. F. Cheatham, a brave and gallant Confederate General. The Republicans nominated Hon. Horace Maynard. The three candidates canvassed the entire State together. With a divided Democratic party, the contest resulted in the election of May- nard, and thus Johnson was a third time defeated in his in- satiable ambition for power and office.
His next effort was to secure the Senatorship in 1875. In order to succeed he canvassed in advance certain parts of the State. The contest was exciting and extremely acrimonious. Most of the old Bourbon Democratic leaders, whom he had pardoned a few years before, fought him with the most stub- born determination. Ex-Governor John C. Brown and General William B. Bate were both candidates against him. Both of these had been distinguished Generals. Their friends pressed their claims, not because of their superior ability over John- son, but because of their military services to the Southern Confederacy. They were both men of ability. Prominent men all over the State flocked to Nashville, to take part either for or in opposition to Mr. Johnson. No such excitement in a Senatorial contest ever occurred in the State. It was a des- perate effort not only to defeat but to destroy Mr. Johnson. On the other hand, he fought his enemies with all his iron will and marvelous courage. Every influential man in the State who was opposed to him was brought to Nashville to aid in his overthrow. Some of these, after their arrival, he captured by subtle diplomacy, of which he was a master when he chose to condescend from his proud imperiousness to its use. The bit- terest opposition came from the Democratic party.
Among others who came to Nashville to work against John- son was the celebrated General Nathan B. Forrest. Johnson called on him, and referred in pleasant terms to their ante-bellum friendship, and to the warm support he used to receive from Forrest. He then referred to his present contest for Senator, and said in substance: "General John C. Brown and General W. B. Bate are put forward against me on the pretended ground that the State owes them honors because they were
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leaders of their people in war. Now, if there were any sincerity in the reasons assigned, instead of hostility to me, I could re- spect the motives of my opponents. Our people have always shown their appreciation of distinguished military services. Witness the election of Washington, Jackson, Harrison, Tay- lor, and thousands of others, to positions of honor. But these politicians who oppose me are not sincere in their professions of gratitude for military service. If they were, they would support you, General Forrest, for Senator, or they would have elected you Governor before this time. You were a General in fact, as well as in name. Your brilliant, daring feats as a soldier have given you a world-wide fame, and are the admiration of even your late enemies. But who are Brown and Bate?" said he (applying a terrible denunciatory epithet), "only one-horse Generals. Never should my enemies speak of gratitude for military service while these little generals are preferred to you."*
The result of this interview was, that Forrest took the next train for his home in Memphis.f He could not work for John- son, for he was committed the other way, but he would not work against him. Never did the invincible will and wonderful power of Mr. Johnson to control men appear to more con- spicuous advantage than during this memorable contest. All
*Mr. Johnson did General Bate great injustice by these criticisms. He was, in fact, a brave and splendid officer. I believe General Brown was also. General Bate was one of the purest and noblest men of the age. Later, he was twice elected Governor and three times elected to the Senate, and was distinguished in that body by lofty and honorable deportment.
General Forrest was one of nature's great soldiers. Without educa- tion of any kind, either military or otherwise, he became unquestionably one of the great cavalry leaders of the war. I am far from endorsing some things he did as a general and some things in him as a man. But military genius shone conspicuously in him during all his career. Both Generals Grant and Sherman, and also Lord Wolseley, Commander-in- Chief of the British Army, complimented him. Grant in his Memoirs said, "Forrest was probably the ablest cavalry officer of the South." The Earl of Chatham said in Parliament, after the battle of Plassey, of Rob- ert Clive : "He was a heaven-born general, who, without military educa- tion or training, surpassed all the generals of his time." Lord Mahon, in his "History of England," says of General Burgoyne that he was such an elegant scholar and writer that it was a delight to the scholars of England to read his official reports of his defeats, but the people greatly preferred the reports of victory by the Duke of Marlborough in bad Eng- lish. Doubtless Forrest could not write elegant English, but his reports of victories were always eagerly read.
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the opposition to him in the State, which had been gathering for forty years, was concentrated in an unrelenting, deter- mined effort to overthrow him. Bold, defiant, and unshaken, he withstood the merciless assaults of his enemies, and finally tri- umphed. It was the proudest hour of his life. Music, fire- works, and public demonstrations of the most exciting character, turned the night that followed his election into one of exulta- tion. Seldom, if ever, had Johnson seemed greater than at this moment of victory over the strongest and the most malig- nant opposition.
