over a question of veracity, and gave to Congress its chance. In
February, 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him.

The trial of Andrew Johnson before the Senate dragged through April and
May. The articles of impeachment were long and detailed in their
description of the unquestioned bad manners of the President, but the
only specific violation of law cited was in the case of Stanton, and
here it could be urged both that the law was unconstitutional and that
it was so loosely drawn that it did not really cover this case. In
brief, it was the policy of Johnson that was on trial, and it was
finally impossible to persuade two-thirds of the Senators that this
constituted a high crime or a misdemeanor. The President was acquitted
in the middle of May, while the Republican party turned to the more
hopeful work of electing his successor.

In the fight over Johnson party lines had been strengthened and defined
so that no Unionist, not in sympathy with congressional reconstruction,
could hope for the nomination. No other issue equaled this in strength.
The greenback issue was condemned in a plank that denounced "all forms
of repudiation as a national crime," but ran second to the basis of
reconstruction. No other candidate than Ulysses S. Grant was considered
at the Chicago Convention.

Few men have emerged from deserved obscurity to deserved prominence as
rapidly as General Grant. In 1861 he was a retired army officer, and a
failure. In 1863, as the victor at Fort Donelson and at Vicksburg, he
loomed up in national proportions. In the hammering of 1864 and 1865 it
was his persistence and moral courage that won the day. In 1868, as
commander of the army, and fortunate in his quarrel with Johnson, he was
the coveted candidate of both parties, for he had no politics. Held by
his associations to the Republican leaders, he was nominated at Chicago
on the first ballot, with Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, as his
Vice-President.

The nomination of Grant occurred as the impeachment trial was drawing to
a close. Before Congress adjourned it readmitted several of the Southern
States that had been restored under the control of Republican
majorities. Tennessee was already back; the new States were North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and
Arkansas. Only three States remained under provisional control when
Grant was elected in November and seated in the following March. As he
took the oath o