Andrew Johnson had sought to obstruct, overthrow, veto, or challenge every attempt of the nation to bind its wounds after the war or to create a just republic from the ashes of the pernicious and so-called “peculiar institution” of slavery. Recently eradicated, to be sure, by proclamation, by war, and by constitutional amendment, its malignant effects stalked every street, every home, every action, particularly but not exclusively in the South. “Peace had come, but there was no peace,” a journalist would write.
