And the mob so understood it. A procession of negroes carrying a United States flag was attacked. It defended itself; and the work which one word from the President would have stopped, and which he had the full authority to speak if he could speak at all, went on to its awful result. The rebel flag was again unfurled. The men who had bravely resisted it for four years were murdered under its encouragement, and while they were still lying warm in their blood the President telegraphed that they were “an unlawful assembly,” and that “usurpation will not be tolerated”—words which he had no shadow of authority to utter except by the same right which empowered him to save all those lives; a right which he declined to exercise.
The President, who has undertaken by his own arbitrary will to settle every question of the war without consultation with the representatives of the people, says to the murdered men in New Orleans, “Why did you assume to act without obtaining the consent of the people?” The autumn elections will terribly echo that question. Surveying the Executive action of eighteen months, with its plain tendencies and apparent inspiration, seeing that it has left the President with no other party than the most vehement of the late rebels at the South, the Copperheads at the North, and the timid and trimming adherents of the Union party, while the great mass of sturdy Unionists in all parts of the country at the North and South still maintain the ground they have always held, those Union men will write upon the back of every ballot they cast at the coming elections, “Usurpation will not be tolerated;” and upon its face, “Why did you assume to act without obtaining the consent of the people?”
August 18, 1866
MISSOURI, SEPTEMBER 1866
Andrew Johnson:
Speech at St. Louis
FELLOW CITIZENS OF ST. LOUIS;
In being introduced to you to-night it is not for the purpose of making a speech. It is true I am proud to meet so many of my fellow citizens here on this occasion, and under the favorable circumstances that I do. [Cry, “how about our British subject?”] We will attend to John Bull after awhile so far as that is concerned. [Laughter and loud cheers.] I have just stated that I was not here for the purpose of making a speech, but after being introduced, simply to tender my cordial thanks for the welcome you have given to me in your midst. [A voice: “Ten thousand welcomes;” hurrahs and cheers.] Thank you sir. I wish it was in my power to address you under favorable circumstances upon some of the questions that agitate and distract the public mind at this time. Questions that have grown out of a fiery ordeal we have just passed through, and which I think as important as those we have just passed by. The time has come when it seems to me that all ought to be prepared for peace—the rebellion being suppressed, and the shedding of blood being stopped, the sacrifice of life being suspended and stayed, it seems that the time has arrived when we should have peace; when the bleeding arteries should be tied up. [A voice: “New Orleans”; “go on.”]
Perhaps if you had a word or two on the subject of New Orleans, you might understand more about it than you do. [Laughter and cheers.] And if you will go back [cries for Seward]—if you will go back and ascertain the cause of the riot at New Orleans, perhaps you would not be so prompt in calling out New Orleans. If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to its source, or to its immediate cause, you will find out who was responsible for the blood that was shed there.
If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to the Radical Congress [great cheering and cries of “bully”], you will find that the riot at New Orleans was substantially planned—if you will take up the proceedings in their caucuses you will understand that they there knew [cheers] that a convention was to be called which was extinct, by its powers having expired; that it was said, and the intention was that a new Government was to be organized; and in the organization of that Government the intention was to enfranchise one portion of the population called the colored population, who had just been emancipated, and at the same time disfranchise white men. [Great cheering.] When you begin to talk about New Orleans [confusion] you ought to understand what you are talking about.
When you read the speeches that were made or take up the facts—on Friday and Saturday before that convention sat—you will there find that speeches were made incendiary in their character, exciting that portion of the population, the black population, to arm themselves and prepare for the shedding of blood. [A voice, “that’s so!” and cheers.] You will also find that that convention did assemble in violation of law, and the intention of that convention was to supersede the recognized authorities in the State Government of Louisiana, which had been recognized by the Government of the United States, and every man engaged in that rebellion—in that convention, with the intention of superseding and upturning the civil government which had been recognized by the Government of the United States—I say that he was a traitor to the Constitution of the United States, [cheers,] and hence you find that another rebellion was commenced, having its origin in the Radical Congress. These men were to go there: a Government was to be organized, and the one in existence in Louisiana was to be superceded, set aside and overthrown. You talk to me about New Orleans! And then the question was to come up, when they had established their government—a question of political power—which of the two governments was to be recognized—a new government inaugurated under this defunct convention—set up in violation of law, and without the consent of the people. And then when they had established their government, and extended universal or impartial franchise, as they called it, to this colored population, then this Radical Congress was to determine that a government established on negro votes was to be the government of Louisiana. [Voices—“never,” and cheers and “hurrah for Andy.”]
