Monday, October 7, 2019

the last book I ever read (The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple, excerpt two)

from The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple:

Men willing to shoulder the muskets of the republic should be allowed to “carry its ballots,” a group of black men from New Bern, North Carolina, petitioned Johnson. It would be patently unfair, they said, to enfranchise the white men who’d fought against the country while denying the vote to black men who’d fought for it. Johnson said little, allowing for a while his self-appointed advisers to believe what they wanted to believe. But when a delegation of black ministers called on him at the White House, he told them with galling condescension that too many former slaves loaf around, looking to the government for handouts.

“They seem to think that with freedom every thing they need is to come like manna from heaven,” Johnson said.



No comments:

Post a Comment