illing to concede the guarantee of
the Fourteenth Amendment, and to give that pledge to the country of
their future loyalty and their common sense of justice, they shall find
that we can be as resolute as they, and we shall insist on the right as
stubbornly as they persist in the wrong." These were not merely the
declamations of statesmen, or of the press, or of the popular speakers
of the Republican party. They came spontaneously, as if by
inspiration, from the mass of the people, and were based on that
instinctive sense of justice which the multitude rarely fails to exhibit.

It was naturally inferred and was subsequently proved, that the
Southern States would not have dared to take this hostile attitude
except with the encouragement and the unqualified support of the
President. He was undoubtedly in correspondence, directly and
indirectly, with the political powers that were controlling the action
of the insurrectionary States, and he was determined that the policy
of Congress should not have the triumph that would be implied in a
ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by those States. Telegraphic
correspondence clearly establishing the President's position,
subsequently came to light. Governor Parsons of Alabama telegraphed
him indicating that the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment might be
reconsidered by the Alabama Legislature, if in consequence thereof an
enabling Act could be passed by Congress for the admission of the State
to representation. Johnson promptly replied on the same day: "What
possible good can be obtained by reconsidering the Constitutional
Amendment? I know of none in the present posture of affairs, and I
do not believe the people of the country will sustain any set of
individuals in attempts to change the whole character of our Government
by enabling Acts or otherwise. I believe on the contrary, that they
will eventually uphold all those who have patriotism and courage to
stand by the Constitution and who place their confidence in the people.
There should be no faltering on the part of those who are honest in a
determination to sustain the several co-ordinate Departments of the
Government in accordance with the original design." It was evident
from this disclosure that Johnson's hand was busy throughout the South,
secretly as well as openly, and that he inspired the resolute obstinacy
with which the insurrectionary States resisted the fair and magnanimous
offers of Reconstruction