The Federal Union faced the threat of sectional despotism.

The spirit of the time was martial law.

The gospel of proscription ruled in Congress.

Radicalism, vitalized by the murder of Abraham Lincoln and inflamed by the inadequate effort of Andrew Johnson to carry out the policies of Lincoln, was in the saddle riding furiously toward a carpetbag Poland and a negroized Ireland.
The Democratic Party, which, had it been stronger, might have interposed, lay helpless.

It, too, was crushed to earth.