The President's 22d of February Speech.--The Account thereof of One
behind the Scenes.--Hopes and Fears of the Democracy.
WASHINGTON, February 23, 1866.
I don't know; but there is a still small voice within me wich whispers,
"All is well!" The delusive phantom, Hope, may be playin false with me.
The wish may be paternal parient to the thought, and I may be indulgin
in a dream from wich I shel be, to-morrer, roodly awakened; but it's my
opinion that the day-star uv glory hez arozen onto the Dimocracy; that
our night uv gloom is over; and that, at larst, the Government, or at
least the only part we care about,--the offisis,--is ourn. I heerd
Androo Johnson speak last nite! I stood beside him! I helpt hold him up!
I SMELT HIS BREATH. It's all rite!
I hed hopes when he vetoed that large and varied assortment uv Ablishn
abominashens,--the Freedmen's Burow bill,--notwithstandin there were
pints in his message I coodent sanction. The veto wuz heavenly, but his
reasons were unsound. When he expressed hisself ez bein determined upon
sekoorin the niggers in their rites, I felt fearful that there wuz a
honist diffrence uv opinion atween him and Congress wich mite be
settled, and then what wood become uv us? Ef the niggers is to hev
rites, in the name uv Heaven, I asked myself, what difference does it
make to us whether they hev em by Charles Sumner's system (on whose head
rest cusses!), or A. Johnson's? And ez is customary when men ask
theirselves questions, I got no answer. Men never ask theirselves
questions wich kin be answered.
But last nite my doubts wuz removed. Little Sam Cox, and Dan Voorhees,
and the Woods, and Tom Florence, and Coyle, and me, hed bin with Androo
all day. The Ablishnists avoided him after the veto; and knowin he'd
done suthin he wuzn't quite shoor wuz wise, he needed bracin up, and we
wuz ready to brace him. Isn't it singler that men, when they go to the
devil, alluz go in squads? Cox hed him cornered all day, a readin to him
extrax from Forney's Press, and choice selections from Sumner's
speeches; and Voorhees and the others wuz a intimatin to him that only
in the buzzum uv the Dimocrisy cood he find that conjeniality uv sperit
so nessary to him; and by the time the serenade wuz ready, he wuz ez
full uv venom ez wuz possible, and his capassity in that line is
immense.
The company all went with him onto the stand, and my eyes saw the first
cheerin vision wich they hev beheld for years. Before us stood ten
thousand or more Dimocrats. There wuz the veteran from Lee's army in his
soot uv gray, which hed, by continyood contact with the pavements uv
Washington--wich, not hevin bin slept on much, sense Bookannon's time,
they don't sweep--hed become somewhat uv the color uv the clay. There
wuz the offiser who surrendered with Johnston, and them noble sons uv
Baltimore, and Rawly, and Charleston, who, though they didn't serve
their section in the field, were ardent in their support uv the cause.
There were the old-style Dimocrats uv the North, whose faith in
Johnson's Dimocrisy, based upon the scene wich took place at the
inauguration, wuz greater than mine, hed come on with their applications
for Post Offises, and who jined so heartily in the cheers wich went up
for J. Davis: and there, addressin this crowd, wuz a President--the man
who had the appintin power in his hands--who cood make and unmake Post
Offisis.
It did me good, and yet I doubtid. Wood he go through with it? Wood he
lock horns with Wade and Sumner, and dare the wrath uv Thad Stevens?
Wood he? He wavered and shrunk back ez he saw the style uv the awdience
before him; for he hed bin, for four years, accustomed to better dressed
people. But Cox and Florence wuz ekal to the emergency. Samyooel
whispered into his one ear, "Whitewash!" and Florence into tother,
"Charles the I.!" and flamin up like a conflagratid oil well, he waded
it. Then I felt that it wuz all right. Then my soul expanded; and ez he
went on, pilin Billinsgate upon Billinsgate, usin Tennessee stump slang,
improved by a liberal mixter uv the more desprit variety he hed picked
up in Washinton and Baltimore, I felt that it wuz indeed well with us.
He wuz talkin ez a Dimokrat to Dimokrats; and it wuz appreciated.
