e passage of their
mineral land bill; and the same appeals were made in both cases.
They said this was a "local measure," and that they understood the
interests of the Pacific coast better than men from the old States,
while they begged and button-holed members with a pertinacity very
rarely witnessed in any legislative body. They turned the business
of log-rolling to such account that the amendment was defeated by
a strong majority, while it proved the entering wedge to other and
greater outrages upon the rights of settlers which the country has
since witnessed, and was followed by a decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States, fully affirming the principle laid down
in the opinion of the Attorney General. This ruling, which has
been aptly styled "the Dred Scott decision of the American Pioneer,"
has been repeatedly re-affirmed, while the claim of pre-emption,
once universally regarded as a substantial right, has faded away
into a glamour or myth.

CHAPTER XIV.
RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPEACHMENT.
Gov. Morton and his scheme of Gerrymandering--The XIV Amendment--
Hasty reconstruction and the Territorial plan--The Military Bill--
Impeachment--An amusing incident--Vote against impeachment--The
vote reversed--The popular feeling against the President--The trial
--Republican intolerance--Injustice to senators and to Chief Justice
Chase--Nomination of Gen. Grant--Re-nomination for Congress--Personal
--Squabble of place-hunters--XVI Amendment.

The fall elections of this year were complicated by the hostile
influence of the Executive, but the popular current was strongly
on the side of Congress. A few prominent Republican members followed
the President, but the great body of them stood firm. In my own
Congressional district my majority was over 6,200, notwithstanding
the formidable conservative opposition in my own party, and its
extraordinary efforts to divide the Republicans through the patronage
of the Administration. Nearly all of my old opponents in the
district and State were now Johnsonized, except Gov. Morton, whose
temporary desertion the year before was atoned for by a prudent
and timely repentance. He was not, however, thoroughly reconstructed;
for in the Philadelphia Loyal Convention which met in September of
this year to consider the critical state of the country, he used
his influence with the delegates from the South to prevent their
espousal of Negro Suffrage, and begged Theodore Tilton to prevai