His philanthropy taught him a faith in others as strong as his own consciousness of right; and, by assuming the full responsibility of the President's position, he brought to its support thousands of advocates who, but for his personal influence and persuasive power, would have opposed and spurned it.
The whole scheme of reconstruction, as originated by Mr.Seward and adopted by the President, was in operation by the middle of July, three months after the assassination of Mr.Lincoln.

Every step taken was watched with the deepest solicitude by the loyal people.

The rapid and thorough change in the President's position was clearly discerned and fully appreciated.

His course of procedure was dividing the Republican party, and already encouraging the hopes of those in the North who had been the steady opponents of Mr.Lincoln's war policy, and of those in the South who had sought for four years to destroy the Great Republic.
It soon became evident that the Northern Democrats who had been opposed to the war, and the Southern Democrats who had been defeated in the war, would unite in political action, and that the course of the National Administration would exercise a potential influence upon their success or failure.

In turn, the course of the National Administration would certainly be influenced, and its fate in large degree determined, by the conduct of the Southern men, in whom the President was placing unbounded trust.