And yet it is certainly true that the Republican party had left him rather than that he had left the party. This party began simply as a Union party and an anti-slavery extension party. Mr. Johnson, an original Democrat, joined with the Republicans upon this basis, and he never left it. On the other hand, when the necessities of the war for the Union made it evident that the slaves within the Southern communities which had declared secession, and were engaged in rebellion, must be proclaimed free, Mr. Johnson still went with the Republicans in the justification of this measure. And when, finally, the war was ended and the Union was preserved, and the Republicans decided that the legitimate outcome of the victory was the prohibition of slavery everywhere within the United States by an amendment to the Constitution, Mr. Johnson still marched with them, at the head of the column. It was only when they became more and more radical in their policy, and insisted upon transforming rather than restoring the "States" of the South, by placing civil rights under national protection instead of "State" protection, disfranchising the whites of the South, and enfranchising the negroes, and upon overcoming the Executive's objections to these movements not simply by overriding the veto, but by generally subordinating the Executive to Congress--it was only then that he {220} separated from them and fell back naturally on such support as he could get, which was chiefly from the Democratic party.