"That portion of the Governor's speech in which he described and denounced the aristocracy of Nashville I can not hope to render properly; but there was one point which I must not overlook:

"The representatives of this corrupt (and if you will permit me almost to swear a little), this damnable aristocracy, taunt us with our desire to see justice done, and charge us with favoring negro equality. Of all living men they should be the last to mouth that phrase; and even when uttered in their hearing, it should cause their cheeks to tinge and burn with shame. Negro equality, indeed! Why, pass any day along the sidewalks of High Street, where these aristocrats more particularly dwell; these aristocrats whose sons are now in the bands of guerrillas and cut-throats who prowl and rob and murder around our city; pass by their dwellings, I say, and you will see as many mulatto as negro children, the former bearing an unmistakable resemblance to their aristocratic owners!

"Colored men of Tennessee: this, too, shall cease! Your wives and daughters shall no longer be dragged into a concubinage, compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy the brutal lusts of slaveholders and overseers! Henceforth the sanctity of God's holy law of marriage shall be respected in your persons, and the great State of Tennessee shall no more give her sanction to your degradation and your shame!'

"Thank God! thank God!' came from the lips of a thousand women, who in their own persons had experienced the hellish iniquity of the man-seller's code. "Thank God!' fervently echoed the fathers, husbands, brothers of these women.

"And if the law protects you in the possession of your wives and children; if the law shields those whom you hold dear from the unlawful grasp of lust, will you endeavor to be true to yourselves, and shun, as it were death itself, the path of lewdness, crime, and vice?'

"We will! we will!' cried the assembled thousands; and joining in a sublime and tearful enthusiasm another mighty shout went up to heaven.

"Looking at this vast crowd of colored people,' continued the Governor, and reflecting through what a storm of persecution and obloquy they are compelled to pass, I am almost

induced to wish that, as in the days of old, a Moses might arise who should lead them safely to their promised land of freedom and happiness.'

"You are our Moses,' shouted several voices, and the exclamation was caught up and cheered until the Capitol rung again.

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"God,' continued the speaker, 'no doubt has prepared somewhere an instrument for the great work he designs to perform in behalf of this outraged people, and in due time your leader will come forth; your Moses will be revealed to you.' "We want no Moses but you,' again shouted the crowd. Well, then,' replied the speaker, humble and unworthy as I am, if no other better shall be found, I will indeed be your Moses, and lead you through the Red Sea of war and bondage to a fairer future of liberty and peace. I speak now as one who feels the world his country, and all who love equal rights his friends. I speak, too, as a citizen of Tennessee. I am here on my own soil; and here I mean to stay and fight this great battle of truth and justice to a triumphant end. Rebellion and slavery shall, by God's good help, no longer pollute our State.

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'Loyal men, whether white or black, shall alone control her destinies; and when this strife in which we are all engaged is past, I trust, I know, we shall have a better state of things, and shall all rejoice that honest labor reaps the fruit of its own industry, and that every man has a fair chance in the race of life.'

"It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm which followed these words. Joy beamed in every countenance. Tears and laughter followed each other in quick succession. The great throng moved and swayed back and forth in the intensity of emotion, and shout after shout rent the air.

"A man might have exchanged an ordinary immortality to have made such a speech to such an audience, and been much the gainer. It was a speech significant of one of the loftiest positions to which mankind, struggling upward toward universal freedom, has as yet attained.

"The great Tribune descended from the steps of the Capitol. As if by magic the dense throng parted to let him through.

And all that night long his name was mingled with the curses and execrations of the traitor and oppressor, and with the blessings of the oppressed and poor."

In the main Mr. Johnson's career as Military Governor of Tennessee is not remembered to his credit in that State, especially at Nashville. The vigor of his course is still fresh in the minds of hundreds who had occasion to feel the authority he was always ready to exercise. It is claimed that his private and social habits during this period were extremely reprehensible; that he preferred bad whisky and low society to good; and that he was notably wicked and perverse. But it is difficult to get a clean, trustworthy view of Andrew Johnson, as Military Governor, in Nashville, to-day. The past has already become dim, excepting where the trials of the time burnt themselves places in passions that survive. With the aristocratic, who were mainly rebels, Governor Johnson really associated but little at this or any period of his life. From principle he did not feel at home among them. With a great passion for being regarded as the champion of "the people," he showed a constant tendency to appear and act like them. Thus his motives and character were constantly exposed to partial and extreme judg ments. He was a man of powerful, despotic will, but it sometimes led him astray, and was not always able to keep him from falling. At his best he was not good. His severity was not without apology, and above what was and is called his moral turpitude, his official integrity stands without reproach.

Many of his apparently severe judgments and exactions were really distinguished for their justice, as they always were for the cool and determined purpose that carried them out to the letter.

About his assessments on the wealthy rebels there is a diversity of opinion in Nashville to-day, of course, and some go so far as to accuse him of appropriating the money thus obtained to the use of his friends. But this charge is unjust and slanderous, and rests on nothing more than unreliable passion. No charge against his official, financial integrity, at this or any other period of his career, can be sustained. While acting as Military Governor of Tennessee his situation presented great temptations for acquiring a fortune. The privileges given him by the Administration were immense, but it is absolutely certain that he took no advantage of them. The Government was greatly the gainer by his official honesty.

CHAPTER VII.

PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION OF 1864 — MR. JOHNSON FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY-THE ELECTION.

N Tuesday morning, June 8, 1864, the Republican or National Union Convention met in Baltimore to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, or really to renominate Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency, and some War Democrat for the Vice-Presidency.

The Republicans now found themselves in an unfortunate dilemma from which there seemed to be no escape, or from which it did not appear even desirable to try to escape. A very large portion of the Democratic party had come with heart and strength to its aid in fighting against the Rebellion and in support of the Government, and now this loyal War Democracy was not to be ignored. Many leading Democrats had come out from among the disloyal in their broken party, and had worked with unwavering purpose for the success of the national cause, and these men were not to be passed unnoticed. In fact, to a great extent, among patriots everywhere, party lines were ignored and the struggle had become a common one. Even the name Republican seemed discourteous and unsuited to the occasion, and to designate the spirit which ruled the hour and the