brilliant success, to save his army. He solicited an addition to his force, equal to McDowell's command, that he might make sure of Richmond, which would have ended the Confederacy. This was refused. If he had actually taken that city, and ended the war, his chances would have been fair for the presidency. His command was recalled from the Peninsula, placed under the braggart Pope, to add to the misfortune of his defeat at the second battle of Bull Run. When the Confederates made for Maryland, and Mr. Lincoln, his Cabinet, Congress, and others, were in a fright, necessity forced the recall of McClellan. He organized the demoralized army, fought and won the battle at Antietam, moved into Virginia to cut off the retreat of the rebel army, with fair prospect of success. But his star was rising too fast, and, without any decent pretence, his command was taken from him, and he sent to wither in New Jersey, and not permitted again to serve. He must not end the war, for fear he would be made President, to which all Lincoln officeholders and Congress said, amen! The years 1862 and 1863 had been worse than wasted, for we had lost many men and much money, and gained nothing. In March, 1864, Grant took command of the Army of the Potomac, but, as if it was intended to keep him from the achievement of closing the war, he was sent by land to fight from Washington to Richmond, where he lost nearly a hundred thousand men, and much credit, by not taking proper care of his wounded on the way. Grant, in June, stepped upon McClellan's old ground, but against the wishes of the Administration. If Richmond had fallen before the elections in 1864, the Administration would have fallen, and therefore it was not allowed to be taken. Sherman's mastermovement of the war was too late to create apprehension. When Mr. Lincoln was reëlected, and the public offices all secured to the Republican party, the steps necessary to terminate the war were permitted, and proved successful. With suitable men in the War Department, and at the head of the army, the war might quite as easily have ended in 1862. Every thing, from the recall of McClellan in August, 1862, from near Richmond, to Grant's arrival there in June, 1864, might have been avoided, and was a useless waste of time, men, and means. Notwithstanding Mr. Lincoln's

occasional expression, of allowing McClellan to have his own way, instead of permitting it, as he might, he went with the politicians in the work of sacrificing him to prevent his ending the war, and being made President. Lincoln knew his great ability, for he declared to a visitor, that if any six generals of the army could be put into one man, he would not be equal to McClellan. But for the war, and the means it controlled, Mr. Lincoln never could have been reëlected. All knew it.

There was another class of men, claiming to be Republicans, who cared less for the success of their party than for the profits of contracts for supplying the army and navy with things necessary for the prosecution of the war. These were numerous and active, and left no means untried to prevent peace. Many of them rolled up enormous fortunes, and were important and useful men in defraying the expenses of the Republican party at the elections. Their advice and exertions were always in favor of whatever would postpone peace, and continue their profits. Between them all, the war was prolonged for years after it ought and might have been closed, and history will establish the truth of the reasons which we can only suggest, that the necessities of the Republican party more than doubled the duration and expenses of the war.

113.-CONGRESSIONAL FISHING-COMMITTEES.

Committees in search of the faults of others were uncommon in the better days of the Republic. Since the Republicans have had control at the capital, it has become a very important branch of business. If a riot occurs in New Orleans or Memphis, if generals are supposed to have erred or blundered, a collector at New York cheated or been cheated, an old State suspected-Maryland, for example of adopting an anti-republican constitution before the Federal Constitution was adopted, or in Washington or Jefferson's time or since, or a murder has been committed and accomplices are unknown, or a printer gets too good a contract or none at all, or it is hoped that the Executive has done or said something wrong, a committee is at once appointed, clerks and stenographers employed, and they all proceed to the place of the suspected wrong, subpoenas are issued and witnesses compelled to

