Kansas question, he doubtless strove to make "Americanism" his principal issue. Mr. Bell tells us that Americanism was the main ground of contest, and that it was just such a question as was pending in the State of Virginia at the time Henry A. Wise took the field in opposition to the American party. "A similar contest was going on in Tennessee, and that State was counted on as certain for the Americans by a large majority. They could tell, as they said, and I believe it is the fact, the number they had in their councils. I think it was upward of one hundred thousand, and no person doubted the election of Colonel Gentry when he became a candidate. Colonel Gentry, however, with all his powers of debate, and all his eloquence, had not the strength in that contest which it might be supposed such a man would possess, and which in previous political contests he himself had possessed." As De Quincey says, a triumph is to be measured by the amount of antagonism to be overcome, and in previous political contests Colonel Gentry had not encountered an Andrew Johnson.

Party politics and partisan warfare were almost synonymous terms in the Southwest a few years back. Some of the most amusing as well as most exciting stories are connected with the political men and struggles of that region. Numbers have found their way into print, and a larger number live in the traditions of the people. In this connection a recent writer gives us some anecdotes illustrative of the nerve and personal bravery of the subject of this Memoir.

"At any time during the last fifty years a man could hardly be a Governor of Tennessee without being physically brave; still less could he climb to that position from a tailor's shop-board. In Tennessee the passions of men were hot, and, where arguments failed, there were not wanting ruffians to threaten the pistol and the bowie. knife. All that will be changed now; but when Andrew Johnson was on the stump there, he saw more men with than without pistols in their breast-pockets, and knives in their boots or parallel to their back-bones. It was after Andrew Johnson was born that Andrew

Jackson had his bloody affray with Thomas H. Benton in a public place of Nashville.

"When we were at Nashville, seven years ago, anecdotes of the coolness and courage of Governor Johnson were among the current coin of conversation. One gentleman, a political opponent of the Governor, an eye-witness of the occurrence, told us that a placard was posted in the town one morning announcing, in the well-known language of old Tennessee, that Andy Johnson was to be shot 'on sight.' Friends of the Governor assembled at his house, desirous to form a body-guard to escort him to the State House. 'No,' said he; 'gentlemen, if I am to be shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet.' He walked alone, and with his usual deliberation, through the streets to his official apartments on Capitol Hill."

Another eye-witness related a similar story. Johnson was announced to speak on one of the exciting questions of the day; and loud threats were uttered that, if he dared to appear, he should not leave the hall alive. At the appointed hour he ascended to the platform, and, advancing to the desk, laid his pistol upon it. He then addressed the audience, in terms as near like the following as our informant could recollect:

"Fellow-citizens-It is proper when freemen assemble for the discussion of important public interests, that every thing should be done decently and in order. I have been informed that part of the business to be transacted on the present occasion is the assassination of the individual who now has the honor of addressing you. I beg respectfully to propose that this be the first business in order. Therefore, if any man has come here to-night for the purpose indicated, I do not say to him, let him speak, but, let him shoot."

Here he paused, with his right hand on his pistol, and the other holding open his coat, while with his eyes he blandly surveyed the assembly. After a pause of half a minute, he resumed:

"Gentlemen, it appears that I have been misinformed. I will now proceed to address you on the subject that has called us together."

Which he did, with all his accustomed boldness and

vivacity, not sparing his adversaries, but giving them plenty of "pure Tennessee."

His second term in the gubernatorial chair drew to a close; and as, after he had enjoyed the highest legislative honors in his State, he was sent to the national House of Representatives; so now, after he had received from Tennessee the highest honor she could confer on him in her service at home, his faithfulness was rewarded by the most prominent position she could appoint him to in her interest outside of her borders. He was (in 1857) by almost unanimous consent elected United States Senator for a full term, to end March 3, 1863.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HOMESTEAD BILL.

1857-1858.

TAKES his Seat in the United States Senate - The Homestead Bill-Flippant Opposition to it-Johnson's continuous Advocacy of the Measure - Answers the "Constitutional Objection" - The People own the Land - Nine Millions of Quarter-sections and Three Millions of Voters - As a Revenue Measure Johnson the acknowledged Leader on the Question - Tributes to him from A. G. Brown of Mississippi, J. L. Dawson and J. R. Chandler of Pennsylvania - Manœuvres of Southern Senators to Waylay him and his Bill Hunter and the Appropriation Bills-Pleas for Regularity of Business - Satirical Compliment to Hunter-Johnson's Speech of May, 1858Refutes the Southern Charges of "Emigrant Aid Society" and "Demagogism"- Was Washington a Demagogue? - Vattel on Agriculture - The Nursing Father of the State-Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, the Advocates of a Homstead Bill - The Measure considered: Financially, Socially, Politically-Rural Districts vs. Large Cities-Build up the Villages Character of the Middle Classes - Emigration Defended - Replies to the Feudal and Aristocratic Doctrines of Clay and Hammond - The " 'Property Aristocrats" and the "Mudsills" of Society-Johnson Independent of Southern Opinion - Operatives in the South-Are all Slaves who do not own Slaves? - Should Congress create or reflect Public Opinion - Wanton Opposition to the Bill.

THE credentials of Hon. Andrew Johnson, as Senator from the State of Tennessee to the Congress of the United States, were presented on the opening of the Thirty-fifth Congress, Monday, December 7, 1857. In the absence of Vice-President Breckinridge, the oath prescribed by law was administered by Hon. Jesse D. Bright, "the oldest member of the Senate present."

In this Congress Senator Johnson took most prominent action on his 'favorite subject, the Homestead bill, to grant to every person who is the head of a family and a citizen of the United States, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the public domain, on condition of occupancy and cultivation in a specified time. This noble

project to distribute land to the landless and give a home to the homeless without money and without price, met, like all projects which have ameliorated the condition of mankind, with decided and great opposition for a long time. Mr. Johnson, however, never lost sight of its vast importance, and with cocqual assiduity, in the face of that odium which is so easily raised by flippant minds against one who is accredited with the possession of a "hobby" to ride other people's time and attention down, he steadily pressed it forward, year after year, gaining friends for it and strength, until he had the pride and satisfaction of seeing it pass by a triumphant majority in the House of Representatives, while it met, at the same time, with such advocates as Webster and Cass in the United States Senate.

During the debate of 1852, discussing one of the points raised, if I mistake not, by Hon. John A. Millson of Virginia, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Johnson said:

"What then becomes of the constitutional objection? I say it is a dereliction upon our part, and we omit to perform a high obligation imposed upon us by the Constitution, if we do not do something of the sort to induce the settlement and cultivation of our public lands. Then what is the proposition? We have acquired territory by the exercise of this treaty-making power. When does the fee pass? The fee passed upon its acquisition into the Government as the trustee-the equity passed to the people in the aggregate, and this is merely a proposition to distribute severally the fee where the equity already resides. That is what it proposes; and gentlemen who can spin distinctions down to a fifteen hundred, can understand a plain common sense proposition like this. Ah! say they, you gave money for it and you must have money back again for it. Is money the only consideration you paid for it? Where are those gallant sons who now sleep in Mexico? Where are the ten thousand graves containing the bones and blood of your best citizens? You owe it to the gallant dead who now sleep in your own and foreign lands, who sacrificed their all in the acquisition of this territory, to dispose of it in the way best calculated to promote the interest and happiness of those left behind.

"Now what comes next upon the left, the weakest, and