Republicans to the radicals. It replaced an article
originally reported by the committee, excluding not only from office but
from the suffrage all who had taken part in the Rebellion, until July 4,
1870. The article as adopted was disliked by Sherman and Wilson, the
latter especially declaring his willingness to remove the
disqualifications as soon as possible after a settlement had been made.
In point of fact they were removed piecemeal by Congress almost as
freely as President Johnson had done the like, and were ended except for
a few hundred by a sweeping amnesty in 1872.

Grant said to A. H. Stephens in April, 1866, "The true policy should be
to make friends of enemies." If these men, with a few others of like
temper in North and South, could have settled the terms of the new
order, a different foundation might have been laid. But in default of
any such happy, unlikely conjuncture of the right men in the right
place, it is the deep and wide tides of public opinion that largely
shape events. The average Southern view of the negro, and the average
Northern view of the "rebel," were the Scylla and Charybdis between
which the ship of state steered its troubled voyage.

Returning now to the course of events,--Congress made it plain that the
acceptance of the Fourteenth Amendment would bring the restoration of
the South, not by a formal declaration, but by its action in promptly
admitting Tennessee when within a month it ratified the amendment. So
before the South and the country were now the two policies,--of Congress
and the President,--and the summer and autumn saw a general and eager
discussion. The South waited events, hoping for the President's success.
In the North there was at first a marked effort to rally conservative
men of both parties to his side. A great convention was held at
Philadelphia, promoted by the President, Seward, Weed and Henry J.
Raymond; with delegates from every State; the first day's procession led
by Massachusetts and South Carolina representatives arm-in-arm; Southern
governors and judges heartily assenting to the declaration that not only
is slavery dead, but nobody wants it revived; and with cordial
indorsement of the President's reconstruction policy.

There was a counter-convention at Pittsburg; there were "soldiers' and
sailors' conventions" on both sides. From the Cabinet three members,
Speed, Denison and Harlan, resigned because their convictions were with
Congress; but Stanton re