He chose to ignore that subject, to hide it by fluent and graceful phrase from public criticism, and thus to keep from the official knowledge of Congress the most important facts in the whole domain of reconstruction.

It was a great mistake in the President to pass over this subject in silence.

Such a course enforced one of two impressions, either of which was hurtful to him.

He must, according to the common understanding of Congress, have thought the character of Southern legislation so offensive that he could find no excuse for it and therefore would not mention it; or he must have regarded it as outside the line of his observation and beyond the pale of his power of review.

Either construction was bad, but the second and more probable one was especially offensive.
The leading men of the Thirty-ninth Congress were mainly those of the Thirty-eighth, though there had been a few important changes.