to pass unrebuked.

said:

He, on

one occasion,

"Sir, I do not forget that I am a mechanic. I am proud to own it. Neither do I forget that Adam was a tailor, and sewed fig-leaves, or that our Saviour was the son of a carpenter."

He had great aversion to aristocracy, and perhaps was not without prejudices against gentlemen reared in affluence and idleness, arrogating to themselves the claim to all respectability in the world. On one occasion Jefferson Davis superciliously asked: “What do you mean by the laboring classes ?" Andrew Johnson replied: "Those who earn their bread by the sweat of their face, and not by fatiguing their ingenuity."

He was a true Democrat, and a firm believer in the sovereignty of the people: respecting statesmen and hating politicians--holding that legislation was for the many, and not for the benefit of any party. He was consistently in favor of curtailment in governmental expenses, and participated in nearly every debate upon appropriation bills. He introduced resolutions to reduce the salaries of members of Congress, and all officers of the government, civil, military, and naval. He opposed all unnecessary appropriations in Congress, from his dislike to "speculations and jobs."

He was the faithful friend of the poor and of the laboring classes, and ever appeared in Congress as their champion. He introduced the subject of homesteads into the House of Representa

tives, and advocated the cause with success in that branch. He also brought up the subject in the Senate, and debated it at great length; but the bill, as passed, was vetoed by Mr. Buchanan. He proposed an amendment to the tariff bill, with a view of taxing capital instead of labor. He also opposed the tariff on tea and sugar.

He advocated the bill to refund the fine imposed upon Andrew Jackson by Judge Hall at New Orleans (House of Representatives, Jan. 8, 1844); was in favor of the annexation of Texas (H. R., January 21, 1845); discussed the Oregon question, asserting our right to 54° 40′, but sustained the administration in the final settlement of the question (H. R., January 31, 1846); addressed the House on the Mexican question, in support of the administration, December 15, 1846, January 5, 1847, and August 2, 1847; opposed the bill establishing the courts of claims (H. R., January 6, 1849); made an earnest plea for the admission of California, and the protection of slavery (H. R., June 5, 1850); debated the Mexican indemnity bill (H. R., January 21, 28, 1852); also the bill for right of way on rail and plank roads (H. R., July 20, 1852); made a speech on frauds in the Treasury Department (H. R., January 13, 1853); and another on coinage (H. R., February 2, 1853).

While in the Senate, in addition to the measures referred to more at length in this sketch, he

opposed the increase of the regular army at the time of the Mormon difficulties (Senate, February 17, 1857); had an earnest debate with Honorable John Bell, his colleague, on the Tennessee resolutions inviting Bell to resign (Senate, February 23, 24, 1857); participated in the debate on the admission of Minnesota (Senate, April 6, 1858); opposed the Pacific Railroad bill, and repudiated the idea that it could be imposed upon him as a Democratic measure (Senate, January 25, 1859); advocated retrenchment (Senate, January 4 and February 12, 1859); and warmly defended Tennessee (Senate, March 26, 1860).

A native of a slave State, and himself the owner of slaves, "acquired by the toil of his own hands," he accepted slavery as it existed. Strong in the belief that the agitation of the subject would eventually lead to the abolition of slavery, and the dissolution of the Union would naturally follow, he opposed its introduction into the debates of Congress, and was one of those who disbelieved the right to petition upon the subject, giving his reasons in a speech delivered January 31st, 1844:

"My position is, that Congress has no power to interfere with the subject of slavery; that it is an institution local in its character and peculiar to the States where it exists, and no other power has the right to control it."*

* Speech in the House of Representatives, June 5th, 1860.

He continued true to this belief, and was consistent in his course to the very last, and in the stormy scenes in the Senate, in December, 1860, we find him demanding new guaranties for the perpetuity of slavery.

But it needed the severe trial of the crisis of 1860 and 1861 to develop the strong points in his character, and to discover his sincere love for and undeviating honesty to the Union. In those dark days, when each man was suspicious of his neighbor, the country demanded men of strength -with comprehension to grasp the great question of the day-to discern its bearings upon the future; men, "bold to take up, firm to sustain," the glorious flag of a commonwealth of States. Few who passed through and were tried by the fierce ordeal of those terrible hours came forth a wiser statesman and more honest patriot than Andrew Johnson.

An ardent admirer of Andrew Jackson, the memorable words of that invincible patriot"The Union, it must and shall be preserved"were deeply imprinted on his heart. In a speech, delivered in the House of Representatives, December 19th, 1846, in support of the policy of Mr. Polk's administration in carrying the war into Mexico, he had said:

"I am in favor of supporting the administration in this act, because I believe it to be right. But, sir, I care not whether right or wrong, I am for my country always."

In December, 1859, he had denounced the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, and said he believed it to be the legitimate fruit of abolition teachings. He wished for the punishment of its leaders under the Constitution, for a hostile entrance into a sovereign State. Under the same Constitution, he remained firm in 1860, after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, and feared none of the visions which so disturbed the imagination of a majority of the Southern senators and representatives. In view of the increasing excitement at the South, he thought the North should be willing to give some new constitutional guaranties for the protection of slavery, and introduced resolutions to that effect, December 13th, 1860, which were referred to the select committee of thirteen. Five days later, in a powerful speech, he appealed to the Southern senators to remain in the Union, and "fight for their constitutional rights on the battlements of the Constitution." He did not mean to be driven out of the Union, and if anybody must go out, it must be those who have violated the instrument that binds us together by passing personal liberty bills and opposing the execution of the fugitive slave law.

At the first session of the Thirty-seventh Congress, in July and August, 1861, he submitted the credentials of the senators from West Virginia, with appropriate remarks. On the 26th of July, 1861, he introduced a resolution defining the objects of the war, as follows: