[76] Life of Garrison, by his sons, iv, 123.
[77] Grant's testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary, July 18, 1867. McPherson, p. 303.
[78] Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, vol. iv, no. 4.
CHAPTER XVI
ANDREW JOHNSON'S FIRST MESSAGE
Said the New York Times, December 6, 1865:
Probably no executive document was ever awaited with greater interest than the message transmitted to Congress yesterday. It is safe to say that none ever gave greater satisfaction when received. Its views on the most momentous subjects, domestic and foreign, that ever concerned the nation, are full of wisdom, and are conveyed with great force and dignity.
The original manuscript of the message thus eulogized was discovered nearly half a century later by Professor Dunning, of Columbia University, in the handwriting of George Bancroft, among the Johnson papers in the Library of Congress.
It remains a document creditable alike to the man who composed it and to the one who made it his own by sending it as an official communication to Congress. It breathed the spirit of peace and harmony, of justice tempered with mercy, of human kindness and helpfulness, of self-abnegation and self-restraint, all couched in the tone of high statesmanship. It adhered, however, to the opinion previously expressed by the President, that the Executive had no right to extend the suffrage to persons to whom it had not been granted by state authority.