party divided at the Baltimore Convention, in 1860, and the Douglas Democracy determined to stand or fall with its champion, the Union-loving senator from Tennessee declared himself a supporter of Breckinridge and Lane. He did so, however, with repeated and earnest declarations of his conviction that the loudest threats of secession were mere empty breath, and that there was no real danger. It was not until after the November election, when the triumph of the Republican Party was responded to by the immediate adoption of war measures by South Carolina, that he was willing to confess how utterly he had failed to understand the sincerity and the fixed determination of the disunionist leaders.

Mr.

When Congress assembled in December, 1860, the nation listened with the most intense anxiety for the utterances of Southern representative men upon the subject of secession. The views of some senators were already known, while others were as yet undeclared if not undecided. It was reasonably sure that the Congressional debates of that Winter session would both indicate and influence the future course of several of the States of the South. Johnson lost no time in declaring his position, with the outspoken vehemence belonging to his character. On December 13th he introduced a joint resolution to amend the Constitution of the United States. He proposed the election of the President and Vice-President by district vote; that of United States senators by a direct popular vote; a limitation of the terms of service of Supreme Court judges to twelve years, half of them to be chosen from free

States and half from slave States; and upon this resolution he made a speech in which he declared his purpose of standing by the Union to the last extremity. His denunciations of secessionists aroused against him an exceedingly bitter feeling in many parts of the South, but gained him a corresponding popularity in the North. As the session advanced Republican senators became prudently silent, to avoid in any manner compromising the attitude to be assumed by the coming administration of Abraham Lincoln. The more important measures before the Senate and the perils of the impending crisis were discussed mainly by the Southern leaders and by Northern Democrats. Mr. Douglas especially distinguished himself, but was severely criticised by Mr. Johnson as being too moderate and conciliatory. The Crittenden Compromise, as it was called, and the work of the Peace Conference offered abundant material and opportunity for presentations of the entire history of the slavery question and of every point of law and right involved. The fixed purposes of the secessionists were more and more. plainly manifest day after day.

During one of the exciting debates upon the Peace Conference propositions occurred an exceedingly dramatic incident. The Senate galleries were densely packed. Several Southern senators had spoken, denouncing Republicanism as abolitionism, and expressing views plainly indicating the action they were so soon to take. They were replied to by Senator Douglas, followed by Senator Lane, of Oregon.

Mr. Johnson took the floor as the latter sat

down, and poured forth such a torrent of invective against all disunionism and treason as even he had never uttered before. As he ceased, with a burst of angry patriotism, a young man in the gallery behind him shouted, "Three cheers for Andy Johnson!" They were given vociferously by the excited audience, and Senator Mason, of Virginia, at once demanded that the galleries should be cleared. Vice-President Breckinridge, in the chair, promptly gave the order, but, as he did so, a lady leaned forward from the ladies' gallery, waved her handkerchief, and her clear, ringing voice demanded "Three cheers for the Union!" The dense throng arose as one man and gave them with almost spasmodic enthusiasm. The Vice-President shouted to the sergeant-at-arms to make arrests, and was responded to with fierce derision as the crowd surged out through the several doorways. No arrests were made. Never before or afterward was there precisely such a shattering of the dignity of the Senate of the United States.

The precise tone of Andrew Johnson's Unionism at this time may be understood from the following extract from a speech made by him in the Senate. on March 2d, 1861 :

I would have them [the secession leaders] 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."

At the close of the session of Congress he returned home by way of Virginia. At Liberty, in that State, he was threatened with violence by a mob,

but drove his assailants away, pistol in hand. At Lynchburg he was hooted. In many places throughout the South he was burned in effigy, but there were large numbers of Southern Unionists, nevertheless, who silently agreed with him and honored him.

CHAPTER III.

Mrs. Johnson a Political Prisoner-The Solitary United States Senator from the Confederacy-Military Governor of Tennessee-The Proclamation of Emancipation-Andrew Johnson Still a Staterights Democrat-Chosen Vice-President of the United States-Conflicting Views of the Reconstruction Question.

MRS. JOHNSON had joined her husband in Washington shortly before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, and she remained there during his brief absence in Tennessee. He went to attend to his private business and to make an effort to arouse and organize the strong Union element in his own district. Shortly after his return to the national capital, his wife's delicate health caused her to cut short her intended visit and go home to Greenville. two months in Washington.

She had spent but

The Confederacy was now extending its political and military operations with extraordinary rapidity, while the Federal Government was altogether unprepared for anything but a policy of waiting and of preparation.

However strong might be the Union element in East Tennessee, it was not long before Mrs. Johnson discovered that she was in an enemy's country. She was the wife of a man who had made himself