Andrew Johnson, Expulsion of Mr. Bright, Speech of Hon. Andrew Johnson… 1st ed.

Description

Senator Andrew Johnson contributed to the debate about expelling a Senator from Indiana for treason in Expulsion of Mr. Bright. Speech of Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee…

In January, 1862 the Senate took up the question of expelling Democratic Senator Jesse D. Bright of Indiana for a combination of acknowledging Jefferson Davis as a legitimate President of the Confederacy, and, more critically, for attempting to facilitate the sale of arms to the Confederacy before the beginning of hostilities. Bright’s letter regarding the arms sale was intercepted on a Confederate arms trader during the Battle of Bull Run.

In the speech Senator Johnson decried the accusation that Bright was being “hounded” from the Senate and then proceeded with 14 pages of very effective hounding of his own. Bright was expelled. In 1863 he lost an election to re-take his seat. The case of Jesse Bright was one of a series of high-profile “Copperhead” incidents rising in Indiana during the war.

This pamphlet is in its original wrappers, printed on rag paper and subject to the usual light foxing and toning one would expect from an ephemeral document; else very good condition.

Johnson, Andrew. Expulsion of Mr. Bright. Speech of Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, in the Senate of the United States, Friday, January 31, 1862. Washington, D.C.: Scammell & Co., 1862. 1st edition, 14p., wrappers.