r vote on the 22d of February, and were ratified by an
affirmative vote of 25,293 against a negative vote of 48. The total
vote of the State at the Presidential election of 1860 was 145,333.
Mr. Lincoln's requirement of one-tenth of that number was abundantly
complied with by the vote on the questions submitted to the popular
decision. Small as was the ratio of avowed Union men at the time, Mr.
Johnson argued with much confidence that Tennessee, freed from
coercion, would adhere to the Union by a large majority of her total
vote. His faith was based on the fact that when the plain and direct
question of Union or Disunion was submitted to the people in the winter
of 1860-61, the vote for the former was 91,813, and for the latter only
24,749.

Under this new order of things, William G. Brownlow, better known to
the world by his _soubriquet_ of "Parson" Brownlow, was chosen
governor without opposition on the fourth day of March, 1865, the day
of Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration. The new Legislature met at
Nashville a month later, on the 3d of April, and on the 5th ratified
the Thirteenth Amendment; thus adding the abolition of slavery by
National authority to that already decreed by the State. The
Legislature completed its work by electing two consistent Union men,
David T. Patterson and Joseph S. Fowler, to the United-States Senate.
The framework of the new Government was thus completed and in operation
before the death of Mr. Lincoln. It had not received the recognition
and approval of the National Government in any specific or direct
manner. But Andrew Johnson was inaugurated as Vice-President on the
4th of March, and the only form of government left in Tennessee was
that of which Brownlow was the acknowledged head. The crucial test
would come when the senators and representatives, elected under the
Brownlow government, should apply for their seats in Congress.

The course pursued in Tennessee afforded a significant index to Mr.
Johnson's conception of what was deemed necessary to prepare a State
that had been in rebellion, for its full rehabilitation as a member
of the Federal Union. His position was rendered still more pronounced
and positive by his declarations in the remarkable speech delivered by
him when he took the oath of office as Vice-President: "Before I
conclude this brief Inaugural address in the presence of this audience,
. . . I desire to proclaim that Tennessee, whose representative I have
be