A LITTLE PLAIN HISTORY
For clearness in what has gone before and what follows, I must write a
little plain history.
Many who ought to have known Mr. Lincoln's mind, among these General
Sherman, with whom Mr. Lincoln had conversed freely, believed it his
purpose to recognise existing State Governments in the South upon their
compliance with certain conditions. These governments were given no
option; governors calling legislatures for the purpose of expressing
submission, were clapped into prison. Thus, these States were without
civil State Governments, and under martial law. Some local governments and
courts continued in operation subject to military power; military
tribunals and Freedmen's Bureaus were established.
Beginning May 29, 1865, with North Carolina, President Johnson
reconstructed the South on the plan Mr. Lincoln had approved, appointing
for each State a Provisional Governor empowered to call a convention to
make a new State Constitution or remodel the old to meet new conditions.
His policy was to appoint a citizen known for anti-Secession or Union
sentiments, yet holding the faith and respect of his State, as Perry, of
South Carolina; Sharkey, of Mississippi; Hamilton, of Texas. The
conventions abolished slavery, annulled the secession ordinance,
repudiated the Confederate debt, acknowledged the authority of the United
States. An election was held for State officers and members of the
legislature, voters qualifying as previous to 1861, and by taking the
amnesty oath of May 29. Legislatures reënacted the convention's work of
annulling secession, abolishing slavery, repudiating debt; and passed
civil rights bills giving the negro status as a citizen, but without the
franchise, though some leaders advised conferring it in a qualified form;
they passed vagrancy laws which the North interpreted as an effort at
reënslavement.
Congress met December, 1865; President Johnson announced that all but two
of the Southern States had reorganised their governments under the
conditions required. Their representatives were in Washington to take
their seats. With bitter, angry, contemptuous words, Congress refused to
seat them. April 2, 1866, President Johnson proclaimed that in the South
"the laws can be sustained by proper civil authority, State and Federal;
the people are well and loyally disposed;" military occupation, martial
law, military tribunals and the suspension of the writ of _habeas corpus_
"are in time of peace, dangerous to public liberty," "incompatible with
the rights of the citizen," etc., "and ought not to be sanctioned or
allowed; ... people who have revolted and been overcome and subdued, must
either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends or
else they must be held by the absolute military power and devastated ...
which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and freedom."
March 2, 1867, Congress passed an act that "Whereas, no legal State
Governments exist ... in the rebel States ... said rebel States shall be
divided into five military districts." Over each a Federal General was
appointed; existing local governments were subject to him; he could
reverse their decisions, remove their officials and install
substitutes; some commanders made radical use of power; others, wiser and
kindlier, interfered with existing governments only as their position
compelled. Upon the commanders Congress imposed the task of reconstructing
these already once reconstructed States. Delegates to another convention
to frame another Constitution were to be elected, the negroes voting. Of
voters the test-oath was required, a provision practically disfranchising
Southern whites and disqualifying them for office. Thaddeus Stevens,
leader of the party forcing these measures, said of negro suffrage: "If it
be a punishment to rebels, they deserve it."
[Illustration: AUGUSTA J. EVANS WILSON
OCTAVIA WALTON LE VERT
The South's two most prominent literary women at the close of the war; one
a novelist and the other a writer of translations and books of travel.]
Black and Tan Conventions met in long and costly sessions. That of
Mississippi sat over a month before beginning the task for which convened,
having passed the time in fixing per diems, mileages, proposing a bonus
for negroes dismissed by employers, imposing taxes on anything and
everything to meet the expenses of the convention; and badgering General
Gillem, Commander of the District. The Black and Tan Conventions framed
constitutions which, with tickets for State and National officers, were
submitted to popular vote, negroes, dominated by a few corrupt whites,
determining elections. With these constitutions and officials, "carpet-bag
rule" came into full power and States were plundered. The sins of these
governments have been specified by Northern and Southern authorities in
figures of dollars and cents. At first, Southern Unionists and Northern
settlers joined issues with the Republican Party. Oppressive taxation,
spoliation, and other evils drove all respectable citizens into coalitions
opposing this party; these coalitions broke up Radical rule in the
Southern States, the last conquest being in Louisiana and South Carolina
in 1876. No words can present any adequate picture of the "mongrel"
conventions and legislatures, but in the following chapter I try to give
some idea of the absurdities of one, which may be taken as type of
all.[18]
THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION