Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/473

Rh to the state senate from Greene and Hawkins coun- ties, and while in that body he was one of the " immortal 13 " Democrats who, having it in their power to prevent the election of a Whig senator, did so by refusing to meet the house in joint con- vention. He also proposed that the basis of rep- resentation should rest upon the white votes, with- out regard to the ownership of slaves.

In 1843 he was elected to congress over John A. Asken, a U. S. bank Democrat, who was supported by the Whigs. His first speech was in support of the resolution to restore to Gen. Jackson the fine imposed upon him at New Orleans. He supported the annexation of Texas. In 1845 he was re-elect- ed, and sustained Polk's administration. He op- posed all expenditures for internal improvements that were not general, and resisted and defeated the proposed contingent tax of ten per cent, on tea and coffee. He was regularly re-elected until 1853. During this period he made his celebrated defence of the veto power, and urged the adoption of the homestead law, which was obnoxious to the slave-holding power of the south. He supported the compromise measures of 1850 as a matter of expediency, but opposed compromises in general as a sacrifice of principle. In 1853 the district lines were so " gerry- mandered " as to throw him into a district in which the Whigs had an overwhelming ma- jority. Johnson at once announced himself a candi- date for the gov- ernorship, and was elected by a fair majority. In his message to the leg- islature he dwelt upon the homestead law and other measures for the benefit of the working-classes, and earned the title of the " mechanic governor." He opposed the Know-nothing movement with characteristic vehemence. In 1855 he was opposed by Meredith P. Gentry, the Whig candidate, and defeated him after a canvass remarkable for the feeling displayed. Mr. Johnson earnestly sup- ported the Kansas-Nebraska bill.

In 1857 he was elected to the U. S. senate, where he urged the passage of the homestead bill, and on 20 May, 1858, made his greatest speech on this subject. Finally, in 1860, he had the momentary gratification of seeing his favorite bill pass both houses of congress, but President Buchanan vetoed it, and the veto was sustained. Johnson revived it at the next session, and also introduced a reso- lution looking to a retrenchment in the expendi- tures of the government, end on constitutional grounds opposed the grant of aid for the construc- tion of a Pacific railroad. He was prominent in debate, and frequently clashed with southern sup- porters of the administration. His pronounced Unionism estranged him from the slave-holders on the one side, while his acceptance of slavery as an institution guaranteed by the constitution caused him to hold aloof from "the Republicans on the other. .This intermediate position suggested his availability as a popular candidate for the presidency ; but in the Democratic convention he received only the vote of Tennessee, and when the convention reassembled in Baltimore he withdrew his name. In the canvass that followed, he sup ported the extreme pro-slavery candidate, Breck- inridge. Johnson had never believed it possible that any organized attempt to dissolve the Union could be made ; but the events preceding the session of congress beginning in December, 1860, convinced him of his error. When congress met, he took decided and unequivocal grounds in opposition to secession, and on 13 Dec. introduced a joint resolution, proposing to amend the constitution so as to elect the president and vice-president by district votes, to elect senators by a direct popular vote, and to limit the terms of Federal judges to twelve years, half of them to be from slave-holding and half from non-slave-holding states. In his speech on this resolution, 18 and 19 Dec, he declared his unyielding opposition to secession, and announced his intention to stand by and act in and under the constitution. The southern states were then in the act of seceding, and every word uttered in congress was read and discussed with eagerness by thirty millions of people. Johnson's speech, coming from a southern man, thrilled the popular heart; but his popularity in the north was offset by the virulence with which he was assailed in the south. In a speech delivered 2 March, 1861, he said, referring to the secessionists : " I would have them arrested and tried for treason, and, if convicted, by the eternal God, they should suffer the penalty of the law at the hands of the executioner." Returning to Tennessee from Washington, he was attacked at Liberty, Va., by a mob, but drove them back with his pistol. At Lynchburg he was hooted and hissed, and at various places burned in effigy. He attended the East Tennessee union convention, in Cincinnati, 30 May, and again on 19 June he visited the same place and was received with enthusiasm. Here he declared for a vigorous prosecution of the war.

He retained his seat in the senate until appointed by President Lincoln military governor of Tennessee, 4 March, 1862. On 12 March he reached Nashville, and organized a provisional government for the state. On 18 March he issued a proclamation, in which he appealed to the people to return to their allegiance, to uphold the law, and to accept " a full and competent amnesty for all past acts and declarations. He required the city council to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. They refused, and he removed them and appointed others. He urged the holding of Union meetings throughout the state, and frequently attended them in person. It was chiefly due to his courage that Nashville was held against a Confederate force. He completed the railroad from Nashville to Tennessee river, and raised 25 regiments for service in the state. On 8 Dec, 1862, he issued a proclamation ordering congressional elections, and on the 15th levied an assessment upon the richer southern sympathizers, "in behalf of the many helpless widows, wives, and children in the city of Nashville who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of their husbands, sons, and fathers having been forced into the armies of this unholy and nefarious rebellion." On 20 Feb., 1863, Gov. Johnson issued a proclamation warning the agents of all " traitors " to retain their collections until some person should be appointed to receive them for the United States. During the term of his service, Gov. Johnson exercised absolute and autocratic powers, but with singular moderation and discretion, and his course strengthened the Union cause in Tennessee. The Republican convention assembled in Baltimore, 6 June,