to duties, is of very high dignity, and may become of great importance at a crisis like the present. Hence the choice of a man for it should never be unthinkingly made. His election makes him a national representative in fact, if he were not so before in feeling; and the position is now generally regarded as a useful political balance between the sections, there being only one instance in which the President and Vice-President were both chosen from States in the same section that of Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.

Moreover, in the event of its incumbent becoming President, the people feel a confidence in having voted for him through their electors. He is the second choice of the people, made with the view of a contingency by which he may fill the place of the first.

On the plan which received greatest favor from the Convention, the President, in such a crisis as that through which we have recently passed would be only the choice of the Senate, and might not represent any views save those confined to the interests of his own State which sent him. In the thorough representation of the people, according to the present system, the republicanism of our institutions is illustrated and vindicated. It shows to the world that even the pressing weight of such a national calamity as has befallen us does not, in the words of Secretary McCulloch, "affect in the slightest degree the permanence of our institutions, or the regular administration of our laws; that an event which would have shaken any other country to the centre, docs not even stagger for a moment a government like our own."

Lord Brougham (Political Philosophy, vol. III.) writing on the establishment of American Independence, "the new constitution upon the federal plan, and of the republican form," regarded these achievements as perhaps the most important events in the history of our species; and

used such language as is fully qualified by the events through which we are passing, in testifying to the fact that, "contrary to all the predictions of statesmen and the theories of speculative inquirers, a great nation, when fully prepared for the task, is capable of self-government; in other words, that a purely republican form of government can be founded and maintained in a country of vast extent, peopled by millions of inhabitants."

CHAPTER XXI.

JOHNSON AS PRESIDENT-END OF ARMED REBELLION.

CANCELS a Slave-dealer's Pardon - Conversation with the President- Indications of Policy Distinctions between the Leaders and Masses of the South-Treason the Highest Crime Reply to Deputation of Citizens of Illinois The Crime and its Cause-Treason to be made Odious - A People's Attachment the Strongest National Defence - Reply to Christian Commission Deputations from Societies, Cities, and States - Opposed to Monopoly, but Supports the Aristocracy of Talent, Virtue, and Labor Formal and Informal Interviews with Sir F. Bruce, the British Ambassador Reply to Baron Von Gerolt and the Diplomatic Body - Address of Southern Refugees and President's Reply-The Exercise of ClemencyThe Aristocracy of Treason -- Proclamation of Mourning - Ten Days' Retrospection Capture and Death of Booth, the Assassin-Surrender of Joe Johnston to General Sherman President's Arduous Labors Reduction of Army and Navy - Removal of Trade Restrictions Reception of the Swiss Delegation - Order for Military Commision to try the Assassins - Proclamation of Rewards for Conspirators - Trade Regulations — Orders on the Restoration of Virginia - Proclamation on the Close of the Rebellion and Foreign Hospitality to Rebel Cruisers - Audience and Reply to Colored Ministers-Interview with Marquis de Montholon, the French AmbassadorCapture of Jefferson Davis - Acknowledged Failure of Secession — A. H. Stephens a Prisoner -- Surrender of Dick Taylor's Forces The President Declines a Present from New York - Grand Review of the Victorious Veter-· - Surrender of Kirby Smith's Forces.

ans

THUS have we followed Andrew Johnson through an early career as remarkable as romantic, and a maturity of successes, the outlines of which are as broad as they are rigidly defined from his apprenticeship to his installation into the Presidency. My readers have been presented with a narrative designed to illustrate the times which moulded him, the measures he desired to apply to them, the men with whom he rose in prominent contrast; and to render more intelligently comprehensive the several public services which have

so consecutively won for Andrew Johnson increased responsibility and confidence. In the concluding chapters will be embraced the principal addresses, proclamations and orders which have emanated from President Johnson. Already familiar with his past, the reader can thus, from the Presi dent's own voice and pen, form some reasonable idea of the policy destined to shape the character of the Republic on emerging from the fiery furnace of rebellion and devastation to the benign influences of peace, industry and reorganization.

Among the first acts of Mr. Johnson, on assuming the duties of President, was one which showed what might be expected of him in the way of pardons. About seven or eight years ago a person was tried in Boston on the charge of slavedealing He was convicted and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. He had served out six or seven years of that penalty when there was a strong pressure upon Mr. Lincoln to pardon him. Several prominent politicians of Boston strenuously urged the use of the pardoning power. They presented several extenuating facts, and finally Mr. Lincoln consented to sign it. He placed his signature to the document on the day on which he was assassinated, and sent it to the Attorney General's office to be attested and executed. It arrived there too late to be attended to on that day, and before the office was again opened Mr. Lincoln had breathed his last. The several Cabinet Ministers, as a matter of form, presented the unfinished business in their departments to President Johnson, and among this class was this pardon, signed, but not executed. It attracted President Johnson's attention, and he immediately said, "I must examine into this." Upon making inquiries he had it cancelled, saying that no person ever engaged in that business would get a pardon from him./

After having had a long conversation with the President on subjects calculated to indicate the policy of his adminis

tration, Governor Stone of Iowa, addressing a meeting of citizens of that State in Washington, declared that while the President would deal kindly and leniently with the mass of the people of the South, and rank and file of their armies, regarding them as he did merely as the victims and sufferers of the rebellion, he nevertheless would be careful not to pursue any policy which would prevent the Government from visiting condign punishment on the guilty authors of the rebellion./

The President regarded it as due to the loyal people of the country, and to the memory of the thousands of brave men who had fallen in the defense of the Union during this struggle, and to the claims of justice and freedom throughout the world, that treason should still be regarded as the highest crime under our Constitution and flag, and that it should be rendered infamous for all time to come. While entertaining these views, he would endeavor to gain the confidence. of the deceived and betrayed masses of the Southern people, regarding them as the proper material by which to reconstruct the insurgent States, and restore them to their proper relations to the Government. He would neither recognize nor hold official communication with those who had occupied official stations or acknowledged the sovereignty of the rebel government. For four years he had fought the rebel government with all the energy of his character. He expressed deep sympathy with the betrayed and deluded masses. of the South, earnestly desiring their return to their allegiance to the Government and the restoration of their former peace and prosperity.

On the 17th of April the citizens of Illinois in Washington, who were drawn together by the recent mournful events, thought it not inappropriate before separating to wait on the President, to express their confidence in him and to pledge to him the strong support of their State. An influential deputation, composed of Governor Oglesby of