Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 | Page 6

THE
GOVERNMENT.--ITS ILLEGITIMATE INFLUENCE.--THE
QUESTION OF CHINESE LABOR.--LEGISLATION THEREON.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1880.--THIRD TERM
SUGGESTED.--CHICAGO CONVENTION.--EXCITING
CONTEST.--MANY BALLOTINGS.--NOMINATION OF
GENERAL GARFIELD.--DEMOCRATIC
CONVENTION.--NOMINATION OF GENERAL HANCOCK.--THE
CONTEST.--THE RESULT.--THE SOLID SOUTH.--ITS
MEANING.--ITS EFFECT.--ITS END.--REVIEW OF THE TWENTY
YEARS.--PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE.--MAJESTY OF THE
REPUBLIC.
LIST OF STEEL PORTRAITS
ULYSSES S. GRANT ANDREW JOHNSON HANNIBAL HAMLIN
SCHUYLER COLFAX HENRY WILSON WILLIAM A. WHEELER
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS SAMUEL J. RANDALL LUCIUS Q.
C. LAMAR THOMAS F. BAYARD BENJAMIN H. HILL

AUGUSTUS H. GARLAND JAMES B. BECK B. K. BRUCE H. R.
REVELS JAMES T. RAPIER JOHN R. LYNCH J. H. RAINEY
ALLEN G. THURMAN TIMOTHY O. HOWE BENJAMIN F.
BUTLER ROSCOE CONKLING GEORGE P. EDMUNDS
MATTHEW HALE CARPENTER WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES JAMES A. GARFIELD
TWENTY YEARS OF CONGRESS
CHAPTER I.
Abraham Lincoln expired at twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock on
the morning of April 15, 1865. Three hours later, in the presence of all
the members of the Cabinet except Mr. Seward who lay wounded and
bleeding in his own home, the oath of office, as President of the United
States, was administered to Andrew Johnson by Chief Justice Chase.
The simple but impressive ceremony was performed in Mr. Johnson's
lodgings at the Kirkwood Hotel; and besides the members of the
Cabinet, who were present in their official character, those senators
who had remained in Washington since the adjournment of Congress
were called in as witnesses. While the death of Mr. Lincoln was still
unknown to the majority of the citizens of the Republic, his successor
was installed in office, and the administration of the Federal
Government was radically changed. It was especially fortunate that the
Vice-President was at the National Capital. He had arrived but five
days before, and was intending to leave for his home in Tennessee
within a few hours. His prompt investiture with the Chief Executive
authority of the Nation preserved order, maintained law, and restored
confidence to the people. With the defeat and disintegration of the
armies of the Confederacy, and with the approaching disbandment of
the armies of the Union, constant watchfulness was demanded of the
National Executive. It is a striking tribute to the strength of the
Constitution and of the Government that the orderly administration of
affairs was not interrupted by a tragedy which in many countries might
have been the signal for a bloody revolution.
The new President confronted grave responsibilities. The least

reflecting among those who took part in the mighty struggle perceived
that the duties devolved upon the Government by victory--if less
exacting and less critical than those imposed by actual war--were more
delicate in their nature, and required statesmanship of a different
character. The problem of reconstructing the Union, and adapting its
varied interests to its changed condition, demanded the highest
administrative ability. Many of the questions involved were new, and,
if only for that reason, perplexing. No experience of our own had
established precedents; none in other countries afforded even close
analogies. Rebellions and civil wars had, it is true, been frequent, but
they had been chiefly among peoples consolidated under one
government, ruled in all their affairs, domestic and external, by one
central power. The overthrow of armed resistance in such cases was the
end of trouble, and political society and public order were rapidly
re-formed under the restraint which the triumphant authority was so
easily able to impose.
A prompt adjustment after the manner of consolidated governments
was not practicable under our Federal system. In the division of
functions between the Nation and the State, those that reach and affect
the citizen in his every-day life belong principally to the State. The
tenure of land is guaranteed and regulated by State Law; the domestic
relations of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward,
together with the entire educational system, are left exclusively to the
same authority, as is also the preservation of the public peace by proper
police-systems--the National Government intervening only on the call
of the State when the State's power is found inadequate to the
suppression of disorder. These leading functions of the State were left
in full force under the Confederate Government; and the Confederate
Government being now destroyed, and the States that composed it
being under the complete domination of the armies of the Union, the
whole framework of society was in confusion, if not indeed in chaos.
To restore the States to their normal relations to the Union, to enable
them to organize governments in harmony with the fundamental
changes wrought by the war, was the embarrassing task which the
Administration of President Johnson was compelled to meet on the
very threshold of its existence.

The successful issue of these unprecedented and complicated
difficulties depended in great degree upon the character and temper of
the Executive. Many wise men regarded