Saturday, March 17, 2012

1862 March 18th Nashville, Tennessee

[from a broadside entitled:]

APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF TENNESSEE

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Tennessee assumed the
form of a body politic, as one of the United
States of America, in the year seventeen hun-
dred 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....

Such was our enviable condition until within
the year just past, when, under what baneful
influences it is not my purpose now to inquire,
the authority of the Government was set at
defiance, and the Constitution and Laws con-
temned, by a rebellious, armed force. Men
who...had enjoyed largely the
bounty and official patronage of the Govern-
ment, and had, by repeated oaths, obligated
themselves to its support, with sudden ingrati-
tude for the bounty and disregard of their sol-
emn obligation, engaged, deliberately and
ostentatiously, in the accomplishment of its
overthrow...organizing a treason-
able power, which, for the time being, stifled
and suppressed the authority of the Federal
Government.

...the State govern-
ment has disappeared. the Executive has ab-
dicated; the Legislature has dissolved; the Ju-
diciary is in abeyance. the great ship of state,
freighted with its precious cargo of human in-
terests and human hopes, its sails all set, and its
glorious old flag unfurled, has been suddenly
abandoned by its officers, and mutinous crew,
and left to float at the mercy of the winds, and to
be plundered by every rover upon the deep.....
The archives have been desecrated;
the public property stolen and destroyed; the
vaults of the State Bank violated, and its treas-
ures robbed, including the funds carefully
gathered and consecrated for all time to the
instruction of our children....
I have been a-
pointed, in the absence of the regular and es-
tablished State authorities, as Military Gov-
ernor for the time being, to preserve the public
property of the State, to give the protection
of law actively enforced to her citizens, and,
as speedily as may be, to restore her govern-
ment 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 af-
forded by my fellow-citizens. And for this pur-
pose, I respectfully, but earnestly invite all the
people of Tennessee, desirous or wiling to see a
restoration of her ancient government, without
distinction of party-affiliations or past poli-
tical opinions or action to unite with me---to accomplish
this great end.
To the people themselves, the protection of
the Government is extended. All their fights
will be duly respected, and their wrongs re-
dressed when made known. those who
through the dark and weary night of the re=
bellion 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 ne-
cessary, 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 as-
sumed an attitude of hostility to the Govern-
ment, 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 associa-
tions of long and active years, and by the en-
joyment of her highest honors.

And appealing to my fellow-citizens of Ten-
nessee, I point you to my long public life, as
a pledge for the sincerity of my motives, and
an earnest for the performance of my present
and future duties.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
Nashville, March 18th 1862

A 1862
.J64

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