he President had issued instructions concerning those points which
displeased Congress, another act was passed, which, by way of
explanation of the meaning of its predecessors, still further enlarged
the powers of the military commanders and made them virtually rulers
over everything and everybody in those States. In the mean time, to tie
the President's hands still farther, the Tenure of Office Act had been
passed, which was to curtail or hamper President Johnson's power to
dismiss office-holders from their places so as to reduce as much as
possible his facilities for punishing the opponents and for rewarding
the friends of his policy, and thus, as it would now be called, for
building up an office-holders' machine for his use.

_The Public Fear of Johnson_

President Johnson in every case promptly vetoed the bills objectionable
to him or fulminated his protests against what he considered
unwarrantable encroachments upon his constitutional prerogatives. Some
of his messages, reported to have been written either by Mr. Seward or
by Mr. Jeremiah Black, a man of brilliant abilities, were strong in
argument as well as eloquent in expression. But they were not listened
to--much less considered. Mr. Johnson had personally discredited himself
to such a degree that the connection of his personality with anything he
advocated fatally discredited his cause. The air, not only in
Washington, but throughout the country, was buzzing with rumors of
iniquities which Andrew Johnson was meditating and would surely attempt
if he were not disarmed. He was surely plotting a _coup d'etat_; he had
already slyly tried to get General Grant out of the way by sending him
on a trumped-up diplomatic errand to Mexico. When, therefore, the news
came from Washington that Andrew Johnson was to be impeached, to deprive
him of his office, it was not only welcomed by reckless partizanship,
but as everybody who has lived through those times will remember, it
struck a popular chord. There was a widespread feeling among
well-meaning and sober people that the country was really in some sort
of peril, and that it would be a good thing to get rid of that dangerous
man in the presidential chair.

But for this vague feeling of uneasiness approaching genuine alarm, I
doubt whether Congress would ever have ventured upon the tragi-comedy of
the impeachment.

It explains also the fact that so many lawyers in Congress, as well as
in the country, although they mu