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 ANDREW JOHNSON 659 them. In the Charleston-Baltimore democratic convention of 1860 ho was the presidential can- didate of the Tennessee delegation. In the canvass which followed he supported Brecken- ridge and Lane, the candidates of the ultra southern wing of his party. But when the purposes of the leaders of that wing became apparent, and secession was actually intro- duced, he took ground against them, and in a speech delivered in the senate, Dec. 18 and 19, set forth the injustice and folly of the move- ment, and placed himself unreservedly on the side of the government. The legislature of Tennessee having voted the state out of the Union, in spite of the fact that the people had voted down a proposition for a convention on the subject, a reign of terror began there, and Johnson, returning home in May, 1861, was in peril of his life. On one occasion a mob en- tered a railroad car with the intention of lynching him ; but he met them boldly, pistol in hand, and they retired. In nearly every city of the state he was burned in effigy. He took a prominent part in the East Tennessee Union convention of May 30, and on his arri- val at Cincinnati (June 19) he received an ova- tion from the loyal citizens. On Jan. 31, 1862, he spoke in favor of the expulsion from the senate of Jesse D. Bright of Indiana. In the winter of 1861-'2 large numbers of Unionists were driven from their homes in East Tennes- see, and sought refuge in Kentucky. Mr. Johnson met them there, relieved the imme- diate wants of many from his own purse, and used his influence with the government for the establishment of Camp Dick Robinson, where these refugees found shelter, food, and cloth- ing, and were to a large extent organized into companies and mustered into the national ser- vice. His own wife and child had been turned out of their home, and his nine slaves confis- cated. On March 4, 1862, President Lincoln nominated 'Andrew Johnson to be military governor of Tennessee ; the senate confirmed the nomination ; and on the 12th of that month he reached Nashville and assumed the duties of the office. The insurgent state gov- ernment had been moved to Memphis when the capital was occupied by national troops. On March 18 Governor Johnson issued a pro- clamation which recited briefly the history of the state, the means by which it had been placed in hostility to the federal gov- ernment, the reestablishment of the national authority, and the abdication of the governor and dissolution of the legislature ; announced his own appointment as military governor, and his purpose to fill the state and county offices by appointment until order could be restored ; and declared that, " while it may become ne- cessary, in vindicating the violated majesty of the law and reasserting its imperial sway, to punish intelligent and conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindictive policy will be adopted." This proclamation attracted wide attention, because it was looked upon as indicating the policy of the federal ad- ministration ; but it produced little effect on the secession element in Tennessee. He next ad- dressed a letter to the mayor and council of Nashville, requiring them to take the oath of allegiance. They refused, and he immediately declared their offices vacant, and appointed other citizens to fill them temporarily. Two months later, to protect Unionists from out- rage at the hands of roving bands of secession- ists, he issued a proclamation of which the fol- lowing is the essential portion : " In every in- stance in which a Union man is arrested and maltreated by the marauding bands aforesaid, five or more rebels, from the most prominent in the immediate neighborhood, shall be ar- rested, imprisoned, and otherwise dealt with as the nature of the case may require ; and fur- ther, in all cases where the property of citizens loyal to the government of the United States is taken or destroyed, full and ample remuner- ation shall be made to them out of the proper- ty of such rebels in the vicinity as have sym- pathized with, and given aid, comfort, informa- tion, or encouragement to the parties commit- ting such depredations." Three days after is- suing this proclamation, he addressed a Union meeting at Nashville in a three-hour speech, which was most enthusiastically received. Here the tide of affairs seemed to turn, and similar meetings in various parts of the state greatly strengthened the Union cause. But Tennessee was still overrun by guerillas, and Johnson pursued his task amid continual per- sonal peril. He showed courage and ability in maintaining order in Nashville while it was threatened by Gen. Bragg, and preventing the evacuation or surrender of the place, in provi- ding for Union refugees, and in raising troops for the government. On Dec. 8, 1862, he issued a proclamation ordering elections to fill vacan- cies in the 37th congress ; and on the 15th an order levying five monthly assessments on cer- tain citizens of Nashville, "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 Feb. 20, 1863, he is- sued a proclamation warning all persons who occupied property belonging to " traitors " not to pay the rents until a person should be ap- pointed to receive them in the name of the United States. In a speech at Columbus, Ohio, March 3, he expressed his belief that slavery would be extinguished by the war, but declared that the emancipation proclamation would not at all affect the question. On the first Satur- day in March, 1864, by his order, elections were held for state and county officers, and the usual machinery of civil government was once more set in motion. On June 1, 1864, the republi- can convention at Baltimore, having renomi- nated Mr. Lincoln for the presidency, nomi- nated Andrew Johnson for the vice presidency.