he
basis of a new government; it exacted of this majority a pledge never
to pay any State debt contracted during the Confederacy, and also the
perpetual prohibition of slavery in their State constitution.

Davis got his bill through the House, but his allies in the Senate laid
it aside. They understood the country too well not to see that they
must wait for something to happen. If the President made any mistake,
if anything went wrong with the army--they remembered the spring of 1862,
McClellan's failure, and how Chandler followed it up. And at this moment
no man was chafing more angrily because of what the ground was saying,
no man was watching the President more keenly, than Chandler. History
is said to repeat itself, and all things are supposed to come to him who
waits. While Davis's bill was before the House, Lincoln accepted battle
with the Vindictives in a way that was entirely unostentatious, but that
burned his bridges. He pressed forward the organization of a new State
government in Louisiana under Federal auspices. He wrote to Michael
Hahn, the newly chosen governor of this somewhat fictitious State: "I
congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first Free
State governor of Louisiana."(3)

Meanwhile, the hotheads of the House again followed Davis's lead and
flung defiance in Lincoln's face. Napoleon, who had all along coquetted
alarmingly with the Confederates, had also pushed ahead with his
insolent conquest of Mexico. Lincoln and Seward, determined to have
but one war on their hands at a time, had skilfully evaded committing
themselves. The United States had neither protested against the action
of Napoleon, nor in any way admitted its propriety. Other men besides
the Vindictives were biding their time. But here the hotheads thought
they saw an opportunity. Davis brought in a resolution which amounted to
a censure of the Administration for not demanding the retirement of
the French from Mexico. This was one of those times when the
Democrats played politics and followed Davis. The motion was carried
unanimously.(4) It was so much of a sensation that the 'American
Minister at Paris, calling on the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs,
was met by the curt question, "Do you bring peace or war?"

But it was not in the power of the House to draw Lincoln's fire until
he chose to be drawn. He ignored its action. The Imperial Government was
informed that the acts of the House of Representatives wer