the Constitution, had not been affected by the provision of law whose repeal was now urged. He declared that the power of the President "to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States" was as broad, as general, as unrestricted as language could make it. He could find no logical ground for the distinction made by Mr. Trumbull between individual pardons and general amnesties by proclamation - in illustration of which he said President Washington had by proclamation pardoned the offenders engaged in the Whiskey Insurrection. The enactment of the provision had not, in Mr. Johnson's opinion, enlarged the President's pardoning power, and its repeal would not restrict it.

It was thought that a majority of the Senate concurred in Mr. Johnson's interpretation of the Constitution, but they passed the bill as a rebuke to the scandalous sale of pardons which Mr. Chandler had brought to the attention of the Senate. This vile practice had no doubt been pursued to some extent, but only by a class of "middle men" who had neither honor nor sensibility. They had in some form the opportunity to secure the interposition of men who could reach the ear of the President or the Attorney-General. It is hardly necessary to add that neither of those high officials was in the remotest degree reflected upon even by their bitterest opponents. However wrong-headed Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stanbery might have been considered on certain political issues, the personal integrity of both was unblemished. It was believed that the nefarious practice was stopped by Mr. Chandler's action in the Senate. Exposure made public men careful to examine each application for pardon before they would consent to recommend it to the President.

The President neither approved the bill nor objected to it, but allowed it to become a law by the expiration of the Constitutional limit of ten days. He obviously took the same view that had been advanced by Mr. Reverdy Johnson, and did not take the trouble to sign it, much less to veto it. It was brutum fulmen, and the President used his Constitutional power to pardon by proclamation just as freely after its enactment as before.

NOTE." Pocketing a bill" is the phrase commonly used to describe the President's course when he permits a bill which reaches him within the last ten days of the session, to die without act on his part. It is frequently termed the "pocket veto."

CHAPTER XII.

MEETING OF FORTIETH CONGRESS, MARCH 4TH, 1867.- CONSPICUOUS CHANGES IN SENATE AND HOUSE.-CAMERON, CONKLING, MORTON, IN SENATE.—BUTLER, PETERS, BECK, IN HOUSE. MR. JAMES BROOKS OBJECTS TO THE ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. SEVENTEEN STATES ABSENT. THE CLERK DECLINES TO RECEIVE HIS MOTION.-THIRD ELECTION OF MR. COLFAX as SPEAKER. - SUPPLEMENTARY RECONSTRUCTION ACT. -THE PRESIDENT'S PROMPT VETO.-PASSED OVER HIS OBJECTIONS. - CONGRESS ADJOURNS TO JULY 3D.-SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY ACT OF RECONSTRUCTION. ANOTHER VETO.- OMINOUS WORDS FROM THE PRESIDENT. REPUBLICANS DISQUIETED. THE SOUTH PLACED UNDER MILITARY CONVENTIONS IN THE SOUTHERN

-

- CONGRESS ADJOURNS TO NOVEMBER.
GOVERNMENT. - PRACTICAL RECONSTRUCTION.
STATES.-CONSTITUTIONS SUBMITTED TO THE PEOPLE.-SECOND SESSION FORTIETH
CONGRESS. AGGRESSIVE MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT.-SOUTHERN STATES RE-
ADMITTED TO REPRESENTATION. — ANOTHER VETO FROM THE PRESIDENT. RECON-
STRUCTION CONTEST PRACTICALLY ENDED. REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS FROM
THE SOUTH.-MISTAKES OF FORMER SLAVE-HOLDERS. · UNFORTUNATE BLUNDERS. -
PECULIAR MENTAL QUALITIES OF PRESIDENT JOHNSON. -THE VETO POWER. — ITS
INFREQUENT USE BY EARLIER PRESIDENTS.—EXAMPLE OF JACKSON. FOLLOWED
BY HIS SUCCESSORS. — DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC AND WHIG PRESIDENTS.
MR. TYLER AND MR. JOHNSON. RATIFICATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.
— PROCLAIMED BY MR. Seward. - IMPORTANCE OF ITS PROVISIONS. - - SINGULAR
HOSTILITY OF THE DEMOCRATS. A NEW CHARTER OF FREEDOM. - SWEEPS AWAY
OPPRESSION AND EVERY DENIAL OF JUSTICE. - CREDIT OF IT CONCEDED TO THE
REPUBLICANS.

