_Andrew Johnson, Military Governor of Tennessee._ By CLIFTON R. HALL,
Ph.D. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1916. Pp. 234.
This book, according to the author, is an attempt to "trace the
personality of Andrew Johnson through the years 1862-1865 when the
burden of military government and reconstruction in Tennessee rested
principally upon his shoulders." The author has intentionally
neglected to give detailed treatment of the military administration in
West Tennessee by the generals of the regular army and also of the
Federal trade regulations in the State. No effort is here made to
trace the career of Johnson after the close of his services in
Tennessee. The account is largely based on the papers of Johnson found
in the _Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies_ and on
the newspapers of that period, especially the _Nashville Union_. The
author is conscious of his failure adequately to present the
"Confederate side of many controverted points," because of "a most
regrettable dearth of material for this purpose."
Dr. Hall aims to answer certain charges, among which are such as the
assertion that Johnson purposely delayed the work of reconstruction
and that he by rather harsh treatment excluded many unquestionably
loyal men from the work of reconstruction. The purpose of the work is
to show how the lesson learned by Johnson in reconstructing his own
State constituted a training for the higher work to which he was so
suddenly and unexpectedly called. With this end in view the writer
considers first secession, and then gives a sketch of Andrew Johnson
leading up to his inauguration as Military Governor. Then follow such
topics as the defense of Nashville, repression under Rosecrans,
military and political reverses, the progress of reorganization and
the presidential campaign of 1864. Throughout the treatise an
effort is made to show the arduousness of the task of the
Governor-of-all-work had to do and how he summoned to his aid the
constructive element and reestablished order. There is given also an
account not only of the opposition of those who looked upon the
Governor as a traitor but of that of the militant factions that
divided on the question as to how the State should be reconstructed.
Lincoln's plan of reconstruction is presented as a factor which
figured largely in the problems the Governor had to solve.
How the question of slavery was then treated by the men solving the
problem of maintaining the Union is not neglected. Andrew Johnson is
referred to as product of the poor white stock that hoped to see the
evil of slavery exterminated because it was at variance with the
principles of democracy, but on the other hand believed that it was so
deeply rooted in the life of the nation that it should not be molested
so long as it "remained in strict subordination to and in harmony with
the government." The writer shows also how Johnson felt that in case
of secession the Federal Government could not coerce a State, yet
believing that this government, the best and freest on earth, should
be preserved, he undermined his own anti-coercion doctrine by
denouncing the right of secession and urging that although the Federal
Government could not coerce a State, it had a right to guarantee the
loyal citizens representing it a constitutional form of government.
Some space is given to the discussion of the exception of Tennessee
from the Emancipation Proclamation, the growing tendency of Johnson to
ignore slavery to preserve the Union, how the opponents sought to
weaken him by saying that he was opposed to the institution and
finally how he suffered it to be sacrificed to save the Union. Passing
mention is given the working out of the problem of abolition and the
proposition as to what relief and what privileges should be given the
emancipated Negroes.