satisfaction of political enmities or for the punishment of
alleged executive misdemeanors, even in the many heated
controversies between the President and Congress that had
theretofore arisen. Nor would any attempt at impeachment have
been made at that time but for the great numerical disparity then
existing between the respective representatives in Congress of
the two political parties of the country.

One-half the members of that Congress, both House and Senate, are
now dead, and with them have also gone substantially the same
proportion of the people at large, but many of the actors therein
who have passed away, lived long enough to see, and were candid
enough to admit, that the failure of the impeachment had brought
no harm to the country, while the general judgment practically of
all has come to be that a grave and threatening danger was
thereby averted.

A new generation is now in control of public affairs and the
destinies of the Nation have fallen to new hands. New issues have
developed and will continue to develop from time to time; and new
dangers will arise, with increasing numbers and changing
conditions, demanding in their turn the same careful scrutiny,
wisdom and patriotism in adjustment. But the principles that
underlie and constitute the basis of our political organism, are
and will remain the same; and will never cease to demand constant
vigilance for their perpetuation as the rock of safety upon which
our federative system is founded.

To those who in the study of the country's past seek a broader
and higher conception of the duties of American citizenship, the