The contest, predestined and already manifest, between the President and Congress might, unless conducted with great wisdom, so seriously divide the party as to compass its ruin.

Hence the imperious necessity that no rash or ill-considered step should be taken.

Both in Congress and among the people the conviction was general that the party was entitled to the services of its best men.

There was no struggle among members for positions on the committee; and when the names were announced they gave universal satisfaction to the Republicans.

There was some complaint by the Democrats that they had only one representative upon the committee in the Senate and two in the House, but the relative strength of parties in both branches scarcely justified a larger representation of the minority.( 1) Even before the announcement of the names a great number of resolutions were offered in the House, intended to call forth expressions of opinion that should operate as instructions to the new committee, but none of them were of marked importance, except one indicating the pronounced divergence of the two parties regarding the mode of reconstruction.