(December 29, 1808–July 31, 1875), was the 17th President of the United States, 1865–69; Vice-President under Abraham Lincoln, assuming the Presidency upon Lincoln’s assassination; continued Lincoln’s plan of Reconstruction for the South, pardoned those who had seceded, granted voting rights for all Blacks; acquitted of impeachment accusations, 1868; U.S. Senator, 1874–75; Military Governor of Tennessee, 1862–65; U.S. Senator, 1857–62; Governor of Tennessee, 1853–57; U.S. Representative, 1843–53; Tennessee State Senator, 1841–43; Tennessee State Representative, 1839–41, 1835–37; Mayor of Greenville, 1830–33; Alderman, 1828–30; married Eliza McCardle, 1827; and opened a tailor shop in Greenville, Tennessee, 1826.
In an address upon assuming the Presidency, April 15, 1865, President Andrew Johnson stated:
Duties have been mine; consequences are God’s.2269
On Tuesday, April 25, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation and Mourning:
Whereas, by my direction, the Acting Secretary of State, in a notice to the public of the 17th, requested the various religious denominations to assemble on the 19th instant, on the occasion of the obsequies of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and to observe the same with appropriate ceremonies; but
Whereas our country has become one great house of mourning, where the head of the family has been taken away, and believing that a special period should be assigned for again humbling ourselves before Almighty God, in order that the bereavement may be sanctified to the nation:
Now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by communion with the Father in heaven, and in compliance with the wishes of Senators and Representatives in Congress, communicated to me by resolutions adopted at the National Capitol, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby appoint Thursday, the 25th day of May next, to be observed, wherever in the United States the flag of the country may be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourning, and I recommend my fellow-citizens then to assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty God in memory of the good man who has been removed, so that all shall be occupied at the same time in contemplation of his virtues and in sorrow for his sudden and violent end.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, the 25th day of April, A.D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: W. Hunter, Acting Secretary of State.2270
On April 29, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued recommendations regarding the Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation and Prayer:
Whereas by my proclamation of the 25th instant Thursday, the 25th day of next month, was recommended as a day for special humiliation and prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States; but
Whereas my attention has since been called to the fact that the day aforesaid is sacred to large numbers of Christians as one of rejoicing for the ascension of the Savior:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby suggest that the religious services recommended as aforesaid should be postponed until Thursday, the 1st day of June next.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 29th day of April, A.D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: W. Hunter, Acting Secretary of State.2271
On May 31, 1865, from his Executive Office in Washington, D.C., President Andrew Johnson wrote:
To-morrow, the 1st of June, being the day appointed for special humiliation and prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, the Executive Office and the various Departments will be closed during the day.2272
On October 28, 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving:
Whereas it has pleased Almighty God during the year which is now coming to an end to relieve our beloved country from the fearful scourge of civil war and to permit us to secure the blessings of peace, unity, and harmony, with a great enlargement of civil liberty; and
Whereas our Heavenly Father has also during the year graciously averted from us the calamities of foreign war, pestilence, and famine, while our granaries are full of the fruits of an abundant season; and
Whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any people:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby recommend to the people thereof that they do set apart and observe the first Thursday of December next as a day of national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great deliverances and blessings.
And I do further recommend that on that occasion the whole people make confession of our national sins against His infinite goodness, and with one heart and one mind implore the divine guidance in the ways of national virtue and holiness.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 28th day of October, A.D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninetieth. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2273
On December 4, 1865, in commencing the 1865–66 session, President Andrew Johnson delivered his First Annual Message to Congress:
To express gratitude to God in the name of the people for the preservation of the United States is my first duty in addressing you. Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act of parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh. It finds some solace in the consideration that he lived to enjoy the highest proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief Magistracy to which he had been elected; that he brought the civil war substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of the Union, and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his memory. …
When, on the organization of our Government under the Constitution, the President of the United States delivered his Inaugural Address to the two Houses of Congress, he said to them, and through them to the country and to mankind, that:
“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people.”