So much for the New Orleans riot—and there was the cause and the origin of the blood that was shed, and every drop of blood that was shed is upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it. [Cheers.] I could trace this thing a little closer, but I will not do it here to night. But when you talk about New Orleans, and talk about the causes and consequences that resulted from proceedings of that kind, perhaps, as I have been introduced here, and you have provoked questions of this kind, though it don’t provoke me, I will tell you a few wholesome things that has been done by this Radical Congress. [Cheers.]
In connection with New Orleans and the extension of the elective franchise, I know that I have been traduced and abused. I know it has come in advance of me here, as it has elsewhere, and that I have attempted to exercise an arbitrary power in resisting laws that was intended to be enforced on the Government. [Cheers, and cries of “hear.”] Yes, that I had exercised the veto power, [“Bully for you,”] that I had abandoned the power that elected me, and that I was a t-r-ai-tor [cheers] because I exercised the veto power in attempting to, and did arrest for a time, a bill that was called a Freedmen’s Bureau bill. [Cheers.] Yes, that I was a t-r-ai-t-o-r ! And I have been traduced, I have been slandered, I have been maligned, I have been called Judas—Judas Iscariot, and all that. Now, my countrymen here to-night, it is very easy to indulge in epithets, it is very easy to call a man Judas, and cry out t-r-ai-t-o-r, but when he is called upon to give arguments and facts, he is very often found wanting.
Judaas, Judas Iscariot, Judaas! There was a Judas once, one of the twelve apostles. Oh! yes, and these twelve apostles had a Christ. [A voice, “and a Moses, too.” Great laughter.] The twelve apostles had a Christ, and he couldn’t have had a Judas unless he had had twelve apostles. If I have played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas with? Was it Thad. Stevens? Was it Wendell Phillips? Was it Charles Sumner? [Hisses and cheers.] Are these the men that set up and compare themselves with the Saviour of men, and everybody that differs with them in opinion, and try to stay and arrest their diabolical and nefarious policy, is to be denounced as a Judas? [“Hurrah for Andy,” and cheers.]
In the days when there were twelve Apostles and when there ware a Christ, while there ware Judases, there ware unbeliever
s, too. Y-a-s; while there ware Judases there ware unbelievers. [Voices—“hear.” “Three groans for Fletcher.”] Yes, oh! yes! unbelievers in Christ: men who persecuted and slandered and brought him before Pontius Pilate and preferred charges and condemned and put him to death on the cross, to satisfy unbelievers. And this same persecuting, diabolical and nefarious clan to-day would persecute and shed the blood of innocent men to carry out their purposes. [Cheers.] But let me tell you—let me give you a few words here to-night—and but a short time since I heard some one say in the crowd that we had a Moses. [Laughter and cheers.] Yes, there was a Moses. And I know sometimes it has been said that I have said that I would be the Moses of the colored man. [“Never,” and cheers.] Why, I have labored as much in the cause of emancipation as any other mortal man living. But while I have strived to emancipate the colored man, I have felt, and now feel, that we have a great many white men that want emancipation. [Laughter and cheers.] There is a set amongst you that have got shackles on their limbs, and are as much under the heel and control of their masters as the colored man that was emancipated. [Cheers.] I call upon you here to night, as freemen—as men who favor the emancipation of the white man as well as the colored ones. I have been in favor of emancipation. I have nothing to disguise about that. I have tried to do as much, and have done as much, and when they talk about Moses and the colored man being led into the promised land, where is the land that this clan proposes to lead them? [Cheers.] When we talk about taking them out from among the white population and sending them to other climes, what is it they propose? Why, it is to give us a Freedmen’s Bureau. And after giving us a Freedmen’s Bureau, what then? Why, here in the South it is not necessary for me to talk to you, where I have lived and you have lived, and understand the whole system, and how it operates; we know how the slaves have been worked heretofore. Their original owners bought the land and raised the negroes, or purchased them, as the case might be; paid all the expenses of carrying on the farm, and in the end, after producing tobacco, cotton, hemp and flax, and all the various products of the South, bringing them into the market, without any profit to them while these owners put it all into their own pockets. This was their condition before the emancipation. This was their condition before we talked about their “Moses.” [Laughter.] Now what is the plan? I ask your attention. Come, as we have got to talking on this subject, give me your attention for a few minutes. I am addressing myself to your brains, and not to your prejudices; to your reason and not to your passions. And when reason and argument again resume their empire, this mist, this prejudice that has been incrusted upon the public mind must give way and reason become triumphant. [Cheers.] Now, my countrymen, let me call your attention to a single fact, the Freedmen’s Bureau. [Laughter and hisses.]
