_Johnson "Swings Around the Circle"_
If the members of the National Union Convention thought that their
conciliatory utterances would pour oil on the angry waves of the
campaign, they reckoned without their host. When a committee appointed
for that purpose presented to President Johnson a copy of its
proceedings, there was rather a note of defiance to his opponents, than
of conciliation, in his response. "We have witnessed in one department
of the government every endeavor to prevent the restoration of peace,
harmony, and union," he said. "We have seen hanging upon the verge of
the government, as it were, a body called, or which assumes to be, the
Congress of the United States, while, in fact, it is a Congress of only
a part of the United States. We have seen a Congress in a minority
assume to exercise power which, allowed to be consummated, would result
in despotism or monarchy itself." Here was again the thinly veiled
threat that, because certain States were not represented in it, the
validity of the acts of Congress might be attacked. But worse was to
follow. It is a well-known fact that presidents, under the influence of
the Washington atmosphere, are apt to become victims of the delusion
that they are idolized by the American people. Even John Tyler is said
to have thought so. It may have been under a similar impression that
President Johnson, who had great confidence in the power of his
influence over the masses when he personally confronted them, accepted
an invitation requesting his presence at the unveiling of a Douglas
statue in Chicago, and he made this an occasion for a "presidential
progress" through some of the States. He started late in August. Several
members of his cabinet, Seward among others, accompanied him, and so did
General Grant and Admiral Farragut, by command, to give additional
luster to the appearance of the chief.
[Illustration: _Reproduced by permission of the New York Customs House_