The war settled two questions long debated in this country, that of State sovereignty and that of slavery. From the beginning of the government it had been disputed whether or not a State might act in a sovereign way in opposition to the United States government. The war answered "No" to this question.

The Emancipation Proclamation had only abolished slavery in those States and districts at that time resisting the United States government. But the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was adopted at the close of the war, and ratified in December, 1865, forbade slavery in all parts of the country forever.

A great question of history was also decided by the war. It was settled that the heart of North America is to be occupied by but one great power. Had there been more than one, the resources of the people might have been wasted and their advancement checked by standing armies, and wars happening from time to time.

Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, succeeded to the presidency on the death of Lincoln. There soon grew up a difference between Johnson and the Republican Congress in regard to the measures to be adopted for the reconstruction of government in the Southern States. Congress required, among other things, that every State which had seceded should admit black men to vote, before the representatives of the State should be again admitted to Congress. President Johnson did not think that Congress had a right to refuse admission to lawfully elected representatives.

The difference between President Johnson and Congress, on several points in regard to reconstruction, resulted in an effort by Congress to limit the power of the President to remove officers. The Republicans were more than two thirds of each House, so that they could make laws in spite of the veto of the President. They passed a law forbidding him to make removals from office except by consent of the Senate. This law Johnson refused to obey. The House of Representatives voted to impeach the President; that is, to bring him to trial in order to have him removed as unfit to be President. Such a charge must be made by the House of Representatives, and the Senate is the court which has to decide the case. As less than two thirds of the Senate voted to remove him, Johnson remained President to the end of his term.

In 1868 General Ulysses S. Grant was elected President, as the candidate of the Republicans. The Democratic candidate was Horatio Seymour, of New York. The election turned on the dispute over measures for reconstructing the Southern States.

During Grant's first administration, in 1870, the last of the States that had belonged to the Confederacy complied with the conditions demanded by Congress. All the States were now represented in Congress for the first time since South Carolina had seceded in 1860. In this same year, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. This gave all men in America, including black men, the right to vote. (UTH Note: It took 50 more years before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed, allowing women to vote.)

Various causes produced in the South disorder and bad government for some years. The war, too, had wasted the resources of the country and left the people in poverty. But a better state of things has ensued, and the Southern people have gradually entered on a career of peace and great prosperity.

In 1872 a portion of the Republicans, dissatisfied with Grant's administration of the government, formed a new party, which they called the "Liberal Republican "party. They nominated Horace Greeley for President. The Democratic party accepted Greeley as its candidate also, but Grant was re-elected by a large majority.

In 1876 the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President. The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. The election was a close one, and the country came near to being thrown into a distressing confusion by the condition of the Southern State governments. In some of these were "returning boards," committees which had the right to revise the election returns, and throw out such as they thought had been affected by fraud or violence. By the votes cast, Louisiana had given a majority for Tilden. But the Republicans claimed that certain districts had been carried by intimidating the black people and by fraud. The returns from these were thrown out by the returning board, and the vote of the State was given to Hayes. This gave a majority of one. The most exciting debates ensued in Congress, which had finally to decide the matter. As the Republicans had a majority in the Senate and the Democrats a majority in the House, the two bodies could not agree. The question was at length referred to fifteen commissioners, eight of whom voted to give the election to Hayes.

In 1880, General W. S. Hancock, who had won renown as a brilliant division commander in the Army of the Potomac, was nominated for President by the Democrats General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, whose distinction was due to the ability he had shown in debate on the floor of Congress, was nominated by the Republicans and elected. Three months after President Garfield was inaugurated, on the 2d of July, 1881, he was shot and mortally wounded by a disappointed office-seeker. Garfield lived eighty days after he was shot, and died on September 19, 1881. His assassin was tried for murder and hanged.

Chester A. Arthur, of New York, had been elected as Vice President when Garfield was chosen President. On the death of Garfield, Arthur succeeded to the presidency, and filled out the unexpired term for which Garfield had been elected, according to the Constitution.

In 1884 the Republicans nominated James G. Blaine for President. His distinction had been gained chiefly as Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senator from Maine. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland, then popular as Governor of New York. After an unusually severe struggle and a very close election, Cleveland vas chosen. The Democratic party thus returned to power for the first time since the election of Lincoln in 1860.

The question which has most agitated politics in Cleveland's administration has been that of the tariff. Very early in the history of the government there were two opinions on this subject. One class of statesmen has maintained that American manufactures should be protected by levying high duties on articles made abroad, in order that the American market may be kept chiefly for the products of American labor. The other class maintains that high protective duties are unjust to the American consumer, and of little, if any, benefit to the manufacturer. They hold that the tariff should be used chiefly to raise the money needed to support the government. This was a main point of division between the Whigs and Democrats before the Civil War. The question of revising the tariff has again become the most prominent one in our day.