Greeley visited Washington by invitation after the elections of 1865, and took part in conferences with President Johnson, the object of which was to secure cooperation and peace between him and Congress. These efforts failed; the President issued a proclamation of amnesty, excepting fourteen classes, including generally all persons who had taken official part in the rebellion, and by proclamation he established governments in several of the lately rebellious States; and on April 2, 1866, he officially proclaimed the rebellion at an end. Congress met, and appointed a joint committee to report on the existing condition of the rebelling States, and the conflict between the President and the Federal Legislature ensued, the President vetoing the reconstruction measures which Congress passed during that conflict. Greeley was a bitter opponent of President Johnson's policy. He called his veto of the bill establishing universal suffrage in the District of Columbia “the least plausible veto message we ever read” ; said of the veto of the reconstruction bill (March 3, 1867): “Its obvious tendency to keep the Southern States unreconstructed and unrepresented is, in every view, deplorable” ; and, during the impeachment trial, declared, “The nation demands impeachment.”
