USA > Tennessee > Notable men of Tennessee, from 1833 to 1875, their times and their contemporaries > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
Johnson was not a great, nor a polished orator, yet he was effective and powerful on the stump, and an able and adroit debater. In a long series of debates I am not sure that he ever met his match. Certainly Gustavus A. Henry was not his equal, and, on the whole, he had the advantage over Mr. Gentry.
There was in some respects a striking similarity between Johnson and Stephen A. Douglas. Both were strong on the stump, both were bold and aggressive, both were more or less unscrupulous about the means used to accomplish their ends, and both pandered to the prejudices of the people. Johnson's strength was on the stump, and not in the Senate. He was always interesting on this stage. Men listened to him because he talked about himself and talked about others. This might not please some, but it did please the majority. He made him- self felt by his boldness and sometimes by his offensiveness. He had the faculty of impressing his facts on the minds of his hearers as few could do. This arose in part from the earnest- ness of his manner, the novelty of his matter, and the pungency of his words. Take Gustavus Henry for a comparison. After his discussion with Johnson, men went away remembering him as a handsome, graceful orator, and but little else. As to Johnson, they recalled and could repeat his facts, his argu- ments, his striking points, and his terrible denunciations. No public speaker in the State has ever left his ideas so deeply impressed on the public mind. Whether men approved or con- demned his views, they were certain to remember them.
Johnson had great faith in the efficacy of popular speaking. Indeed, in his earlier days, this was the only direct mode of reaching a rural population, newspapers, which nowadays go everywhere, not circulating much among them. Johnson had accomplished everything by speaking. He could not write. No one cared to read his speeches. But people would listen to the delivery of his bitter harangues. These were plentifully sea-
i
S
459
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
soned with salt, vinegar, and red pepper, and served steaming hot. They had a decidedly pungent taste that most men liked.
In his younger days, when Johnson wished to impress a new idea on the people, on an appointed day, he would call the people together, and would deliver to them one of his long harangues. When Military Governor of Tennessee, and after- ward when he became Vice-President he wished to deliver a pro- nunciamento against his fellow citizens in arms against the gov- ernment, he would be opportunely serenaded (of course he did not himself arrange it beforehand) and would then give relief to his burdened mind. When he wished to arouse the people to the dangerous designs of Congress, he chartered a train and traveled over the country making speeches at every station from New York to St. Louis, and as Petroleum V. Nasby said, "dis- tributing to the people copies of the Constitution."* He
*Nasby says that this journey was undertaken by Mr. Johnson "to arouse the people to the sense of danger of concentrating power in the hands of Congress, instead of diffusing it throughout the hands of one man." Nasby's book, entitled "Swinging Around the Circle," giving an account of this journey, is the most humorous book of that day. I copy from the Chicago Inter-Ocean an account of the incidents connected with one of the receptions, probably that at Cleveland, Ohio, during this cele- brated trip :
"There is nothing in history that corresponds to that wonderful swing of President Johnson from Washington to Chicago by way of Robin Hood's barn. Mr. Johnson planned the trip with infinite cunning. He prided himself on being a commoner, and he believed that he understood the people, and that if he could meet them face to face he would convince them that the President was right and Congress was wrong. To get the love of the people he carried with him General Grant, Admiral Farragut, Secretaries Seward, Welles, and Randall, General Custer, and other men well known to the people. He reasoned that, accompanied by the popular idols of the day, he would be sure of enthusiastic reception everywhere. That was all he asked. Give him a big crowd and he was confident that he could win them over.
"The President started from Washington with a chip on his shoulder. The very first crowd he met knocked it off without ceremony. It soon became clear that the people were in a resentful mood, and after two or three clashes some of Mr. Johnson's best friends recommended a change of programme. Many believed that the President, seeing the mood of the people, would yield, but they didn't know the man. I had seen him face all sorts of crowds while he was Military Governor of Tennessee ; I had heard him scold the leading citizens of Nashville as he would a lot of school children; had seen him, when a mob threatened his life, stride out into the street and march the full length of the city at the head of a procession carrying the Stars and Stripes, and I knew he would relish keenly a scrap with those who defied him.
