SONGS OF THE WAR.

761

and the effect was little short of miraculous. It rang through the camp like wildfire, inspiring fresh courage and hope and enthusiasm. Day and night, from every tent in lusty harmony might be heard the chorus:

"The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!

Down with the traitor, up with the Stars;

While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of freedom."

And thus through these songs, simple in melody but powerful in their appeal to the patriotic soul, the voice of Illinois was heard in every camp throughout the army-in the swamps of Virginia, on the sand-hills of Arkansas, along the bayous of the delta of the Mississippi, upon the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia,—recalling to the minds of the boys in blue, the principles which they were risking their lives to maintain, reanimating their drooping spirits in the hour of defeat and inciting their loyal hearts to new acts of valor. They not only brought fresh cheer to the troops on tented fields, but stirred the patriotism and nerved the loyal heart at home. At every Union meeting, whether it was to recruit the army, to organize fresh bodies of troops, to raise funds for war purposes, or arouse enthusiasm at political meetings, that song and others, especially "Marching Through Georgia," and "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching," were sung by the entire audience, with electrical effect. Nor in these later days when the Angel of Peace spreads her wings over a reunited country has the echo of these Songs yet died away. As long as the Union shall endure, these cherished melodies will be sung around the "camp - fires" of veterans, in the family circle, and on national holidays; not in vindictive memory but rather in a spirit of loyal enthusiasm and of thanksgiving to the Power which has made us one people. Thus in brief has been given a glance only at the part borne by Illinois in the great war of the rebellion.

The author is indebted to Hon. Lucien B. Crooker, of Mendota, author of "The Story of the 55th Illinois," for his assistance and many valuable suggestions in the preparation of the tables of losses in this chapter

1

CHAPTER XL.

Gov. Oglesby's Administration - [Continued] — Changed Aspect of Politics-Reconstruction-Conventions and Elections of 1866-Twenty-fifth General AssemblyRe-election of United-States Senator Trumbull-Laws -New State-House-Political Conventions, Nominations, and Elections of 1868-State Debt, Receipts, and Expenditures.

WITH

WITH the close of the war and the incoming of a new national administration, with Vice-President Andrew Johnson at its head, new questions and political problems of grave import presented themselves. It very early became apparent that upon the questions growing out of the restoration of the states lately in rebellion to their forfeited place in the Union, and establishing the status of the newly-emancipated slaves, there was a radical divergence of opinions between the new executive and the great majority of the party whose suffrages had rendered possible his accidental elevation to the presidential chair.

The public utterances of President Johnson upon assuming the seat made vacant by the bullet of the assassin, were of such a character as to induce some leading, conservative republicans to fear that the catholic charity of the martyred Lincoln was to be replaced by a spirit of vindictive rancor. Johnson was loud voiced in his declaration that "traitors must be hanged and treason made odious," and offered a reward of $100,000 for the apprehension of Jefferson Davis and of $25,000 each for the arrest of other noted confederate leaders, and fears were expressed at the North that in the treatment of the late insurgents, justice might be supplanted by revenge. Not many months passed, however, before all dread of the possibility of such a catastrophe was effectually dissipated. On May 29, 1865, the president issued a proclamation of amnesty and pardon, and during the two months succeeding, the wheels of civil government were set in motion in the seceded states by the

PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S POLICY.

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appointment of provisional governors. These governments were controlled by men who for four years had devoted all their energies to the destruction of the Union, and openly avowed that their only regret was the failure of the cause which they had espoused. Their hatred of the national government was equalled in intensity only by their devotion to the memory of the defunct confederacy. The arbitrament of arms had not altered their convictions, and their every act was inspired by a determination to accomplish, by indirect means, at least a portion of those results which they had failed to achieve by the sword. With their consent, if not at their instigation, the "old flag" was openly and repeatedly insulted. Although the thirteenth amendment to the constitution was formally ratified, state legislation was so shaped as virtually to deprive the freedmen of all the benefits of liberty. Unrepentant leaders of the rebellion appeared as claimants of seats in the halls of congress and arrogantly demanded the repeal of the test oath.

Such were the fruits of the presidential policy with which congress found itself confronted when called upon to grapple with the perplexing problems of reconstruction. Vastly different from the views of Johnson were the sentiments of the majority of both houses of the national legislature. What was at first a difference of opinion soon widened into an irreparable breach, and the rupture between the executive and legislative branches of the government was well nigh completed by the presidential vetoes of the measures popularly known as the Freedmen's-Bureau bill and the Civil-Rights bill of which Lyman Trumbull was the author. The open and uncompromising warfare between the president and congress that followed formed one of the most exciting eras of American political history. The president favored the immediate readmission of the states with full representation in congress, while the latter body contended that the lately - revolted states should not be admitted to a participation in the government of the country without first providing such constitutional guarantees as would secure the civil rights of all citizens of the republic, insure a just equality of representation, protection against claims founded in the rebellion, and the exclusion from positions of public trust of certain leading confederates. The attitude of the administra