THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
but even in the North, especially the western part of it, there developed a strong movement in that direction.
In consequence of all this the belief grew stronger and stronger in the Northern country that the predominance of the Republican party was—and would be for a few years at least—necessary for the safety and the honor of the Republic, and steps taken to insure that predominance, even such as would, in less critical times, have evoked strong criticism, were now looked upon with seductive leniency of judgment. Mr. Stockton of New Jersey was unseated in the Senate upon grounds which would hardly pass muster in ordinary times, to make room for a Republican successor, and even Mr. Fessenden approved the transaction. Advantage was taken in the same body of the sickness or casual absence of some Democratic Senator to rush through a vote when a two-thirds majority was required to kill a veto, and other proceedings were resorted to at a pinch which were hardly compatible with the famous “courtesy of the Senate.” But there was more thorough and lasting work to be done to prepare for the full restoration of those States. The Republican majority was by no means of one mind as to the constitutional status of the communities that had been in insurrection against the National Government. I have already spoken of the theory of State-suicide advanced by Mr. Stevens and a comparatively small school of extremists. The theory most popular with most of the Republicans, which was finally formulated by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, was that the rebel States had not been out of the Union, but had lost their working status inside of the Union, and had to be restored to their regular constitutional relations to the Union by action of Congress, upon such conditions as Congress might deem proper. This theory was most clearly expounded in the House by Mr. Shellaberger of
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