Yes; slavery was an accursed institution till emancipation took place. It was an accursed institution while one set of men worked them and got the profits. But after emancipation took place they gave us the Freedmen’s Bureau. They gave us these agents to go into every county, every township, and into every school district throughout the United States, and especially the Southern States. They gave us commissioners. They gave us $12,000,000 and placed the power in the hands of the Executive, who was to work this machinery, with the army brought to his aid, and to sustain it. Then let us run it, with $12,000,000 as a beginning, and, in the end, receive $50,000,000 or $60,000,000, as the case may be, and let us work the 4,000,000 of slaves. In fine, the Freedmen’s Bureau was a simple proposition to transfer 4,000,000 of slaves in the United States from their original owners to a new set of taskmasters. [Voice: “Never,” and cheers.] I have been laboring four years to emancipate them; and then I was opposed to seeing them transferred to a new set of taskmasters, to be worked with more rigor than they had been worked heretofore. [Cheers.] Yes, under this new system they would work the slaves, and call on the Government to bear all the expense, and if there was any profits left, why they would pocket them, [laughter and cheers,] while you, the people, must pay the expense of running the machine out of your own pockets, while they got the profits of it. So much for this question.
I simply intended to-night to tender you my sincere thanks. But as I go along, as we are talking about this Congress and these respected gentlemen, who contend that the President is wrong, because he vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau bill, and all this; because he chose to exercise the veto power, he committed a high offense, and, therefore, ought to be impeached. [Voice, “never.”] Y-e-s, y-e-s ; they are ready to impeach him. [Voice, “let them try it.”] And if they were satisfied they had the next Congress by as decided a majority as this, upon some pretext or other—violating the Constitution—neglect of duty, or omitting to enforce some set of law, upon some pretext or other, they would vacate the Executive Department of the United States. [A voice, “too bad they don’t impeach him.”] Wha-t? As we talk about this Congress, let me call the soldiers’ attention to this immaculate Congress. Let me call your attention. Oh! this Congress, that could make war upon the Executive because he stands upon the Constitution and vindicates the rights of the people, exercising the veto power in their behalf—because he dared to do this, they can clamor, and talk about impeachment. And by way of elevating themselves and increasing confidence with the soldiers, throughout the country, they talk about impeachments.
So far as the Fenians are concerned, upon this subject of Fenians, let me ask you very plainly here to-night, to go back into my history of legislation, and even when Governor of a State let me ask if there is a man here to-night, who, in the dark days of Knownothingism, stood and sacrificed more for their rights? [Voice, “good,” and cheers.]
It has been my peculiar misfortune always to have fierce opposition, because I have always struck my blows direct, and fought with right and the Constitution on my side. [Cheers.] Yes, I will come back to the soldiers again in a moment. Yes, here was a neutrality law. I was sworn to support the Constitution and see that that law was faithfully executed. And because it was executed, then they raised a clamor and tried to make an appeal to the foreigners; and especially the Fenians. And what did they do? They introduced a bill to tickle and play with the fancy, pretending to repeal the law, and at the same time making it worse and then left the law just where it is. [Voice—“That’s so.”] They knew that whenever a law was presented to me, proper in its provisions, ameliorating and softening the rigors of the present law, that it would meet my hearty approbation. But as they were pretty well broken down and losing public confidence, at the heels of the session they found they must do something. And hence, what did they do? They pretended to do something for the soldiers. Who has done more for the soldiers than I have? Who has periled more in this struggle than I have? [Cheers.] But then, to make them their peculiar friends and favorites of the soldiers, they came forward with a proposition to do what? Why, we will give the soldier $50 bounty—$50 bounty—your attention to this—if he has served two years; and $100 if he has served three years. Now, mark you, the colored man that served two years can get his $100 bounty. But, the white man must serve three before he can get his. [Cheers.] But that is not the point. While they were tickling and attempting to please the soldiers, by giving them $50 bounty for two years’ service, they took it into their heads to vote somebody else a bounty, [laughter] and they voted themselves not $50 for two years’ service; your attention—I want to make a lodgment in your minds of the facts, because I want to put the nail in, and having put it in, I want to clinch it on the other side. [Cheers.] The brave boys, the patriotic young men, who followed his gallant officers, slept in the tented field, and periled his life, and shed his blood, and left his limbs behind him and came home, mangled and maimed, can get $50 bounty, if he has served two years. But the members of Congress, who never smelt gunpowder, can get $4,000 extra pay. [Loud cheering.]
