He had not directly assailed the President by name, and had even assumed to construe one of the paragraphs of the message as referring the question of reconstruction anew to Congress; but this assumption was simply for effect and was well known by Mr.Stevens to be unfounded.
The Administration did not misapprehend the drift and intention of Mr.Stevens, and its members saw that it was the first gun fired in a determined war to be waged against its policy and its _prestige_.

They were especially anxious that its defense should not be undertaken by Democrats, or at least that Democrats should not take the lead in defending it.

Mr.Stevens spoke on the 18th of December, and Congress had already voted to adjourn on the 21st for the Christmas recess.

The Administration desired the Mr.Stevens's speech should not be permitted to go unanswered to the country and thus hold public attention until Congress should re-assemble in January.

It was important that some response be made to it at once; and Mr.Henry J.Raymond, widely known to the political world but now in Congress for the first time, was selected to make the reply.
In a political career that was marked by many inconsistencies, as consistency is measured by the party standard, with a disposition not given to close intimacies or warm friendships, Mr.Raymond had continuously upheld the public course of Mr.Seward, and had maintained a singular steadiness of personal attachment to the illustrious statesman from New York.