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remarks. It is sufficient that I should repeat to you the cor-
dial welcome which you have here received.
President Johnson then replied as follows :
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S SPEECH.
SIR :—In being presented here to-day under these peculiar
circumstances, and on a spot which, at an early period of
our history, was consecrated to freedom, I confess to you that
a reception so kind, and so cordial, and so gratifying, inca-
pacitates me from making suitable acknowledgment; but I
cannot refrain from saying that my visit to this Capital af-
fords me much pleasure—among other reasons, because
events have recently transpired which were not the result of
any preconceive arrangement or design, but which, it seems
to me, were brought about by Providence itself. But a few
days since, without any agency on my part, I was called to my
native State to participate in a ceremony of great interest to me
personally. After my return to Washington I was invited
to visit the opposite extreme of the country. When I con-
sider these two events connected with my visit here to-day,
it looks to me as the result of a kind and overruling Provi-
dence. But the other day it would have been impossible for
the Chief Magistrate to travel as far South as I did, and we
know from the prejudice existing it would have been unpleas-
ant for my honored friend (Mr. Seward,) to have gone so far
in that direction. But when I look at the pleasant incidents
connected with our visit to North Carolina, it seems to me,
and I trust I am not mistaken in saying, that an era of good
will is about to be inaugurated. If I know myself, from the
beginning of the late unhappy civil strife, I had but a single
object in view, and that was to preserve the harmony, peace
and union of these States. It would have been at any time
the highest object of my ambition to tie up the bleeding ar-
teries which caused so much blood, and the expenditure of so
much money. Now, however, there is a new era, and I trust
we shall have peace on earth and good will toward men. I
trust the time has come when man is no longer to be set on
man, and in the name of God to lift his hand against the
throat of his fellow, and that the land that gave a brother
birth will be spared from being again drenched with a
brother's blood.
To be invited to visit the State of Maryland by a Conven-
tion which has a reputation for talent, to be welcomed by the
Chairman of your Committee, by the Governor of your State,
and by your President, irrespective of party, is peculiarly
gratifying to me. The history of Maryland, and especially
ot Annapolis, is more familiar to you than to me, and there-
fore it is not necessary for me to indulge in a narration oi
facts which will last as long as history itself.
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