In 1864 Lincoln had been reëlected President and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, elected Vice-President. The Democratic party had nominated General George B. McClellan, of New Jersey, and George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, on a platform which declared the conduct of the war a failure. Lincoln received 212 electoral votes, and McClellan 21, though the disparity between the popular votes was relatively much less, Lincoln receiving (counting the votes cast by soldiers in the field) 2,330,552 and McClellan 1,835,985. Only New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky were carried by the Democrats. West Virginia had been admitted to the Union, June 19, 1863. See West Virginia.
On April 14, 1865, while the North was rejoicing over the capture of Richmond and the surrender of General Lee, President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, by John Wilkes Booth (q.v.), while an accomplice attacked and severely injured Seward, the Secretary of State. Andrew Johnson thus became President.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, forever abcdishing slavery in the States and Territories of the Union, was declared ratified by two-thirds of the States, December 18, 1865.
The termination of the war imposed upon Congress and the Executive the duty of reconstructing the governments of the States that had seceded. This now became the most important question before the National Government, and for a decade dominated national politics. During Johnson's administration it involved a bitter struggle between the President and Congress, which culminated in the resolution of the House of Representatives, February 24, 1868, to impeach him “of high crimes and misdemeanors.” (See Johnson, Andrew; Reconstruction.) The immediate occasion of the passage of this resolution was the course of President Johnson in violating the “Tenure of Office Act” (q.v.), which made requisite the consent of the Senate to removals from office by the President, and of which Congress availed itself to prevent the removal of Stanton from the position of Secretary of War. The Senate acted as the court of impeachment, and on March 23, 1868, the Chief Justice presiding, proceeded to try Andrew Johnson on eleven articles of impeachment. The result was his acquittal, the prosecution lacking the necessary two-thirds majority. It was not until 1868 that the States of Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana were readmitted into the Union. On March 1, 1867, Nebraska had been admitted as a new State. About the same time Alaska was sold to the United States by Russia.
At the election of 1868 the Republican candidates were Ulysses S. Grant, of Illinois, and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana. The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour, of New York, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri. Grant and Colfax received 214 electoral votes, and Seymour and Blair 80, the Democrats having carried eight States. On February 26, 1869, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing the right of suffrage without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude, passed Congress and was ratified March 30, 1870.
XXI. and XXII. Administration of Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877). Cabinet.—Secretary of State, E. B. Washburne, Illinois, March 5, 1869; Hamilton Fish, New York, March 11, 1869. Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, Massachusetts, March 11, 1869; William A. Richardson, Massachusetts, March 17, 1873; Benjamin H. Bristow, Kentucky, June 2, 1874; Lot M. Morrill, Maine, June 21, 1876. Secretary of War, John A. Rawlins, Illinois, March 11, 1869; William T. Sherman, Ohio, September 9, 1869; William W. Belknap, Iowa, October 25, 1869; Alphonso Taft, Ohio, March 8, 1876; J. D. Cameron, Pennsylvania, May 22, 1876. Secretary of the Navy, Adolph E. Borie, Pennsylvania, March 5, 1869; George M. Robeson, New Jersey, June 25, 1869. Secretary of the Interior, Jacob D. Cox, Ohio, March 5, 1869; Columbus Delano, Ohio, November 1, 1870; Zachariah Chandler, Michigan, October 19, 1875. Attorney-General, E. R. Hoar, Massachusetts, March 5, 1869; Amos T. Akerman, Georgia, June 23, 1870; George H. Williams, Oregon, December 14, 1871; Edwards Pierrepont, New York, April 26, 1875; Alphonso Taft, Ohio, May 22, 1876. Postmaster-General, J. A. J. Creswell, Maryland, March 5, 1869; Marshall Jewell, Connecticut, August 24, 1874; James M. Tyner, Indiana, July 12, 1876.
One of the most important events of President Grant's administration was the meeting of the Joint High Commission, appointed to consider the Alabama case (see Alabama Claims), and which concluded the Treaty of Washington (q.v.), ratified by the Senate May 24, 1871.
Among other notable occurrences during this administration was the completion in May, 1869, of the Union and Central Pacific railroads, begun in 1865, providing a continuous line of railway from the Missouri to the Pacific, and completing the transcontinental system. Out of the connection of the Government with the construction of these roads—the Government having given valuable subsidies in land and money to the constructing companies—arose the Crédit Mobilier scandal, which involved the reputation of many prominent officials and members of Congress. (See Crédit Mobilier of America.) The enmity of the white population of the Southern States toward the freedmen, particularly in regard to the exercise by the latter of their newly acquired right of suffrage, attracted public attention, 1868-72, until Congress intervened by legislation in the form of the so-called Force Act of April, 1870. (See Ku Klux Klan; Reconstruction.) Disputes arose in several of the States over contested elections, and the President intervened in Louisiana in 1872-73, by sending Federal troops to that State, to bring about an adjustment of the difficulty, the troops supporting the Republican candidate for Governor and installing him in office, (See Louisiana.) In this and other instances, as well as in the suppression of the Ku Klux Klan, the President was considered by many to have acted with undue severity toward the South. A movement was made by the Government at the desire of President Grant in the direction of the acquisition of San Domingo, the people of that country desiring annexation to the United States, but the project was defeated in the Senate. In March, 1871, the first
