96. XCVI.
THE PRESIDENT'S 22D OF FEBRUARY SPEECH.
Washington, February 23, 1866.
[1]
I don't know; but there is a still small voice within me
wich whispers, “All is well!” The delusive phantom, Hope,
may be playin false with me. The wish may be paternal parient
to the thought, and I may be indulgin in a dream from wich I
shel be, to-morrer, roodly awakened; but it's my opinion that
the day-star uv glory hez ariz onto the Dimocracy; that our
night uv gloom is over; and that, at last, the Government, or
at least the only part we care about, — the offisis, — is ourn. I
heerd Androo Johnson speak last nite! I stood beside him! I
helpt hold him up! I smelt his breath. It's all rite!
I hed hopes when he vetoed that large and varied assortment
uv Ablishn abominashens, — the Freedmen's Burow bill, — notwithstandin
there were pints in his message I coodent sanction.
The veto wuz heavenly, but his reasons were unsound. When
he expressed hisself ez bein determined upon sekoorin the niggers
in their rites, I felt fearful that there wuz a honest difference
uv opinion atween him and Congress wich mite be settled,
and then what wood become uv us? Ef the niggers is to hev
rites, in the name uv Heaven, I asked myself, what difference
does it make to us whether they hev em by Charles Sumner's
system (on whose head rest cusses!), or A. Johnson's! And
ez is customary when men ask theirselves questions, I got no
answer. Men never ask theirselves questions wich kin be
answered.
But last nite my doubts wuz removed. Little Sam Cox, and
Dan Voorhees, and the Woods, and me, hed bin with Androo
all day. The Ablishnists avoided him after the veto; and
knowin he'd done suthin he wuzn't quite shoor wuz wise, he
needed bracin up, and we wuz ready to brace him. Isn't it
singular that men, when they go to the devil, alluz go in
squads? Cox hed him cornered all day, a readin to him extrax
from Forney's Press, and choice selections from Sumner's
speeches; and Voorhees and the others wuz a intimatin to him
that only in the buzzum uv the Dimocrisy cood he find that
congeniality uv sperit so nessary to him; and by the time the
serenade wuz ready, he wuz ez full uv venom ez wuz possible,
and his capacity in that line is immense.
The company all went with him onto the stand, and my eyes
saw the first cheerin vision wich they hev beheld for years.
Before us stood ten thousand or more Dimocrats. There wuz
the veteran from Lee's army in his soot uv gray, which hed, by
continued contact with the pavements uv Washington — wich,
not hevin bin slept on much, sense Bookannon's time, they
don't sweep — become somewhat uv the color uv the clay.
There wuz the offiser who surrendered with Johnston, and
them noble sons uv Baltimore, and Rawly, and Charleston, who,
though they didn't serve their section in the field, were ardent
in their support uv the cause. There were the old-style
Dimocrats uv the North, whose faith in Johnson's Dimocrisy,
based upon the scene wich took place at the inauguration,
wuz greater than mine, hed come on with their applications
for Post Offises, and who jined so heartily in the cheers wich
went up for J. Davis: and there, addressin this crowd, wuz a
President — the man who had the appintin power in his hands
— who cood make and unmake Post Masters!
It did me good, and yet I doubtid. Wood he go through
with it? Wood he lock horns with Wade and Sumner, and
dare the wrath uv Thad Stevens? Wood he? He wavered and
shrunk back ez he saw the style uv the awdience before him;
for he hed bin, for four years, accustomed to better dressed
people. But Cox wuz ekal to the emergency. Samyooel
whispered into his ear, “Charles the I.!”[2]
and flamin up like
a conflagratid oil well, he waded in. Then I felt that it wuz all
right. Then my soul expanded; and ez he went on, pilin
Billinsgate upon Billinsgate, usin Tennessee stump slang, improved
by a liberal mixture uv the more desprit variety he
hed picked up in Washington and Baltimore, I felt that it wuz
indeed well with us. He wuz talkin ez a Dimokrat to Dimokrats;
and it wuz appreciated. Strippin off all the disguise
he hed bin a wearin for four years, — washin off, in rage and
whisky, the varnish and putty with wich he hed shined up his
dullness, and filled up the cracks and cavities wich hed alluz
troubled him, — he stood forth ez we knowd him — Androo
Johnson! How he did froth and foam! How he did lash his
late associates! and how those Dimokrats who came to Washinton
with petitions for places in their pockets did wink at each
other, and poke each other in the ribs, with exultation and
jocularity wich they cood not conceal! And how the Ablishnists,
wich hung onto the outskirts uv the crowd, in the hope
that he wood declare himself in sich a way ez to give em some
hope, did walk away sorrowful and sore, ez tho they felt that
they hed a new trouble afore em! And how the soljers uv
Lee, and the quartermasters wich hed made Richmond their
headquarters doorin the war, did cheer and sling their hats
into the air, and in the uncontrollable enthoosiasm uv the
moment invariably snatch better ones from the heads uv the
Northern men in the crowd! It wuz gorjus.
