Mr. Johnson gave voice to his indignation when he spoke of the Southern men whose votes contributed to the defeat of the Crittenden Compromise. "Who, then," said he, "has brought these evils upon the country? Whose fault is it? Who is responsible for it? With the help we had from the other side of the chamber, if all those on this side had been true to the Constitution and faithful to their constituents, and had acted with fidelity to the country, the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire could have been voted down. Whose fault was it? Who did it? Southern traitors, as was said in the speech of the Senator from California. They did it. They wanted no compromise." These extracts show the style of speech in which Mr. Johnson indulged, and they prove beyond question that in the winter of 1861 he had no sympathy with the Republican Party of 1856 and 1860. These facts explain, and in some measure they palliate, the peculiarities of his career, which provoked criticism and an adverse popular judgment when he came to the Presidency. Nor is there evidence within my knowledge that he ever denied the right of secession. However that may have been, he disapproved of the exercise of the right at all stages of the contest. In the Thirty-sixth Congress Mr. Johnson proposed amendments to the Constitution which gave him consideration in the North. By his proposition the Fugitive Slave Law was to be repealed, and in its place the respective States were to return fugitives or to pay the value of those that might be retained. Slavery was to be abolished in the District of Columbia with the consent of Maryland and upon payment of the full value of the slaves emancipated. The Territories were to be divided between freedom and slavery. His scheme contemplated other changes not connected necessarily with the system of slavery. Of these I mention the election of President, Vice-President, Senators, and Judges of the Supreme Court by the people, coupled with a limitation of the terms of judges to twelve years. The Crittenden Resolution contained these declarations of facts and policy: 1. The present deplorable war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States. 2. Congress has no purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the established rights of those States. Upon a motion to include disunionists in the North under the first charge, Mr. Johnson voted in the negative with Sumner, Wilson, Wade, and other Republicans. This brief survey of Mr. Johnson's Congressional career at the opening of the war may indicate the characteristics of his mind in controversy and debate, and furnish means for comprehending his actions in the troublous period of his administration.