And the House of Representatives answered Washington by the voice of Madison:
“We adore the Invisible Hand which has led the American people, through so many difficulties, to cherish a conscious responsibility for the destiny of republican liberty.” …
Who of them will not acknowledge, in the words of Washington, that “every step by which the people of the United States have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency”? Who will not join with me in the prayer that the Invisible Hand which has led us through the clouds that gloomed around our path will not so guide us onward to a perfect restoration of fraternal affection that we of this day may be able to transmit our great inheritance of State governments in all their rights, of General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, to our posterity, and they to theirs through countless generations?2274
On Monday, October 8, 1866, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise:
Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, has been pleased to vouchsafe to us as a people another year of that national life which is an indispensable condition of peace, security, and progress. That year has, moreover, been crowned with many peculiar blessings.
The civil war that so recently closed among us has not been anywhere reopened; foreign intervention has ceased to excite alarm or apprehension; intrusive pestilence has been benignly mitigated; domestic tranquility has improved, sentiments of conciliation have largely prevailed, and affections of loyalty and patriotism have been widely renewed; our fields have yielded quite abundantly, our mining industry has been richly rewarded, and we have been allowed to extend our railroad system far into the interior recesses of the country, while our commerce has resumed its customary activity in foreign seas.
These great national blessings demand a national acknowledgement.
Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby recommend that Thursday, the 29th day of November next, be set apart and be observed everywhere in the several States and Territories of the United States by the people thereof as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, with due remembrance that “in His temple doth every man speak of His honor.”
I recommend also that on the same solemn occasion they do humbly and devoutly implore Him to grant to our national councils and to our whole people that divine wisdom which alone can lead any nation into the ways of good.
In offering these national thanksgivings, praises, and supplications we have the divine assurance that “the Lord remaineth a king forever; them that are meek shall He guide in judgement and such as are gentle shall He learn His way; the Lord shall give strength to His people, and the Lord shall give to His people the blessing of peace.”
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 8th day of October, A.D. 1866, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-first. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2275
On March 23, 1867, President Andrew Johnson concluded a Veto Message:
I pray God that the errors of the past may be forgotten and that once more we shall be a happy, united, and prosperous people.2276
On Saturday, September 7, 1867, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to the participants of the Confederate insurrection:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the full pardon described in the said proclamation of the 29th day of May, A.D. 1865, shall henceforth be opened and extended to all persons who, directly or indirectly, participated in the late rebellion, with the restoration of all privileges, immunities, and rights of property, except as to property with regard to slaves, and except in cases of legal proceedings under the laws of the United States; but upon this condition, nevertheless, that every person who shall seek to avail himself of this proclamation shall take and subscribe the following oath and shall cause the same to be registered for permanent preservation in the same manner and with the same effect as with the oath prescribed in the said proclamation of the 29th day of May, 1865, namely:
“I, ____ ____, do solemnly swear (or affirm), in presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the late rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.”2277
On Saturday, October 26, 1867, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise:
In conformity with a recent custom that may now be regarded as established on national consent and approval, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby recommend to my fellow-citizens that Thursday, the 28th day of November next, be set apart and observed throughout the Republic as a day of national thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with whom are dominion and fear, who maketh peace in His high places.
Resting and refraining from secular labors on that day, let us reverently and devoutly give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the mercies and blessings with which He has crowned the now closing year. Especially let us remember that He has covered our land through all its extent with greatly needed and very abundant harvests; that He has caused industry to prosper, not only in our fields, but also in our workshops, in our mines, and in our forests. He has permitted us to multiply ships upon our lakes and rivers and upon the high seas, and at the same time to extend our iron roads so far into the secluded places of the continent as to guarantee speedy overland intercourse between the two oceans. He has inclined our hearts to turn away from domestic contentions and commotions consequent upon a distracting and desolating civil war, and to walk more and more in the ancient ways of loyalty, conciliation, and brotherly love. He has blessed the peaceful efforts with which we have established new and important commercial treaties with foreign nations, while we have at the same time strengthened our national defenses and greatly enlarged our national borders.
