mpaign was full
of bitterness and abuse. In _Harper's Weekly_, of which the editorial
page was conducted by the high-spirited and gentle George William
Curtis, Nast assailed the liberals in savage cartoons; in one Sumner was
depicted as scattering flowers on the grave of Preston Brooks, and
another showed Greeley shaking hands with the shade of Wilkes Booth over
the grave of Lincoln. From the other side Grant was attacked with equal
ferocity.

Greeley went down in overwhelming defeat, and died of exhaustion and a
broken heart before the electoral votes were counted. But something had
been gained. There had been a breaking of old lines. And one of the
South's main grievances had been almost removed. Within a month after
the Cincinnati convention, its call for amnesty was vindicated by a bill
passed in Congress removing the disabilities of almost all the excluded
class. Out of some 160,000, only about 700 were left on the proscribed
list.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THREE TROUBLED STATES

In Grant's second term, the divergence between the Republicans on
Southern questions, though never taking permanent form, often found
marked and effective expression. In the Senate, the controlling group,
who were also the special friends and allies of Grant, were radicals,
and generally of a more materialistic class than the earlier leaders.
Fessenden had died in 1869; Sumner was alienated, and died in 1874;
Wilson had passed into the insignificance of the Vice-Presidency;
Trumbull was in opposition. At the front were Chandler, of Michigan;
Oliver P. Morton, War Governor of Illinois, powerful and partisan;
Roscoe Conkling, of New York, showy and arrogant. In the House the
foremost man was James G. Blaine, Speaker until with the Democratic
majority he became leader of the opposition; brilliant in speech,
fascinating and "magnetic" in personal intercourse, always prominent and
popular, but almost never closely identified with any great principle or
constructive measure. Very prominent on the floor was General Butler, a
foremost radical toward the South; always a storm-center; an advocate of
inflation, an ally of most bad causes, an effective mischief-maker;
followed, feared, and hated with equal ardor. The membership of the
House was notable for able men,--the Hoar brothers, Henry L. Pierce,
Eugene Hale, Dawes, Hawley, Poland, Garfield, Kasson, and others of
almost equal mark. The death of Thaddeus Stevens, in 1868, had left the
House w