HE Fortieth Congress met at the very moment the Thirty-ninth

THE

closed on the fourth day of March, 1867. The valedictory * words of the presiding officers in both branches were followed immediately by the calling to order of the succeeding bodies. The contest between the President and Congress had grown so violent, the mutual distrust had become so complete, that the latter was unwilling to have its power suspended for the customary vacation of nine months between the 4th of March and the first Monday of the ensuing December; and therefore at the preceding session a law had been passed directing that each Congress should be organized immediately after the existence of its predecessor had closed. The Republican leaders felt that without the supervising and counteracting power of Congress, full force and effect might not be given

to the Reconstruction laws by the President; that they might possibly be neutralized by hostile action from the office of the AttorneyGeneral, and that for this reason it would be well, nay, it was imperatively demanded, that the legislative power should be kept ready to interpose with fresh enactments, the very moment those already in force should be dulled by adverse construction, or haltingly admin

FORTIETH CONGRESS.

REPUBLICANS IN ROMAN; DEMOCRATS IN ITALIC; ADMINISTRATION REPUBLICANS IN SMALL CAPITALS.

Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, President.

/SENATE.

John W. Forney of Pennsylvania, Secretary.1

MAINE. - Lot M. Morrill, William Pitt Fessenden.

NEW HAMPSHIRE. — Aaron H. Cragin, James W. Patterson.

NEW YORK.-Edwin D. Morgan, Roscoe Conkling.

NEW JERSEY. — Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Alexander G. Cattell.
PENNSYLVANIA. - Charles R. Buckalew, Simon Cameron.

FLORIDA.- Adonijah S. Welch, Thomas W. Osborn."
NORTH CAROLINA. - Joseph C. Abbott, John Pool."

SOUTH CAROLINA. - Thomas J. Robertson, Frederick A. Sawyer."
ALABAMA.- Willard Warner, George E. Spencer.

LOUISIANA. John S. Harris, William P. Kellogg."

WEST VIRGINIA. - Peter G. Van Winkle, Waitman T. Willey.
NEVADA. William M. Stewart, James W. Nye.
NEBRASKA.Thomas W. Tipton, John M. Thayer.

1 Resigned. Succeeded by George C. Gorham. Died. Succeeded by James A. Bayard. Resigned. Succeeded by Thomas C. McCreery.

Resigned. Succeeded by William Pinckney Whyte. • Denied admission. George Vickers admitted. Admitted under Acts June 22-25, 1868.

istered by Executive agents not in sympathy with the policy of Congress.

The membership of the Fortieth Congress was changed in some important respects in both branches. Simon Cameron, at sixty-eight years of age, returned from Pennsylvania as the successor of Edgar Cowan in the Senate. It was the third time he had entered that

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, Speaker.

Edward McPherson of Pennsylvania, Clerk.

MAINE. -John Lynch, Sidney Perham, James G. Blaine, John A. Peters, Frederick A. Pike.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.- Jacob H. Ela, Aaron F. Stevens, Jacob Benton.

VERMONT. - Frederick E. Woodbridge, Luke P. Poland, Worthington C. Smith. MASSACHUSETTS.-Thomas D. Eliot, Oakes Ames, Ginery Twichell, Samuel Hooper, Benjamin F. Butler, Nathaniel P. Banks, George S. Boutwell, John D. Baldwin, William B. Washburn, Henry L. Dawes.

RHODE ISLAND. - Thomas A. Jenckes, Nathan F. Dixon.

H. Barnum.

Richard D. Hubbard, Julius Hotchkiss, Henry H. Starkweather, William

NEW YORK. - Stephen Taber, Demas Barnes, William E. Robinson, John Fox, John Morrissey, Thomas E. Stewart, John W. Chanler, James Brooks, Fernando Wood, William H. Robertson, Charles H. Van Wyck, John H. Ketcham, Thomas Cornell, John V. L. Pruyn, John A. Griswold, Orange Ferriss, Calvin T. Hulburd, James M. Marvin, William C. Fields, Addison H. Laflin, Alexander H. Bailey, John C. Churchill, Dennis McCarthy, Theodore M. Pomeroy, William H. Kelsey, William S. Lincoln, Hamilton Ward, Lewis Selye, Burt Van Horn, James M. Humphrey, Henry Van Aernam.

NEW JERSEY.-William Moore, Charles Haight, Charles Sitgreaves, John Hill, George A.

Halsey. PENNSYLVANIA. - Samuel J. Randall, Charles O'Neill, Leonard Myers, William D. Kelley, Caleb N. Taylor, Benjamin M. Boyer, John M. Broomall, J. Lawrence Getz, Thaddeus Stevens,1 Henry L. Cake, Daniel M. Van Auken, Charles Denison,2 Ulysses Mercur, George F. Miller, Adam J. Glossbrenner, William H. Koontz, Daniel J. Morrell, Stephen F. Wilson, Glenni W. Scofield, Darwin A. Finney,3 John Covode, James K. Moorhead, Thomas Williams, George V. Lawrence. DELAWARE. - John A. Nicholson.

