it, not to break up the Government, but to go on perfecting it more and more as it runs down the stream of time. We find the Government composed of integral parts. An individual is an integer, and a State itself is an integer, and the various States form the Union, which is itself an integer; they all making up the Government of the United States. Now we come to the point of my argument, so far as concerns the perpetuity of the Government. We have seen that the Government is composed of parts, each essential to the whole, and the whole essential to each part. Now, if an individual (part of a State) declare war against the whole, in violation of the Constitution, he, as a citizen, has violated the law, and is responsible for the act as an individual. There may be more than one individual; it may go on until they become parts of States. Some time the Rebellion may go on increasing in number till the State machinery is overturned, and the country becomes like a man that is paralyzed on one side. But we find in the Constitution a great panacea provided. It provides that the United States (that is, the great integer) shall guarantee to each State (the integers composing the whole) in this Union a republican form of government.

"Yes, if rebellion has been rampant, and set aside the machinery of a State for a time, there stands the great law to remove the paralysis and revitalize it, and put it on its feet again. When we come to understand our system of Government, though it be complex, we see how beautifully one part moves in harmony with another; then we see our Government is to be a perpetuity, there being no provision for pulling it down, the Union being its vitalizing power, imparting life to the whole of the States that move around it like planets around the sun, receiving thence light and heat and motion. Upon this idea of destroying States my position has been heretofore well known, and I see no cause to change it now, and I am glad to hear its reiteration on the present occasion. Some are satisfied with the idea that States are to be lost in territorial and other divisions; are to lose their character as States. But their life-breath has only been suspended; and it is a high Constitutional obligation we have to secure each of these States in the possession and enjoyment of a republican form of govern

ment. A State may be in the Government with a peculiar institution, and by the operation of rebellion lose that feature; but it was a State when it went into rebellion, and when it comes out without the institution it is still a State. I hold it a solemn obligation in any one of these States, where the rebel armies have been beaten back or expelled, I care not how small the ship of State; I hold it, I say, a high duty to protect and to secure to them a republican form of government. This is no new opinion. It is expressed in conformity with my understanding of the genius and theory of our Government. Then, in adjusting and putting the Government upon its legs again, I think the progress of this work must pass into the hands of its friends. If a State is to be nursed until it, again gets strength, it must be nursed by its friends, not smothered by its enemies. Now permit me to remark that while I have opposed dissolution and disintegration on the one hand, on the other I am equally opposed to consolidation or the centralization of power in the hands of a few."

These opinions were received with general favor among the loyal people of the Nation, and the expressions of confidence in the new Executive were almost unbounded, and certainly exceptional. For days and weeks deputations, committees, individuals from the loyal States, from the cities, the country, the business communities, the Churches, gathered around the new President, pouring words of confidence into his ears, and proffering their cordial support. Sad events fed common sympathy; doubt and gloom developed sentiments of earnestness and selfsacrificing; and the President was made to feel that he was upheld by the hearts and hands of a patriotic people. Selected from among scores and hundreds of others of every grade of helpful earnestness and confidence, the following letter from the Governor

of Pennsylvania exhibits the common spirit of the

moment:

"EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, HARRISBURG, PA., April 25, 1865. "SIR,-I have just returned from reverently attending the remains of our martyred President on their passage through this Commonwealth, and I avail myself of the first moment to assure you that, as Pennsylvania has throughout steadily and effectively sustained the Government in its efforts to crush out the existing Rebellion, so she and her authorities may be relied on to stand heartily by your Administration, and that with an earnestness and vigor enhanced by the just horror which all her people entertain of the base and cowardly assassination to which your predecessor has fallen a victim.

"I know that it is unnecessary to give you this assurance; but looking to the vast responsibilities that have been suddenly cast upon you, it has seemed to me that an express word of hearty encouragement from your friends can not be otherwise than agreeable to you. I should have visited Washington to say this much to you in person; but I am unwilling just at this moment to incur the danger of interfering with the just discharge of your public duties by occupying your time.

“I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, "A. G. CURTIN.

"To the PRESIDENT."

The representatives of foreign nations were also eager to have opportunities for expressing their good wishes to the new Executive, and much of Mr. Johnson's time for several weeks was taken up in receiving and replying to foreign ministers, earnest patriots at home, and friends of the Union throughout the world.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST ACTS OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION-BEGINS THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION-AMNESTY

A

PROCLAMATION.

S a closing feature of the wonderful funeral ceremonies over the martyred President, Mr. Johnson issued the following proclamation :

"WHEREAS, By my direction, the Acting Secretary of State, in a notice to the public on the 17th of April, requested the various religious denominations to assemble on the 19th of April, on the occasion of the obsequies of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and to observe the same with appropriate ceremonies; and

"WHEREAS, Our country has become one great house of mourning, where the head of the family has been taken away; and believing that a special period should be assigned for again humbling ourselves before Almighty God, in order that the bereavement may be sanctified to the Nation; now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can only be assuaged by communion with the Father in Heaven, and in compliance with the wishes of Senators and Representatives in Congress communicated to me by a resolution adopted at the National Capital, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby appoint Thursday, the 25th of May next, to be observed, wherever in the United States the flag of the country may be respected, as a day of humiliation and mourning, and I recommend my fellow-citizens then to assemble in their respective places of worship, there to

unite in solemn service to Almighty God, in memory of the good man who has been removed, so that all shall be occupied at the same time in the contemplation of his virtues, and sorrow for his sudden and violent end.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. "Done at the City of Washington, the 25th day of April, in the year of our Lord, 1865, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.

"By the President:

ANDREW JOHNSON.

“W. HUNTER, Acting Secretary of State."

The day for this "further humbling" was afterward changed to the 1st of June; and, this matter finally disposed of, the President began to look more directly after the difficult affairs of the country, which were to test his strength more than any or all of the scenes through which he had passed.

One of the first things demanding his care was the reduction of the expenses of the Government on the assumption of the immediate close of the Rebellion, and a general order to that effect was issued from the War Department.

The following documents will sufficiently explain themselves:

Being desirous to relieve all loyal citizens and welldisposed persons residing in the insurrectionary States from unnecessary commercial restrictions, and to encourage them to return to peaceful pursuits, it is hereby ordered:

"First. That all restrictions upon internal, domestic, and coastwise commercial intercourse be discontinued in