n, and that instead of fanning the popular excitement
by remaining in session, Congress would be thus most wisely allaying
the fears which had entered the minds of so large a number of the
people. But this argument did not prevail, and the conservative view
secured a majority in both Houses. The vote in the Senate however
was very close, there being only one more Republican in the affirmative
that in the negative, leaving to Democratic votes, really, the decision
of the question. A very inconvenient compromise was made by an
adjournment to the 21st of November--only a fortnight before Congress
would convene in regular annual session on the first Monday of
December. No good reason was assigned for so extraordinary a step, and
no benefit resulted from it.

The Reconstruction Acts, both original and supplementary, were now in
full operation throughout the South. The President did not interpose
serious objection to the assignment of the Army officers whose names
were suggested by General Grant, and the ten insurrectionary States not
yet re-admitted to representation were remanded to military government
with apparent quiet and order. General Schofield was directed to take
charge of the district of Virginia; General Sickles was placed in
command of the district of North Carolina and South Carolina; General
John Pope was assigned to the district of Georgia, Alabama, and
Florida; General Ord to the district of Mississippi and Arkansas; and
General Sheridan to the district of Louisiana and Texas. These
assignments were made with due promptness after the enactment of the
laws, and the several commanders at once proceeded to their novel and
responsible duties.(1)

Under the enlargements of suffrage in the direction of loyalty, and its
restrictions in the direction of disloyalty, the Southern States once
more turned their attention to the question of Reconstruction. They
saw, as the law intended them to see, that military government would
exist until the loyal inhabitants of those States should present
themselves before Congress with a constitution adapted to the
changed circumstances resulting from the war, and to the necessities
superinduced by the abolition of slavery. The Southern men who had
defiantly rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, and had with confidence
relied upon the power of President Johnson to vindicate their position,
now discovered their mistake, and were reluctantly but completely
convinced that the on