wasted by civil wars for ages before they could establish for themselves the necessary degree of unity; the latent conviction that our form of government is the best ever known to the world, has enabled us to emerge from civil war within four years, with a complete vindication of the Constitutional authority of the General Government, and with our local liberties and State institutions unimpaired. The throngs of emigrants that crowd to our shores are witnesses of the confidence of all peoples in our permanence. Here is the great land of free labor, where industry is blessed with unexampled rewards, and the bread of the workingman is sweetened by the consciousness that the cause of the country "is his own cause, his own safety, his own dignity." Here every one enjoys the free use of his faculties and the choice of activity as a natural right. Here, under the combined influence of a fruitful soil, genial climes, and happy institutions, population has increased fifteen-fold within a century. Here, through the easy development of boundless resources, wealth has increased with twofold greater rapidity than numbers, so that we have become secure against the financial vicissitudes of other countries, and, alike in business and in opinion, are self-centered and truly independent. Here more and more care is given to provide education for every one born on our soil. Here religion, released from political connection with the civil government, refuses to subserve the craft of statesmen, and becomes, in its independence, the spiritual life of the people. Here toleration is extended to every opinion, in the quiet certainty that truth needs only a fair field to secure the victory. Here the human mind goes forth unshackled in the pursuit of science, to collect stores of knowledge and acquire an ever-increasing mastery over the forces of nature. Here the national domain is offered and held in millions of separate freeholds, so that our fellow-citizens, beyond the occupants of any other part of the earth, constitute in reality a people. Here exists the democratic form of government; and that form of government, by the confession of European statesmen, "gives a power of which no other form is capable, because it incorporates every man with the State, and arouses everything that belongs to the soul." Where, in past history, does a parallel exist to the public happiness which is within the reach of the people of the United States? Where, in any part of the globe, can institutions be found so suited to their habits or so entitled to their love as their own free Constitution? Every one of them, then, in whatever part of the land he has his home, must wish its perpetuity. Who of them will not acknowledge, in the words of Washington, that "every step by which the people of the United States have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency?" Who will not join with me in the prayer, that the invisible Hand which has led us through the clouds that gloomed around our path, will so guide us onward to a perfect restoration of fraternal affection, that we of this day may be able to transmit our great inheritance of State governments in all their rights, of the General Government in its whole Constitutional vigor, to our posterity, and they to theirs, through countless generations? The President here clearly defines his policy and gives his reasons for what he had already done, not neglecting to do ample justice to Great Britain. Without further reference to this message at present, I venture the suggestion that it will stand the test of the criticism of this day, and I commend it to the politician and the patriot as an almost faultless paper, from whatever point it may be viewed. CHAPTER XIII. CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT-THE COMMITTEE ON THE PRESIDENT "SWINGS OWEVER well the President's message sounded, HO his acts had gone before his words, and the gravest fears were already formed as to the effects of his policy in the South. Whether these fears were well founded or not, Congress convened, with a large majority of its members thoroughly aroused and ready to oppose the course he had taken. His patriotism was not questioned, but it was believed he had set out with a plan which would rob the country, to a great extent, of the benefits and fruits of the successful termination of the Rebellion; and with this view of the situation, the work of reconstruction was at once entered upon in that body, ending in the complete overthrow of the President and his policy. His course had greatly revived an interest in national politics in the South. Members of Congress had been elected in most of the insurrectionary States, and soon after the organization these men began to present themselves for seats as the Representatives of States which a very considerable class of politicians began to consider deprived of all the rights and privileges of States by their acts of rebellion; but with the exception of those from Tennessee, they were all finally refused seats. During the seven or eight months of Mr. Johnson's Administration some interesting and noteworthy changes had taken place among the people and the political leaders, especially the latter. It had long been feared by some earnest Union men, most of whom, perhaps, were War Democrats, that the Administration of Mr. Lincoln would fall into the theory, believed to be erroneous, that the Southern States should be treated as conquered provinces, and reduced to territorial condition, as having entirely lost their political features. Among these was Andrew Johnson. The following letter exhibits his early anxiety on this point "NASHVILLE, November 24, 1863. "To HON. M. BLAIR, Postmaster-General: "I hope that the President will not be committed to the proposition of States relapsing into Territories and held as such. If he steers clear of this extreme, his election to the next Presidency is without a reasonable doubt. I expected to have been in Washington before this time, when I could have conversed freely and fully in reference to the policy to be adopted by the Government; but it has been impossible for me to leave Nashville. I will be there soon. The institution of slavery is gone, and there is no good reason now for destroying the States to bring about the destruction of slavery. "ANDREW JOHNSON." But Mr. Lincoln had not departed from this faith; and the entire war was conducted on the supposition in dealing with foreign nations, as well as with the rebels, that the States were not withdrawn from the Union. Neither the Administration nor any of its friends ever admitted for a moment that the power or jurisdiction of the United States was lost over the rebellious States. The theory was then put forth in the loudest tones: These States go in to make the integrity of the Union; they are part of the Nation; we will maintain the national integrity; we will put down this Rebellion; the war is for that purpose. This was the language both at home and abroad. The war was undertaken on this theory, and as great as was the task, few patriotic men ever lost their faith in the final triumph of the national cause. Nor was there much wavering or diversity as to the States being States still. The idea of taking the power to consider them Territories without organized governments, and treating them as such, had its origin merely in the strong feeling and sense of wrong which the country had received from the stupendous effort made to break it in pieces. The war was undertaken to disprove the false doctrine of secession, and the result was its utter overthrow. As the war came to an end, many of the Republican leaders began to entertain the belief that the energetic treatment yet necessary in the South would render it convenient and, perhaps, essential to hold the insurrectionary States as recovered territory, |