shared with the later and opposing one at Pittsburg a spontaneity differing from the other two, and it bade fair to influence public sentiment in a manner that would effectually display itself at the autumn elections. The Johnson supporters had high hopes and may have' dreamed of a majority in the new House but any astute observer knew that such a result was not conceivable. The Northern people were with Congress and the only question was how largely would the Congressional party prevail; yet with a proper development of the sentiment aroused by the Philadelphia convention it was possible that the President's party would secure considerably more than one-third of the representatives to be elected in the autumn. Thomas Nast, the caricaturist, portrayed the efficient permanent president of the convention, Senator Doolittle, padlocking the mouths of aspiring delegates lest they might utter other than patriotic sentiments and disturb the "unbroken harmony." Could the senator have applied his padlock to Johnson his and his co-workers' attempt to found a new party might not have been so speedily crushed. The counteraction of the patient labour of weeks and the sagacious management of a heterogeneous convention began the next day after its adjournment with injudicious words of the President. In his speech to the committee who presented him with an official copy of the proceedings of the convention he said, "We have seen hanging upon the verge of the government, as it were, a body called, or which i assumes to be, the Congress of the United States - but in fact a Congress of only part of the States." In this declaration, which was one of the gravest impropriety there lurked, in the view of the public, a serious danger. It had been whispered that if a sufficient number of Johnson supporters could be chosen to Congress from 1 Harper's Weekly, Sept. 29. 2 Revised report used in the Impeachment of the President, Trial of Johnson, vol. i. p. 302. This will be referred to hereafter as "Trial.” CH. XXX.] "SWINGING AROUND THE CIRCLE" 617 the Northern and Border States, the President would recognize them and the representatives and senators elect of the late Confederate States as the Congress and command the army to sustain their possession of the Capitol. That such a course would be pursued was an idle fear. The ruler who advertises it is not one who executes a coup d'état and Johnson was alike too timorous and too patriotic to resort to violence. He undoubtedly deemed this an election argumentum ad hominem, so little comprehension had he of Northern sentiment and the weapon with which he was furnishing his adversary. But the speech in the White House was a trifle in comparison with what followed. Johnson's "electioneering tour" through the country, his "swinging around. the circle" (as it was called from words of his own in one of his previous harangues 1) nullified the favourable effect of the Philadelphia convention and ruined his chance of securing a strong minority in the next Congress. Invited to take part in the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of a monument to Stephen A. Douglas in Chicago he made it an opportunity of visiting the principal cities of the North and addressing the people, a means of influencing public opinion in which he had great faith. The President was accompanied by Seward, Welles, Randall (Postmaster-General), General Grant and Admiral Farragut. Grant's invitation came in the shape of an order as presumably did Farragut's and Stanton also received word that his company was desired by the President but he did not obey the command. Leaving Washington on August 28 the stop in Philadelphia was without incident and that in New York was signalized by a partisan, egotistical speech of the President in which he told a sympathetic audience 1 Feb. 10, McPherson, p. 58. 2 Life of Stanton, Gorham, vol. ii. p. 329; The Round Table, Sept. 15, p. 99. Seward wrote privately Aug. 25, Mr. and Mrs. Stanton "cannot go with us which they regret.” — Life of Seward, vol. iii. p. 340. "❝ from that he had "filled every office in the country the position of the lowest alderman in your city to President of the United States."1 I know From New York to Cleveland a number of stops were made and part of the journey was "an indecent orgy "; indeed no such presidential progress has ever been known. When Johnson appeared on the balcony of the Kennard House in Cleveland (September 3) to speak to the people he was intoxicated: the brutality of his nature was uppermost rendering him especially unfit to address a mass of men who for the most part were partisans of Congress. A scene ensued which seemed to drag the presidential office to the lowest depth of degradation. "I was placed upon the ticket," he said, "with a distinguished fellow-citizen who is now no more. there are some who complain. [A voice, "Unfortunately." Yes unfortunate for some that God rules on high and deals in right. . . . Who can come and place his finger on one pledge I ever violated or one principle I ever proved false to? [A voice, "How about New Orleans?" Another voice," Hang Jeff Davis."] Hang Jeff Davis, he says. Hang Jeff Davis. Why don't you hang him? Haven't you got the court? Haven't you got the Attorney-General? Who is your Chief Justice and has refused to sit upon the trial? . . . I called upon your Congress that is trying to break up the Government. [Cries, "You be d-d" and cheers mingled with hisses. Great confusion. "Don't get mad Andy."] Well I will tell you who is mad. