more hostile
than that of the slave-owner.

Unfortunately, by the same token, the new President had not, as Lincoln
would have had, the ear of the North.

Had Lincoln lived he would have approached the task of persuading the
North to support his policy with many advantages which his successor
necessarily lacked. He would have had the full prestige of the undoubted
Elect of the People--so important to an American President, especially
in a conflict with Congress. He would have had the added prestige of the
ruler under whose administration the Rebellion had been crushed and the
Union successfully restored. But he would also have had an instinctive
understanding of the temper of the Northern masses and a thorough
knowledge of the gradations of opinion and temper among the Northern
politicians.

Johnson had none of these qualifications, while his faults of temper
were a serious hindrance to the success of his policy. He was perhaps
the purest lover of his country among all the survivors of Lincoln: the
fact that told so heavily against his success, that he had no party,
that he broke with one political connection in opposing Secession and
with another in opposing Congressional Reconstruction, is itself a sign
of the integrity and consistency of his patriotism. Also he was on the
right side. History, seeing how cruelly he was maligned and how
abominably he was treated, owes him these acknowledgments. But he was
not a prudent or a tactful man. Too much importance need not be attached
to the charge of intemperate drinking, which is probably true but not
particularly serious. If Johnson had got drunk every night of his life
he would only have done what some of the greatest and most successful
statesmen in history had done before him. But there was an intemperance
of character about the man which was more disastrous in its consequences
than a few superfluous whiskies could have been. He was easily drawn
into acrimonious personal disputes, and when under their influence would
push a quarrel to all lengths with men with whom it was most important
in the public interest that he should work harmoniously.

For the extremists, of whom Sumner was a type, were still a minority
even among the Republican politicians; nor was Northern opinion, even
after the murder of Lincoln, yet prepared to support their policy. There
did, however, exist in the minds of quite fair-minded Northerners, in
and out of Congress, certain not entirely unrea