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 discouraged 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- 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! About this time, or a little later probably, a debating society was formed by the young men in the neighborhood of Greenville, and in connection with Greenville College. In it Johnson distinguished himself and made many friends. A collegian of the period gives us some brief reminiscences which not only exhibit our hero's persistent endeavors to cultivate his mind, but also present a suggestive glimpse of the domicile and workshop which sheltered his aspiring genius. In the romantic valley, says our informant, between the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains, where the first settlements were made in Tennessee, we may, by looking at the map, find a small town in Green County called Greenville, near the Nolichucky River. Four miles from this county site is Greenville College, the first institution of the kind established in the State. While in this college the whilom student became acquainted with a young man who lived in the suburbs of Greenville. "Though not a regular member of the school," he writes, "he belonged to the polemic society connected. with the institution. To attend these meetings he walked the four miles out and back every week. I well remember his fascinating manners, his natural talent for oratory, his capacity to draw the students around him, and make all of them his warm friends." On going into town, on errands of pleasure or business, the students used to linger at the humble abode of the young village Demosthenes; and the one who records these interesting facts, gives us a graphic picture of its situation and interior: "On approaching the village, there stood on the hill by the highway a solitary little house, perhaps ten feet square. We invariably entered when passing. It contained a bed, two or three stools and a tailor's platform. Here we delighted to stop, because one lived here whom we knew out side of school, and made us welcome; one who would amuse us by his social good nature, taking more than ordinary interest in catering to our pleasure. Tempus fugit! Three or four hundred college inmates returned to their homes, mostly in the vicinity. Our young friend became a candidate for the Legislature to represent that district; was elected about the year 1838, if I correctly remember.* This young man was Andrew Johnson, who has been in public. office ever since, rising regularly by gradation to the highest gift in the land." This Greenville debating society, hugged in the romantic grasp of the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains, was doubtless to Andrew Johnson what The Devils, The Robin Hood and the Brown Bear, had been to "Stuttering Jack Curran," in the wilderness of London, when that struggling youth was seeking utterance for the expression of his nature and powers. If, like the latter, young Johnson did not complete his education for the Senate in the debating society, he at least continued it there, and began to understand his own powers and to use them in a more correct and finished form than heretofore. His recently acquired book culture, of course, enriched while it gave a vivid impetus to the native force of his mind, and it was not long before he displayed a striking aptitude for debate. The style and manner of the able statesmen, as conveyed in the volume presented by his Raleigh friend, remained in his mind, and his own thoughts struggling through took form and color from their influence. This vol It was some three years earlier. + A most amusing account is given by Curran of his early efforts in the debating clubs of London, of his first diffidence and confusion, and his final success. "Here (at The Devils of Temple Bar), warned by fatal experience that a man's powers may be overstrained, I at first confined myself to a simple 'Ay or No,' and by dint of practice and encouragement, brought my tongue to recite these magical elements of parliamentary eloquence with such sound emphasis and good discretion,' that in a fortnight's time I had completed my education for the Irish Senate."-Life of Curran by his Son. Dr. Mackenzie's ed. 1855. ume had been at once a mentor and a mine to him. His mind was perfectly fresh when he grasped it; and he read the various beauties in by the light which itself had furnished. He became imbued with the style, language and sentiments of the volume. It gave him his first lessons in the science of government; presented a vast amount of knowledge of an important nature, displayed in the most persuasive array in illustration of the great questions discussed; and exhibited to him the most prominent and able examples of public discussion. Thus, through the power of Chatham, the solidity of Burke, the popular acumen of Erskine, the vehemence of Fox, the brilliancy of Sheridan, and the characteristics of other distinguished orators and parliamentarians, he was brought into communion with the graces which are put forth to captivate a hearer, the varied forces necessary to overwhelm an opponent, and the resources which are evoked to dignify one's self in debate. This volume moulded into form, and inspired into suitable action the elements of his mental character, and thus laid the foundation of his fame and fortune. It is no wonder that he never ceased to deeply appreciate its value. Among the results of the rebellion was the destruction of his private library and the loss of this prized volume, the cherished companion of his early youth and founder of his fortune. There is a peculiar significance attached to the works which have been the favorites of distinguished men are always glad to know the authors who have been the chosen companions of great literary, political or military characters to know that the selecting and copying of religious poetry was an instinct with Washington in youth, indicating the gravity of his manhood; that among the books selected by Napoleon Bonaparte for his Egyptian expedition, Ossian and his Gaelic heroes were equally prominent with Turenne and a Treatise on Artillery; and that Audrew Jackson read The Vicar of Wakefield through, if, as is |