"At one point a crowd of fifty thousand people had gathered, mainly
460
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
preached a crusade against Congress, as Peter the Hermit, many centuries before, preached a crusade against the Moham- medans of the Holy Land; with this difference, however : Peter set all Christendom ablaze with martial ardor; Johnson set all this country aroar with laughter.
In the Senate Johnson was far from being great. His speeches were not remarkable for logic, statesmanship, or learning. They often abounded in personalities and in unworthy appeals to prejudice. There were no splendid passages that will live in political history, to be quoted by coming generations. Indeed, narrowness and partisanship completely obscured all breadth and elevation of view. The only possible exception to this statement was his speeches in East Tennessee, in the spring of 1861, when the dangers which confronted the country seemed to give him a dignity, a fervor of eloquence, an intensity of patriotism unknown in him previously.
to see Grant, Farragut, and Seward. There was tremendous enthusiasm over the party, and the President was elated. But when he rose to speak the crowd hooted and hissed and set up a great shout for Grant. The people had seen through the President's scheme and were turning the tables on him by using Grant and Farragut to humiliate and punish him. The President saw the strategy of the move and he was as furious as he was helpless. In every interval of quiet he would attempt to speak, but every word he uttered would be lost in the thunder of the shouts for Grant. It was a painful spectacle and everybody was embarrassed. The crowd would not listen to the chairman or any other local celebrity.
"General Custer, then at the height of his popularity, stepped forward, in his dramatic, imperious way, believing that he could quiet the tumult. The crowd was friendly, but it howled him down, and the dashing cavalry- man took his seat, with the remark that he would like to clear the grounds with a brigade of calvary. Johnson, looking down on the tumult, saw smiling, contemptuous faces, but no hatred. He turned to Grant, who had retired to the rear of the platform, and said petulantly : 'Gen- eral, you will have to speak to them.' General Grant said decisively : 'I will not.' Then the President said more graciously : 'Won't you show yourself, General?' Grant stepped forward, and after a round of cheers the people were as quiet as a church in prayer time. Waiting an instant, Grant raised his hand, made a gesture toward Johnson, and said clearly : 'The President of the United States.'
"The incident was a simple one, but it spoke volumes. Grant's face was full of indignation and reproach, and the crowd, accepting his rebuke, listened to the President for an hour. And the President did not spare the people. He scolded them to his heart's content, replied to all their taunts, talked back to every man that opened his mouth, and seemed to enjoy the performance as a warhorse would a battle. The people took the scolding in good part and realized that they had come in contact with a new sort of President. They heard him in respectful silence, but they disapproved of him, as the President knew when the votes were counted at the election that fall."
461
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
It is true that his 18th and 19th of December speech, in the Senate of 1860, produced perhaps the most profound impression of any speech ever made in the country, but that was not be- cause of its eloquence but because of its startling unexpected- ness, its daring positions, its noble patriotism, and the breath- less anxiety with which the North was listening-waiting, indeed -for a word of hope from the South. It was the spirit of the speech, the golden opportunity seized and well used, and not the words, that gave permanence to that effort. It inspired the be- wildered, despairing North with new hope. It was a vivid light suddenly flashed upon the profoundest darkness.
In canvassing with competitors, Johnson went just as far in personal remarks as it was safe to go. He studied the dis- positon of his adversary, and ascertained how much personal indignity he would endure. In his debate there was seldom any exhibition of manly courtesy. A kind act or word on his part toward an opposing party was almost unknown. He seemed to be too bitter ever to feel the elevation that inspires noble sentiments .* Another peculiarity of his was that in any given case no man could count on what he would do, except that he was sure to do something unexpected, and very likely something disagreeable.