Strippin off all uv the disguise he hed bin a wearin for four
years,--washin off, in rage and whisky, the varnish and putty with wich
he hed shined up his dullness, and filled up the cracks and cavities
wich hed alluz troubled him,--he stood forth ez we knowd him--Androo
Johnson! How he did froth and foam! How he did lash his late associates!
and how those Dimokrats who kum to Washinton with petitions for places
in their pockets did wink at each other, and poke each other in the
ribs, with exultation and jockelarity wich they cood not conceal! And
how the Ablishnists, wich hung onto the outskirts uv the crowd, in the
hope that he wood declare himself in sich a way ez to give em some hope,
did walk away sorrowfully and sore, ez tho they felt that they hed a new
trouble afore em! And how the soljers uv Lee, and the quartermasters
wich hed made Richmond their headquarters doorin the war, did cheer and
sling their hats into the air, and in the uncontrollable enthoosiasm uv
the moment invariably snatch better ones from the heads uv the Northern
men in the crowd! It wuz gorgus.
While His Eggslency's course gives me hope, I don't want it to be
understood that I am prepared to fully and entirely indorse him. I don't
go much on men who do things in a state uv madnis; neither do I invest
heavy in that Dimokrat wich requires an extra load uv likker to make him
act and talk like a Dimokrat. Androo Johnson was and is a Dimokrat--a
ginooine Dimokrat. The accident uv his learnin to read, in his yooth,
gave him a preëminence over us in Tennessee, and put him through the
various places he hez filled. His affinities wuz with us; his style wuz
our style, and his habits our habits; and he hed no biznis to ever git
out uv the fold. I cannot forgit that he went back on us at a critikle
time in the histry uv the party. He saw that the effort the Dimocrisy uv
the South wuz makin to regain their rites wood be a failyoor; the
aristocracy uv the South hed snubbed him, and refoozed to recognize him;
but all this shood not hev affected him. It's the normal condishn uv the
lower grade uv Dimokrats to be snubbed; and they hev no rite to inquire
whether anything the aristocracy uv the party propose is goin to be a
failyoor or not. It's their dooty to obey orders without questionin.
Wat spiled Johnson wuz Massachoosits. He pretended to be loyal, and
Massachoosits patted him on the back. They took him into good society.
They let him associate with Sumner and sich, and the man became
infatooated. He got to drinkin high priced drinks, and wearin clean
shirts, and begun to ape the manners uv those into whose sphere he hed
bin thrown, There wuz these two opposin forces contendin within
him--nateral proclivities and acquired tastes--wich may be represented
by whiskey out uv a jug, and mint jooleps at Willard's. Massychoosits
wuz a pullin him up, and North Carolina wuz equally vigorously pullin
him down. He wantid to stay with Massychoosits, but he wuz uncomfortable
all the time; and finally nacher asserted her supremacy, and he broke
over, and like the water long confined in a dam, when its bustid its
obstructions, and goes, it goes with a loosenis, and tears up, and takes
a very large quantity uv dirt and drift wood with it.
Before I tie myself to A.J., I want to know fer certin what he proposes
to do. WHO IS TO HEV THE POST OFFISIS? Is Ablishnists to still retain
the places uv trust and profit? Does he propose to organize a new party,
made up uv sich Republikins ez he can indoose to foller him and the
Dimocrisy? Ef so, I ain't in. Decidedly, I ain't in. Emphatically, count
me out. For the reason, that he kin git jist enuff Republikins,
percisely, and no more, to fill the offisis, and they will be uv sich a
character ez will do the Dimokrisy no credit. I won't be tail to no
kite. We are willin to play kite; but tail, never! Ef we boost Androo
Johnson, Androo Johnson must boost us. Does he think we kin carry sich a
load ez he is for nothin? Nary. Ef we hev a consoomin desire to git
along without offisis, we are doin very well at that now, we thank you;
and we haven't the responsibility uv the Administration uv a eggstremely
shaky man to carry. Sich loads must be paid for.
But, after all, I hev hopes. He hez cut hisself loose from Sumner and
Stevens; and in less than a week every Republikin uv modrit
sensibilities will be aboozin uv him to that extent that he won't be
able to git back agin. He's an animal uv the bull kind; and criticism
and opposition is to him the red flag wich the Spanish matadors, I
bleeve they call em, waves afore the animals they wish to infooriate,
and they may drive him into our ranks.
I wait, and watch, and hope. Ef I kin wunst git a commission, with the
broad seel uv the Postmaster General onto it, confirmin me in the
possession uv the Post orifis at the Corners, I shel bless the day that
Androo Johnson left us, and prokoored his elevation to the Presidency.
May the day be hastened!
PETROLEUM V. NASBY,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.