10. To Stevens and his followers the South had proved its impenitent condition, and had justified the most stringent measures of reconstruction. They declared that Johnson's policy had been fairly tested and that the results of the experiment were apparent. They argued that the South, emboldened by the conciliatory conduct of the President, was permitting the old rebel leaders to continue to wield the chief influence in affairs of state. The exclusion of these leaders from participation in the preliminary work of the reconstruction conventions was no check upon their influence in the State, and with the completion of reconstruction there was nothing to prevent them from occupying the chief state offices. What the President in the previous April had feared, was coming to pass, through his failure to do that which he had then said must be done--to make treason and traitors odious. In proof of the ascendency of the old elements, the highly questionable legislation of the South was cited, and the conviction of the Republican party that sterner measures were necessary was strengthened. As a natural result the doctrine of Thaddeus Stevens that the South should be regarded and governed as a conquered territory became practically the doctrine of the majority of Republicans, and Stevens became the leader of the House of Representatives. The year 1865 had made plain the necessities of the hour, the condition of the South, the attitude of the President, and in short had prepared the people for the great struggle which was to follow in the 39th and 40th Congresses.[62] CHAPTER III. THE ATTITUDE OF CONGRESS TOWARDS THE EXPERIMENT: DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONGRESSIONAL THEORY. 1. The Thirty-ninth Congress began its labors on December 4, 1865, well aware that the President had separated himself from the Republican party so far that it was improbable that the executive and legislative departments would be able to work in harmony. The Democrats were beginning to commend the administration, and had even gone so far in some instances as to indicate, in resolutions passed in their state conventions, their approval of Johnson's plan of reconstruction. Republicans, on the other hand, were becoming quite reserved in their expressions of approval, and began to show a decided sentiment in favor of manhood suffrage as involving less danger and more benefit to the Republic than any plan which even partially excluded the negro from the franchise. The legislation of the Southern States had convinced many that without the negro vote there would be no way to keep the old insurrectionary element from completely monopolizing their state governments.[63] Congress with its large Republican majorities[64] in both houses was expected to deal with the problem, correct the abuses which had arisen from the too lenient policy of the President, and inaugurate a policy which should bring about an equality of individual rights throughout the Union.