While thus rendering the unanimous and heartfelt tribute of national praise and thanksgiving which is so justly due to Almighty God, let us not fail to implore Him that the same Divine protection and care which we have hitherto so undeservedly and yet so constantly enjoyed may be continued to our country and our people throughout all their generations forever.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of October, A.D. 1867, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-second. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2278
On Tuesday, December 3, 1867, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Andrew Johnson stated:
We must all acknowledge that the restoration of the States to their proper legal relations with the Federal Government and with one another, according to the terms of the original compact, would be the greatest temporal blessing which God, in His kindest Providence, could bestow upon this nation. …
Christianity and civilization have made such progress that recourse to a punishment so cruel and unjust would meet with condemnation of all unprejudiced and right-minded men.2279
On October 12, 1868, President Andrew Johnson issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Public Praise, Thanksgiving, and Prayer:
In the year which is now drawing to its end the art, the skill, and the labor of the people of the United States have been employed with greater diligence and vigor and on broader fields than ever before, and the fruits of the earth have been gathered into the granary and the storehouse in marvelous abundance. Our highways have been lengthened, and new and prolific regions have been occupied. We are permitted to hope that long-protracted political and sectional dissensions are at no distant day to give place to returning harmony and fraternal affection throughout the Republic. Many foreign states have entered into liberal agreements with us, while nations which are far off and which heretofore have been unsocial and exclusive have become our friends.
The annual period of rest, which we have reached in health and tranquility, and which is crowned with so many blessings, is by universal consent a convenient and suitable one for cultivating personal piety and practicing public devotion.
I therefore recommend that Thursday, the 26th day of November next, be set apart and observed by all the people of the United States as a day for public praise, thanksgiving, and prayer to the Almighty Creator and Divine Ruler of the Universe, by whose ever-watchful, merciful, and gracious Providence alone states and nations, no less than families and individual men, do live and move and have their being.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 12th day of October, A.D. 1868, and of the Independence of the United States the ninety-third. Andrew Johnson.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State.2280
On December 9, 1868, in his Fourth Annual Message, President Andrew Johnson stated:
Let us earnestly hope that before the expiration of our respective terms of service, now rapidly drawing to a close, an All-Wise Providence will so guide our counsels as to strengthen and preserve the Federal Union, inspire reverence for the Constitution, restore prosperity and happiness to our whole people, and promote “on earth peace, good will toward men.”2281
In 1875, Andrew Johnson stated:
Men who see not God in our history have surely lost sight of the fact that, from the landing of the Mayflower to this hour, the great men whose names are indissolubly associated with the colonization, rise, and progress of the Republic have borne testimony to the vital truths of Christianity.2282
President Andrew Johnson stated:
I do believe in Almighty God! And I believe also in the Bible.2283
Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” and exclaim, “Christ first, our country next!”2284
Is there a crusade to be commenced against the Church to satiate disappointed party vengeance? Are the persecutions of olden times to be revived? Are the ten thousand temples that have been erected, based upon the sufferings and atonement of our crucified Saviour, with their glittering spires wasting themselves in the very heavens, all to topple and to fall, crushed and buried beneath the ravings of party excitement? Is man to be set upon man, and in the name of God lift his hand against the throat of his fellow? …
Are the fires of heaven that have been lighted up by the Cross, and now burning upon so many altars consecrated to the true and living God, to be quenched in the blood of their innocent and defenseless worshipers, and the gutters of our streets made to flow with human gore? This is but a faint reality of what is shadowed forth in the gentleman’s speech.2285
Poe, Edgar Allen (January 19, 1809–October 7, 1849), was an American poet, literary critic and story writer. His best known works include: The Fall of the House of Usher, 1840; The Raven, 1845; and the short stories: The Cask of Amontillado; The Purloined Letter; The Masque of the Red Death; and The Pit and the Pendulum. In Tamerlane, 1827, Edgar Allen Poe wrote:
O, human love! thou spirit given,
On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven.2286
Edgar Allen Poe stated:
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother.”2287