While His Eggslency's course gives me hope, I don't want it
to be understood that I am prepared to fully and entirely
indorse him. I don't go much on men who do things in a state
uv madnis; neither do I invest heavy in that Dimokrat wich
requires an extra load uv likker to make him act and talk like
a Dimokrat. Androo Johnson was and is a Dimokrat — a
ginooine Dimokrat. The accident uv his learnin to read, in
his yooth, gave him a preëminence over us in Tennessee, and
put him through the various places he hez filled. His affinities
wuz with us; his style wuz our style, and his habits our habits;
and he hed no biznis to ever git out uv the fold. I cannot
forget that he went back on us at a critikle time in the history
uv the party. He saw that the effort the Dimocrisy uv the
South wus makin to regain their rites wood be a failure; the
aristocracy uv the South hed snubbed him, and refoozed to
recognize him; but all this shood not hev affected him. It's
the normal condishn uv the lower grade uv Dimokrats to be
snubbed; and they hev no rite to inquire whether anything
the aristocracy uv the party propose is goin to be a failure or
not. It's their dooty to obey orders without questioning.
Wat spiled Johnson wuz Massachoosits. He pretended to be
loyal, and Massachoosits patted him on the back. They took
him into good society. They let him associate with Sumner
and sich, and the man became infatuated. He got to drinkin
high priced drinks, and wearin clean shirts, and begun to ape
the manners uv those into whose sphere he hed bin thrown.
There wuz these two opposin forces contendin within him —
nateral proclivities and acquired tastes — wich may be represented
by whiskey out uv a jug, and mint juleps at Willard's.
Massachoosits wuz a pullin him up, and North Carolina wuz
pullin him down. He wantid to stay with Massachoosits, but
he wuz uncomfortable all the time; and finally nacher asserted
her supremacy, and he broke over, and like the water long confined
in a dam, when it's bustid its obstructions, and goes, it
goes with a looseness, and tears up, and takes a very large
quantity uv dirt and drift wood with it.
Before I tie myself to A. J., I want to know for certin what
he proposes to do. Who is to hev the Post Offisis? Is
Ablishnists to still retain the places uv trust and profit? Does
he propose to organize a new party, made up uv sich Republikins
ez he can indoose to foller him and the Dimocrisy? Ef
so, I ain't in. Decidedly, I ain't in. Emphatically, count me
out. For the reason, that he kin git jist enuff Republikins,
precisely, and no more, to fill the offisis, and they will be uv
sich a character ez will do the Dimokrisy no credit. I won't
be tail to no kite. We are willin to play kite; but tail, never!
Ef we boost Androo Johnson, Androo Johnson must boost us.
Does he think we kin carry sich a load ez he is for nothin?
Nary. Ef we hev a consoomin desire to git along without
offisis, we are doin very well at that now, we thank yoo; and
we heven't the responsibility uv the Administration uv a exstremely
shaky man to carry. Sich loads must be paid for.
But, after all, I hev hopes. He hez cut hisself loose from
Sumner and Stevens; and in less than a week every Republikin
uv modrit sensibilities will be aboozin uv him to that
extent that he won't be able to git back agin. He's a animal
uv the bull kind; and criticism and opposition is to him the
red flag wich the Spanish matadors wave afore the animals
they wish to infooriate, and they may drive him into our
ranks.
I wait, and watch, and hope. Ef I kin wunst git a commission,
with the broad seel uv the Postmaster General onto it,
confirmin me in the possession uv the post orfis at the Corners,
I shel bless the day that Androo Johnson left us, and prokoored
his elevation to the Presidency. May the day be hastened!
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.
