The Negro in the American Rebellion: His Heroism and His Fidelity

by William Wells Brown

CHAPTER XLI—PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON.

Origin of Andrew Johnson.—His Speeches in Tennessee.—The Negro’s Moses.—The Deceived Brahmin.—The Comparison.—Interview with Southerners.—Northern Delegation.—Delegation of Colored Men.—Their Appeal.

Springing from the highest circle of the lowest class of whites of the South, gradually rising, coming up over a tailor’s board, and all the obstacles that slaveholding society places between an humbly-born man and social and political elevation, Andrew Johnson entered upon his presidential duties, at the death of Mr. Lincoln, with the hearty good feeling of the American people. True, he had taken a glass too much on the day of his inauguration as vice-president, and the nation had not forgotten it; yet there were many palliating circumstances to be offered. The weather was cold, his ride from Tennessee had been long and fatiguing, he had met with a host of friends, who, like himself, were not afraid of the “critter.” And, after all, who amongst that vast concourse of politicians, on that fourth day of March, had not taken a “Tom and Jerry,” a “whiskey punch,” a “brandy smash,“or a “cocktail”? Again: the people had been robbed of their idol, and suddenly plunged into grief, and felt like looking up the commendable acts of the new President, rather than finding fault, and were desirous to see how far he was capable of filling the gap so recently made vacant.

They remembered that when the secessionists were withdrawing from Congress, in 1860, Mr. Johnson said,

“If I were president, I would try them for treason, and, if convicted, I would hang them.” This was mark number one in his favor. They had not forgotten his address to the Tennessee Convention, which, in the preceding January, had, by an almost unanimous vote, declared slavery in that State forever abolished.

This speech was made on the 14th of January, and is very uncompromising and eloquent. “Yesterday,” said he to the Convention, “you broke the tyrant’s rod, and set the captive free. (Loud applause.) Yes, gentlemen, yesterday you sounded the death-knell of negro aristocracy, and performed the funeral obsequies of that thing called slavery.... I feel that God smiles on what you have done. Oh, how it contrasts with the shrieks and cries and wailings which the institution of slavery has brought on the land!”

And his speech to the colored people of Nashville in the preceding October was exceedingly touching, by reason of its tender, heartfelt compassion for all the degradation, insult, and cruelty which had been heaped upon that poor and unoffending people so long. Its scorn and sarcasm were terrible as he arraigned the “master” class for their long career of lust, tyranny, and crime. He hoped a Moses would arise to lead this persecuted people to their promised land of freedom. “You are our Moses,” shouted first one, and then a great multitude of voices. But the speaker went on,

“God, no doubt, has prepared, somewhere, an instrument for the great work he designs to perform in behalf of this outraged people; and in due time your leader will come forth,—your Moses will be revealed to you.”

“We want no Moses but you!” again shouted the crowd. “Well, then,” replied Mr. Johnson, “humble and unworthy as I am, if no better shall be found, I will indeed be your Moses, and lead you through the Red Sea of war and bondage to a fairer future of liberty and peace.”