Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1884 — Andy Johnson’s Last Letter. [ARTICLE]

Andy Johnson’s Last Letter.

There was fonnd on the desk of the late ex-President Andrew Johnson a letter which he was engaged in writing when he was stricken with paralysis. His death came soon afterward, and the letter was left lying where it was found until sent by the family to the late Judge John M. Carmack, of West Tennessee, to whom it was addressed. The letter reads as follows: Greensville, Tenn., June 6, 1875. JohnM. Carmack, Esq., —Dear Sir: Your letter of the 9th ult. has been received and read. I confess I was somewhat surprised when I received_your account of Vice President Wilson’s conversation with Governor Isham Harris and others in regard to what would have been the policy of President Lincoln, if he had lived, etc. In your letter you state that H. Wilson, Vice President Here came the fatal stroke. The word “President” was the last ever written by the hand of Andrew Johnson. The letter was written with a lead pencil on ordinary printing paper, such as is generally used for “copy” in newspaper offices, and the ex-President was evidently preparing it with the expectation that it would be published. What an interesting chapter of the history of that exciting time it would have been. Anything he might have said as to the probable policy of the administration, if Mr. Lincoln had not been assassinnated, would have been of the greatest value. A few moments more and it would have been given to the world. But it was not to be. By Judge Carmack, who naturally regarded it as a historical relic of great interest, the letter was left to his nephew, Mr. John T. Miller, of Jackson, and the latter will have it deposited among the papers of the Tennessee Historical Society. —Nashville American.