d wrath of the opponents of this Government? Are they
still unslaked? Do they still want more blood? I am not afraid of the
assassin attacking me where a brave and courageous man would attack
another. I only dread him when he would go in disguise, his footsteps
noiseless. If it is blood they want let them have courage enough to
strike like men."

The speech produced a very unfavorable impression upon the country.
Its low tone, its vulgar abuse, recalled Mr. Johnson's unhappy words at
the time of his inauguration as Vice-President, and produced throughout
the country a feeling of humiliation. His effort to make it appear
that his political opponents meditated assassination was regarded as
a thoroughly unscrupulous declaration, as an unworthy attempt to place
himself beside Lincoln in the martyrdom of duty--to suggest that as
Lincoln had fallen, sacrificed to the spirit of hostility in the South,
so he, in pursuing his line of duty, was in danger of being sacrificed
to hostility in the North. The delivery of this speech was the formal
forfeiture of the respect and confidence of the great majority of the
people who had elected him to his place, and he failed to secure
compensation by gaining the respect or confidence of those who had
opposed him. A few Democrats who wished to worry and divide the
Republican party, the place-hunters who craved the favor of the
Executive, a few deserters from the Republican ranks unable to pursue
the path of exacting duty, represented by their combination a specious
support for the President. Natives of the border States, who had been
unwilling to join in treasonable demonstrations against the Government
but who had not been inspired with sufficient loyalty to join actively
in its defense, now naturally rallied around Mr. Johnson. The
residents of Washington, consisting at that time of Southern men and
Southern sympathizers, now applauded the President because they saw an
opportunity to distract and defeat the Republican party. But the
entire mass of those who were now eager to sustain the President
exhibited but a pitiable contrast with the magnificent party which he
had voluntarily abandoned.

The increasing fierceness of the struggle between the President and
Congress gave rise to every form of evil suspicion and evil imputation.
The close vote on the Civil Rights Bill admonished the Republicans
of their danger. If Mr. Dixon had not been confined to his house by
illness, if