University of Virginia Library

12. XII.
The President's 22d of February Speech. — The
Account thereof of One behind the Scenes. —
Hopes and Fears of the Democracy.

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 arozen
onto the Dimocracy; that our night uv gloom is
over; and that, at larst, 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 honist diffrence 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 Summer'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
Tom Florence, and Coyle, 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 singler 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 conjeniality 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 capassity 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 continyood
contact with the pavements uv Washington
— wich, not hevin bin slept on much, sense Bookannon's
time, they don't sweep — hed 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 Offisis.

It did me good, and yet I doubtid. Wood he go
through with it? Wood he lock horns with Wade
and Summer, 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 and Florence wuz ekal to the
emergency. Samyooel whispered into his one ear,
“Whitewash!” and Florence into tother, “Charles
the I.!” and flamin up like a conflagratid oil well,
he waded it. 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 mixter 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 uv 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
kum to Washinton with petitions for places in their
pockets did wink at each other, and poke each other
in the ribs, with exultation and jockelarity 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 sorrowfully
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 gorgus.

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 forgit that he went back on us at a
critikle time in the histry uv the party. He saw
that the effort the Dimocrisy uv the South wuz
makin to regain their rites wood be a failyoor;
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 failyoor
or not. It's their dooty to obey orders without questionin.

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 Summer and sich, and
the man became infatooated. 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 jooleps at Willard's. Massychoosits

wuz a pullin him up, and North Carolina
wuz equally vigorously pullin him down. He
wantid to stay with Massychoosits, 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 its bustid its
obstructions, and goes, it goes with a loosenis, 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, percisely, 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 you; and we haven't the responsibility uv
the Administration uv a eggstremely 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 an animal uv the bull
kind; and criticism and opposition is to him the
red flag wich the Spanish matadors, I bleeve they
call em, waves 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 orifis 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!