herners who were opposed to emancipation. But how could it make an
issue upon emancipation, as long as the President, the object of its
antagonism, also refused to support emancipation? The sole argument
in the Cabinet against Lincoln's new policy was that it would give the
Democrats an issue. Shrewd Montgomery Blair prophesied that on this
issue they could carry the autumn elections for Congress. Lincoln had
replied that he would take the risk. He presented them with the issue.
They promptly accepted it But they did not stop there. They aimed
to take over the whole of the position that had been vacated by the
collapse of the Vindictive Coalition. By an adroit bit of political
legerdemain they would steal their enemies' thunder, reunite the
emancipation issue with the issue of the war powers, reverse the
significance of the conjunction, and, armed with this double club, they
would advance from a new and unexpected angle and win the leadership of
the country by overthrowing the dictator. And this, they came very near
doing. On their double issue they rallied enough support to increase
their number in Congress by thirty-three. Had not the moment been so
tragic, nothing could have been more amusing than the helpless wrath of
the Jacobins caught in their own trap, compelled to gnaw their tongues
in silence, while the Democrats, paraphrasing their own arguments,
hurled defiant at Lincoln.

Men of intellectual courage might have broken their party ranks,
daringly applied Lincoln's own maxim "stand with any one who stands
right," and momentarily joined the Democrats in their battle against
the two proclamations. But in American politics, with a few glorious
exceptions, courage of this sort has never been the order of the day.
The Jacobins kept their party line; bowed their heads to the storm; and
bided their time. In the Senate, an indiscreet resolution commending
the Emancipation Proclamation was ordered to be printed, and laid on the
table.(2) In the House, party exigencies were more exacting. Despite
the Democratic successes, the Republicans still had a majority. When the
Democrats made the repudiation of the President a party issue, arguing
on those very grounds that had aroused the eloquence of Stevens and the
rest--why, what's the Constitution between friends! Or between political
enemies? The Democrats forced all the Republicans into one boat by
introducing a resolution "That the policy of emancipation as indicated
in t