under consideration the message of the President communicating resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia. Gladly would we transcribe the whole of this able speech, in the course of which the heresy he combated was cut up by the roots and thrown to the winds, but our space will only permit the insertion of its thrilling and soul-stirring conclusion:

"There is no one in the United States who is more willing to do justice to the distinguished senator from Mississippi than myself; and when I consider his early education; when I look at his gallant services, finding him first in the military school of the United. States, educated by his Government, taught the science of war at the expense of his country-taught to love the principles of the Constitution; afterwards entering its service, fighting beneath the Stars and Stripes to which he has so handsomely alluded, winning laurels that are green and imperishable, and bearing upon his person scars that are honorable; some of which have been won at home; others of which have been won in a foreign clime, and upon other fields—I would be the last man to pluck a feather from his cap or a single gem from the chaplet that encircles his brow. But when I consider his early associations; when I remember that he was nurtured by this Government; that he fought for this Government; that he won honors under the flag of this Government, I cannot understand how he can be willing to hail another banner, and turn from that of his country, under which he has won laurels and received honors. This is a matter of taste, however; but it

seems to me that, if I could not unsheathe my sword in vindication of the flag of my country, its glorious Stars and Stripes, I would return the sword to its scabbard; I would never sheathe it in the bosom of my mother; never! never! never !"

*

Sir, I intend to stand by that flag, and by the Union of which it is the emblem. I agree with Mr. A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, 'that this Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes nearer the objects of all good governments than any other on the face of the earth.'

"I have made allusions to the various senators who have attacked me, in vindication of myself. I have been attacked on all hands by some five or six, and may be attacked again. All I ask is, that, in making these attacks, they meet my positions, answer my arguments, refute my facts. I care not for the number that may have attacked me; I care not how many may come hereafter. Feeling that I am in the right, that argument, that fact, that truth are on my side, I place them all at defiance. Come one, come all; for I feel, in the words of the great dramatic poet

'Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with [treason] is corrupted.'

"I have been told, and I have heard it repeated, that this Union is gone. It has been said in this chamber, that it is in the cold sweat of death; that, in fact, it is really dead, and merely lying in state waiting for the funeral obsequies to be performed. If this be so, and the war that has been made upon

me in consequence of advocating the Constitution and the Union is to result in my overthrow and in my destruction; and that flag, that glorious flag, the emblem of the Union, which was borne by Washington through a seven-years' struggle, shall be struck from the Capitol and trailed in the dust; when this Union is interred, I want no more honorable windingsheet than that brave old flag, and no more glorious grave than to be interred in the tomb of the Union. [Applause in the galleries.] For it I have stood; for it I will continue to stand; I care not whence the blows come; and some will find, before this contest is over, that while there are blows to be given, there will be blows to receive; and that, while others can thrust, there are some who can parry. God preserve my country from the desolation that is threatening her, from treason and traitors !

'Is there not some chosen curse,

Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin ?'

[Applause in the galleries.]

"In conclusion, Mr. President, I make an appeal to the conservative men of all parties. You see the posture of public affairs; you see the condition of the country; you see along the line of battle the various points of conflict; you see the struggle which the Union men have to maintain in many of the States. You ought to know and feel what is necessary to sustain those who, in their hearts, desire the preservation of this Union of States. Will you sit with stoic indifference, and see those who are willing to stand by

the Constitution and uphold the pillars of the Government driven away by the raging surges that are now sweeping over some portions of the country? As conservative men, as patriots, as men who desire the preservation of this great, this good, this unparalleled Government, I ask you to save the country; or let the propositions be submitted to the people, that the heart of the nation may respond to them. I have an abiding confidence in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the integrity of the great mass of the people; and I feel in my own heart that, if this subject could be got before them, they would settle the question, and the Union of these States would be preserved." [Applause in the galleries.]

6*

CHAPTER IV.

SPEECH ON THE WAR FOR THE UNION, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE, JULY 27, 1861.

Ar last came the armed collision between the Federal authority and the Confederacy of the seceding States. The latter had planted their capital at Richmond, had organized an army, and in a terrible battle, fought 21st July, 1861, had inflicted a signal defeat upon the Federal forces upon the field of Manassas. Amid the panic and discouragement that followed that disastrous day, Andrew Johnson stood steadfast as a rock, and displayed a resolution worthy of a Roman senator in the best times of the republic. Only six days after the sanguinary struggle, and while Washington itself was in danger of capture by the victorious foe, he spoke in favor of the joint resolution before the Senate to confirm and approve certain acts of President Lincoln for suppressing insurrection and rebellion. In this speech he took the ground that the present contest was the third and last trial of the country's strength. The first, he said, was in gaining her independence—the second, in defending herself against foreign invasion in the war of 1812-the