as the hero upon a remarkable stage of action,
and naturally made the reflection that if he could have had in his
early years the advantages which so many possess without improving,
he would have made strides in life which would have left him without
rivals. It would be impossible to gain a full and correct apprehension
of Mr. Johnson's character without taking into account these qualities
--qualities which were both the remote and immediate cause of his
extraordinary career as Chief Magistrate.

The earlier Presidents, filled with the spirit of the convention that
formed the Constitution, were extremely careful in the use of the
veto-power. In eight years Washington used it but twice. Neither John
Adams nor Thomas Jefferson used it even once. Madison resorted to it
three times, Monroe only once, John Quincy Adams in not a single
instance. Under the first six Presidents, the veto-power had been used
but six times in all; unless there should be included some private
bills sent back for correction and not in any sense furnishing matter
of contest between parties. The country had thus been educated by the
sages of the era of the Constitution in the belief that only an
extraordinary occasion justified a resort to what, in the popular
dislike of its character, had received the name of "the one-man power."
President Jackson, therefore, surprised the country and shocked
conservative citizens by his frequent employment of this great
prerogative. During his term he thwarted the wish and the expressed
resolve of Congress no less than eleven times on measures of great
public consequence. Seven of these vetoes were of the kind which,
during his Presidency, received the name of "pocket-vetoes."

In Madison's administration a bill which reached the President during
the last ten days of the session failed by accident or inadvertence
to receive the President's signature, and did not become a law. Mr.
Webster is authority for saying that there was not a single instance
prior to the administration of General Jackson in which the President
by design omitted to sign a bill and yet did not return it to Congress.
"The silent veto," said he, "is the executive adoption of the present
administration." There had been instances in which, during a session
of Congress, a President, unwilling to approve and yet not prepared
to veto a measure, suffered it to become a law by the lapse of the
Constitutional period of ten days; but it was an