Foreseeing the failure of the resolution at that juncture, Mr. J. M. Ashley, of Ohio, voted against the measure, although a stanch friend of it. His purpose was of course to be able to move, at some future and more propitious time, a reconsideration of the subject. He did not, however, feel that that time had arrived until after the election and the military victories of the autumn of 1864 had manifested the temper of the voters on the question of abolition and demonstrated the power of the Union to carry such a measure into execution. On the 31st of January, 1865, Mr. Ashley moved a reconsideration of the Senate resolution lost in the House on the 15th of the preceding June. Reconsideration was immediately voted, and the Senate resolution was then carried by the requisite two-thirds majority. The proposed amendment was then sent to the President, who signed it, February 1st, 1865. Whereupon the Senate immediately passed another resolution, declaring that it was through an inadvertency that the measure had been sent to the President for his signature, that asking the President of the United States to sign a proposed constitutional amendment was an error, was without precedent in the practice of the Government, and that the President's approval should not be communicated to the House. A concurrent resolution was then passed by the two Houses authorizing the President to submit the proposed article of amendment to the "States" for ratification. The Secretary of State immediately sent it to the legislatures of all the "States" which could be reached by him, and during the summer and autumn to the legislatures of all the "States;" {30} and the new legislature of Tennessee ratified it on the 5th of April, 1865, that is, more than a week before Lincoln's death. Such was the condition of things when the assassin's bullet ended the life of the great and good President and brought the Vice-President, Mr. Johnson, into the office. {31} CHAPTER III PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HIS PROCEEDINGS IN REALIZATION OF IT