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be the last to mouth that phrase; and, even when uttered in their hearing, it should cause their cheeks to tinge and burn with shame. Negro equality, indeed! Why, pass, any day, along the sidewalks of High Street where these aristocrats more particularly dwell,- these aristocrats, whose sons are now in the bands of guerillas and cut-throats who prowl and rob and murder around our city,- pass by their dwellings, I say, and you will see as many mulatto as negro children, the former bearing an unmistakable resemblance to their aristocratic owners!

"Colored men of Tennessee! This, too, shall cease! Your wives and daughters shall no longer be dragged into a concubinage, compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy the brutal lusts of slaveholders and overseers! Henceforth the sanctity of God's holy law of marriage shall be respected in your persons, and the great State of Tennessee shall no more give her sanction to your degradation and your shame!"

"Thank God! thank God!" came from the lips of a thousand women, who in their own persons had experienced the hellish iniquity of the man-seller's code. "Thank God!" fervently echoed the fathers, husbands, brothers of these women.

"And if the law protects you in the possession of your wives and children, if the law shields those whom you hold dear from the unlawful grasp of lust, will you endeavor to be true to yourselves, and shun, as it were death itself, the path of lewdness, crime, and vice?"

"We will! we will!" cried the assembled thousands; and joining in a sublime and tearful enthusiasm, another mighty shout went up to heaven.

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'Looking at this vast crowd of colored people," continued the Governor," and reflecting through what a storm of persecution and obloquy they are compelled to pass, I am almost induced to wish that, as in the days of old, a Moses might arise who should lead them safely to their promised land of freedom and happiness."

"You are our Moses," shouted several voices, and the ex

clamation was caught up and cheered until the Capitol rung again.

“God,” continued the speaker, "no doubt has prepared somewhere an instrument for the great work he designs to perform in behalf of this outraged people, and in due time your leader will come forth; your Moses will be revealed to you.” "We want no Moses but you!" again shouted the crowd. "Well, then," replied the speaker, "humble and unworthy as I am, if no other better shall be found, I will indeed be your Moses, and lead you through the Red Sea of war and bondage to a fairer future of liberty and peace. I speak now as one who feels the world his country, and all who love equal rights his friends. I speak, too, as a citizen of Tennessee. I am here on my own soil; and here I mean to stay and fight this great battle of truth and justice to a triumphant end. Rebellion and slavery shall, by God's good help, no longer pollute our State. Loyal men, whether white or black, shall alone control her destinies; and when this strife in which we are all engaged is past, I trust, I know, we shall have a better state of things, and shall all rejoice that honest labor reaps the fruit of its own industry, and that every man has a fair chance in the race of life."

It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm which followed these words. Joy beamed in every countenance. Tears and laughter followed each other in quick succession. The great throng moved and swayed back and forth in the intensity of emotion, and shout after shout rent the air.

A man might have exchanged an ordinary immortality to have made such a speech to such an audience, and been much the gainer.

It was a speech significant of one of the loftiest positions to which mankind, struggling upward toward universal freedom, has as yet attained.

The great Tribune descended from the steps of the Capitol. As if by magic the dense throng parted to let him through. And all that night long his name was mingled with the curses

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and execrations of the traitor and oppressor, and with the blessings of the oppressed and poor.

The result of the Presidential election on the 14th of November, 1864, is well known. All of the States voting save three, gave immense majorities for Lincoln and Johnson, thus indorsing the former administration of Mr. Lincoln and promising renewed and continued support.

On the 4th of March, 1865, the ceremonies of inauguration were performed at Washington, in the presence of an immense concourse of people. Vice-President Johnson was duly qualified, and assumed the duties of President of the Senate. The affairs of the nation were progressing in the most auspicious manner. The military operations of Generals Grant and Sherman attracted and absorbed the attention of the nation. President Lincoln, who was at the front with the LieutenantGeneral, had sent despatch after despatch containing words of good cheer, culminating with the news of the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg, and the occupation of those cities by the Federal troops. The country was wild with delight, and throughout the loyal States the people gathered together to give expression to their satisfaction. At the meeting in Washington on the 3d of April, Vice-President Johnson spoke as follows:

"As I have been introduced, I will make one or two remarks, for I feel that no one would be justified in attempting to make an address on such an occasion, when the excitement is justly at so great a height.

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a great

"We are now, my friends, winding up a rebellion, effort that has been made by bad men to overthrow the Government of the United States, a Government founded upon free principles, and cemented by the best blood of the Revolution. [Cheers.] You must indulge me in making one single remark in connection with myself. At the time that the traitors in the Senate of the United States plotted against the Government, and entered into a conspiracy more foul, more execrable, and more odious than that of Catiline against the Romans, I happened to be a member of that body, and, as to loyalty stood solitary and alone among the Senators from the Southern States.

"I was then and there called upon to know what I could do with such traitors, and I want to repeat my reply here. I said, if we had an Andrew Jackson he would hang them as high as Haman; but as he is no more, and sleeps in his grave in his own beloved State, where traitors and treason have even insulted his tomb and the very earth that covers his remains, humble as I am, when you ask me what I would do, my reply is, I would arrest them - I would try them - I would convict them, and I would hang them.

"As humble as I am and have been, I have pursued but one, undeviating course. All that I have — life, limb, and property - have been put at the disposal of the country in this great struggle. I have been in camp, I have been in the field, I have been everywhere where this great rebellion was; I have pursued it until I believe I can now see its termination. Since the world began, there never has been a rebellion of such gigantic proportions, so infamous in character, so diabolical in motive, so entirely disregardful of the laws of civilized war. It has introduced the most savage mode of warfare ever practised upon the earth.

"I will repeat here a remark, for which I have been in no small degree censured. What is it, allow me to ask, that has sustained the nation in this great struggle? The cry has been, you know, that our Government was not strong enough for a time of rebellion; that in such a time she would have to con

tend against internal weakness as well as internal foes. We have now given the world evidence that such is not the fact; and when the rebellion shall have been crushed out, and the nation shall once again have settled down in peace, our Government will rest upon a more enduring basis than ever before.

"But, my friends, in what has the great strength of this Government consisted. Has it been in one-man power? Has it been in some autocrat, or in some one man who held absolute government? No! I thank God I have it in my power to proclaim the great truth, that this Government has derived its strength from the American people. They have issued the edict; they have exercised the power that has resulted in the overthrow of the rebellion, and there is not another government upon the face of the earth that could have withstood the shock.

"We can now congratulate ourselves that we possess the strongest, the freest, and the best Government the world ever saw. Thank God that we have lived through this trial, and that, looking in your intelligent faces here to-day, I can announce to you the great fact that Petersburg, the outpost to the strong citadel, has been occupied by our brave and gallant officers and our untiring, invincible soldiers. And not content with that, they have captured the citadel itself, — the stronghold of traitors. Richmond is ours, and is now occupied by the forces of the United States! Her gates have been entered, and the glorious Stars and Stripes, the emblem of Union, of power, and of supremacy, now float over the enemy's capitol !

"In the language of another, let that old flag rise higher and higher, until it meets the sun in his coming, and let the parting day linger to play upon its ample folds. It is the flag of your country, it is your flag, it is my flag, and it bids defiance to all the nations of the earth, and the encroachments of all the powers combined. It is not my intention to make any imprudent remarks or allusions, but the hour will come when those nations that exhibited toward us such insolence and

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