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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II WORKING TOWARDS A PEACE BASIS (1865) FLAGRANT war ended, as it had begun, when Congress was not in session, and wKen the ex ecutive department ofjthe government, therefore must assume all the responsibility of dealing wiifo the new situation. The man who took up the exer- cise of the chief executive power on April 15, 1865, was not the man whom any important element of the people in either North or South would have deliberately chosen for the task. Andrew Johnson had been nominated for the vice-presidency at Baltimore, in 1864, under the influence of two ideas which pervaded the convention?namely, that the Repult, lican party had given up jts identity and become merged in t-hp Union party; and that tVm Union, party was not sectional, hut inclnp South- as well as North in its membership. Born in North Caro; linaa resident during all his mature life of, Tennessee, and an unfaltering supporter throughout his public career of the ante-bellum Democracy, Mr. Johnson, on the ticket with Lincoln, served excellently as a symbol of the party transformation which the war had effected; but few of the party which elected him vice-president would have judged it wise to intrust the difficult task of reconstruction to a man whose antecedents were southern, slave-holding, and ultra - state - rights Democratic;. while the northern Copperheads and the southern secessionists alike regarded him with all the scorn which is excited by an apostate. The new president was not, however, of a temperament to be affected by, even if conscious of, the consternation which his accession to power produced. The same integrity of purpose, force of will, and rude intellectual force, which had raised fiSnfrom the tailor's bench in a mountain hamlet to leadership in Tennessee, sustained him when ..… (more)
User reviews
On the back of the book, a blurb calls the book a "statement of the conservative position" - I am not sure why that would
The book was first published in 1907. The language is definitely dated. But it just adds to the pleasure of reading and hardly disturbs the smooth flow.
The book covers mostly the two terms of President Grant. The radicals under Grant were able to suppress the power of the white rebels in the South and promote the power of the newly freed blacks. At the election of Hayes, the radicals were able to keep power in the federal government but ceded their positions in the South.
Dunning does not present any positive view of the capabilities of the newly freed blacks. Perhaps this is a core plank in his conservative position. No doubt their status as slaves didn't do much for their educational prospects and training for political office.
The stories that Dunning tells of the fights over election results etc., e.g. competing governors inaugurated by competing state legislatures... I had very little idea that our history contained that level of chaos!
This book is a great fun read. It consistently gives narrative momentum to the facts. I am not much of a history buff so it might be a while before I read more about this topic. But I feel very well served by dipping my toe into this particular little pool of the great river.