digham had been kicked out of the national convention it would
have been a good thing for the party."[1043]

[Footnote 1042: From letter of Chauncey M. Depew.--Albany _Evening
Journal_, October 23, 1864.]

[Footnote 1043: New York _Tribune_, November 3, 1865.]

This opinion scarcely expressed the sentiment of a majority of
Democrats, but those who had preferred John A. Dix as the man of
destiny held Seymour and his school of statesmen responsible for the
party's deplorable condition. It had emerged from the war defeated in
every distinctive principle it had promulgated, and in the absence of
an available issue it now sought to atone for the past and to gain the
confidence of the people by nominating candidates who were either
active in the field or recognised as sincerely devoted to a vigorous
prosecution of the war. To aid in this new departure Van Buren threw
his old-time fire into the campaign, speaking daily and to the delight
of his audiences; but he soon discovered that things were looking
serious, and when the Union Republican ticket was elected by
majorities ranging from 28,000 to 31,000, with two-thirds of the
Assembly and all the senators save one, he recognised that the glory
of Lee's surrender and the collapse of the Confederacy did not
strengthen the Democratic party, although one of its candidates had
led an army corps, and another, with eloquence and irresistible
argument, had stirred the hearts of patriotic Americans in the darkest
hours of the rebellion.[1044]

[Footnote 1044: For more than a year Van Buren's health had been
impaired, and in the spring of 1866 he went to Europe. But a change of
climate brought no relief, and he died, on the return voyage, at the
age of fifty-six. That the people deeply mourned his loss is the
evidence of those, still living, to whom there was something dashing
and captivating even in his errors.]

CHAPTER XI

RAYMOND CHAMPIONS THE PRESIDENT

1866

When Congress convened in December, 1865, President Johnson, in a calm
and carefully prepared message, advocated the admission of Southern
congressmen whenever their States ratified the Thirteenth Amendment.
He also recommended that negro suffrage be left to the States. On the
other hand, extreme Radicals, relying upon the report of Carl Schurz,
whom the President had sent South on a tour of observation, demanded
suffrage and civil rights for the negro, and that congressional
representation be based upon act