The President's Fidelity
Those of the friends
of the President who have feared that he would imperil the advantages won by the war by a
fatal leniency, or still worse, by joining a party which has been utterly repudiated by
the people of the country, have allowed their fears to obscure their perceptions. Whatever
the President has said has been full of a determination that the rights of freedom which
the war has conferred upon a certain class of the Southern population, and the class which
is most friendly to the Government, shall be maintained. He expresses himself in his own
way, but he never varies the strain.Thus, to the Governors and Legislatures and Committees of the
unorganized States he has constantly said: "Certain things are essential. The
emancipation amendment and equality before the law are among them. Farther I say nothing.
My action will depend upon events." To Mr. Stearns he said that, as a citizen of
Tennessee, he should be in favor of negro suffrage there under certain conditions. But he
said nothing better than what General Fiske reported in his speech in Brooklyn. The
General went to the White House to offer his resignation. The President said to him:
"People say sometimes I was born
South, and I will not treat the negro as a freeman; but I mean and desire to carry out the
views of the great and good Abraham Lincoln, and to see that these people have a guarantee
of their freedom. I may not believe with you in their ultimate attainments, but I mean
they shall have a fair chance. (Cheers) I wish the people of the North knew what I had to
stand between. Daily I receive telegrams and letters from all parts of the South of
dreadful import. If they could but see the difficulties of my position they would pity me
and give me their prayers." This he said with tears in his eyes; and I asked him if
the Freedmens Bureau was to be discontinued my resignation being already in
his hands and he said to me, "Go back; go to your work, and see justice done
to both white and black. The Freedmens Bureau will only cease to exist when the
Southern States are resolved to deal honestly and justly by these freedmen."
(Applause) And I came away from his presence with more of faith and hope in Andrew Johnson
than I have ever had.
It is apparently forgotten that during
the war Andrew Johnson was at the front. He saw with his own eyes the terrible details of
the struggle. He measured the spirit of rebellion. He knew the conduct of rebels, and he
knew also that of the slaves. He proved the quality of their fidelity as every other Union
soldier proved it. It was Andrew Johnson who walked before the seats of Mason, Slidell,
and the other conspirators in the Senate, and shook his finger in their faces, denouncing
men who should do what they intended to do as traitors whom, had he the power, he would
hang. It was Andrew Johnson who told the colored men of Tennessee that he would be their
Moses.
Such a man is not easily seduced. The
blandishments of his enemies are not likely to dazzle a man who has looked behind the
servile manner and the smiling mask. No man knows better than he that the party which
sought to use him, and monopolize the reputation of regard for him and support of his
policy, in order to carry an election, and which disastrously failed, is a party which
never relents or forgives. It would no more adopt him as a candidate than it did Tyler or
Fillmore. The future of Andrew Johnson is linked with that vast body of loyal men who were
the war party while the war lasted, and who intend, now that it is over, to plant peace
upon justice, and cement the Union by liberty.
Articles related to Johnson's Early
Presidency:
President
Johnsons Amnesty Proclamation
June 10, 1865, page 355
Pardon-Seekers at the
White House
October 14, 1865, page 641
General Logan upon
Reorganization
September 20, 1865, page 611
The Presidents
Experiment
September 30, 1865, page 610
Moses and John Tyler
October 7, 1865, page 627
The Presidents
Fidelity
December 9, 1865, page 771
The Presidents
"Friends"
November 4, 1865, page 691
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