Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/656

 624 The Union and Democratic parties. [i865 normal conditions be successfully carried out in the midst of such an economic situation ? Less burdensome but still threatening were foreign relations. The war left the United States with scores to settle against both Great Britain and France on account of what the people of the North considered the favours shown by both these nations to Confederate privateers. France, moreover, was involved in an enterprise in Mexico which was regarded with suspicion and disapproval. It remained to be seen whether the North, flushed with its success, could settle these and other foreign questions peaceably and satisfactorily. The gravity of these problems was not lessened by the composition of the party in power in the North in 1865. Since the outbreak of the war, the control of public affairs had been in the hands of "Union men," who, during the crisis, had eschewed the name Republican or Democrat, and appealed for support on the single issue of union against disunion. The political leaders, accordingly, represented all shades of former opinion; for, while the majority termed themselves Republicans, many had been, until 1861, Democrats, Know-Nothings, or Whigs. Upon questions of foreign or internal policy, upon the Constitution, upon the finances, the tariff, or the currency, and upon the proper treatment of ex-Confederates or of negroes, there was no semblance of unanimity. Between ideal philanthropists, like Sumner of Massachusetts, at one extreme, and purely practical statesmen, like Morton of Indiana, at the other, there was but one common bond a strong love of the Union, coupled with an intense feeling of resentment towards the South. Naturally these men were, one and all, bitter partisans, master- ful in temper, intolerant of opposition, and hampered by no fine-drawn scruples. For four years men like Stanton in executive office, Stevens, Wade, and Sumner in Congress, Morton and Johnson as governors of States, had been doing their utmost to maintain the Union against Confederates in the South and a steady opposition in the North ; and it was their pugnacity and energy which had brought them to the front. Now that peace had come, these new problems were certain to evoke every possible difference of personal opinion among them. Opposed to the Union men stood the Democratic party, drilled by the habit of generations into so steady a discipline that, even when its leaders, blinded by passion, had gone to the verge of treason in their opposition to Lincoln's Administration, the mass of voters had still followed them. Always sympathetic toward the South, ready to oppose anything advocated by the war leaders, this Democratic minority stood waiting its opportunity. It was not until six years after the close of the war that Reconstruction was definitely accomplished, and that the financial and foreign questions were settled. The principal cause of this delay was a difference of