Chapter XII: Arbitrary Arrests

Lincoln's first suspension of the writ of _habeas
corpus_--Secretary Seward and John Hay give verbal instructions
thereunder--Senate debate on arbitrary arrests--Wide differences
of opinion as to legality thereof--Trumbull calls for
information--Debate between Trumbull, Dixon, and Wilson--Was
power to suspend the writ lodged in the executive or in the
legislative department?--Chief Justice Taney held that the writ
had not been lawfully suspended anywhere--Trumbull demands trial
by jury, without delay, of civilians arrested in loyal
states--Before Congress takes action the election of 1862
results in victory for Democrats--Republican leaders
intimidated--Stanton discharges all civilian prisoners--Congress
passes Trumbull's bill authorizing President to suspend writ,
but requiring trial in civil courts and discharge of persons not
indicted--Bill to indemnify the President for previous acts
passed by both houses--Banishment of Vallandigham and
suppression of the Chicago _Times_--Trumbull opposes the latter 190

CHAPTER XIII

INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS 1863 AND 1864

The movement in the Senate for the retirement of Secretary
Seward--Letters from Gustave Koerner, Alfred Iverson, and Walter
B. Scates--The appointment of M. W. Delahay as judge of the U.S.
District Court of Kansas--His subsequent impeachment and
resignation--Letters of General John M. Palmer, Colonel Fred
Hecker, and Jesse K. Dubois--Trumbull doubts the expediency of
Lincoln's second nomination--He thinks that there is a lack of
efficiency in the prosecution of the war--This opinion shared by
Henry Wilson and by Congressmen generally in the beginning of
1864--The people, however, were for Lincoln's renomination--The
Cleveland Convention, and nomination of General
Fremont--Simultaneous retirement of Fremont and
Postmaster-General Blair 210

CHAPTER XIV

THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION

Scope of Lincoln's Proclamation of Emancipation--Amendment of
the Constitution to abolish slavery--First proposals by Wilson,
of Iowa, and Henderson, of Missouri--Trumbull reports the
Thirteenth Amendment from the Senate Judiciary Committee--His
argument thereon--Speeches of Senators Henderson and Reverdy
Johnson--Amendment passes the Senate, but fails in the
House--Second attempt in the House successful by a trade with
Democrats--Amendment ratified--Objections raised by Southern
States explained away by Seward 222

CHAPTER XV

RECONSTRUCTION

Death of Lincoln--Conflict of opinions concerning the status of
the seceding states--Lincoln's proclamation of December,
1863--Reconstruction of Louisiana in pursuance thereof--Trumbull
reports a joint resolution admitting that state--Sumner prevents
the Senate from voting on it--Lincoln's last speech on
Reconstruction--His plan indorsed by William Lloyd
Garrison--Andrew Johnson as President adopts it--Recognizes
Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas as restored to the
Union--Issues an executive order appointing a governor of North
Carolina to call a constitutional convention--Negroes not
included in the list of voters--Similar orders issued for the
other seceding states--Wendell Phillips sounds a blast against
President Johnson--Northern newspapers at first favorable to
Johnson--Desperate industrial condition of the South 231

CHAPTER XVI

ANDREW JOHNSON'S FIRST MESSAGE

Excellent tone and temper of Johnson's first communication to
Congress--Written by George Bancroft--Eulogy of the New York
_Nation_--Johnson's early life and training--A first-rate
stump-speaker--Sumner attacks Johnson for "whitewashing" the
ex-slaveholders--Acts of Southern legislatures passed to keep
the negroes in order--Senator Wilson moves that all such acts
establishing inequality of civil rights be declared
invalid--Trumbull argues for postponement of such legislation
until the Thirteenth Amendment is ratified--Debate between
Trumbull and Saulsbury--Reports of General Grant and General
Carl Schurz on the condition and temper of the Southern
people--Letter from J. L. M. Curry on the same 244