Johnson never went into society in his own town. Before he became President he lived in his own home in almost exclusive retirement, never attending social gatherings. He had one some- what remarkable habit, considering his desire for popularity, his constant custom of pandering to the prejudices of the people, and that was he always dressed well. He wore the finest material, and when he appeared was always faultlessly neat. I never saw him shabbily attired. He thought correctly, that to secure the respect of the people and have them look up to him as superior to themselves, he must make the most of his personal appear- ance. There is very much more in this than demagogues often think. People are never flattered by having a favorite appear before them in mean garb.
*The following incident will illustrate what I have been saying : When he and Gustavus A. Henry, who was the very soul of courtesy, were can- vassing for Governor in 1853, soon after the canvass opened Johnson asked a friend if Henry would fight. The reply was that Mr. Henry was very amiable and peaceable, and would avoid a personal difficulty unless the insults were very gross and offensive. "Then," said Johnson, "I will give him hell to-day."
462
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
It does not lie within the scope of this sketch to speak of Mr. Johnson's family. I venture, however, to go out of the way to pay my profound respects to the worth of his daughter, the late Mrs. Patterson. The people of this land, long since, with one voice, pronounced their verdict in favor of her modest but conspicuous merit and womanly virtues.
Johnson left at his death a fair estate. It may be safely affirmed that it was honestly acquired. Although he filled many public trusts, and had many opportunities to make money, the suspicion of dishonesty in reference to public funds never attached to his name. While he was the Civil Governor of the State, every department of the public service was carefully watched and guarded. There was no speculation, no dishonesty, no public scandals during his administration. While he was Military Governor of Tennessee he had a large amount of public money in his hands, but all was honestly accounted for, so far as is known. Indeed, in the use of public money, as well as in the use of his own he was careful and economical. He had the reputation of being close and parsimonious. He cannot be blamed for this. He started out very poor. All he made was earned slowly and by incessant toil. In order to become com- fortable, he had to deny himself many things. He daily felt the hardships of poverty. Within him was the consciousness of strength and power. Around him he saw men far his inferiors, surrounded with the luxuries of life, while he was compelled to toil in poverty. Under circumstances like these, he strove to rise by the most rigid economy. He was right. In after years, when he had become independent in money matters, whether he too closely adhered to his early habits, it is not for me to say. These are matters upon which, within certain reasonable limita- tions, each person must judge for himself, and from such judg- ment there is no appeal.
The estate left by Johnson, of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was a very pretty sum in a little interior village. Had he been a corrupt man, his estate might have been easily swollen to a million. The self-denial and privations of early life certainly justly entitled him to com- fort and independence in old age. I know to some extent with what extreme carefulness and self-denial his fortune was built up to moderate proportions.
Of the personal character and habits of Andrew Johnson,
463
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
already much has been given, but something yet remains to be said. I doubt if his true character will ever be known by the public as it was by those immediately around him. He was so extreme in his views and utterances, and so angular in outline, that it is difficult to describe him as he was. It is hard for those who knew his fierce nature and indomitable will to treat of his virtues and failings with the calm judgment necessary for a just and clear appreciation of the man. By his wonderful personality he stamped himself indelibly on the public mind, and became a part of the history as well as the rightful property of the country. His character, therefore, is open to public criti- cism. It will be observed that I have in this sketch carefully avoided the sanctity of the domestic circle, and dealing with facts too sacred for the public eye; these do not concern my narrative.
While in many respects Mr. Johnson can be held up as a model for the young men of the country, in others, he cannot be. All men must pay homage to the indomitable will, energy, and courage which enabled him to overcome the most adverse con- ditions in life, and to rise by his own strength to the most exalted positions of honor. I bow with profound admiration to the statesman or the soldier who successfully cuts his way through obstacles that appall ordinary men, and firmly plants his feet on the highest round of power. Such was the career of Mr. Johnson. While he thus rose and conquered all opposi- tion and filled the land with his name and fame, he was at all times for himself. Personal ambition controlled his life. In the earlier part of his career, if not in the latter part, he strove to rise by working on the baser passions of men, sowing broadcast the seeds of hate and bitterness between classes. An appeal to prejudice was his most effective argument. While able, he was narrow and harsh. In his life as a private citizen he manifested much of that same supreme regard for self only that he did as a public man. If he ever took any active interest in the welfare of the community in which he lived, and which honored him for forty years; if he ever proposed, advocated, or helped any measures tending toward the amelioration of society or the public around him-anything for the promotion of education, art, science, temperance, morality, manufactures, or general progress-anything for the benefit of the toiling masses, for the unfortunate and the helpless, tending to lift
464
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
them up and make them better and happier, I have never heard of it.