attend, a ream or two of paper is used, the whole matter printed, and, if possible, something against a political adversary extracted or at least made to look suspicious-and for what? For no lawful, constitutional, or useful purpose. The committees have had a pleasant trip to a new place, seen a great many people, have been kindly treated, and talked politics-and the Government has to pay a bill of several thousand dollars. No legislation, but much electioneering, grows out of these expeditions. Sometimes they sit in Washington, and at others go to the Rocky Mountains, and at others look about the country generally. These things are not within the powers or duties of Congress, and, although it will not be denied that very ignorant men get into Congress and need posting up and instruction, they are never made wiser by the doings of these committees. A bad feature in their labors is, that they proceed ex parte, and assail, and sometimes injure, men by the falsehoods they gather and publish. They seem to usurp the functions of magistrates, grand-juries, and courts, without observing the rules of law and regulations applicable to them. These fishing-trips seem to serve the purposes of congressional holidays, the Government paying the expenses of the frolic. Their cost is the least of their evils. All such performances are anti-democratic in principle and in practice, and the people should demand their discontinuance, or the country will never get out of debt. They form a part of an espionage system which a free people should never tolerate. Neither the executive nor judicial branch of the Government dare venture upon any policy of the kind, and still each has as much power under the Constitution to apply it to Congress as Congress has to apply it to either or to anybody else. If subjected to such scrutiny, the acts of members of Congress would prove as objectionable as those they charge upon the President or others. If all the caucus-room talking and acting, the private consultation in the rooms of members and in other places, could be brought out and published, the record would show things as monstrous as any imputed to the worst of men. Why have not the Executive, the judiciary, and the people the same right to invade the privacy of members of Congress as they have to intrude upon either? True, all such things are forbidden

by the amendments of the Constitution, and were. not authorized before they were made, but there is no reason why Congress should be exempt from the rules it applies to others. The courts, at least, have grand-juries constituted under the Constitution and laws to inquire into all offences committed in their counties, but Congress has no such agency, and therefore is not as well adapted as the judiciary to ferret out the crimes that have been committed. The Executive has as much legal right to send officials acting under him to scrutinize and inquire into the acts and motives, and the causes of votes by members of Congress, as they have into his. When Congress says, its object is to learn whether the Executive has committed an impeachable offence, it misrepresents its motive. Until complaint is made, and a known crime committed and imputed to him, and Congress called upon to cause him to be impeached, that body has no right to search for crime. It will be early enough to examine into the matter when a definite charge is made by responsible parties and the proof indicated, as has been the case in every impeachment proceeding since the Government was formed. It is undeniably true that more crimes have been committed by and before these fishing-committees than they have ever brought home to others, and their motives are as objectionable as those they impute to others. They are got up, intended, and worked as political inquisitions, little better than the rack, tortures of religionists in days gone by, and more unauthorized. What right has the legis lative branch to engage in business outside of law-making? It cannot control the world, nor, as the evidence shows, perform that duty for itself. Crimes against the national laws it should leave to the Federal judiciary, and those against State enactments to the judiciary of the States, and leave the business of President-making and the general management of political affairs to the people at home, acting in their capacity of voting sovereigns.

These fishing-committees are not only unauthorized by the Constitution, but they are not sanctioned by any law of Congress If the Constitution had clothed them with power in general terms to make such investigations, it would require legislation to regu

late the time and manner of action, unless the authority had been directly devolved upon one House alone, as in cases of impeachment when properly presented. But there is not now even the form of a legislative act conferring authority upon one House to make these investigations. In the absence of any such law, from what source does one House derive its power to traverse the country and compel the attendance of witnesses at the expense of the Government? None such has been pointed out. It is simply the will of one House that directs the action taken. Will, not based upon law, is tyranny. If these fishing-committees must exist, let the law-making branch of the Government provide by law for their appointment and define their powers and duties, and bear the responsibility of making such a law.

Let provision be made defining the consequences of disobeying the law, so that the people can understand their rights, and govern themselves accordingly. Now the punishment for disobedience is provided after the offence is committed, contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, prohibiting the passage of ex post facto laws. But the act of one House imposing punishment, where there was no previous statute defining the offence, has not even the merit of an ex post facto law, because that takes the vote of both Houses and the approval of the President. In cases of disorderly conduct and disturbing the proceedings of one House of Congress, the offenders ought to be punished. But when and how the party is to be tried, and what punishment is to be imposed, should be provided for by law; and if this is not done, the proceedings are unauthorized and stand upon the same ground as the doings of these roaming committees. We are for a government of laws, and not of the will of any one man or body of men. This is part of the creed of the Democracy.

114.-MR. LINCOLN'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION.

The evidence is abundant that Mr. Lincoln was in favor of an early and simple mode of the reconstruction of the secession States, but not of restoration. The radical portion of the Republican party were deadly opposed to such liberal views. On the 8th of December, 1863, he presented, in a proclamation, "the best the