which involved so much of baseness and ingratitude.
It was natural that they should seek to save him by
bending to him even when he leaned to the side of
error. But all is changed now. Congress knows
now that it must go on without his aid, and even against
his machinations. The advantage of the present
session over the last is immense. Where that
investigated, this has the facts. Where that walked
by faith, this may walk by sight. Where that
halted, this must go forward, and where that failed,
this must succeed, giving the country whole measures
where that gave us half-measures, merely as a means
of saving the elections in a few doubtful districts.
That Congress saw what was right, but distrusted the
enlightenment of the loyal masses; but what was forborne
in distrust of the people must now be done with a
full knowledge that the people expect and require
it. The members go to Washington fresh from the
inspiring presence of the people. In every considerable
public meeting, and in almost every conceivable way,
whether at court-house, school-house, or cross-roads,
in doors and out, the subject has been discussed,
and the people have emphatically pronounced in favor
of a radical policy. Listening to the doctrines
of expediency and compromise with pity, impatience,
and disgust, they have everywhere broken into demonstrations
of the wildest enthusiasm when a brave word has been
spoken in favor of equal rights and impartial suffrage.
Radicalism, so far from being odious, is now the popular
passport to power. The men most bitterly charged
with it go to Congress with the largest majorities,
while the timid and doubtful are sent by lean majorities,
or else left at home. The strange controversy
between the President and Congress, at one time so
threatening, is disposed of by the people. The
high reconstructive powers which he so confidently,
ostentatiously, and haughtily claimed, have been disallowed,
denounced, and utterly repudiated; while those claimed
by Congress have been confirmed.
Of the spirit and magnitude of the canvass nothing
need be said. The appeal was to the people, and
the verdict was worthy of the tribunal. Upon
an occasion of his own selection, with the advice and
approval of his astute Secretary, soon after the members
of Congress had returned to their constituents, the
President quitted the executive mansion, sandwiched
himself between two recognized heroes,—men
whom the whole country delighted to honor,—and,
with all the advantage which such company could give
him, stumped the country from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi, advocating everywhere his policy as against
that of Congress. It was a strange sight, and
perhaps the most disgraceful exhibition ever made
by any President; but, as no evil is entirely unmixed,
good has come of this, as from many others. Ambitious,
unscrupulous, energetic, indefatigable, voluble, and
plausible,—a political gladiator, ready
for a “set-to” in any crowd,—he
is beaten in his own chosen field, and stands to-day
before the country as a convicted usurper, a political
criminal, guilty of a bold and persistent attempt
to possess himself of the legislative powers solemnly
secured to Congress by the Constitution. No vindication
could be more complete, no condemnation could be more
absolute and humiliating. Unless reopened by
the sword, as recklessly threatened in some circles,
this question is now closed for all time.