l to the Senate, in which House it originated, for the
further consideration of Congress which the Constitution prescribes.
Experience, I think, has shown that it is the easiest, as it is also
the most attractive, of studies to frame constitutions for the
self-government of free states and nations; but I think that experience
has equally shown that it is the most difficult of all political labors
to preserve and maintain such free constitutions of self-government when
once happily established."

The veto message was a very able document. In all official papers of
importance the President appeared at his best. He had the inestimable
advantage of Mr. Seward's calm temper and of his attractive and
forcible statement of the proper argument. Few among the public men
of the United States have rivaled Mr. Seward in the dignity, felicity,
and vigor which he imparted to an official paper. No one ever
surpassed him. In the veto message under consideration his hand was
evident in every paragraph; and if it had been President Johnson's good
fortune to go down to posterity on this single issue with Congress, he
might confidently have anticipated the verdict of history in his favor.
The delicate, almost humourous sarcasm in the closing words above
quoted from the message, afford a good specimen of Mr. Seward's
facility of stating the gravest of organic propositions in a form
attractive to the general reader. He wrote as one who felt that in
this particular issue with Congress, whatever might be the adverse
votes of the Senate and House, time would be sure to vindicate the
position of the President. But the message did not arrest the action,
indeed scarcely the attention, of Congress, and the bill was promptly,
even hurriedly, passed over the veto,--in the Senate by 35 _ayes_ to
11 _noes;_ in the House by 133 _ayes_ to 37 _noes_.

The bill was not passed, however, without considerable misgiving on
the part of many members of both Houses who voted for it. It was an
extreme proposition,--a new departure from the long-established usage
of the Federal Government, and for that reason, if for no other,
personally degrading to the incumbent of the Presidential office. It
could only have grown out of the abnormal excitement created by the
dissensions between the two great Departments of the Government. The
bitterness engendered resembled that which always distinguishes a
family quarrel. The measure was resorted to as one of self-d