first ambition was to equal the visitor as a reader, and become familiar with those speeches which had a special effect on his mind. He took up the alphabet without an instructor; but Ire obtained assistance by applying now to one journeyman and then to another. Having acquired a knowledge of the letters, he desired to borrow the book which he had so often heard read and in which he was so profoundly interested. The owner, however, kindly made him a present of it, with the additional gift of some instruction on the use of letters in the formation of words. Thus it may be said, he learned to spell and read at the same time. in that book. As may be imagined, the difficulties were great, but by close application he soon learned to read with considerable facility. The new and dazzling region of enjoyment thus opened to young Johnson's vision, dispelled the sense of drudgery by which it was won; and inspired him with an insatiate and restless anxiety to explore the mines of knowledge which lay sealed up in books. Working, steadily, from ten to twelve hours daily, the desire to refresh himself at the intellectual springs of greatness could receive but little gratification. The thirst for knowledge, however, must at least find some appeasement; and the apprentice, after his labor was done, devoted a couple of hours nightly to the still widening fascination of books. In the autumn of 1824 the term of his apprenticeship expired, and he entered the world without a cent as a basis of action; but with a trade, rich in energy, and sensitive with the anxieties of an education begun and continued under exacting difficulties.* * Mr. Litchford, an old journeyman tailor of Raleigh, foreman in the shop where young Johnson partially learned his trade, gives some reminiscences of the youth of the President of the United States, which, while not differing in any material way with the narrative in the text, adds in a very racy manner some details accounting for the apprentice's movements; and are altogether characteristically illustrative of that period of his life. Mr. Litchford thinks it We next find young Johnson as a working journeyman— a love story, which his celebrity since has brought to light, tracing him to the vicinity of Laurens Court House, S. C. Here, as the story goes, he fell in love with an estimable young lady; but he was a stranger—he was poor, he was young, not yet near out of his teens; and he passionately fled away from what to him seemed cold hearts and pitying smiles, which his youthful sensitiveness could brook less patiently than open sneers. However naturally unpleasant such an episode to a young and ambitious man, the sensitiveness which renders it annoying also furnishes to a man of strong will, pride to overcome its results. Instead of depressing young Johnson's spirits, it gave him strength of purpose to lift himself above the circumstances of the occasion. He returned to Raleigh in May, 1826, procured journey work, and remained there until the September following, when he turned his footsteps westward, taking with him his was in 1818 that "Andy," as he called him, was bound apprentice to J. J. Selby. He is described as a wild "harum-scarum boy," but had no "unhonorable traits about him." He was exceedingly restless, and his activity in climbing fences, trees, etc., with the natural sequence thereof of tearing his clothing, was a great source of trouble to his mistress. On account of his propensities in this direction, she once made him a coarse, heavy shirt of homespun goods, and the young gentleman for a short time was obliged to wear a whole under-garment. In 1824 he "cut," not because he was sent to a corn-field to work, as some one has said, but on account of a "scrape with a lady by the name of Wells, who had two right smart daughters." With another boy, named Grayson, an apprentice in a rival shop, Andy "chunked the old lady's house" one Saturday night, Next day she heard who it was, and threatened to "persecute them on Monday." They heard of it and "cut." Mr. Litchford believes "he knew his A B C's when he came to the shop, but I think I taught him to read." Mr. Litchford continued, "and he deserves unbounded credit, for some people say as how they had a grand start, and I reckon he started underground." He went to South Carolina, and returned after a year and a-half, during which time he had earned his living with his needle. On his arrival he applied to Mr. Litchford, then keeping an establishment of his own, for work, but didn't get it because he had been "advertised" as a runaway, and the law prevented any oue from harboring him. Mr. Selby had, during Andy's absence, sold out and moved into the country; but, with a desire to make due amends for his misdemeanor, the runaway walked twenty miles to see him and tried to make arrangements to pay him for his time. Mr. Selby required security, and Andy could not get it. mother, who was wholly dependent on him for support; and whom, to his glory and honor be it said, he always tenderly, and as his fortune increased, handsomely supported until her death. He stopped at Greenville, Tenn., commenced work as a journeyman, and counted the close of his eighteenth year. His good star had led him thither. He remained in Greenville about a year, married a most worthy lady, and pushed still further West in search of fortunc. Failing to find a suitable place to settle, he returned to Greenville and commenced business, his industry and energy intensified by the family cares he had undertaken. I have said his good star led him to Greenville, and truly! for there the youth found a wife who became his Egeria. Up