of

IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT

375 inclined to this view. Toward the end of the war he asked "whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks." This idea was taken up by Congress in the reconstruction acts. Then, lest the southern states might take the suffrage away again, a Fifteenth Amendment was submitted and was ratified in 1870, to the effect that no person should be deprived of suffrage on account race, color, or previous condition of servitude." 298. Impeachment of the President (1868). All the way through the reconstruction the President and Congress were at odds. Johnson was rough and ill-mannered and sometimes sneered at what he termed "a body called, or which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States." When he could not come to an understanding with the Republicans. he made friends with the Democrats. Congress on its side browbeat him, and passed a Tenure of Office Act to prevent him from removing officers (1867). In 1868 the Republicans were so furious that they tried to remove him from office by impeachment, on the charge that contrary to this law he was trying to remove the Secretary of War, Stanton. The real offense was that he would not join in the radical spirit of Congress. It would have been a dangerous thing for the welfare of the country to remove a President simply because Congress did not like him; and it was fortunate that the votes for conviction were one short of the necessary two thirds.

In the presidential convention of 1868, General Grant was nominated by the Republicans. The Democrats began to pull themselves together again, and put up Horatio Seymour of New York, a man of high character. Grant was easily elected, though the Democrats polled nearly 3,000,000 votes. Some of that party wanted to upset reconstruction and the constitutional amendments; but most of them took the ground that they must accept things as they found them, and start anew.

299. Reconstruction in Business and Transportation. In 1865, when the South was almost ruined, the North was more prosperous than ever before in its history. During the Civil

War, manufacturers were busy not only on their usual orders, but also in furnishing enormous quantities of supplies for the army and the navy. Foreign commerce was lively, notwithstanding the captures of vessels by Confederate cruisers (§ 288). The great source of wealth was, however, the steady growth of farm regions, villages, and cities throughout New England and the middle states and the rapid growth of population in the West. This made business of all kinds lively. Factories, mines, and banks also increased rapidly.

To carry all this new business railroads were spreading like magic. Short lines were built right and left. Long lines were linked together until one could ride in a sleeping car with only one change from New York to St. Louis or Chicago. Great factories for building locomotives sprang up. Iron works were busy rolling railroad iron and making materials for all kinds of manufactures.

The great railroad event of this period was the beginning of the Pacific Railroad. California stood by the Union during the war, but the Pacific coast was a long way off and needed some connection closer than overland mail coaches and pony expresses (§ 262). In 1862 Congress took up the familiar

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idea of a Pacific railroad and made great grants of public land to aid in the building of certain specified lines from Omaha, Lake Superior, and Kansas City to the Pacific coast. To a few roads the government also lent money. With this powerful aid the Union Pacific Railroad Company in 1869 completed a road from Omaha to Ogden, near Great Salt Lake, where it met the Central Pacific Railroad which ran on to San Francisco. This was the first transcontinental railroad line (map, page 386).

300. Financial Reconstruction (1868-1875). Though the people were rich, the United States government was poor, for at the end of the war it owed about 3000 million dollars. On this immense sum it had to pay interest; and it had promised to repay the debt eventually in "coin." To make good this promise some of the heavy war taxes were kept in force. No gold or silver was in circulation, and the greenbacks and national bank notes were the only currency. People who wanted gold had to buy it at a premium, so that sometimes a thousand dollars in greenbacks might not buy more than six hundred dollars in gold coin.

As people came to have more and more confidence that the United States would pay all its debts, the greenbacks went up in value and the gold came down. This seemed a great hardship to men who had borrowed money in greenbacks when they had a low value measured in gold, and were now called on to repay in greenbacks representing more gold; in effect, they had to pay more wheat or corn or manufactured goods than they had received. On the other hand, the holders of government bonds had lent money when greenbacks were low, and were getting their money back when greenbacks were high, so that some of them received nearly twice what they had paid. These people were popularly called "bloated

bondholders."

Meanwhile the government debt was being paid off and much money was made by business men. There was a boom in all kinds of business. Thousands of miles of railroad were built out into the West, where there was little or no population, because the owners of the road expected to make money

by bringing people out and settling the country. A Homestead Act of 1862 allowed settlers to take up 160 acres of land free of payment. The thing was overdone, so that in 1873 there was a serious commercial panic. Many banks, business houses, and railroads went bankrupt, and it was several years before business recovered.

301. Summary. This chapter describes how the United States was reconstructed after the Civil War by acts of Congress and three constitutional amendments.

When the Civil War ended it seemed easy to settle the difficulties by carrying out the principle that the states had not seceded. It was quickly seen, however, that the state governments, the white people, and the negroes in the South were all in a changed condition. President Andrew Johnson undertook to prepare the states to come back directly; but Congress stood in his way, and by its two-thirds majority made such laws as it liked, overriding the President's vetoes. The decision of Congress was that the states must stay out of the Union until they came back on such terms as Congress should impose. They must admit negroes to their elections and governments. This process of reconstructing the states lasted from 1865 to 1871.

After vainly trying to convict Jefferson Davis of treason, Congress gave up the idea of punishing the white people in the South except by shutting them out temporarily from public offices.

For the negroes, three constitutional amendments were adopted: (1) The Thirteenth Amendment declared them all

(2) The Fourteenth Amendment declared them citizens under the protection of the federal government. (3) The Fifteenth Amendment assured them of the right to vote.

The Republicans came within one vote of removing President Johnson. The North came out of the war rich and prosperous, and able to pay heavy taxes; but it was disturbed by the use of greenbacks, which passed at a discount, as measured in gold. Meantime settlement was spreading and new railroads were building, especially lines to the Pacific coast under government aid.