o services were rapidly and most happily combined, and
demonstrated by their joint prowess the strength of the country for
defense, and, if need by, for offense. Without maintaining a large
military establishment, which besides its expense entails multiform
evils, it was shown that the Republic possesses in the strong arms and
patriotic hearts of its sons an unfailing source of military power.

CHAPTER III.

Mr. Johnson continued his public receptions, his interviews
and his speeches for nearly a month after his accession to the
Presidency--until indeed, in the judgment of his most anxious and most
cautious friends, he had talked too much. All were agreed that the
time had now come when he must do something. He evidently sought to
impress the country with the belief that his Administration was to be
marked by a policy of extraordinary vigor, that the standard of
loyalty was to be held high, that the leaders of the Rebellion were
to be dealt with in a spirit of stern justice. His position gave
satisfaction to those who thought the chief conspirators against the
Union could not be punished too severely; but it led to uneasiness
among the anti-slavery philanthropists, lest, in wreaking vengeance
upon white traitors, the President might leave the loyal negroes
unprotected in their newly acquired civil rights.

On the 10th of May the President issued a proclamation declaring
substantially that actual hostilities had ceased, and that "armed
resistance to the authority of the Government in the insurrectionary
States may be regarded as at an end." This great fact being officially
recognized, the President found himself face to face with the momentous
duty of bringing the eleven States of the Confederacy into active and
harmonious relations with the Government of the Union. He had reached
the point where he must take the first step in the serious task of
Reconstruction, and the country awaited it with profound interest. He
had in other official stations given distinct intimations of the
conditions which he considered essential to the restoration of a rebel
State to its place in the Union, but in the numerous speeches he had
delivered since his accession to the Presidency he had studiously
avoided a repetition of his former position, and had with equal care
refrained from a public committal to any specific line of action.

The manner in which the insurrectionary States should be dealt with at
the close of hostilities