On this period and on those that follow, the histories are few and not conclusive. Reliance for sources must be placed on the current literature and on such books as McPherson’s Handbooks, Appleton’s Annual Cyclopædia, Mulhall’s Dictionary of Statistics, Shaler’s United States, and the writings of the leading statesmen as indicated in Channing and Hart’s Guide.
| [262] | Born in North Carolina, 1808; died, 1875. Settled in Tennessee; a tailor by trade; became a member of Congress, 1843–1853; governor of Tennessee, 1853–1857; United States senator, 1857–1862; was a strong Unionist, and was appointed by Lincoln military governor of Tennessee; though a Democrat, was nominated for Vice President with Lincoln in 1864, and elected; became President on the death of Lincoln, in 1865; continued to hold many Democratic principles and soon was opposed to the Republican Congress; vetoed many acts of Congress; was impeached in 1867, but the impeachment failed by one less than a two-thirds majority; returned to Tennessee and was defeated for the Senate and the House, but finally elected to the Senate shortly before his death. |
| [263] | Note, as examples, the turbulent events that followed the English civil war of the seventeenth century and the great civil war known as the French Revolution. |
| [264] | Born in Vermont, 1793; died, 1868. Graduated at Dartmouth; practiced law in Pennsylvania; Whig member of Congress, 1849–1853, when he strenuously opposed the Compromise of 1850; Republican member, 1859–1868, of a radical type and great influence; advocated very severe measures during the reconstruction period; urged emancipation, the Fourteenth Amendment, the Acts of Confiscation, and the impeachment of President Johnson. |
| [265] | Among these may be enumerated the Civil Rights Bill, which gave the negroes citizenship with suffrage (1866), and the Second Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, which was designed to help the former slaves by securing them employment and in other ways (1866). The Fourteenth Amendment was also disapproved by the President, and, of course, the congressional plan of reconstruction. Congress, by a “rider” to the Army Appropriation Bill, really deprived the President of his power as commander in chief; and by adopting measures which enabled a new Congress to meet immediately after the expiration of its predecessor, took away from the President all opportunity to act upon his own judgment during the interim between Congresses. In other words, the radical members of Congress were so determined to carry out their policy that in the two measures last enumerated and in the Tenure of Office Act they overleaped the Constitution and practically set up a revolutionary government of their own. On the other hand, the President’s breach of courtesy in delivering harangues against Congress, at various points in the country, was highly exasperating. |
| [266] | That the Tenure of Office Act, which was partly the cause of the disgraceful final clash between the President and Congress, was a partisan and unwise measure is proved by the fact that it was soon modified, and that in 1887 it was repealed. |
| [267] | Born in New York, 1810; died, 1886. Was military secretary of Governor Marcy; as assemblyman, mayor of Utica, and Speaker of the Assembly, he became very prominent as Democratic leader: was governor of New York, 1853–1855, after having been defeated as candidate in 1850; also governor, 1863–1865; supported the Union during the War, but in a spirit that provoked much criticism, as did, notably, his speech to the rioters in New York City in 1863; presided over Democratic Convention in 1868, and, against his will, was nominated for President; was defeated by General Grant. |