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Instead of doing this, he sought to avert consequences he had not foreseen through the Provisional Governors of the President's selection, and almost before he was aware of it he was engulfed in the whirlpool that surged around the Administration. Holding himself responsible for the policy of mag- nanimity that Johnson had substituted at his request for one of rigor and punishment, he could not persuade himself to desert the admin- istration he had started on the road to misfortune and discomfiture. Like Marcy in the Cabinet of President Pierce, and Webster in the Cabinet of President Tyler, he sought to mitigate a policy the con- sequences of which it would be cruel to his memory to say he ap- proved, and so remained at his post until retreat became impossible. He had tried to become the masterful spirit of Lincoln's administra- tion but failed, and submitted gracefully, to succeed in his proper sphere. With Johnson he succeeded in imposing his ideas upon the President only to fail. prev next |