able services to
his country; the figure of the greatest war minister in modern times
will tower with a noble grandeur, as undimmed and enviable a splendor as
that of any in the history of the Republic; which, like his friend and
co-worker, the great Lincoln, he gave his life to save.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

The life-career of the seventeenth president of the United States well
illustrates the spirit and genius of our free institutions. Four of the
incumbents of the national executive chair were born in North Carolina.
Of these, the subject of this sketch was one, being born in the
above-named State, December 29th, 1808.

His father, who died in 1812, was sexton of a church and porter in the
State bank. Extreme poverty prevented Andrew from receiving any
schooling, and at the age of ten he was apprenticed to a tailor. A
gentleman was in the habit of visiting the shop and reading to the
workmen, generally from the 'American Speaker.' Andrew became intensely
interested, especially in the extracts from the speeches of Pitt and
Fox. He determined to learn to read, and having done this he devoted all
his leisure hours to the perusal of such books as he could obtain. In
the summer of 1824, a few months before his apprenticeship expired, he
got into trouble by throwing stones at an old woman's house, and ran
away to escape the consequences. He went to Lauren's Court House, South
Carolina, and obtained work as a journeyman tailor.

In May, 1826, he returned to Raleigh. Mr. Selby, his former employer,
had moved into the country, and Johnson walked twenty miles to see him,
apologized for his misdemeanor and promised to pay him for his
unfulfilled time. Selby required security, which Johnson could not
furnish, and he went away disappointed. In September he went to
Tennessee, taking with him his mother, who was dependent upon him for
support. He worked a year at Greenville when he married, and finally
settled, deciding to make that town his home.

Thus far his education had been confined to reading; but now, under the
tuition of his wife, he learned to 'write and cipher.' During this time
he became prominent in a local debating society, formed of resident
young men and students of Greenville College. One student says; "On
approaching the village there stood on the hill by the highway a
solitary little house, perhaps ten feet square,--we invariably entered
when passing. It contained a bed, two or three stools, and a tailor's