practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischevious one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become that question is bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all- -a mere pernicious abstraction. We all admit that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relations with the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, in regard to those States, is again to get them into that proper practical relation. ***Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. He continued, "Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it." He continued, "It is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers." He thus referred to the Reconstruction in Louisiana: "The question is not whether the Louisiana Government as it stands is quite all that is desirable. The question is, Will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new State Government? *** If we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man, you are worthless or worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. To the black we say this cup of liberty which these your old masters hold to your lips, we will dash from you,

and leave you to the chances of and scattered contents in some when, where, and how.

gathering the spilled vague and undefined Grant that the colored

man desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it, than by running backward over them? Concede that the new Government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it." This remarkable address was closed by this suggestive sentence: "In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South."

His Death. The new announcement was never made. Four days later the bullet of the assassin closed his lips to any further announcement upon this great question, from the one man whose influence with the people enabled him to dictate terms upon which the States could have been reconstructed. His death removed the one insurmountable obstacle to the 'success of radical measures in Reconstruction. His rare magnanimity, illuminated by as rare an intellect, peculiarly fitted him to pilot the ship through the rough breakers that hugged the shore of Nationality as he had safely brought it through the storm of civil war. He was possessed of that rare talent that enabled him to differ from his fellows, and still hold their unqualified respect. If he had enemies who leveled their shafts at him, he so parried the stroke as to deflect the arrow which found lodgment in the vitals of the archer.

Country's Misfortune.—What the Reconstruction policy of Mr. Lincoln would have been, cannot now be definitely known. He said and did enough to warrant the statement that his plan counselled leniency toward the erring States. At the time of his death the States had

not shown any spirit of repressive legislation as developed later. The radical measures were not called for by statutory enactments in the States, such as were enacted into law soon after the close of the war. The

death of Mr. Lincoln removed the greatest friend of the erring States, and made way for another, a citizen of one of the insurrectionary States, but pre-eminently disqualified to lead in such an important work as Reconstruction.

State of Parties.-Civil War and Reconstruction dur ing their continuance saw the country with two political parties, the Democratic and the Republican, divided upon constitutional questions, on strict and loose construction of the Constitution. The Republican party held factions growing out of the war; but the differences were not on the lines which separated the party from its hereditary opponent. On the power of the Government, the party was a unit. On the other hand, the Democratic party was distracted by the attitude of its Southern wing. Notwithstanding, its fundamental principles of liberty to the individual and self-government to the State, furnished it abundant data for a strenuous campaign. The factional differences in the administrative party afforded splendid opportunity to the opposing party to rehabilitate its ranks and present immediately a formidable opposition. However, the disruption of the Democratic party was so severe that it failed to get control of the Government for a quarter of a century, and then, for only a brief time.

Questions on the Text

I. Indicate the absence of sectional lines prior to 1856.

2. What was the state of the parties at that time?

3. Of what did the dominant party in each section consist?

4. Analyze the vote in 1856. In 1860. In 1864. In 1868. In 1872 and 1876.

5. State the effect of war upon political theory.

6. What unfortunate position was taken by South Carolina, December, 1860.

7. What took place in January 1861, in the Capital?

8. How did Jefferson Davis differ from Calhoun?

9. Enumerate the steps leading to the organization of the C. S.A. 10. Compare its Constitution with the Federal Constitution.

II. State the position of Davis as expressed in his Inaugural address.

12. What States finally comprised the Confederacy?

13. What four slave States declined to secede?

14. Give a brief statement of the loss in the War.

15. Indicate the position of Lincoln.

16. What was the purpose of the Cleveland Convention? Its principles?

17. Describe the Baltimore Lincoln.

Convention which

18. Why was Johnson selected as Vice President?

19. Describe the Democratic Convention of 1864.

20. Describe the election which followed.

re-nominated

21. Account for the respective positions of the two parties upon political theory in 1864.

22. Indicate the problem of Reconstruction.

23. Indicate difference of opinion upon the subject at the close of the war.

24. State Lincoln's position.

25. Relate progress of Reconstruction under Lincoln.

26. How was it retarded?

27. State what is called the Presidential plan. The Congressional plan.

28. Indicate the progress of the conflict.

29. Name leaders who opposed Lincoln, and describe their methods.

CHAPTER XX

LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE CONFLICT

Situation of Johnson-April 15, 1865.-On the 4th of March, 1865, the 38th Congress ended by limitation, and the 39th began. By a constitutional requirement the sessions of Congress open on the first Monday of December, unless called into special session by the President before that date. Lincoln's death on the 15th of April left to his successor, Andrew Johnson, a heritage of complicated problems growing out of the war. Chief of these was that of Reconstruction, which had given Mr. Lincoln so much concern during his last days. Johnson had been an interested observer of the dispute between his predecessor and the radical wing of the Republican party in Congress. As the military governor of Tennessee, appointed by Mr. Lincoln, he was a part of the Presidential scheme of Reconstruction.

His Treatment by Tennessee. The treatment he had received at the hands of the dominant element in his State, incapacitated him to fully share Mr. Lincoln's clemency toward the insurrectionary States. Having sprung from the lowlands of humanity, his birth and education excluded him from the social rank which controlled affairs in his own State. By dint of obstinate courage and constant application, he rose step by step until he appeared in the Senate chamber as his State's representative. When the Slavocracy carried his State into Secession he obstinately and courageously refused to go with it, and retained his seat in the Senate, sup