he Senate,--John Sherman of Ohio, Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, and
William P. Fessenden of Maine. In the qualities for solid work, few men
of his time surpassed Sherman. He was wise in framing legislation, and a
good administrator,--an upright, moderate, serviceable man. Trumbull, of
Connecticut birth, was well trained in the law and eminent as a
constitutional lawyer. He made his serious entrance into public life
along with Lincoln, and was his near friend and adviser. He was an able
though not a brilliant debater; a man of independent convictions and
thorough courage. Fessenden, like Trumbull, was entitled to rank as a
real statesman. Like Trumbull he had no popular arts, and where Trumbull
was reticent and withdrawn in manner, Fessenden was austere and
sometimes irascible. In private character both were above reproach.
Fessenden had a finely-trained and richly-equipped mind. In an
emergency, after Chase's retirement, he accepted the secretaryship of an
almost bankrupt treasury, and handled it well. His devotion to duty was
unreserved; he was an admirable debater; and he had the high power of
framing legislation. His was the most important work of the
reconstruction committee, and Trumbull, as chairman of the judiciary
committee, had a chief hand in the other leading measures. The Democrats
were few and not strong in leadership; their ablest man was Reverdy
Johnson of Maryland,---highly educated and large-minded. With these were
other senators of repute; and in the House there were abundant men of
mark,--Colfax, Blaine, Banks, Boutwell, Dawes, Conkling, Henry J.
Raymond, Randall, Hayes, Garfield, Bingham, Shellabarger, Voorhees,
Elihu B. Washburn;--space is wanting to name others, or to individually
characterize these.

In estimating the work of reconstruction we must take account of the
character of the men who shaped it. Taking these leaders as a body, they
fall into groups,--Sumner for the uncompromising idealists; the radicals
by temperament, like Stevens, Wade, and Chandler; the men of higher
training, minds of the statesman's type, and a certain austerity of
temper, such as Fessenden, Trumbull, and Sherman. Among them all there
was a deficiency of that blending of large view, close insight, and
genial humanity, which marked Lincoln. Small discredit to them that they
were not his peers,--but the work in hand demanded just such a
combination.

It is to be remembered that all of these, like the mass of the Northern