President Johnson saw in the institution of slavery the principal source of the irritation and ill-feeling between the North and the South, which had led to the war.  He believed, therefore, that its abolition should be exacted, and that this would constitute a complete guaranty for the future.  At that time the amendment for its abolition, which had passed the two Houses of Congress, was pending before the States for their action.  He was of opinion, and so expressed himself in his first message to Congress, that its ratification should be required of the insurgent States on resuming their places in the family of the Union; that it was not too much, he said, to ask of them “to give this pledge of perpetual loyalty and peace.”  “Until it is done,” he added, “the past, however much we may desire it, will not be forgotten.  The adoption of the amendment re-unites us beyond all power of disruption.  It heals the wound that is still imperfectly closed; it removes slavery, the element which has so long perplexed and divided the country; it makes of us once more a united people, renewed and strengthened, bound more than ever to mutual affection and support.”

It would have been most fortunate for the country had this condition been deemed sufficient and been accepted as such.  But the North was in no mood for a course so simple and just.  Its leaders clamored for more stringent measures, on the ground that they were needed for the protection of the freedmen, and the defeat of possible schemes for a new insurrection.  It was not long, therefore, before a system of measures was adopted, which resulted in the establishment at the South of temporary governments, subject to military control, the offices of which were filled chiefly by men alien to the States and indifferent to their interests.  The misrule and corruption which followed are matters of public history.  It is no part of my purpose to speak of them.  I wish merely to refer to the state of feeling existing upon the close of the civil war as introductory to what I have to say of the unfriendly disposition manifested at the North towards the Supreme Court and some of its members, myself in particular.

Acts of the military officers, and legislation of some of the States and of Congress, during and immediately succeeding the war, were soon brought to the consideration of the Court.  Its action thereon was watched by members of the Republican party with manifest uneasiness and distrust.  Its decision in the Dred Scott case had greatly impaired their confidence in its wisdom and freedom from political influences.  Many of them looked upon that decision as precipitating the war upon the country, by the sanction it gave to efforts made to introduce slavery into the Territories; and they did not hesitate to express their belief that the sympathies of a majority of the Court were with the Confederates.  Intimations to that effect were thrown out in some of the journals of the day, at