The President had on the 20th day of August, a week before setting out upon his tour, finally proclaimed the insurrection and Civil War at an end in every part of the country. He had, on the 2d day of April preceding, declared the insurrection at an end everywhere except in Texas, and the proclamation of August 20th gave official witness to its cessation in Texas. It is certainly a prerogative of the President to proclaim the cessation of opposition to his execution of the laws of the Union, and then to execute the same thereafter through civil, instead of military, officers. If the President had meant no more than this by his proclamations of the termination of the insurrection, the position would have been unassailable. But he evidently intended his proclamations as furnishing a basis for his Reconstruction work, or at any rate as furnishing a great reason for the general recognition of the validity of that work. This we can easily gather from the speeches he made as he "swung around the circle" in the campaign of 1866. He felt that he had solid ground under his feet, and did not appreciate the fact that he was resting one of his doctrines upon another, the latter being no more self-evident than the former. He felt quite sure of victory, until what were called the "October States," at that time, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, held their elections. The two "September States," Vermont and Maine, had largely increased their Republican majorities, which the President had probably expected and allowed for, but when the four "October States" gave only twelve seats in the House of Representatives to the Democrats and nearly fifty to the Republicans, it was pretty clearly revealed {104} that the Administration was on the eve of a terrible defeat. It was as overwhelming as these figures indicated. The final results showed that the Republicans had elected one hundred and forty-three of their candidates to seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats had succeeded in securing only forty-nine seats. With the exception of Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky, all the "States" represented in Congress had given the Republican party strong majorities. The strength of the Democratic party was again in the South, where the Democratic candidates for any kind of office had almost universally succeeded. In the Senate the Republicans constituted more than a two-thirds majority of the members, and with their almost three-fourths majority in the House, there could be no question that, in a contest between the President and Congress, the former would be obliged to yield. [Sidenote: The President's Message of December 3d, 1866.]