Eight of the eleven States were now nominally reconstructed, but in fact they were only entering upon that most trying period of their history, the era of "carpet-bag government." The whole period of reconstruction is marked by blindness and prejudice on both sides. The spirit of compromise could find no place in either's plans. "What might have been" is always a fruitless subject of discussion; but any student of the three tumultuous years following the war cannot but see that the attitude of both the North and the South prevented the adoption of the plan of reconstruction which would with the least trouble and delay, have remoulded the unwieldy mass of liberated blacks into an orderly, progressive class of citizens. At the same time he can see that the divergence of views was inevitable and that it is impossible to say to one side "You were right," and to the other "You were wrong." CHAPTER VI. THE IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT. 1. In the preceding chapters we have traced step by step the development of the theory of reconstruction and the formulation of the reconstruction acts of the 39th and 40th Congresses. We have noticed the wide divergence between the ideas of Johnson and those of the Republican party, and have seen that the whole program was carried over the vetoes of the President by the overwhelming Republican majority. But the contest between the President and Congress, which had been embittered by so many personalities on both sides, did not come to an end with the passage of legislation which fully embodied the congressional theory, but continued until it culminated in a desperate effort of the Republican party to remove Johnson from the presidential chair. The very conditions under which he assumed the presidential office rendered his position difficult, and made estrangement of the executive and legislative departments an easy matter. On the particular issue of reconstruction Lincoln and Congress were at variance; but the tragic nature of Lincoln's death caused this matter to be forgotten in the overwhelming sense of the loss of the man who had safely guided the government through the most trying years of its history. But, for a Congress so extremely Northern and Republican, with antagonisms and prejudices which only fratricidal wars can create, to be compelled to work with a man not only a Southerner, but practically a Democrat, must of necessity bring about a crisis.