Mr. Stockton had not been a few days before deprived of his
seat, the Administration would have been able to rally seventeen votes
in the negative, leaving but thirty-three to the Republicans out of a
Senate of fifty members. The exigencies of the situation presented the
strongest possible temptation to take every fair advantage, and this
naturally led to the imputation of unfair advantage. A large number of
honest-minded opponents believed that a careful calculation had been
made by the Republican leaders, and that they had found the margin so
close as to be unsafe in a contest with the President. If the margin
had been broader and the two-thirds vote assured past all reasonable
danger, it was asserted, and no doubt believed, that the Constitution
would not have been strained to exchange Mr. Stockton for a Republican
senator, who was sure to succeed him. It was the first attempt in our
history to establish the policy of the Government without regard to
the President, and indeed against his power. In the case of President
Tyler the reverse had been practically attempted. In his controversy
with the Whigs his friends constituted more than a third in each House
--thus making his veto effective and leading him to attempt the
administration of the Government without regard to the opinions of
Congress. Mr. Tyler had failed; but thus far in the controversy with
Johnson, Congress had succeeded. It was said, however, with great
pertinacity by the friends of the President, that Congress was enabled
to do this only by the exclusion of eleven States of the Union from
representation; and from this fact came the Democratic denunciation of
the Republican party for administering the affairs of the Government in
a revolutionary spirit.

The narrow escape of the measure again created great uneasiness, not
only among the Republicans in Congress but throughout the country.
One or two more defections would imperil Republican control of the
Senate. The loyalty of every member to his party was therefore
scanned with closest observation. Rumors, gossip, inventions of all
kinds were set afloat in the public press,--hinting first at one man
and then at another among the Republican senators as likely to weaken,
as about going over to the Administration, as having just had a
confidential interview with Mr. Seward, as dining the evening before
with the President, or as being concerned in some matter of even less
consequence. When public