Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/474

438 1864, and renominated Mr. Lincoln for the presi- dency by acclamation. There was a strong senti- ment in favor of recognizing the political sacri- fices made for the cause of the Union by the war Democrats, and it was generally conceded that New York should decide who was to be the indi- vidual. Daniel S. Dickinson, of that state, was most prominent in this connection ; but internal factional divisions made it impossible for him to obtain the solid vote of that state, and Sec. Seward's friends feared this nomination would force him from the cabinet. Henry J. Raymond urged the name of Andrew Johnson, and he was accordingly se- lected. Johnson, in his letter of acceptance, virtu- ally disclaimed any departure from his principles as a Democrat, but placed his acceptance upon the ground of " the higher duty of first preserving the government." He accepted the emancipation proclamation as a war measure, to be subsequently ratified by constitutional amendment. In his in- augural address as vice-president, 4 March, 1865, a lack of dignity in his bearing and an incoherency in his speech were attributed to the influence of strong drink. As a matter of fact, he was much worn by disease, and had taken a little stimulant to aid him in the ordeal of inauguration, and in his weakened condition the effect was more de- cided than he anticipated. This explanation was generally accepted by the country.

On 14 April, 1865, President Lincoln was assas- sinated, and Mr. Johnson was at once sworn in as president, at his rooms in the Kirkwood house, by Chief-Justice Chase. In his remarks to those present Mr. Johnson said : " As to an indication of any policy which may be pursued by me in the administration of the government, I have to say that that must be left for development as the ad- ministration progresses. The message or declara- tion must be made by the acts as they transpire. The only assurance I can now give of the future is reference to the past." In his addresses to vari- ous delegations that called upon him, he empha- sized the fact that he advocated a course of for- bearance toward the mass of the southern people, but demanded punishment for those who had been leaders. " Treason is a crime," he said to the Illi- nois delegation, " and must be punished." At the time it was generally supposed that Johnson, who was known to be personally embittered against the dominant classes in the south, would inaugurate a reign of terror and decimate those who had taken up arms against the national authority. His pro- test against the terms of surrender granted to Gen. Lee by Gen. Grant, and utterances in private conversation, strengthened the fear that he would be too bloody and vindictive. He was supposed not to have been in accord with the humane policy that Lincoln had foreshadowed, and his silence in reference to Lincoln's policy, which amounted to ignoring it, was accepted as a proof that he did not intend to follow this course. On one occasion he said : " In regard to my future course, I will now make no professions, no pledges." And again : " My past life, especially my course during the present unholy rebellion, is before you. I have no principles to retract. I defy any one to point to any of my public acts at variance with the fixed principles which have guided me through life." It was evident that the difference in views of public policy, which were kept in abeyance dur- ing the war, would now come to the surface. The surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army, 26 April, 1865, was practically the end of the war (although 20 Aug., 1866, was officially fixed as the close of the civil war by the second sec- tion of the act of 2 March, 1867). and on 29 April President Johnson issued a proclamation for the removal of trade restrictions in most of the in- surrectionary states, which, being in contraven- tion of an act of congress, was subsequently modi- fied. On 9 May, 1865, he issued a proclamation restoring Virginia to the Union, and on 22 Mag all ports except four in Texas were opened to for- eign commerce. On 29 May a general amnesty was declared to all except fourteen specified classes of citizens. Among the number excepted were " all participants in the rebellion the estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars." This exception was undoubt- edly the result of personal feeling on the part of the president. It began to be perceived that a change was taking place in his sentiments, and this was attributed to the influence of Sec. Sew- ard, who was popularly supposed to perpetuate the humane spirit of the dead president. Those who had fears of too great severity now anticipated too great leniency. After the amnesty proclama- tion, the fundamental and irreconcilable difference between President Johnson and the party that had elevated him to power became more apparent. The constitution made no provision for the re- admission of a state that had withdrawn from the Union, and Mr. Johnson, as a state-rights Demo- crat, held that the southern states had never been out of the Union ; that the leaders were solely re- sponsible : that as soon as the seceded states ap- plied for readmission under such a form of gov- ernment as complied with the requirements of the constitution, the Federal government had no power to refuse them admission, or to make any conditions upon subjects over which the constitu- tion had not expressly given congress jurisdiction. The Republican leaders held that the action of the seceded states had deprived them of their rights as members of the Union ; that in any event they were conquered, and as such at the mercy of the conqueror; and that, at best, they stood in the category of territories seeking admission to the Union, in which case congress could admit or re- ject them at will. The particular question that brought on a clash between these principles was the civil status of the negro. The 13th amend- ment became a law, 18 Dec, 1865, with Johnson's concurrence. The Republicans held that slavery had been the cause of the war ; that only by giving the freedman the right to vote could he be pro- tected, and the results of the war secured ; and that no state should be admitted until it had granted the right of suffrage to the negroes within its borders. Johnson held this to be a matter of in- ternal regulation, beyond the control of congress. From 9 May till 13 July he appointed provisional governors for seven states, whose duties were to reorganize the governments. The state govern- ments were organized, but passed such stringent laws in reference to the negroes that the Re- publicans declared it was a worse form of slavery than the old. When congress met in 'December, 1865. it was overwhelmingly Republican and firm- ly determined to protect the negro against outrage and oppression. The first breach between the president and the party in power was the veto of the freedman's bureau bill in February, 1866, which was designed to protect the negroes. One of the grounds of the veto was, that it had been passed by a congress in which the southern states ad no representatives. On 27 March the president vetoed the civil rights bill, which made freedmen citizens without the right of suffrage. The chief ground of objection was the interference