the Confederacy
with extravagant enthusiasm. His espousal of their cause was
considered by them to be as great an acquisition as if a fresh army
corps had been mustered into their service. His act called forth
the most bitter denunciation throughout the North, and among the
loyal people of Kentucky. He had not the excuse pleaded by so many
men of the South, that he must abide by the fortunes of his States,
and the worst interpretation was placed upon his presence at the
July session of Congress.

Among the earliest acts at the next session was the expulsion of
Mr. Breckinridge from the Senate. It was done in a manner which
marked the full strength of the popular disapprobation of his
course. The senators from the rebellious States had all been
expelled at the July session, but without the application of an
opprobrious epithet. There had also been a debate as to whether
expulsion of the persona, or a mere declaration that the seats were
vacant, were the proper course to be pursued by the Senate. Andrew
Johnson maintained the latter, and all the Democratic senators,
except McDougall of California, voted with him. But in the case
of Mr. Breckinridge there was not a negative vote--his own colleague
Powell remaining silent in his seat while five Democratic senators
joined in the vote for his expulsion. The resolution, draughted
by Mr. Trumbull, was made as offensive as possible, curtly declaring
that "John C. Breckinridge, the traitor, be and is hereby expelled
from the Senate."

The mutation of public opinion is striking. Mr. Breckinridge lived
to become a popular idol in Kentucky. Long before his death (which
occurred in 1875 in his fifty-fourth year) he could have had any
position in the gift of his State. If his political disabilities
could have been removed, he would undoubtedly have returned to the
Senate. His support did not come solely from those who had
sympathized with the South, but included thousands who had been
loyally devoted to the Union. He possessed a strange, fascinating
power over the people of Kentucky,--as great as that which had been
wielded by Mr. Clay, though he was far below Mr. Clay in intellectual
endowment. No man gave up more than he when he united his fortunes
with the seceding States. It was his sense of personal fidelity
to the Southern men who had been faithful to him, that blinded him
to the higher obligation of fidelity to country, and to the higher
appreciation of self