President would not yield and the affairs of the administration came to a crisis. The chief opponent to Johnson and a mild policy was Thad. Stevens, of Pennsylvania. Congress abandoned him and with him the milder principles of reconciliation which Lincoln had professed, and became relentlessly hostile towards the South.

The Committee of Fifteen meanwhile brought forward their report, and that report became the basis of the reconstruction of the Union. The terms were, first of all, that the people of any rebellious State should ratify by the legislature thereof the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which declared the citizenship of all persons born or naturalized in the United States. After that elections might be held and representatives to Congress chosen, with the full restoration of State autonomy. Meanwhile an act was passed forbidding the restriction of suffrage on the score of race or color in all the Territories of the United States. To all these measures the President opposed his veto; but in every case his objection was overcome by the two-thirds majority in Congress.

The question at issue now began to clear. It was simply, this, whether a civil or a military plan of reconstruction should be adopted for the Southern States. The latter view gained the day, and it was determined in Congress that the military and suppressive method should be employed in the South, securing a prospective alliance politically between the Black Republicans of the old Slave States and the White Republicans of the North. The presidential policy favored the resurrection of the old white leadership of the South-a measure which would probably have been fatal to the ascendency of the Republican party in the government.

On the 2d of March, 1867, an act was passed by Congress for the organization of the ten seceded States into five military districts, each district to be under control of a governor

appointed by the President. The latter appointed the governors, but appealed to his Attorney-General and secured from that official an answer that most of the reconstruction acts of Congress were null and void. The President hereupon issued such orders to the military governors as virtually made their offices of no effect. The counsels in the government became more and more distracted; but in course of time the States of Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina were reconstructed, and in June and July of 1868 were readmitted into the Union. In each case, however, the readmission was effected over the veto of the President.

Matters in the administration now became critical. A difficulty arose in the cabinet, which led to impeachment proceedings against the President. On the 21st of February, 1868, he notified Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, of his dismissal from office. The act was regarded by Congress as not only unprecedented, but in violation of law, and was made the basis of the measures that were adopted against the Executive. On the 3d of March articles of impeachment were agreed to by the House of Representatives, and the cause against the President was remanded to the Senate for trial. The proceedings began on the 23d of March and extended to the 26th of May, when the question was submitted to a vote of the Senators acting as judges, and Johnson was acquitted. His escape from an adverse verdict, however, was perilously narrow. A two-thirds majority was required to convict, and but a single vote was wanting to that result. The trial was the most remarkable, and perhaps the most dangerous, which had ever distracted, not to say disgraced, the history of the country.

After this event Johnson went on sullenly to the close of his administration, but the time of another presidential election was at hand, and General Ulysses S. Grant was

as their standard-beare. On Seymour, of New York, was dividing the people arose out War. Should the measures of heid and carried into efect? Grant was elected by a large

of twenty-six States, amounturteen ballots, were cast in his received only the eighty votes maar vote Grant received 3,013,Samour. The choice for the Colfax, of Indiana.

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of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, of New York; for Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio; for Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie, of Pennsylvania; for Secretary of War, John M. Schofield, of Illinois; for Postmaster-General, John A. J. Cresswell, of Maryland; for Attorney-General, E. R. Hoar, of Massachusetts. The nominations were at once confirmed, but it was soon discovered that Mr. Stewart, being an importer of foreign goods, was ineligible to a position in the cabinet. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was accordingly appointed to the vacant position. Mr. Washburne also gave up his place to become Minister of the United States to France; the vacancy was filled by the appointment of Hamilton Fish, of New York.

Now came the completion of the Pacific railway. The first division of that great trans-continental line extended from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, a distance of a thousand and thirty-two miles. This span was known as the Union Pacific Railway. The western division, called the Central Pacific, stretched from Ogden to San Francisco, a distance of eight hundred and eighty-two miles. On the 10th of May, 1869, the great work was completed with appropriate ceremonies.

The Civil War entailed the necessity for certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The first of these, known as the Fourteenth Amendment, extended the rights of citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and declared the validity of the public debt. Just before the expiration of Johnson's term in the Presidency, the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted, providing that the right of citizens of the United States to vote should not be denied or abridged on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. This article received the sanction of three-fourths of the legislatures, and on the 30th

named by the Republicans as their standard-bearer. On the Democratic side Horatio Seymour, of New York, was nominated. The questions dividing the people arose out of the issues of the Civil War. Should the measures of the recent Congress be upheld and carried into effect? On that question General Grant was elected by a large majority. The electoral votes of twenty-six States, amounting to two hundred and fourteen ballots, were cast in his favor, while his competitor received only the eighty votes of eleven States. Of the popular vote Grant received 3,013,188, against 2,703,600 for Seymour. The choice for the Vice-Presidency fell on Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana.

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The new President was a native of Point Pleasant, Ohio, where he was born on the 27th of April, 1822. His boyhood was uneventful, but not without promise. At seventeen he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was graduated in 1843. He served with distinction in the Mexican War, in which he was promoted to a captaincy for gallantry in the field. flict he became a merchant in St. Louis, but afterwards resided at Galena, Illinois. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was living in obscurity, following the vocation of tanner and leather merchant. Nor could any have foreseen the probability of his emergence to fame. His military career has been recited in the preceding pages. At the close of the war his reputation was very great, and during the difficulties between President Johnson and Congress the fame of Grant rose still higher in the estimation of his countrymen. At the Republican Convention in Chicago, on the 21st of May, 1868, he had no competitor; he was unanimously nominated on the first ballot.

Entering on his duties as President, the new Executive sent to the Senate the following nominations: For Secretary of State, Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois; for Secretary