meantime, many direful events were to take place, and much time was lost never to be regained. At the end of the last year of the war and at the beginning of the succeeding, the people of the North were torn by conflicting emotions in politics, but generally they sided with the radical view as expressed by Stevens, while the conservative policy of Johnson lost ground continually. It was a time when wounds were still bleeding, when a sense of wrong on both sides was still poignant, and when it could not reasonably have been expected that either at the South or the North there should be a dispassionate consideration of questions which had stirred the nation to its depths, the ultimate decision of which had so long hung in the balance and which had been decided forever, let us hope, but not without a feeling on the part of the losers, that they had ably maintained their position.

CHAPTER II

JOHNSON QUARRELS WITH CONGRESS

THAT the president should be enraged at the action of Stevens and at Congressional opposition to his policy was only natural, but if Johnson had possessed tact he might have gotten out of the situation with credit. Both branches of Congress refused to accept the newly chosen members from the "Johnsonized States.” And indeed this was fitting, since, whether the States lately in revolt had ever been out of the Union or not, their status was at least different from that of the loyal States, and complete restoration was a matter requiring time and careful consideration. Johnson took great umbrage at Congress, for which there was little reason, since the Constitution clearly gives each House the right to decide on the qualifications of its own members.

That which had angered the Northern people more than anything else was the passage by new legislatures in the Southern States of laws intended to prevent vagabondage, but which really seemed designed to reduce the freedman to a state of peonage, in many respects worse than his former state of slavery. The laws were exceedingly rigorous, and provided heavy punishment for vagabondage or for failure to work when work was offered, and the like. It is true that some legislation of an industrial character was needed, and that it was copied from ancient New England statutes directed principally against recalcitrant apprentices at a time

when that system was in vogue—a code that had practically gone out of existence. But the Southern States would have acted wisely if they had used more care in framing or executing such statutes.

The position of the negroes was pitiable in the extreme. Most of them had become intoxicated with freedom, believed that the government was going to give each freedman "forty acres and a mule," and meanwhile a great proportion of them refused to work. Many looked upon the property of their late masters as legitimately their own, and it was almost impossible to get a sufficient number of them to work in the fields to make the crops. Large numbers had left their old homes never to return. Many crowded into the cities, while few could see that it was necessary for them to go vigorously to work. Even those who made some attempt at independent industrial effort were not entirely successful, since they had never known how to plan and too often resented the slightest suggestion or interference. In every county there were many shiftless freedmen who preyed on the community, and it was supposedly against these that the legislation was directed which caused such a stir in Washington and generally at the North. The sale of the services of convicts or vagabonds was nothing new in the South, but Northern people looked upon the practice as a return to slavery. It was a time when there were mistakes made by both North and South, when each section was suspicious of the other, and when each was accusing the other of bad faith.

Stevens put aside Reconstruction until certain laws could be passed for the benefit of the freedmen. Although in his programme he often showed venom toward the South, he showed no new state of mind toward the negro. For many years he had fought in vain in favor of equal rights of the negro in the Northern States, and as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1837, in Pennsylvania, had refused to sign the report submitting the new constitution to the voters because it restricted political rights to the whites. All his life he had been a friend to the negro, and he now

undertook to secure for the former slaves some compensation for the ages of their unrequited toil.

The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, as it first passed Congress, was a drastic measure to replace one already in force which included confiscation of some property in the South for the benefit of the freedmen. It passed on February 6, 1866, was vetoed by Johnson, and in the Senate failed of passage over the veto. There was still a conservative element in the Republican party which did not wish to press the president too far, but he lost the support of many of these when, a few days later, in a public speech he denounced Congress as an irresponsible body, as illegal because it had not admitted the Southern members, and finally denounced the Republican leaders by name. This was a most extraordinary proceeding and swept away much of the lingering Republican support which had remained by him.

veto.

Another Freedmen's Bureau Bill, less drastic than the first, was vetoed by Johnson, but promptly passed over his This veto message, as well as later ones, was prepared largely by Seward, and is much more convincing to-day than when read in the impassioned time of its promulgation. It should be said for Johnson that in this, as in all other cases, he faithfully executed, so far as he was able, the laws passed over his veto. It was not very long

before the scandals of the Freedmen's Bureau became so nauseous that many of Johnson's predictions regarding it were justified.

The first veto overridden, however, was that of the Civil Rights Bill, which conferred upon the negro all the legal rights of the white man. The bill was loosely drawn and by many of the best authorities was considered unconstitutional. It attempted to enforce by Federal law what was to a large extent a matter reserved to the States. Its chief defect was that it attempted the impossible by statute. As was said at the time by one of the leading men of the country: "You cannot legislate people into the Kingdom of Heaven." It was vetoed in a strong state paper, but was immediately

repassed and became a law. Almost ten years later a new law on the subject was passed, but it afterward was declared unconstitutional.

The Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery, had been adopted by a sufficient number of States in 1865. Early in 1866 the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, which defined citizenship and provided penalties in the shape of loss of representation in Congress for any State which should disfranchise any of its people on account of color. The president expressed his disapproval of the amendment, but it was sent to the States and in time was ratified.

The break between the President and Congress was now complete, but it might have been mended had not the president continued his opposition by unwise and unjust speeches against Congress. He went on a tour during the summer of 1866, "swinging 'round the circle," as it was called, in which he made yet more radical speeches, declaring that Congress was no Congress at all, and referring to "my policy" in a way that offended even the conservative element at the North. Seward, Grant, and Farragut went with him and did their best to restrain him, but with little effect.

The fall elections were eagerly awaited to see what would be the verdict of the people. The administration had the support of the New York Times, edited by Henry J. Raymond, but of no other important Republican newspaper. The elections were overwhelmingly in favor of the radical section of the party, and from this time Johnson was politically marooned except that Democrats generally sided with him in matters affecting Reconstruction. They, however, were too small a faction to be of any considerable assistance to him.

In this year, 1866, an incident occurred in Congress that was destined to have far-reaching effects on American politics. Congress was busy restoring the country to civil order by repealing as much war legislation as possible. Taxation