of a sovereign, rights that only the people possess, that
only the people can delegate. And this was Lincoln's theory. Roughly
speaking, he-conceived of the presidential office about as if it were
the office of Tribune of the People.

There was still another reason why both Lincoln and Browning feared
to yield anything to the theory of congressional supremacy. It was,
in their minds, not only the general question of all Congresses but
immediately of this particular Congress. An assembly in which the temper
of Wade and Chandler, of Stevens and Sumner, was entering the ascendent,
was an assembly to be feared; its supremacy was to be denied, its power
was to be fought.

Browning did not close without a startling passage flung square in
the teeth of the apostles of fury. He summed up the opposite temper,
Lincoln's temper, in his description of "Our brethren of the South--for
I am willing to call them brethren; my heart yet yearns toward them with
a fervency of love which even their treason has not all extinguished,
which tempts me constantly to say in their behalf, 'Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.'" He pleaded with the Senate not
to consider them "as public enemies but as insurgent citizens only," and
advocated an Act of Amnesty restoring all political and property
rights "instantly upon their return to allegiance and submission to the
authority of the government."

Had this narrowly constitutional issue arisen in quiet times, who can
say how slight might have been its significance? But Fate had decreed
that it should arise in the stormiest moment of our history. Millions
of men and women who cared nothing for constitutional theories, who were
governed by that passion to see immediate results which the thoughtless
ever confuse with achievement, these were becoming hysterical over
delay. Why did not the government do something? Everywhere voices were
raised accusing the President of cowardice. The mania of suspicion
was not confined to the Committee. The thoughts of a multitude were
expressed by Congressman Hickman in his foolish words, "These are days
of irresponsibility and imbecility, and we are required to perform two
offices--the office of legislator and the office of President." The
better part of a year had passed since the day of Sumter, and still the
government had no military success to its credit. An impetuous people
that lacked experience of war, that had been accustomed in unusual
measu