But I am sorry to record that this splendid victory was marred by a broken pledge on Johnson's part. The small band of Republicans in the Legislature held the balance of power in the joint convention. They for the most part were scattering their votes. They could elect Johnson whenever they chose to do so, but they were afraid that if he were in the Senate, he would revive his personal quarrel with President Grant. Mr. Johnson, learning of this apprehension, had an interview with one of the leading Republicans, and perhaps with others, in which he pledged himself, if elected, not to revive this quarrel, nor to make any personal war on Grant. On this pledge the gentleman referred to, and others also, agreed to support Johnson. The balloting at the next meeting of the joint convention went on as usual. Finally Johnson lacked but one vote of an election. The tally was kept by this man as well as by others. At the critical moment, but before the result of the ballot was announced, in the midst of a breathless silence, this Republican arose and changed his vote from the person for whom he had just voted, to Andrew Johnson. A wild shout instantly arose; Johnson was elected. All knew it. The result was known long before the presiding officer announced it. This was the crowning triumph of Johnson's political career.
This election took place in January, 1875. Ordinarily John- son would not have taken his seat in the Senate until the follow- ing December. But President Grant convened the Senate in extraordinary session on March 4th to act on a treaty which his administration had made with King Kalakaua of the Sand- wich Islands. Usually, too, treaties are considered by the Sen- ate in secret session, but in this case that body voted to consider the treaty with open doors. Except for this extra
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session Mr. Johnson would have never taken his seat, for he died the following July. It was during this session of the Senate that he violated his pledge given before his election, as above stated. In the course of his speech he assailed the char- acter of President Grant in the most violent manner. Deep indignation was excited throughout the land. But the public did not know of the broken pledge behind this act of bad taste. Terrible indeed must have been his vindictiveness to induce him to violate a promise, without which he never would have been elected to the Senate. Personally, the author knows nothing of this pledge. He only gives the statement of the man to whom it was made, and of others, often and notoriously repeated in this State immediately after and since that Senatorial election .* He would most gladly believe that there was some misunder- standing, some misconception of what Mr. Johnson said and promised. In another place I have given him credit for truthful- ness throughout his life, both as a public man and as a private citizen. And I here repeat that this was his general character.
Johnson presented peculiarities in his mental qualities, some- times apparent contradictions. He was totally unlike any other public man of his day. He seemed to have many vagaries, but when these are closely examined by those who knew him well, it will be found that they were not such in fact. His mind was clear, strong, and well-balanced. His common sense was remarkable. In all things he was eminently practical. He had no fancy, no imagination. The cause that induced him to utter absurdities was in his moral nature and not in his intellectual.
The measures about which Mr. Johnson was the wildest were in reference to the payment of our National and State debts. The first impression created by these, would be that his ideas on these subjects were the result of a disordered mind. This was far from true. On the contrary, they were in fact a part of his lifelong tactics to obtain and retain popularity and power. His ideas were also somewhat tinged and influenced by those agragrian feelings which lay at the bottom of his heart and in which he always indulged. Throughout his life, he had two principles of action which he constantly followed as a means of attaining political ascendency. These were the flattery of the people; secondly, the inculcation of the idea of a natural
*The Hon. Henry R. Gibson, ex-member of Congress.
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and irreconcilable antagonism between capital and labor, wealth and poverty. These two ideas seem to have been the basis of his political creed. He never could get away from them, nor above them. They appear more or less distinctly in all his speeches.
