But Raymond, who often wavered and
sometimes exhibited an astonishing fickleness,[1054] saw only one side
to the question, and on April 9 when the House, by a vote of 122 to
41, overrode the veto, he was one of only seven Unionists to support
the President.[1055]

[Footnote 1052: _Congressional Globe_, Appendix, p. 124.]

[Footnote 1053: T.W. Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 1, p. 630.]

[Footnote 1054: Augustus Maverick, _Life of Henry J. Raymond_, p. 225.

Apropos of Raymond's fickleness Stevens remarked, when the former
appealed to his friends on the floor to furnish him a pair, that he
saw no reason for it, since he had observed that the gentleman from
New York found no difficulty in pairing with himself.--William M.
Stewart, _Reminiscences_, pp. 205-206.

At another time when an excited member declared that Stevens commands
us to "go it blind," Hale of New York, with an innocent expression,
asked the meaning of the phrase. Instantly Stevens retorted: "It means
following Raymond." The hit was doubly happy since Hale had followed
Raymond in his support of Johnson.--Boutwell, _Reminiscences_, Vol. 2,
p. 11.]

[Footnote 1055: Edward McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, p.
81.]

After the passage of the Civil Rights Bill the President's friends
proposed to invoke, through a National Union convention to be held at
Philadelphia on August 14, the support of conservative Republicans
and Democrats. Weed told Raymond of the project and Seward urged it
upon him. Raymond expressed a disinclination to go to the convention
because it seemed likely to fall into the hands of former Confederates
and their Northern associates, and to be used for purposes hostile to
the Union party, of which, he said, he was not only a member, but the
chairman of its national committee. Seward did not concur in this
view. He said it was not a party convention and need not affect the
party standing of those who attended it. He was a Union man, he
declared, and he did not admit the right of anybody to turn him out of
the Union party. Moreover, he wanted Raymond to attend the convention
to prevent its control by the enemies of the Union party.

Raymond, still undecided, called with Seward upon the President, who
favoured neither a new party nor the restoration to power of the
Democratic party, although the movement, he said, ought not to repel
Democrats willing to act with it. He wanted the matter settled within
the Union party, and