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THE

LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OP

ANDREW JOHNSON,

SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

INCLUDING HIS

State Papers, Speeches and Addresses.

BY JOHN SAVAGE,

AUTHOR OF "OUR LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN," ETC.

WITH AN ACCURATE PORTRAIT ON STEEL BY RITCHIE

AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.

NEW YORK:

DERBY & MILLER, PUBLISHERS,

No. 5 SPRUCE STREET.

1866.

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by

DERBY & MILLER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

NEW YORK:

EDWARD O. JENKINS, PRINTER,

20 NORTH WILLIAM ST.

PREFACE.

In a work published in 1860, designed to present facts more than opinions, the writer presented a sketch of the subject of the accompanying Memoir, as one of the prominent Statesmen of the Republic upon whom the Presidential mantle might fall. In 1864, during the Presidential cam-1 paign, he wrote for the publishers of this work an enlarged, though still circumscribed, "Life and Services of Andrew Johnson," in which, however, as a "War Democrat," he felt not only at liberty, but compelled, to express a profound admiration for the daring intellect and the harassing, though heroic labors which distinguished the invincible Southern champion of the Union.

After the stupefaction which possessed all heads and hearts at the assassination of Mr. Lincoln had been somewhat removed by the imperative necessities of the hour, the present work was suggested: and undertaken the more readily in the belief that the author could in no way more usefully add to such efforts as he devoted to the Union cause than by presenting to the public the record of a life

which so wonderfully illustrated the generous influences of Democratic institutions.

No life more eminently illustrates the blessings of the American system than that of Andrew Johnson in the past; and it is not too much to say that the moral sense of justice which guided, the mental faculties which sustained, and the accumulating experiences which accompanied his upward and honorable struggle, are, combined in the person of a Chief Magistrate, the very first and best possessions of a people passing through a crisis like the present.

To the people, and the children of the people everywhere, a career such as is here, however inadequately, portrayed, is an unanswerable incentive to faith in Republicanism; while to citizens of the Republic it is equally unanswerable as an argument for the integrity of the Union. Union is the inspiration and bulwark of our institutions. The checks it imposes and the license it allows, the respect it commands and the equality it confers, work with a harmony which nothing less strongly symmetrical could evoke, and anything more exacting could not control. These apparent contradictions in our system astonish Europe and compel it, while the Union triumphs, to acknowledge that Republicanism is not only a theory, but that man is capable of self-government.

The record of the public services of the President of the United States is therefore presented to the People from whom Andrew Johnson sprung. The documents from which the central narrative is drawn are partly original, and all authentic. In addition, a residence of nearly five years in

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