It was feared by many, even of the most conservative, that the policy of Congress and the policy of the President might come into irreconcilable conflict, and that the party which had successfully conducted the Government through the embarrassments, the trials and the perils of a long civil war, might now be wrecked by an angry controversy between two departments of the Government, each owing its existence to the same great constituency,--the loyal people of the North.
Circumstances suggested the impossibility of a successful contest against the President and the Democratic party united.

Even those elections which result, in the exuberant language of the press, in an overwhelming victory on the one side and an overwhelming defeat, on the other, are often found, upon analysis, to be based on very narrow margins in the popular result, the reversal of which requires only the change of a few thousand votes.

This was demonstrated in many of the great States, even in the second election of Mr.Lincoln, when to the general apprehension he was almost unanimously sustained.
From this fact it was well argued by Republicans in Congress that great danger to the party was involved in the impending dissension.
Even the most sanguine feared defeat, and the naturally despondent already counted it as certain.

Never before had so stringent a test of principle been applied to the members of both Houses.

The situation was indeed peculiar.