r, Grimes,
Henderson, Ross, Van Winkle, and Trumbull--Republicans all--voted "Not
guilty"; and, by nineteen to thirty-five, President Johnson escaped
deposition--to get rid of Stanton finally, and finish his term; to
return to the Senate from Tennessee; to take his place in history as an
honest and patriotic man, beyond his proper sphere, whose limitations
worked a part in the partial failure of reconstruction. The country
escaped a dangerous dislocation of the relation of Congress and the
executive, and the triumph of an exaggerated radicalism. The seven
independent senators sacrificed their future careers, and deserve the
perpetual gratitude of their country.

And now it remained for the nation, through a Presidential election, to
pass upon the completed work. In the Democratic convention at New York,
in July, 1868, the reactionary and the progressive elements strove. A
new Democracy was growing, intent on administrative reform and moderate
Constitutionalism; Samuel J. Tilden of New York and his allies were
among the leaders; their candidate was Chief Justice Chase. Only the
incongruity with his judicial position marred the fitness of Chase's
candidacy. Lincoln, though he had his own troubles in dealing with him,
said, "Of all the great men I have known, Chase is equal to about one
and a half of the best of them." He had proved eminent on the bench as
in the Cabinet, and under his lead the Supreme Court gave a series of
conservative decisions on reconstruction questions which were a most
valuable contribution to the national stability and security--a vital,
though not to the popular eye a conspicuous service in the
reconstruction period. Against him, the candidacy of George H. Pendleton
of Ohio represented the element historically unfriendly to the war for
the Union, and intensely opposed to the reconstruction measures. He had
the support of the Southern delegates, present in full force, and
lending to the cheering the dominant note of the well-known "rebel
yell." The reactionists got their own way with the resolutions, which
declared the reconstruction acts to be "unconstitutional, revolutionary,
and void." On the new question which was looming up, of shirking the
national debt by payment in promises, the platform leaned strongly
toward repudiation. Pendleton's supporters, seeing their candidate could
not win, and determined that the other Ohio man, Chase, should not win,
thwarted their New York opponents by a clever