In the veto message under consideration his hand was evident in every paragraph; and if it had been President Johnson's good fortune to go down to posterity on this single issue with Congress, he might confidently have anticipated the verdict of history in his favor.
The delicate, almost humourous sarcasm in the closing words above quoted from the message, afford a good specimen of Mr.Seward's facility of stating the gravest of organic propositions in a form attractive to the general reader.

He wrote as one who felt that in this particular issue with Congress, whatever might be the adverse votes of the Senate and House, time would be sure to vindicate the position of the President.

But the message did not arrest the action, indeed scarcely the attention, of Congress, and the bill was promptly, even hurriedly, passed over the veto,--in the Senate by 35 _ayes_ to 11 _noes;_ in the House by 133 _ayes_ to 37 _noes_.
The bill was not passed, however, without considerable misgiving on the part of many members of both Houses who voted for it.

It was an extreme proposition,--a new departure from the long-established usage of the Federal Government, and for that reason, if for no other, personally degrading to the incumbent of the Presidential office.

It could only have grown out of the abnormal excitement created by the dissensions between the two great Departments of the Government.