This book undertakes to tell the story, largely in the
words of the participants in the events it describes, of the
controversy between President Andrew Johnson, President
Abraham Lincolns' successor, and most of the Republican
members of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, about
Reconstruction after the American Civil War.

It is a brief work for two reasons. The first is that it deals
with a single facet of the history of a short space of time--
about two years and 11 months. The second is that its
author is a newspaper editor who spends most of the time
at his regular work pruning copy so that it will tell a given
story in the fewest possible words, consequently he tends
to write tersely.

To permit the sources on which this work is based more
easily to be consulted they were chosen with an equal view
to reliability and availability. For example, James G. Blaine
Twenty Years of Congress is cited in preference to the
Congressional Globe whenever possible because Blaine is as
reliable as the Globe and can be found in many public
libraries or easily obtained on an interlibrary loan whereas

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