number of electoral votes for Vice-President of the United States, is duly elected Vice-President of the United States for four years commencing on the 4th day of March, 1865."

Nevada had three votes, but only two of them were cast. The States voting, with their electoral votes, were as follows: Maine, 7; New Hampshire, 5; Massachusetts, 12; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 4; Connecticut, 6; Vermont, 5; New York, 33; New Jersey, 7; Pennsylvania, 26; Delaware, 3; Maryland, 7; Kentucky, 11; Ohio, 21; Indiana, 13; Illinois, 16; Missouri, 11; Michigan, 8; Wisconsin, 8; Iowa, 8; California, 5; Minnesota, 4; Oregon, 3; Kansas, 3; West Virginia, 5; Nevada, 2; Total, 233.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SHORT VICE-PRESIDENCY-THE PRESIDENT'S CHAIR AGAIN EMPTY - ANDREW JOHNSON

BECOMES THE

HEAD OF THE GOVERNMENT-PATRIOTIC HANDS UP-
HOLD HIM-AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING.

N the 4th of March, 1865, Mr. Johnson appeared in the Senate Chamber at the appointed hour, delivered the following address, and took the oath of office as Vice-President of the United States:

"SENATORS,-I am here to-day as the chosen VicePresident of the United States; and as such, by Constitutional provision, I am made the presiding officer of this body. I therefore present myself here in obedience to the high behests of the American people to discharge. a Constitutional duty, and not presumptuously to thrust myself in a position so exalted. May I at this momentit may not be irrelevant to the occasion-advert to the workings of our institutions under the Constitution which our fathers framed and Washington approved, as exhibited by the position in which I stand before the American Senate, in the sight of the American people? Deem me not vain or arrogant; yet I should be less than man if, under such circumstances, I were not proud of being an American citizen; for to-day one who claims no high descent, one who comes from the ranks of the people, stands, by the choice of a free constituency, in the second place of this Government. There may be those to whom such

things are not pleasing; but those who have labored for the consummation of a free Government will appreciate and cherish institutions which exclude none, however obscure his origin, from places of trust and distinction. The people, in short, are the source of all power. You, Senators, you who constitute the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, are but the creatures of the American people; your exaltation is from them; the power of this Government consists in its nearness and approximation to the great mass of the people. You, Mr. Secretary Seward, Mr. Secretary Stanton, the Secretary of the Navy, and the others who are your associates, you know that you have my respect and my confidence, derive not your greatness and your power alone from President Lincoln. Humble as I am, plebeian as I may be deemed, permit me, in the presence of this brilliant assemblage, to enunciate the truth that courts and cabinets, the President and his advisers, derive their power and their greatness from the people. A President could not exist here forty-eight hours if he were as far removed from the people as the autocrat of Russia is separated from his subjects. Here the popular heart sustains President and Cabinet officers; the popular will gives them all their strength. Such an assertion of the great principles of this Government may be considered out of place, and I will not consume the time of these intelligent and enlightened people much longer; but I could not be insensible to these great truths when I, a plebeian, elected by the people the Vice-President of the United States, am here to enter upon the discharge of my duties. For those duties I claim not the aptitude of my respected predecessor. Although I have occupied a seat in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, I am not learned in parliamentary law, and I shall be dependent on the courtesy of those Senators who have become familiar with the rules which are requisite for the good order of the body and the dispatch of its

business. I have only studied how I may best advance the interests of my State and of my country, and not the technical rules of order; and if I err I shall appeal to this dignified body of Representatives of States for kindness and indulgence.

"Before I conclude this brief inaugural address in the presence of this audience-and I, though a plebeian boy, am authorized by the principles of the Government under which I live to feel proudly conscious that I am a man, and grave dignitaries are but men-before the Supreme Court, the representatives of foreign governments, Senators, and the people, I desire to proclaim that Tennessee, whose Representative I have been, is free. She has bent the tyrant's rod; she has broken the yoke of slavery, and to-day she stands redeemed. She waited not for the exercise of power by Congress; it was her own act, and she is now as loyal, Mr. Attorney-General, as is the State from which you came: It is the doctrine of the Federal Constitution that no State can go out of this Union; and moreover Congress can not reject a State from this Union. Thank God, Tennessee has never been out of the Union! It is true the operations of her government were for a time interrupted; there was an interregnum; but she is still in the Union, and I am her Representative. This day she elects her Governor and her Legislature, which will be convened on the first Monday of April; and again her Senators and Representatives will soon mingle with those of her sister States; and who shall gainsay it? for the Constitution requires that to every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government.

"I now am prepared to take the oath of office, and renew my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States."

This is the most undignified and remarkable address ever delivered on such an occasion in this

country, and richly deserved the ridicule and censure it received. The new Vice-President was greatly burdened with the idea of his having been a "plebeian boy," of his rising from a condition so low to such significance, and his feelings toward the great free country which made such results possible, were gushing and uncontrollable. But this was a characteristic of the Nation, always had been, nobody controverted it, and this unseemly display of it on such an occasion was a just cause of shame to an intelligent people. The charge made against Mr. Johnson of being under the influence of whisky at the time of his inauguration as Vice-President may be sustained, perhaps, by the character of this address. It was wholly beneath the range of his abilities, and what was reasonably to be expected of him. Many of his eulogists were utterly confounded, and signs of regret were numerous. But none of these dreamed of the event which was so soon to elevate Mr. Johnson, this man of strong and untrained passions, still higher. Yet there was no doubt of his patriotism, or his want of power to stand by his former record.

On the 3d of April, after the announcement in Washington of the fall of Richmond, Mr. Johnson made these remarks to a large assembly of the rejoicing people:

"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.