What constitutes a good citizen? It certainly is not one whose life is entirely selfish. A man may be moral in conduct, and honest in his dealings, and yet live so entirely for himself, and so little for others, that he may be no blessing, but the con- trary, to the community. Rather is he a good citizen whose life and example are such that they do something, however humble his sphere, toward increasing the happiness of mankind, and in promoting the welfare of his fellow citizens. He whose acts are just, whose conduct is kind and helpful, who is an inspiration to others to do better, that man is a good citizen. These are not the criteria by which men are usually judged, but they ought to be the test of good citizenship.
Consider, for a moment, the contrast between Jefferson and Johnson. Jefferson, for twenty years after his retirement, spent his leisure in trying to ameliorate the condition of the people of his State. He gave his profound intellect to the task of general education, as well as to that of building up the great University of Virginia,-an imperishable monument of his far- seeing vision. He did all he could to improve the condition of the farming classes. Like Mr. Webster, at a later day, he thought it not beneath his greatness to work on the problem of improving farm implements. Each of these distinguished men invented a new turning plow .*
Johnson, on the contrary, spent his last years hunting office, quarreling with his enemies, and trying to punish them for some long-gone-by wrong. The evening of his life was, as its morning and its noon had been, stormy and tempestuous. There was no mellow sunset gilding the horizon with its soft light.
As said once before, Johnson had few of the gentle amenities of life. It was possibly unfortunate that he had no love for society. Until he became President he avoided its attractions
*One of the attractive curiosities of the late World's Fair at Chicago was the turning plow invented by Mr. Webster. It was an immense con- cern of great length and size, and looked as if it must have required at least four oxen to use it. The moldboard was made of beaten iron in several pieces, put together with rivets and held by strong iron bars. It was at best an awkward, clumsy concern in comparison with the light steel plows introduced within the last fifteen years. Still, it was an improvement on the old wooden moldboard which I can recollect and which was in use when I was a boy. Mr. Jefferson's plow I did not see.
465
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
entirely. In outward conduct he was apparently cold and disdainful. He denounced aristocrats, yet imitated them, and if not one at heart himself, he had all their worst ways. His life was exclusive. He stirred up the bad passions of the lower classes. Men who had large property, though earned by honest toil, if they belonged to the opposite party, were de- nounced as the enemies of the people. He flattered the people- many of them ignorant and degraded-with the most fulsome words.
More bitter, and perhaps mean, things were said about John- son in his day than about any other public man in the United States. I give a few of these. Thus :
Senator Thomas L. Clingham of North Carolina, who served in the Senate with Johnson, says in his "Recollections," "The driving force of his mind was selfishness, envy, and malice."
The distinguished Democratic orator, Landon C. Haynes, in 1851, the competitor of Johnson for Congress, on his return from Nashville while the latter was Governor was asked how he (the Governor) was getting along. "Oh, finely," was the reply ; "he is boarding with a butcher and skinning (cattle) for his board."
In 1855, soon after the defeat of Meredith P. Gentry by Johnson for Governor, the former, with some friends, among them W. G. Brownlow, was in a private room in the City Hotel of Nashville. Gentry was under the influence of liquor, and was criticising Johnson as only he could do. Brownlow checked him and said that instead of cursing Johnson, he was commanded to pray for his salvation. Gentry replied to this in an impas- sioned burst of scorn: "What! pray for the salvation of An- drew Johnson! Why! to save him would exhaust the plan of Salvation, and where would the rest of us be !"
