sion. John Tyler in turn never recovered from the
dissensions and disasters of the extra session of May, 1841,--though it
was precipitated upon him by a call issued by President Harrison. All
those extra sessions except the one in Mr. Van Buren's Administration
had been held in May, and even in his case the proclamation summoning
Congress was issued in May. No wonder, therefore, that ill-luck came
to be associated with that month. When the necessity of assembling
Congress was forced upon Mr. Lincoln by the firing on Sumter, Mr.
Seward warned him that in any event he must not have the session begin
in May. It must be confessed therefore that the precedents were
sufficiently alarming to influence Mr. Johnson against an extra
session. Nor was there any popular demand for it because the
President's policy had not as yet portended trouble or strife in the
ranks of the Republican party.

CHAPTER IV.

Declining to seek the advice of Congress in the embarrassments of his
position, President Johnson necessarily subjected himself to the
counsel and influence of his Cabinet. He had inherited from Mr.
Lincoln an organization of the Executive Department which, with the
possible exception of Mr. Seward, was personally agreeable to him and
politically trusted by him. He dreaded the effect of changing it, and
declined upon his accession to make room for some eminent men who by
long personal association and by identity of views on public questions
would naturally be selected as his advisers. He had not forgotten the
experience and the fate of the chief magistrates who like himself had
been promoted from the Vice-Presidency. He instinctively wished to
avoid their mistakes and to leave behind him an administration which
should not in after years be remembered for its faults, its blunders,
its misfortunes.

The Federal Government had existed fifty-two years before it
encountered the calamity of a President's death. The effect which such
an event would produce upon the _personnel_ of the Government and upon
the partisan aspects of the Administration was not therefore known
prior to 1841. The Vice-President in previous years had not always
been on good terms with the President. In proportion to his rank there
was no officer of the Government who exercised so little influence.
His most honorable function--that of presiding over the Senate--was
purely ceremonial, and carried with it no attribute of power except in
those rare