Volume II Part 8 (1/2)

John Tyler was opposed to the administration of Mr. Van Buren, but he was opposed also to a national bank, which was then an accepted idea and an a.s.sured public policy of the Whig Party. Hence, it happened that when Mr. Tyler came to the Presidency, he resisted the attempt of Congress to establish a national bank, and by the exercise of the veto- power, on two occasions, he defeated the measure. This controversy caused the overthrow of the Whig Party, and it ended the contest in behalf of a United States bank.

In the case of John Tyler and in the case of Andrew Johnson there was an application, in dangerous excess, of a policy that prevails in all national conventions. When the nomination of a candidate for the Presidency has been secured, the dominant wing of the party turns to the minority with a tender of the Vice-Presidency. In 1880, when the nomination of General Garfield had been made, the selection of a candidate for the Vice-Presidency was tendered to the supporters of General Grant, and it was declined by more than one person.

Mr. Johnson never identified himself with the Republican Party; and neither in June, 1864, nor at any other period of his life, had the Republican Party a right to treat him as an a.s.sociate member. He was, in fact, what he often proclaimed himself to be--a Jacksonian Democrat.

He was a Southern Union Democrat. He was an opponent, and a bitter opponent, of the project for the dissolution of the Union, and a vindictive enemy of those who threatened its destruction.

His speeches in the Senate in the Thirty-sixth and the Thirty-seventh Congress were read and much approved throughout the North, and they prepared the way for the acceptance of his nomination as a candidate of the Republican Party in 1864.

Mr. Johnson was an earnest supporter of the Crittenden Compromise.

That measure originated in the House of Representatives. It was defeated in the Senate by seven votes and six votes of the seven came from the South. The provisions of the bill were far away from the ideals of Republicans generally, although the measure was sustained by members of the party. By that scheme the Fugitive Slave Law was made less offensive in two particulars, but the United States was to pay for fugitives from slavery whenever a marshal failed to perform his duty. As an important limitation of the powers of Congress, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was to be dependent upon the consent of the States of Maryland and Virginia.

Mr. Johnson gave voice to his indignation when he spoke of the Southern men whose votes contributed to the defeat of the Crittenden Compromise.

”Who, then,” said he, ”has brought these evils upon the country? Whose fault is it? Who is responsible for it? With the help we had from the other side of the chamber, if all those on this side had been true to the Const.i.tution and faithful to their const.i.tuents, and had acted with fidelity to the country, the amendment of the Senator from New Hamps.h.i.+re could have been voted down. Whose fault was it? Who did it?

Southern traitors, as was said in the speech of the Senator from California. They did it. They wanted no compromise.”

These extracts show the style of speech in which Mr. Johnson indulged, and they prove beyond question that in the winter of 1861 he had no sympathy with the Republican Party of 1856 and 1860. These facts explain, and in some measure they palliate, the peculiarities of his career, which provoked criticism and an adverse popular judgment when he came to the Presidency. Nor is there evidence within my knowledge that he ever denied the right of secession. However that may have been, he disapproved of the exercise of the right at all stages of the contest.

In the Thirty-sixth Congress Mr. Johnson proposed amendments to the Const.i.tution which gave him consideration in the North. By his proposition the Fugitive Slave Law was to be repealed, and in its place the respective States were to return fugitives or to pay the value of those that might be retained.

Slavery was to be abolished in the District of Columbia with the consent of Maryland and upon payment of the full value of the slaves emanc.i.p.ated. The Territories were to be divided between freedom and slavery. His scheme contemplated other changes not connected necessarily with the system of slavery. Of these I mention the election of President, Vice-President, Senators, and Judges of the Supreme Court by the people, coupled with a limitation of the terms of judges to twelve years.

The Crittenden Resolution contained these declarations of facts and policy:

1. The present deplorable war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States.

2. Congress has no purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the established rights of those States.

Upon a motion to include disunionists in the North under the first charge, Mr. Johnson voted in the negative with Sumner, Wilson, Wade, and other Republicans.

This brief survey of Mr. Johnson's Congressional career at the opening of the war may indicate the characteristics of his mind in controversy and debate, and furnish means for comprehending his actions in the troublous period of his administration.

Some conclusions are deducible from this survey. First of all it is to be said that he never a.s.sumed to be a member of the Republican Party. Next, I do not find evidence which will justify the statement that he was a disbeliever in the right of a State to secede from the Union. It is manifest that he was not an advocate of the doctrine of political equality as it came to be taught by the leaders of the Republican Party. When he became President, he was an opponent of negro suffrage.

This record, though not concealed, was not understood by the members of the convention that placed him in nomination for the second office in the country.

This a.n.a.lysis prepares the way for an extract from the testimony of Mr.

Stanley Matthews, who was afterwards a justice of the Supreme Court, and who was examined by the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives when engaged in investigating the doings of the President previous to his impeachment. Mr. Johnson was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee the third day of March, 1862. Colonel Matthews was provost-marshal at Nashville, where Johnson resided during his term as Governor. In that term Matthews and Johnson became acquainted. When Johnson was on his way to Was.h.i.+ngton to take the oath of office, he stopped at the Burnet House in Cincinnati. Matthews called upon him. Matthews had been a Democrat until the troubles in Kansas. In the conversation at the Burnet House Mr. Johnson made these remarks, after some personal matters had been disposed of. I quote from the testimony of Judge Matthews:

”I inquired as to the state of public feeling on political matters in Tennessee at that time. He remarked that very great changes had taken place since I had been there, that many of those who at first were the best Union men had turned to be the worst rebels, and that many of those who had originally been the worst rebels were now the best Union men. I expressed surprise and regret at what he said in reference to the matter.

”We were sitting near each other on the sofa. He then turned to me and said, 'You and I were old Democrats.' I said, 'Yes.' He then said, _'I will tell you what it is, if the country is ever to be saved, it is to be done through the old Democratic Party.'_

”I do not know whether I made any reply to that, or, if I did, what it was; and immediately afterwards I took my leave.”

The larger part of this quotation is only important as leading up to the phrase that is emphasized, and which may throw light upon Mr.

Johnson's policy and conduct when he came to the Presidency.

This conversation occurred in the month of February, 1865, and it must be accepted as evidence, quite conclusive, that Mr. Johnson was then opposed to the policy of the Republican Party, whose honors he had accepted. In a party sense Mr. Johnson was not a Republican: he was a Union Democrat. He was opposed to the dissolution of the Union, but not necessarily upon the ground that the Union had a supreme right to exist in defiance of what is called ”State sovereignty.” This with the Republican Party was a fundamental principle. Under the influence of the principles of the old Democratic Party Mr. Johnson advanced to the Vice-Presidency, and while under the influence of the same idea he became President.

When the Republican Party came to power, the State of Maryland, that portion of Virginia now known as West Virginia, the State of Kentucky, and the State of Missouri were largely under the influence of sympathizers with the eleven seceding States of the South. It was necessary in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri to maintain the ascendency of the National Government by the exhibition of physical force, and in some instances by its actual exercise. Mr. Lincoln's policy in regard to the question of slavery was controlled, up to the month of July, 1862, by the purpose to conciliate Union slave-holders in the States mentioned. Of his measures I refer to the proposition to transfer the free negroes to Central America, for which an appropriation of $25,000 was made by Congress. Next, Congress pa.s.sed an act for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia upon the payment of three hundred dollars for each slave emanc.i.p.ated.