Mr.Wade was known to be a man of extraordinary courage, both physical and moral.

To these qualities Mr.
Davis added a highly cultivated mind and a style of writing which in political controversy has rarely been surpassed--a style at once severe, effective, and popular.
The "Protest" embodied a sharp contrast between the President's plan of Reconstruction in his proclamation of December 8 (1863), and that contained in the bill presented by Congress for his approval.

"The bill," said Messrs.

Wade and Davis, "requires a majority of the voters to establish a State government, the proclamation is satisfied with one-tenth; the bill requires one oath, the proclamation another; the bill ascertains voters by registering, the proclamation by guess; the bill exacts adherence to existing territorial limits, the proclamation admits of others; the bill governs the rebel States _by law_ equalizing all before it, the proclamation commits them to the lawless discretion of military governors and provost marshals; the bill forbids electors for President (in the rebel States), the proclamation with the defeat of the bill threatens us with civil war for the exclusion of such votes." The criticisms of the President's course closed with the language of stern admonition if not indeed of absolute menace.

The act of the President was denounced as "rash and fatal," and as "a blow at the friends of the Administration, at the rights of humanity, and at the principles of Republican government." The President was warned that the support of the Republican party was "of a cause and not of a man," that the "authority of Congress is paramount and must be respected," that the "whole body of Union men of Congress will not submit to be impeached by him or rash and unconstitutional legislation," that he must "confine himself to his Executive duties--to obey and execute, not make the laws;" that he "must suppress armed rebellion by arms and leave political re-organization to Congress." No political result followed the publication of this remarkable paper save that it probably defeated the renomination of Mr.Davis for Congress.