nt of gratitude, if not of justice, the sentiment of the
North at that time was in favor of fair play for the colored people of
the South. But the President would not yield to what was generally
believed to be the dominant sentiment of the North on the question of
reconstruction. He insisted that the leaders of the Republican party in
Congress did not represent the true sentiment of the country, so he
boldly determined to antagonize the leaders in Congress, and to present
their differences to the court of public opinion at the approaching
Congressional elections. The issue was thus joined and the people were
called upon to render judgment in the election of members of Congress
in the fall of 1866. The President, with the solid support of the
Democrats and a small minority of the Republicans, made a brave and
gallant fight. The result, however, was a crushing defeat for him and a
national repudiation of his plan of reconstruction.

Notwithstanding this defeat the President refused to yield, continuing
the fight with Congress which finally resulted in his impeachment by the
House of Representatives for high Crimes and Misdemeanors in office and
in his trial by the Senate sitting as a High Court for that purpose.
When the vote of the court was taken the President was saved from
conviction and from removal from office by the narrow margin of one
vote,--a sufficient number of Republican Senators having voted with the
Democrats to prevent conviction. It was believed by many at the time
that some of the Republican Senators that voted for acquittal did so
chiefly on account of their antipathy to the man who would succeed to
the Presidency in the event of the conviction of the President. This man
was Senator Benjamin Wade, of Ohio,--President _pro tem._ of the
Senate,--who, as the law then stood, would have succeeded to the
Presidency in the event of a vacancy in that office from any cause.

Senator Wade was an able man, but there were others who were much more
brilliant. He was a strong party man. He had no patience with those who
claimed to be Republicans and yet refused to abide by the decision of
the majority of the party organization unless that decision should be
what they wanted. In short, he was an organization Republican,--what has
since been characterized by some as a machine man,--the sort of active
and aggressive man that would be likely to make for himself enemies of
men in his own organization who were afraid of hi