explanation of the innovations on the Federal Constitution, —many of them admirable,—which the South made to remedy defects in the repudiated Constitution, revealed by three-quarters of a century of experience.

Following this comes the able, persuasive speech of Henry Ward Beecher at Liverpool, October 16, 1863. The outspoken hostility with which certain classes in Great Britain regarded the North is revealed in the constant interruptions to which the speaker was exposed; while the speech itself shows Mr. Beecher's efforts to strengthen the hands of the friends of the United States in hindering any outside interference in our domestic quarrel.

Lincoln's Second Inaugural (March 4, 1865), which is next given, is valuable not only for its literary excellence, but because it shows the temper in which, as the war approached its end, Lincoln looked forward to the yet larger and more trying problems of reconstruction. Its closing words, "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right," etc., have become an imperishable treasure of English speech, ranking with cherished quotations from the Bible and Shakespeare.

"In none of the rebel States," says Professor Dunning, in his recent volume entitled Reconstruction, Political and Economic (p. 10), "did the war leave either an economic organization that could carry on the ordinary operations of production, or a political organization that could hold society together." To the various aspects of the indispensable Reconstruction of the revolted States six selections are here devoted.

We first openly approach the political aspects of the question in President Johnson's initial message to Congress (December 4, 1865)-now known to be the product of George Bancroft's pen-in which are embodied something

of the moderation and wisdom of Lincoln's policy. This "presidential plan," however, met with speedy rejection at the hands of Congress; for its members were impassioned by the hatreds of the war, filled with impractical philanthropy for the negro, angered by Johnson's tactlessness and boorishness, jealous of their own authority, and ruled by leaders who thought as much of partisan control and the continued triumph of their economic and financial policies as of the restoration of real peace and union.

As illustrative of the policy of the radical reconstructionists, there is next given a speech delivered January 3, 1867, by Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, who at this time was the unquestioned leader of the Republican party in the House of Representatives.

Out of the dispute between Congress and the President came the impeachment of Johnson "of high crimes and misdemeanors," and his trial in 1868 before the Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment. This most interesting episode is illustrated by the speech delivered in defense of the President by ex-Justice of the Supreme Court Benjamin R. Curtis; this is not only an excellent summary of the whole case, but as a piece of logical analysis and forensic argument is scarcely to be matched in American oratory.

In the next selection, the masterly plea of Senator Carl Schurz for a general amnesty after the war (January 30, 1872), the reasons for a generous policy toward the conquered are set forth with a breadth of knowledge and clearness of grasp and statement which carried conviction to all minds except those closed by interest and passion.

The last two selections-Henry W. Grady's oration on "The New South" (1886), and Booker T. Washington's address at the Atlanta Exposition on "The Race Problem" (1895)-belong to a time subsequent to what is usually considered the close of the Reconstruction period. They are in

cluded here, however, for what seems sufficient reason. The first presents a picture of the economic reconstruction of the South, and breathes forth a spirit of reconciliation which marks the passing of the rancors of the war. And the second constitutes the most notable statement of the new solution of that race problem which was left by the warthe material and moral regeneration of the negro race through industrial education and the inculcation of ideas of thrift and right living.

For the further study of this period the best single work is Rhodes's History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, Vols. V-VII. Other excellent works are Dunning's Civil War and Reconstruction; Dunning's Reconstruction, Political and Economic; Wilson's Division and Reunion; Wilson's History of the American People, Vol. V; Johnston-Woodburn's American Political History, Vol. II; Burgess's Reconstruction and the Constitution; Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress; Cox's Three Decades of Federal Legislation; Morse's Abraham Lincoln; Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History; McCall's Thaddeus Stevens.

23. JEFFERSON DAVIS, OF MISSISSIPPI.-ON WITH

DRAWING FROM THE UNION

(Farewell address to the Senate, January 21, 1861.)

THE election of Lincoln in 1860 put an end to a period of thirty-two years in which the Slave Power controlled the Presidency, the Senate, the House of Representatives (except for two Congresses), and practically the Supreme Court. For some time, however, that control had been loosening: the House elected for 1859-61 was Republican by a small majority; and although the Senate was still strongly pro-slavery, the fact that since the admission of Minnesota (1858) and Oregon (1859) the free States numbered 18 as against 15 slaveholding States, threatened Southern domination in that branch also. In these circumstances the election to the Presidency of a "Black Republican" was taken as a sign of the final passing of power to the free States, and was answered by Secession.

The very day after the election, South Carolina took steps for a convention, which on December 20, 1860, unanimously voted to withdraw the State from the Union. During the month of January, 1861, six other States passed Secession ordinances, by votes ranging from 166 to 7 in Texas, to 165 to 130 in Alabama. The other four States

JEFFERSON DAVIS. Born in Kentucky, 1808, but removed while an infant to Mississippi; graduated from West Point Military Academy and entered the army, 1828; resigned from the army, 1835; in Congress, 1845-46; served as Brigadier-General in the Mexican War; in the Senate, 1847-50, 1857-61; Secretary of War under President Pierce, 1853-57; President of the Confederacy, 1861-65; arrested for treason and confined in Fortress Monroe for two years, but never tried; published "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," 1881; died, 1889.

which seceded did not act until after the attack on Fort Sumter, and President Lincoln's call for troops, in April, 1861.

As each State seceded, its Senators and Representatives formally withdrew from Congress, the Representatives usually without speeches of farewell, the Senators with valedictories in many cases of great power and effective

ness.

Of these speeches, the most important perhaps is that delivered January 21, 1861, by Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, the ablest Senator from the South, and one of the triumvirate (with Toombs and Hunter) who chiefly directed Southern policy. His speech was delivered after a sleepless night caused by physical and mental distress. The setting of the scene is described as follows by the wife of Senator Clement C. Clay of Alabama (whose valedictory was pronounced the same day) in her book of reminiscences entitled A Belle of the Fifties:

"The galleries of the Senate, which held, it is estimated, a thousand people, were packed, principally with women, who, trembling with excitement, awaited the announcements of the day, as one by one Senators David Yulee, Stephen K. Mallory, Clement C. Clay, Benjamin Fitzpatrick, and Jefferson Davis arose. As each Senator, speaking for his State, concluded his solemn renunciation of allegiance to the United States, women grew hysterical and waved their handkerchiefs, encouraging them with cries of sympathy and admiration. Men wept and embraced each other mournfully. Scarcely a member of that senatorial body but was pale with the terrible significance of the hour. There was everywhere a feeling of suspense, as if visibly the pillars of the temple were being withdrawn and the great governmental structure was tottering; nor was there a patriot on either side who did not deplore and whiten before the evil that brooded so low over the nation."