leaders of the Secession. Yet the course actually pursued, more
in ignorance than in malice so far as the majority were concerned,
probably caused more suffering and bitterness among the vanquished than
a hundred executions.

For the Radicals were more and more gaining control of Congress, now
openly at war with the Executive. The President had been using his veto
freely, and, as many even of his own supporters thought, imprudently.
The Republicans were eager to obtain the two-thirds majority in both
Houses necessary to carry measures over his veto, and to get it even the
meticulous Sumner was ready to stoop to some pretty discreditable
manoeuvres. The President had taken the field against Congress and
made some rather violent stump speeches, which were generally thought
unworthy of the dignity of the Chief Magistracy. Meanwhile alleged
"Southern outrages" against Negroes were vigorously exploited by the
Radicals, whose propaganda was helped by a racial riot in New Orleans,
the responsibility for which it is not easy to determine, but the
victims of which were mostly persons of colour. The net result was that
the new Congress, elected in 1866, not only gave the necessary
two-thirds majority, but was more Radical in its complexion and more
strictly controlled by the Republican machine than the old had been.

The effect was soon apparent. A Reconstruction Bill was passed by the
House and sent up to the Senate. It provided for the military government
of the conquered States until they should be reorganized, but was silent
in regard to the conditions of their re-admission. The Republican caucus
met to consider amendments, and Sumner moved that in the new
Constitutions there should be no exclusion from voting on account of
colour. This was carried against the strong protest of John Sherman, the
brother of the general and a distinguished Republican Senator. But when
the Senate met, even he submitted to the decision of the caucus, and the
Amendment Bill was carried by the normal Republican majority. Johnson
vetoed it, and it was carried by both Houses over his veto. The Radicals
had now achieved their main object. Congress was committed to
indiscriminate Negro Suffrage, and the President against it; the
controversy was narrowed down to that issue. From that moment they had
the game in their hands.

The impeachment of Johnson may be regarded as an interlude. The main
mover in the matter was Stevens. The main instrument Ben Bu