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[657] President would only have had six votes in majority in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate; and if the Democratic party had remained united to control him in the houses, this party would have had the advantage of twenty-seven votes in one house and five in the other. After the marshalling of forces, the government majorities were increased by a measure justified by circumstances. Ten of the absent senators whose connivance with the insurrection had been proved were deprived of their seats by a two-third vote of the Senate, while those of Virginia were replaced by two new members representing the western districts. A similar measure was adopted in the other house against some of its members.

Mr. Lincoln had not waited for the meeting of Congress to form a new provisional army and to increase the effective force of the regular troops and the navy, nor did he overstep the limit of his powers when on the 15th of April he asked the governors of the several States for a contingent of seventy-five thousand men; but the direct call he had made on the 3d of May for forty-two thousand three-years' volunteers, twenty-two thousand regulars and eighteen thousand sailors was an extraordinary act requiring the sanction of the legislative power. It was necessary, besides, to raise the requisite loans to cover the expenses which the equipment of such troops would involve. In short, even these measures proved altogether insufficient, and the President, in his message to the Congress he had just convened, asked for a levy of four hundred thousand troops. At its short session, which lasted from the 4th of July till the 6th of August, this new Congress gave evidence of the patriotic zeal by which it was animated. On the 25th of July it authorized the President to issue a call for five hundred thousand volunteers for three years, which was more than had been asked for; it is true that the battle of Bull Run had been fought during the interval. On the 27th it approved the measures taken by the President on the 3d of May for the increase of the regular army, and authorized eleven new regiments, nine of infantry, one of cavalry and one of artillery; finally, on the 6th of August, before adjourning, it legalized all the other calls which the President had made for mustering volunteers in the land and naval forces.

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