hings had turned differently,
drifted into chaos and revolution? If Johnson had been impeached
and refused to submit, adopting the same tactics as did Stanton in
retaining the War Department; had Ben Wade taken the oath of office
and demanded possession, Heaven only knows what might have been
the result.

But reminiscing in this way, as I cannot avoid doing when I think
back over those terrible times, I lose the continuity of my subject.

An extension to the Freedman's Bureau bill was passed, was promptly
vetoed by the Executive, the veto was as promptly overruled by the
House, where there was no substantial opposition, but the Senate
failed to pass the bill, the veto of the President to the contrary
notwithstanding.

I had not the remotest idea that Johnson would dare to veto the
Freedman's Bureau bill, and I made a speech on the subject, declaring
a firm conviction to that effect. A veto at that time was almost
unheard of. Except during the administration of Tyler, no important
bill had ever been vetoed by an Executive. It came as a shock to
Congress and the country. Excitement reigned supreme. The question
was: "Should the bill pass the veto of the President regardless
thereof?"

Not the slightest difficulty existed in the House; Thaddeus Stevens
had too complete control of that body to allow any question concerning
it there. The bill, therefore, was promptly passed over the veto
of the President.

But the situation in the Senate was different. At this time the
Sumner-Wade radical element did not have the necessary two-thirds
majority, and the bill failed to pass over the veto of the President.
The war between the executive and legislative departments of the
Government had fairly commenced, and the first victory had been
won by the President.

The Civil Rights bill, drawn and introduced by Judge Trumbull, than
whom there was no greater lawyer in the United States Senate, in
January, 1866, on the reassembling of Congress, was passed. Then
began the real struggle on the part of the radicals in the Senate,
headed by Sumner and Wade, to muster the necessary two-thirds
majority to pass a bill over the veto of the President.

Let me digress here to say a word in reference to Charles Sumner.
For ten years he was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee
of the United States Senate, and no man, by education, experience,
knowledge of world politics, and travel, was ever more fitted to
occupy that high p