on
evoked the most enthusiastic cheers, and became the boast of the
Johnsonians until the wits likened the wigwam to Noah's Ark, into
which there went, "two and two, of clean beasts, and of beasts that
are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the
earth."

John A. Dix became temporary chairman, and the resolutions, reciting
the issue between the President and the Republicans, laid great
emphasis upon the right of every State, without condition, to
representation in Congress as soon as the war had ended. But Raymond,
presumably to please Southern delegates,[1058] pressed the argument far
beyond the scope of the resolutions, maintaining that even if the
condition of the Southern States rendered their admission unsafe
because still disloyal in sentiment and purpose, Congress had no power
to deny them rights conferred by the Constitution. This reckless claim
amazed his friends as much as it aroused his enemies, and he at once
became the object of most cutting reproaches. "Had he been elected as
a Copperhead," said the _Tribune_, "no one could have complained that
he acted as a Copperhead, and had Judas been one of the Pharisees
instead of one of the Disciples, he would not be the worst example
that Presidents and Congressmen can follow."[1059] Ten days later the
Republican National committee removed him from the chairmanship, a
punishment promptly followed by his removal from the committee.[1060]
Raymond, in his talk with Seward, had anticipated trouble of this
character, but the humiliation was now doubly deep because it
separated him from friends whose staunch support had contributed to
his strength. Moreover, in a few weeks he was compelled to abandon the
President for reasons that had long existed. "We have tried hard," he
wrote, "to hold our original faith in his personal honesty, and to
attribute his disastrous action to errors of judgment and infirmities
of temper. The struggle has often been difficult, and we can maintain
it no longer."[1061] But the change came too late. He had followed too
far. It added to the sadness, also, because his popularity was never
to return to any considerable extent during the remaining three years
of his brilliant life.

[Footnote 1058: New York _Tribune_, August 22, 1866.]

[Footnote 1059: _Ibid._, September 28.]

[Footnote 1060: _Ibid._, September 4 and 6.]

[Footnote 1061: Augustus Maverick, _Life of Raymond_, p. 174.]

Raymond's congressional experie