confide in his devotion to the principles upon
which he was elected, I will bid farewell to Andrew Johnson with
unaffected sorrow. I will remember when he stood in this very
spot, five years ago, repelling with unexampled courage the assaults
of traitors. He left in their hands wife, children, property, and
home, and staked them all on the result. I will remember that when
a retreating general would have left Nashville to its fate, that
again, with heroic courage, he maintained his post. I will remember
the fierce conflicts and trials through which he and his fellow-
compatriots in east Tennessee maintained our cause in the heart of
the Confederacy. I will remember the struggles he had with the
aristocratic element of Tennessee, never ashamed of his origin and
never far from the hearts of the people.

"Sir, you must not sever the great Union party from this loyal
element of the southern states. No new theories of possible utopian
good can compensate for the loss of such patriotism and devotion.
Time, as he tells you in his message, is a great element of reform,
and time is on your side. I remember the homely and encouraging
words of a pioneer in the anti-slavery cause, an expelled Methodist
preacher from the south, who told those who were behind him in his
strong anti-slavery opinions: 'Well, friends, I'll block up awhile;
we must all travel together.' So I say to all who doubt Andrew
Johnson, or who wish to move more rapidly than he can, to block up
awhile, to consolidate their great victory with the certainty that
reason and the Almighty will continue their work. All wisdom will
not die with us. The highest human wisdom is to do all the good
you can, but not to sacrifice a possible good to attempt the
impracticable. God knows that I do not urge harmony and conciliation
from any personal motive. The people of my native state have
intrusted me with a position here extending four years beyond the
termination of the President's term of office. He can grant me no
favor.

"If I believed for a moment that he would seek an alliance with
those who, by either arms or counsel or even apathy, were against
their country in the recent war, and will turn over to them the
high powers intrusted to him by the Union party, then, sir, he is
dishonored, and will receive no assistance from me; but I will not
force him into that attitude. If he shall prove false to the
declaration made by him in his veto message, that his