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And all that night long his name was mingled with the curses and execrations of the traitor and oppressor, and with the blessings of the oppressed and poor."

In the main Mr. Johnson's career as Military Governor of Tennessee is not remembered to his credit in that State, especially at Nashville. The vigor of his course is still fresh in the minds of hundreds who had occasion to feel the authority he was always ready to exercise. It is claimed that his private and social habits during this period were extremely reprehensible; that he preferred bad whisky and low society to good; and that he was notably wicked and perverse. But it is difficult to get a clean, trustworthy view of Andrew Johnson, as Military Governor, in Nashville, to-day. The past has already become dim, excepting where the trials of the time burnt themselves places in passions that survive. With the aristocratic, who were mainly rebels, Governor Johnson really associated but little at this or any period of his life. From principle he did not feel at home among them. With a great passion for being regarded as the champion of "the people," he showed a constant tendency to appear and act like them. Thus his motives and character were constantly exposed to partial and extreme judgments. He was a man of powerful, despotic will, but it sometimes led him astray, and was not always able to keep him from falling. At his best he was not good. His severity was not without apology, and above what was and is called his moral turpitude, his official integrity stands without reproach.

Many of his apparently severe judgments and exactions were really distinguished for their justice, as they always were for the cool and determined purpose that carried them out to the letter.

About his assessments on the wealthy rebels. there is a diversity of opinion in Nashville to-day, of course, and some go so far as to accuse him of appropriating the money thus obtained to the use of his friends. But this charge is unjust and slanderous, and rests on nothing more than unreliable passion. No charge against his official, financial integrity, at this or any other period of his career, can be sustained. While acting as Military Governor of Tennessee his situation presented great temptations for acquiring a fortune. The privileges given him by the Administration were immense, but it is absolutely certain that he took no advantage of them. The Government was greatly the gainer by his official honesty.

CHAPTER VII.

PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION OF 1864 MR. JOHNSON FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY-THE ELECTION.

N Tuesday morning, June 8, 1864, the Republican or National Union Convention met in Baltimore to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, or really to renominate Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency, and some War Democrat for the Vice-Presidency.

The Republicans now found themselves in an unfortunate dilemma from which there seemed to be no escape, or from which it did not appear even desirable to try to escape. A very large portion of the Democratic party had come with heart and strength to its aid in fighting against the Rebellion and in support of the Government, and now this loyal War Democracy was not to be ignored. Many leading Democrats had come out from among the disloyal in their broken party, and had worked with unwavering purpose for the success of the national cause, and these men were not to be passed unnoticed. In fact, to a great extent, among patriots everywhere, party lines were ignored and the struggle had become a common one. Even the name Republican seemed discourteous and unsuited to the occasion, and to designate the spirit which ruled the hour and the

diverse elements here joined in the political contest, that of Union National, or National Union, or Union and Republican was largely or generally adopted. This necessity was destined subsequently to give rise to many bitter feelings and acts, which would have been avoided by the renomination of Mr. Hamlin, or a straight Republican ticket. It will be seen hereafter how the Republican leaders lost sight of the real character of this fusion when they came to expect and demand everything from the Democrat whom they had elected to be Vice-President, and who, beyond all their dreams, became President.

One of the first things which came before the convention was the question of admitting delegations from Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Congress had decided against any of the States engaged in the Rebellion taking part in national affairs until they were fully restored in their relations to the General Government under some plan of reconstruction. But the general theory of the Republicans had always been that all the schemes, acts, ordinances, etc., of secession were in themselves null and without effect on the Union or the relation of the States in any way, and this was President Lincoln's view. This was the correct view, and well would it have been for the country if it had been more strictly carried out. On the strength of the resolution of Congress on this point an effort was made to shut out the delegations from the three States here mentioned, but this was not successful. They were admitted equally with other States as voters in the convention. This

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course very materially changed the prospects as to the selection of a candidate for the second place on the ticket. In the delegation from Tennessee was the noted Parson W. G. Brownlow. The following account of the nomination for Vice-President is taken from "The Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson," by John Savage, a work written immediately after Mr. Johnson entered upon the Presdency:

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"Many judicious men believed that the wisest course would be to renominate Mr. Hamlin; but this it was perceived by others would be to ignore entirely the claims of that very large body of Democrats who had discarded their party obligations in the presence of a national peril, and had sustained the Administration in the prosecution of the Others looked to the policy of conceding this nomination to the army, and sought among its officers for a suitable candidate. The delegates from Tennessee and Louisiana thought the border States ought to be considered, but as their first anxiety was to secure the admission of those States into the convention, which had been most vehemently resisted by Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, and others, at the very outset, they deemed it wise to postpone the presentation of any claims of this kind. By general consent it seemed after a little time to be conceded that the State of New York might nominate the candidate for Vice-President, and that her choice would be the choice of the convention; and this concession seemed to have been prompted, in a large degree, by the belief that New York would present her own son, Daniel S. Dickinson, whose devotion to the country during the war had wiped out all hostile memory of his previous political course, and who was regarded as unquestionably the strongest candidate for the Vice-Presidency by the members of the convention at large.

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