Let us first notice his views as to the payment of our na- tional bonds. These bonds were issued at a dark hour during the Civil War, to raise money to equip and pay our armies for fighting for the preservation of the government, and to pre- vent national bankruptcy. They were taken, at first, by bankers, capitalists, artisans, farmers, and widows-by every class of people in fact-in a burst of patriotic enthusiasm, not know- ing whether they would ever get a dollar for them or not. The Union was preserved, the country saved, and the bonds became valuable. Had the Union failed, they would probably have be- come almost as worthless as our Continental money became after the Revolution. Mr. Johnson in his annual message to Con- gress, of December, 1868, among other things said :
"A system that produces such results is justly regarded as favoring the few at the expense of the many, and has led to the further inquiry whether our bondholders, in view of the large profits they have enjoyed, would themselves be averse to a settlement of our indebtedness upon a plan which would yield them a fair remuneration, and at the same time be just to the nation. Our national credit should be sacredly observed, but in making provision for our creditors, we should not forget what is due to the masses of the people. It may be assumed that the holders of our securities have already received upon their bonds a larger amount than their original investment, measured by a gold standard. Upon this statement of the facts it would seem but just and equitable that the six per cent. interest now paid by the government should be applied to the reduction of the principal in semi-annual installments, which in sixteen years and eight months would liquidate the entire national debt.
"Six per cent. in gold would at present rates be equal to nine per cent. in currency, and equivalent to the payment of the debt one and a half times in a fraction less than seventeen years. This, in connection with all the other advantages de- rived from their investment, would afford to the public creditors a fair and liberal compensation for the use of their capital,
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and with this they should be satisfied. The lessons of the past admonish the lender that it is not well to be over anxious in exacting from the borrower rigid compliance with the letter of the bond."*
In the last sentence of the last paragraph he throws out a vague warning to the bondholders that worse harm may be- fall them if they declined to accede to his generous plan of re- pudiation. This was no intellectual vagary. It must be at- tributed to the causes stated above. It was an attempt to raise a great national issue between bondholders and nonbondholders, and thus to secure for himself the support of the latter class, known to be a majority of the people. As these bonds were nearly all held in the North, it was intended to array still further the Southern people against that section and to ingratiate him- self more firmly in their affections.
A singular report was circulated about the time this remark- able message was sent to Congress, which if true, shows the wise forethought of Mr. Johnson as a practical financier. He had in the bank of Jay Cooke & Co. about $69,000 of these detested United States bonds. These he prudently, as he thought, con- verted into cash; cash did not run out of date. When that great banking house failed this money was on deposit with it. But he subsequently managed to recover it all.
Most of the bonds he proposed to repudiate had changed hands since they were issued, the subsequent holders paying full value for them and generally a heavy premium. Millions of dollars worth of them were held by widows, orphans, guar- dians, trustees, and by mechanics and farmers. All classes held them, many of them putting their all into them, on the solemn pledge of the Government that they would be paid. And yet here was a deliberate proposition made in a message to Con- gress to rob the people of their hard-earned savings, and when the bonds had run seventeen years to wipe them out of existence. This proposition exceeds in audacity anything to be found in all our history. Hundreds of millions of bonds were owned by people abroad, who had bought them at a full price on the faith of the Government.
Let it be kept in mind that these were not the wild, incoherent ideas of a visionary man. Johnson was not such. He did not
*Cong. Globe, part 3, appendix, 1868-9, pp. 2 and 3.
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intellectually belong to the class of men who believe in follies. Why, then, did he utter such startling doctrines? One motive sprang from his undying hatred of the rich, or as he styled them, the aristocracy of the country. The other motive was his insatiable desire for popularity and power.
Let it be remembered that these sentiments did not emanate from an obscure source. They came from a man who had been Governor of his State, both Civil and Military, Senator in Congress, Vice-President of the United States at its greatest epoch, and at that very time was the Chief Executive of the nation. He had seen the outburst of patriotism with which all classes of loyal people had responded to the earnest call of the Government for help, and had poured out their hoarded gold to pay for these bonds, in order to save the Government. He knew, too, that if it had been written on the face of the bonds, as a part of the contract, that sixteen years and eight months' interest was to satisfy and extinguish the principal of the bonds, not a dollar's worth could have been sold. Patriotic men might have given money to the Government lav- ishly, and thousands would have done so freely, but they would not have invested a dollar in a mockery of a security.
At the time this astounding doctrine was put forth in the message of President Johnson, the country had become so accustomed to surprising things from him, that it excited less indignation than its startling character warranted. Besides this, the country was still in the throes of that angry contest over questions of reconstruction which Mr. Johnson had provoked, and therefore it did not heed a proposition so unlikely to become a serious one in the national councils. Otherwise he would have been buried beneath a tidal wave of indignation.
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