FELLOW-CITIZENS:
Tennessee assumed the form of a body politic, as one of the United
States of America, in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-six, at once
entitled to all the privileges of the Federal Constitution, and bound by all
its obligations. For nearly sixty five
years she continued in the enjoyment of all her rights, and in the performance
of all her duties, one of the most loyal and devoted of the sisterhood of
States. She has been honored by the elevation
of two of her citizens of the highest place in the gift of the American people,
and a third had been nominated for the same high office, who received a liberal
though ineffective support. Her
population had rapidly and largely increased, and their moral and material
interests correspondingly advanced.
Never was a people more prosperous, contented and happy than the people
of Tennessee under the government of the United States, and none so little
burdened for the support of the authority by which they were protected. They felt their Government only in the
conscientious enjoyment of the benefits it conferred and the blessings it
bestowed.
Such was our enviable condition until within the last year
just past, when, under what baneful influences it is not my purpose no to
inquire, the authority of the Government was set at defiance, and the
Constitution and laws contempted, by a rebellious, armed force. Men, who in addition to ordinary privileges
and duties of the citizen, had enjoyed largely the bounty and official
patronage of the Government, and have by repeated oaths, obliged themselves to
its support, with sudden ingratitude for the bounty and disregard for their
solemn obligation, engaged, deliberately and ostentatiously, in the
accomplishment of its overthrow. Many,
accustomed to defer to their opinions and to accept their guidance, and others,
carried away by excitement or overawed by seditious clamor, arrayed themselves
under their banners, thus, organizing and treasonable power, which, for the
time being, stifled and suppressed the authority of the Federal Government.
In this condition of affairs it devolved upon the President,
bound by his official oath, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,
and charged by the law with the duty of suppressing insurrection and domestic
violence, to resist and repel this rebellion force by the military arm of the
Government, and thus to re-establish the Federal authority. Congress, assembling at an early day, found
him engaged in the active discharge of this momentous and responsible
trust. That body came promptly to his
aid, and while supplying him with treasure and arms to an extent that wound previously
have been considered fabulous, they, at the same time, with almost absolute
unanimity, declared “that this war is not waged on their part in any spirit of
oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose
of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of
these States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and
to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several
States unimpaired; and that as soon as those objects are accomplished the war
ought to cease.” In this spirit, and by
such co-operation, has the President conducted this mighty contest, until, as
Commander-in-chief of the army, he has caused the national flag to float
undisputed over the capitol of our State.
Meanwhile the State Government has disappeared. The Executive has abdicated; the Legislature
has dissolved; the Judiciary is in abeyance.
The great ship of State, freighted with its precious cargo of human
interests and human hopes, its sails all set, and its glorious flag unfurled,
has been suddenly abandoned by her officers and mutinous crew, and left to
float at the mercy of the winds, and to be plundered by every rover upon the
deep. Indeed the work of plunder has
already commenced. The archives have
been desecrated; the public property stolen and destroyed; the vaults of the
State bank violated, and its treasures robbed, including the funds carefully
gathered and consecrated for all time to the instruction of our children.
In such a lamentable crisis, the Government of the United
States could not be unmindful of its high constitutional obligation to
guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, an
obligation which every State has a direct and immediate interest in having
observed towards every other State, and from which, by no action on the part of
the people in any State, can the Federal Government be absolved. A republican form of Government, in
consonance with the Constitution of the United States, in one of the
fundamental conditions of our political existence, by which every part of the
country is alike bound, and from which no part can escape. This obligation the national government is
now attempting to discharge. I have been
appointed in the absence of the regular and established State authorities, as
Military Governor for the time being, to preserve the public property of the
State, to give the protection of the law actively enforced to her citizens and,
as speedily as my be, to restore her government to the same condition as before
the existing rebellion.
In this grateful but arduous undertaking, I shall avail myself
of all the aid that may be afforded by my fellow citizens, and for this purpose
I respectfully, but earnestly invite all the People of Tennessee, desirous of
willing to see a restoration of her ancient government, without distinction of
party affiliations, or past political opinions, or action, to unite with me, by
counsel and co-operative agency, to accomplish this great end. I find most, if not all of the offices, both
State and Federal, vacated, either by actual abandonment, or by the action of
the incumbents in attempting to subordinate their functions to a power in
hostility to the fundamental law of the State, and subversive of her national
allegiance. These offices must be filled
temporarily, until the State shall be restored so far to its accustomed quiet,
that the people can peaceably assemble at the ballot-box and select agents of
their own choice. Otherwise anarchy
would prevail, and no man’s life or property would be safe from desperate and
unprincipled.
I shall, therefore, as early as practicable, designate for
various positions under the State and county governments, from among my fellow
citizens, persons of probity and intelligence, and bearing true allegiance to
the Constitution and Government of the United States, who will execute the
functions of their respective offices, until their places can be filled by the
action of the people Their authority,
when their appointments shall have been made, will be accordingly respected and
observed.
To the people themselves, the protection of the Government
is extended. All their rights will be
duly respected, and their wrongs redressed when made known. Those who through the dark and weary night of
the rebellion have maintained their allegiance to the Federal Government will
be honored. The erring and misguided
will be welcomed on their return.
And while it may become necessary, in vindicating the
violated majesty of the law, and in re-asserting its imperial sway, to punish
intelligent and conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindictive
policy will be adopted. To those, especially,
who in a private unofficial capacity have assumed an attitude of hostility to
the Government, a full and complete amnesty for all past acts and declarations
is offered, upon the one condition of their again yielding themselves peaceful
citizens to the just supremacy of the laws.
This I advise them to do for their own good, and for the peace and welfare
of our beloved State, endeared to me by the associations of long and active
years, and by the enjoyment of her highest honors.
And appealing to my fellow citizens of Tennessee, I point
them to my long public life as a pledge for the sincerity of my own motives and
an earnest for the performance of my present and future duties.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 1
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