This is a faint picture, my countrymen, of what has transpired. [A voice, “Stick to that question.”] Fellow-citizens, you are all familiar with the work of restoration. Yo
u know that since the rebellion collapsed, since the armies were suppressed in the field, that everything that could be done has been done by the Executive Department of the Government for the restoration of the Government. Everything has been done, with the exception of one thing, and that is the admission of members from the eleven States that went into the rebellion. And after having accepted the terms of the Government, having abolished slavery, having repudiated their debt, and sent loyal representatives, everything has been done, excepting the admission of Representatives which all the States are constitutionally entitled to. [Cheers] When you turn and examine the Constitution of the United States, you can find that you cannot even amend that Constitution so as to deprive any State of its equal suffrage in the Senate. [A voice, “They have never been out.”] It is said before me, “they have never been out.” I say so, too. That is what I have always said. They have never been out, and they cannot go out. [Cheers.] That being the fact, under the Constitution they are entitled to equal suffrage in the Senate of the United States, and no power has the right to deprive them of it, without violating the Constitution. [Cheers.] And the same argument applies to the House of Representatives. How, then does the matter stand? It used to be one of the arguments, that if the States withdrew their Representatives and Senators, that that was secession—a peaceable breaking up of the Government. Now, the Radical power in this Government turn around and assume that the States are out of the Union, that they are not entitled to representation in Congress. [Cheers.] That is to say, they are dissolutionists, and their position now is to perpetuate a disruption of the Government, and that, too, while they are denying the States the right of representation, they impose taxation upon them, a principle upon which, in the revolution, you resisted the power of Great Britain. We deny the right of taxation without representation. That is one of our great principles. Let the Government be restored. Let peace be restored among the people. I have labored for it. Now I deny this doctrine of secession; come from what quarter it may, whether from the North or from the South. I am opposed to it. I am for the Union of the States. [Voices, “that’s right,” and cheers.] I am for the thirty-six stars, representing thirty-six States, remaining where they are, under the Constitution, as your fathers made it, and handed it down to you. And if it is altered, or amended, let it be done in the mode and manner pointed by that instrument itself, and in no other. [Cheers.] I am for the restoration of peace. Let me ask this people here to-night if we have not shed enough blood. Let me ask, are you prepared to go into another civil war. Let me ask this people here to-night are they prepared to set man upon man, and, in the name of God, lift his hand against the throat of his fellow. [Voice, “Never.”] Are you prepared to see our fields laid waste again, our business and commerce suspended and all trade stopped. Are you prepared to see this land again drenched in our brothers’ blood? Heaven avert it, is my prayer. [Cheers.] I am one of those who believe that man does sin, and having sinned, I believe he must repent. And, sometimes, having sinned and having repented makes him a better man than he was before. [Cheers.] I know it has been said that I have exercised the pardoning power. Y-e-s, I have. [Cheers and “what about Drake’s Constitution?”] Y-e-s, I have, and don’t you think it is to prevail? I reckon I have pardoned more men, turned more men loose and set them at liberty that were imprisoned, I imagine, than any other living man on God’s habitable globe. [Voice, “bully for you,” and cheers.] Yes, I turned forty-seven thousand of our men who engaged in this struggle, with the arms we captured with them, and who were then in prison, I turned them loose. [Voice, “bully for you, old fellow,” and laughter.] Large numbers have applied for pardon, and I have granted them pardon. Yet there are some who condemn and hold me responsible for doing wrong. Yes, there are some who stayed at home, who did not go into the field on the other side, that can talk about others being traitors and being treacherous. There are some who can talk about blood, and vengeance, and crime, and everything to “make treason odious,” and all that, who never smelt gunpowder on either side. [Cheers.] Yes, they can condemn others and recommend hanging and torture, and all that. If I have erred, I have erred on the side of mercy. Some of these croakers have dared to assume that they are better than was the Savior of men himself—a kind of over righteousness—better than everybody else, and always wanting to do Deity’s work, thinking he cannot do it as well as they can. [Laughter and cheers.] Yes, the Savior of man came on the earth and found the human race condemned, and sentenced under the law. But when they repented and believed, he said, “Let them live.” Instead of executing and putting the whole world to death, he went upon the cross and there was painfully nailed by these unbelievers that I have spoken of here to-night, and there shed his blood that you and I might live. [Cheers.] Think of it! To execute and hang, and put to death eight millions of people. [Voice, “never.”] It is an absurdity, and such a thing is impracticable even if it were right. But it is the violation of all law, human and divine. [Voice, “hang Jeff. Davis.”] You call on Judge Chase to hang Jeff. Davis, will you? [Great cheering.] I am not the Court, I am not the jury, nor the judge. [Voice, “nor the Moses.”] Before the case comes to me, and all other cases, it would have to come on application as a case for pardon. That is the only way the case can get to me. Why don’t Judge Chase—Judge Chase, the Chief Justice of the United States, in whose district he is—why don’t he try him? [Loud cheers.] But, perhaps, I could answer the question; as sometimes persons want to be facetious and indulge in repartee, I might ask you a question, why don’t you hang Thad. Stevens and Wendell Phillips? [Great cheering.] A traitor at one end of the line is as bad as a traitor at the other.
Reconstruction Page 33