to this time his education was limited to reading. We have seen the difficulties under which that was accomplished. He had no opportunity of learning how to write or of becoming acquainted with the mysteries of arithmetic. Under the loving tutelage of his excellent wife, he soon He told Mr. Litchford that he wouldn't let him be security if he would, and so he departed again, this time going to Tennessee. Mr. Litchford next heard of him as a Member of Congress from that State, but didn't believe it was "his boy Andy" until he saw it "advertised in the papers, about the mechanics in Congress, and saw the word 'tailor' after his name." A pamphlet copy of one of his speeches, sent to Mr. Litchford under his Congressional frank, is yet in the possession of the latter. After his first session he returned to Raleigh and made a speech, "pitching into Parson Brownlow and Gales, the editor of the Register." It seems that Brownlow, a political opponent of Johnson at that time, had sent to Gales for "family items." Gales furnished them, and hence Johnson's attack on him and Brownlow. The citizens at Raleigh at that time thought it something remarkable that the "tailor's apprentice" of their recollection should be able to make such a speech, but Johnson told Mr. Litchford "how it was." His wife had "learned him" while he was on the tailor's board working for his bread in Tennessee. During this visit, Mr. Johnson asked Litchford to show him his father's grave, and he did so. It has but a plain gray-stone slab at the head, and simply marked “J. J.," and is nearly hidden from view by the overgrowth of weeds and brambles. The house in which President Johnson was born is still standing, and is an object of no little curiosity to the many strangers who visit Raleigh. It is a small frame building, a story and a-half high, containing only two or three rooms. Relic mongers have already commenced tearing off the weather-beaten sideboards. wielded the pen and the slate pencil; and these doors being open, she soon presented him at other shrines of useful knowledge. The time at his disposal for study was now more limited than ever; family responsibilities and an opening and growing business demanded almost his every hour. But diligent application, a keen economy of time, his wife reading to and instructing him while at work, and the pursuit of education late at night, when the day's work was over and the village wrapped in sleep, vouchsafed unto him just rewards for his manual and his mental labors. His business and his brain increased in strength together, and the result was an humble competency of domestic comfort from the one, and from the other, besides its intrinsic value, a light by which to judge and appreciate the manly dignity of labor. In a previous sketch of the subject of this Memoir, I indicated the romantic interest attaching to this period of Johnson's life: "What material for the romancist might be found in the history of those days of the future Senator; when his wife, fondly leaning by the side of the youth who was earning bread for her, taught him to read, and decked with the fair flowers of a healthy education the hitherto neglected garden of his brain! What a group! what a study!-the youth's fingers mechanically plying the needle, his brain alive, following the instructions of his wife-teacher, or with a bright, almost childish, satisfaction meeting her approval of his correct answers! After work-hours she taught him to write. What a living, ennobling romance was there being enacted in the wilds of Tennessee thirty years ago! But we must hurry over this chapter of our hero's history with a mere suggestive sentence. Young Johnson worked at his trade with great industry and attention, extending, meanwhile, the advantages which his capacity for knowledge presented. The shop-board was the school where he received the rudi "Our Living Representative Men." Philadelphia, 1860. ments of his education, which he afterward, in rare leisure moments and in the deep silence of the midnight hours, applied to the attainment of a more perfect system. "The disadvantages of his position would have discour aged almost any other man, certainly with any other kind of a wife. But, cheered by his excellent companion and prompted by his own desire for self-improvement, young Johnson brought an energy to the difficulties before him which nothing could repress or conquer. It is not a matter of surprise that he was hostile to every proposition that would give power to the few at the expense of the many; that his hard and yet bright experiences made him the exponent of the wants and power of the working class." He felt the force of the truth so eloquently expressed by another workingman, J. de Jean (Ffraser), one of the poets of the Irish movement of 1848: "When, by th' almighty breath of God Each to its sphere was hurled The living creature-and the clod— As trusted viceroy on the earth, To carry out the plan For which He gave that globe its birth, Johnson soon gave voice to the feelings of the workingmen in Greenville. He made them conscious of their strength and proud of it, in opposition to the aristocratic coterie which had until then ruled the community, so that no man who worked for his livelihood could be elected even an alderman. With the dawning vision of intellect and self-reliance he saw that all this was wrong, and he determined, with the aid of his fellow-workers, to right it. Meetings were held in every part of the town, and the result was the election (in 1828) of the young tailor to the office of alderman by a triumphant majority. How proud the good wife must have felt! |