MARYLAND.

1

· Hiram McCullough, Stevenson Archer, CHARLES E. PHELPS, Francis Thomas, Frederick Stone.

OHIO.- Benjamin Eggleston, Rutherford B. Hayes, Robert C. Schenck, William Lawrence, William Mungen, Reader W. Clarke, Samuel Shellabarger, Cornelius S. Hamilton, Ralph P. Buckland, James M. Ashley, John T. Wilson, Philadelph Van Trump, George W. Morgan, Martin Welker, Tobias A. Plants, John A. Bingham, Ephraim R. Eckley, Rufus P. Spalding, James A. Garfield.

KENTUCKY. - Lawrence S. Trimble, (vacancy), Jacob S. Golladay, J. Proctor Knott, As P. Grover, Thomas L. Jones, James B. Beck, George M. Adams, Samuel McKee. TENNESSEE. - Roderick R. Butler, Horace Maynard, William B. Stokes, James Mullins, John Trimble, Samuel M. Arnell, Isaac R. Hawkins, David A. Nunn.

1 Died. Succeeded by Oliver J. Dickey.

Died. Succeeded by George W. Woodward.

Died. Succeeded by 8. Newton Pettis.

Resigned. Succeeded by Samuel F. Cary.
Died. Succeeded by John Beatty.
Unseated. Succeeded by Columbus Delano.

body, and now, as it proved, for a longer period than ever before. Roscoe Conkling, who had been steadily growing in 'strength with the Republican party of New York, was transferred from the House and took the seat of Ira Harris.-Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, after twelve years of useful and honorable service in the House, was now promoted to the Senate for a still longer and equally honorable and

INDIANA.- William E. Niblack, Michael C. Kerr, Morton C. Hunter, William S. Holman, George W. Julian, John Coburn, Henry D. Washburn, Godlove S. Orth, Schuyler Colfax, William Williams, John P. C. Shanks.

ILLINOIS. - Norman B. Judd, John F. Farnsworth, Elihu B. Washburne, Abner C. Harding, Ebon C. Ingersoll, Burton C. Cook, Henry P. H. Bromwell, Shelby M. Cullom, Lewis W. Ross, Albert G. Burr, Samuel S. Marshall, Jehu Baker, Green B. Raum, John A. Logan.

MISSOURI.

William A. Pile, Carman A. Newcomb, THOMAS E. NOELL, Joseph J. Gravely, Joseph W. McClurg, Robert T. Van Horn, Benjamin F. Loan, John F. Benjamin, George W. Anderson.

ARKANSAS. Logan H. Roots, James Hinds, Thomas Boles.1

MICHIGAN. Fernando C. Beaman, Charles Upson, Austin Blair, Thomas W. Ferry, Rowland E. Trowbridge, John F. Driggs.

FLORIDA.-Charles M. Hamilton.

NORTH CAROLINA.

- John R. French, David Heaton, Oliver H. Dockery, John T. Deweese, Israel G. Lash, Nathaniel Boyden, Alexander H. Jones.1

SOUTH CAROLINA. - Benjamin F. Whittemore, C. C. Bowen, Simeon Corley, James H. Goss.1

GEORGIA.-J. W. Clift, Nelson Tift, W. P. Edwards, Samuel F. Gove, C. H. Prince, (vacancy), P. M. B. Young.

ALABAMA. Francis W. Kellogg, Charles W. Buckley, Benjamin W. Norris, Charles W. Pierce, John B. Callis, Thomas Haughey.

LOUISIANA.

J. Hale Sypher, James Mann, Joseph P. Newsham, Michael Vidal, W. Jasper Blackburn."

IOWA. James F. Wilson, Hiram Price, William B. Allison, William Loughridge,

Grenville M. Dodge, Asahel W. Hubbard.

WISCONSIN. - Halbert E. Paine, Benjamin F. Hopkins, Amasa Cobb, Charles A. Eldridge,

Philetus Sawyer, Cadwalader C. Washburn.

CALIFORNIA. -Samuel B. Axtell, William Higby, James A. Johnson.

MINNESOTA.- William Windom, Ignatius Donnelly.

OREGON.-Rufus Mallory.

KANSAS. Sidney Clarke.

WEST VIRGINIA. - Chester D. Hubbard, Bethuel M. Kitchen, Daniel Polsley.