CHAPTER XVIII.

ANCESTRY.

N attempting to write of the ancestry of Andrew Johnson, we are met at once by that sadly expressive term, "poor whites," so common and so well understood in the old days of the south. Poor indeed was his father, Jacob Johnson, whose employments were city constable,

sexton and porter of a bank. He lost his life in attempting to save a man from drowning in 1812. But this humble origin is no discredit to him in American society, while the fact that he was born at the bottom and rose by his own force to the top, is one of the common things that glorifies our political institutions. Such instances as Jackson, Johnson, Lincoln, Garfield, no American recurs to but with pride. In no other country in the world can they so often occur. Parents are often best known by their children, and we may reasonably infer from these men the qualities and powers which existed in their ances try unseen. Beneath common soils there are often precious ores.

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.

Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808. His father died when he was four years old. His childhood was subject to the hardships of the poor and

fatherless in that section of the country. How he got up to ten years old his biographers do not say, but we must suppose that such a mother as Andrew Johnson must have had, found a way to care for him. At that age he was put to service with a tailor by the name of Shelby. While at work in this man's shop learning his trade, a neighbor who was fond of reading used to go in and read to the workmen from the "American Speaker." Andrew was an interested listener. That book became to him a wonder. He craved it for his own, but he knew it would reveal none of its secrets to him till he should learn to read. So he at once set about learning his letters, and then to spell and read. He became an industrious student in all his odd hours from work. He had an object to study for-to read that book for himself, and as soon as he could read, became an earnest reader of such books as he could get.

When he was about sixteen years old he got into trouble by throwing stones at an old woman's house, and started at once for unknown parts. He found his way to Laurens Court House, South Carolina, where he procured work at his trade. Two years after he returned to Raleigh, and learned that Mr. Shelby had moved twenty miles into the country. On foot he sought and found him. He made all due apologies for his unceremonious departure two years before, and desired to go to work again for Mr. Shelby. But he demanded security for his faithfulness, which Andrew could not give, and so, heavy-hearted, he had to look the world in the face, which had no home and but little encouragement for him.

In September, 1826, he went to Tennessee and took his mother with him. He found work at Greenville. During his first year there, with the courage of youth he took a wife to help him enjoy his poverty. Having married, he went west to find a place to make his fortune. After a fruitless search of several months, he returned to Greenville and went to work at his trade.

He was fortunate in his marriage in this, that he found a teacher in his wife of whom he was glad to learn. The difference between him and most men is that they accept with ill

grace the good lessons of their wives, while he gladly and teachably learned of his really wiser and "better half." She was a fair scholar and taught him writing and arithmetic, and stimulated him to the acquisition of further knowledge.

EARLY MANHOOD.

Mr. Johnson's studious habits soon gave him information and mental activity above his associates, and began to make him conspicuous as a leader of opinions and in conversation. began to be a center around which clustered his class. He had a turn for politics in a local way, and organized a workingmen's party in opposition to the aristocratic element which, in the main, managed the politics in those parts. His new party elected him an alderman. He was re-elected for two successive years; and the next year was elected mayor. During these years he was active in a debating society composed of the young men of the place and college. One of the students of the college at that time later in life described his house as being in the outskirts of the village, about ten feet square, with a tailor's bench in one corner, and with but little furniture. The students often called to see him, because he welcomed them with heartiness and entertained them with his spirited conversation. Probably on account of his influence with the students he was appointed by the court a trustee of the Rhea academy. About this time he was active in behalf of a new constitution for the state.

In the summer of 1835 he offered himself a candidate for the lower house of the legislature, and took the field for his own election, claiming to be a democrat. At first he was coolly received by the leaders, but he made his canvass so intelligent and vigorous that he not only won his way to their confidence, but to an election. At ten he could not read; at twenty could read only; at twenty-one he married and began to learn writing and arithmetic; at twenty-seven he was a member of the state legislature, and yet earned his living all this time on the tailor's bench.

JOHNSON A LEGISLATOR.

Mr. Johnson took his seat as a legislator, and very soon. made himself conspicuous as a resolute opponent of the principal measure of the session, which was a plan to institute a system of internal improvement in the way of road making and macadamizing, which was to involve the state in a debt of four millions of dollars. He predicted disaster to the scheme if it was attempted. The plan was adopted and all the disasters came, with but little benefit. In 1839, he was re-elected to the legislature. In 1840, he took an active part in the canvass for Van Buren, making speeches in all parts of the state. He was made elector at large and voted for Van Buren. In 1841, he was elected to the State Senate, into which he introduced measures for a number of moderate improvements in the eastern part of the state.

In 1843, he was elected to the Lower House of Congress, and held his place by successive re-elections for ten years. He was elected as a democrat, and sustained in the main, the measures of the democrats during that time. He at length became a slave holder, though he thought slavery would ultimately be abolished. Though reared in poverty, he seemed to have no strong repugnance to slavery, or strong convictions against it. When the rebellion broke out and he took the Union side, the confederates confiscated his seven or eight slaves. He had but a superficial view of slavery, as he had of politics generally. He was essentially a southern man, with southern principles, till he declared for the Union. He had gratitude enough to realize what the Union had done for him, and to be faithful to it.

In 1848, he made an elaborate argument in favor of the veto power.

In 1853, he was elected governor of Tennessee; and at the next election re-elected. The excitement at these elections was great, and his life was threatened. He spoke sometimes with a revolver on the table and his hand on it. On one occasion he proposed that those who had threatened should do the shooting first. As nobody shot, he proceeded.

In December, 1857, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States, to which he had been elected by his state legislature. In the Senate his course was much as it had been in the House-democratic, southern. In the House he had made himself conspicuous by advocating a homestead bill giving one hundred and sixty acres of the public lands to actual settlers thereon. He took up this again in the Senate and carried it through, only to have it defeated by President Buchanan. In this he acted out of his better nature, and not in sympathy with the pro-slavery policy of his party.

He fought vigorously for economy in the management of the national finances, and opposed the Pacific railroad scheme. He opposed the compromise measures of 1850, yet voted for them in the end.

In the Charleston-Baltimore convention of 1860 he was proposed by the Tennessee delegation as a candidate for the presidency. In the contest which followed with four candidates he sustained Breckenridge; the extreme southern candidate. His associates had, in the main, been with the radical proslavery men. He was trained in their school; bought slaves to be one of them; desired to nationalize slavery, and hated black republicanism. Such moral notions as he had were based in the pro-slavery code; and when the question of secession came, he maintained the Union, largely on the ground that the battle for slavery could best be fought, as he said, "under the battlements of the constitution." He presented strongly the right of the Union to New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Florida and the great river courses of the west, by purchase and conquest. He said: "I am opposed to secession. I believe it no remedy for the evils complained of. Instead of acting with that division of my southern friends who take ground for secession, I shall take other grounds, while I try to accomplish the same end. I think that this battle ought to be fought, not outside, but inside, the Union." Being of them, and because he would not go out with them, the secessionists made war upon him, burned him in effigy, insulted him with mobs, threatened him with lynching, sacked his home, drove his sick wife and children into the