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.' Did your Congress order any of them to be tried? [Three cheers for Congress.] . . . In this crowd here to-night the remark has been made, Traitor, Traitor!' My countrymen will you hear me? . . . I want to know when or where or under what circumstances Andrew Johnson 1 McPherson, p. 134. 2 Lowell, post. 1 CH. XXX.] JOHNSON IN ST. LOUIS 619 ever deserted any principle or violated the Constitution of his country." [Cries of "Never" and "You abandoned your party."] As the bandying of words went on he heard a voice from the crowd, "Is this dignified?" "I understand you," he retorted. "You may talk about the dignity of the President. [Cries, "How was it about his making a speech on the 22d of February?" I care not for my dignity. A certain portion of our countrymen will respect a citizen wherever he is entitled to respect. . . . [A voice, "Traitor."] I wish I could see that man. I would bet you now that if the light fell on your face, cowardice and treachery would Show yourself. Show yourself. Come out here where I can see you. . . . I come here neither to criminate or recriminate but when attacked my plan is to defend myself." He continued with a defence of his policy. Towards the end of his harangue he was asked "How about Louisiana?" to which he replied, "You let the negroes vote in Ohio before you talk about negroes voting in Louisiana." 1 be seen in it. 2 The celebration at Chicago passed off with "comparative decorum ";" but in St. Louis (September 8) the President irritated by cries of "New Orleans," broke out into a charge that the riot there was "substantially planned" by the "radical Congress." He defended "my policy" and abused his opponents, imputing to many of them in essentially vulgar terms a desire to hold on to the Federal offices. He alluded to Christ and | Judas, to Moses, to Thaddeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips and Charles Sumner, in a manner that would have been blasphemous and vituperative even in a stump speaker.3 At Indianapolis on his homeward journey he was 1 McPherson, p. 134; Trial, vol. i. p. 325; Dewitt, p. 115; editorial comments of Cleveland Herald, Sept. 4, 6, 7, 10, Plain Dealer, Sept. 5, 6, 7, Leader, Sept. 5, 7; Boston Advertiser, Sept. 5; New York World, Sept. 6, Times, Sept. 7, Tribune, Sept. 8, Evening Post, Sept. 11. 2 Dewitt, p. 118. 3 McPherson, p. 136; Trial, vol. i. p. 340. し silenced by the yelling and hooting of a mob which further insulted him with contumelious taunts.1 2 The President returned to the White House utterly discredited before the country. The words of The Nation were as accurate as any such general statement can be, "Probably no orator of ancient or modern times ever accomplished as much by a fortnight's speaking as Mr. Johnson has done." Lowell spoke of the journey as "an advertising-tour of a policy in want of a party," and an "unhappy exposure of the unseemly side of democratic institutions"; of Johnson as "the first of our chief magistrates who believed in the brutality of the people and gave to the White House the ill-savor of a corner-grocery." The feeling against him, wrote John Sherman, "was intensified by his conduct in his recent tour when he sunk the Presidential office to the level of a grog-house." A policy devised by the angels could not stand such advocacy and the ratting from the party of the President to the 1 Dewitt, p. 123; Life of Morton, Foulke, vol. i. p. 483. 2 Sept. 27, p. 241. 3 The Seward-Johnson Reaction, North American Review, Oct. 1866, pp. 525, 526, 528, 529. This is a strong piece of political satire. The following will impress any one who has read Johnson's speeches : "For so much of Mr. Johnson's harangues as is not positively shocking, we know of no parallel so close as in his Imperial Majesty Kobes I.: "Er rühmte dass er nie studirt Auf Universitäten Und Reden sprach auch sich selbst heraus, Lowell had no sympathy with the ostensible object of the journey, and gave a merciless characterization of Douglas. He and Charles Eliot Norton were joint editors of the Review, and this number contains a bitter attack on Douglas from George W. Curtis. The circulation of the Review was probably small, and I do not know how extensively extracts from these articles were copied in the press. But Lowell's article, and in a very much less degree Curtis's as a background, made a very effective campaign document. I remember well their powerful impression on me at the time; and in re-reading them I comprehend their potency. Oct. 26, Sherman Letters, p. 278. |