Johnson's life was full of stormy passions. It had no rest, and but little sunshine in it. He was strong and self-willed ; had excessive confidence in his own power, was obstinate and dogmatic, and had little respect for the opinion of others.
Mr. Seward may have flattered himself, while in his cabinet, that he was influencing him, and shaping his ( Johnson's) policy. Never was there a greater mistake. That strong man was master. He was doubtless deferential toward Mr. Seward, but it was in order to use him. Seward with all his ability was in Johnson's hands only as clay in the hands of the potter. And
466
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
yet with all his imperiousness Johnson, when he desired, could be gracious and winning.
It should have been a foregone conclusion, on the death of Mr. Lincoln, that Johnson and such men as Wade, Fessenden, Chandler, Morton, Stevens, Henry Winter Davis, Conkling, and the other Republican leaders would quarrel. It ought to have been known also that unless he should be allowed his own way, absolutely and entirely, in the reconstruction of the secession States, he would defy Congress. But somehow these things were not realized. Standing out as the only Senator from the seceding States who remained true to the old flag,
"Among the faithless, faithful only he,"
he had made himself so singularly conspicuous that it threw almost a luminous circle around him. His courage, too, had been heroic. He had been an exile from his family and from his home town. His speeches exceeded in patriotic fervor and in bitter denunciation of secession those of any other public man. From these causes his name was gilded with a dazzling luster.
When, therefore, in the spring of 1864, the national Con- vention came to select an associate for Lincoln on the presidential ticket, and when it was known by that body, as it was, that Lincoln desired Johnson selected for that place, it is not sur- prising that he should have been nominated .*
Mr. Johnson's life was one intense, unceasing, desperate, up- ward struggle. Never was a human breast fired by a more restless, inextinguishable love of power. His ambition was boundless. To it he sacrificed everything-society, pleasure, and ease. None of these had allurements sufficient to draw him from his purpose. The hope of power was the all-controlling object of life. In all the wide universe he worshiped no deity but that of ambition-the ambition to rise, to become great, to have his name sounded abroad, and to bestride the world.
Johnson was a man of the coolest and most unquestioned
*Messrs. Nicolay and Hay deny in their "Life of Lincoln" that the latter wished Johnson nominated or used any influence to that end. But the weight of the testimony which had been brought to light since this book appeared tends to the conclusion that he did use his influence in favor of the nomination of Johnson. Mr. Lincoln desired him on the ticket as a representative of the War Democrats.
467
NOTABLE MEN OF TENNESSEE
courage. When he was assailed on account of his loyalty by a mob of ruffians, in Lynchburg, Va., on his way home from Wash- ington, in the spring of 1861, and one of them attempted to pull his nose, he drew his revolver, and kept the whole pack at bay.
When he made his great speech in Knoxville, in April, 1861, I had been in the habit of hearing him speak for well-nigh thirty years .* I had never seen him so cool, so determined, so eloquent and so impressive in bearing, as on that day. For once, at least, he seemed to have the full stature and the lofty thoughts of a statesman. Whatever his motive may have been, in espous- ing the cause of the Union, there was certainly that day the appearance on his part of absolute sincerity. As he appeared before that large assemblage of earnest, expectant listeners, and appealed with burning words for the preservation of the Union, my heart-all hearts-turned toward him as never before. It seemed as if his lips had been touched by a live coal off the very altar of patriotism. But one such opportunity occurs to a public man in a lifetime. Deeply conscious of the awfulness of the crisis, with thick clouds around him, he arose to the full height of the great occasion. A disinterested love of country seemed to glow in his heart, flame out in his countenance, and burn on his tongue. As with outstretched arms and melting voice he stood that day pleading so persuasively, so kindly, so power- fully for his distracted country, he rose to the very heights of splendid eloquence, and called to mind the fiery spirit and noble thoughts of Demosthenes before the Athenian people.
*Johnson's last canvass for legislature occurred in 1835.
9912
١
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.