Final Subjugation of the Confederate States.--Result of the
Contest.--A Simple Process of Restoration.--Rejected by the United
States Government.--A Forced Union.--The President's Proclamation
examined.--The Guarantee, not to destroy.--Provisional Governors.--
Their Duties.--Voters.--First Movement made in Virginia.--
Government set up.--Proceedings.--Action of So-called
Legislature.--Constitutional Amendment.--Case of Dr. Watson.--
Civil Rights Bill.--Storm brewing.--Congress refuses to admit
Senators and Representatives to Seats.--Committee on
"Reconstruction."--Freedmen's Bureau.--Report of Committee.--
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.--Extent of Ratification.--
Another Step taken by Congress.--Military Commanders appointed over
Confederate States, with Unlimited Powers.--Reconstruction by the
Bayonet.--Course of Proceedings required.--Two Governments for Each
State.--Major-Generals appointed.--Further Acts of Congress.--
Proceedings commenced by the Major-General at Richmond.--Civil
Governor appointed.--Military Districts and Sub-districts.--
Registration.--So-called State Convention.--So-called
Legislature.--Its Action.--Measures required by Congress for the
Enfranchisement of Negroes adopted by the So-called Legislature.--
Assertion of Senator Garret Davis.--State represented in Congress.
When the Confederate soldiers laid down their arms and went home, all
hostilities against the power of the Government of the United States
ceased. The powers delegated in the compact of 1787 by these States,
i. e., by the people thereof, to a central organization to promote
their general welfare, had been used for their devastation and
subjugation. It was conceded, as the result of the contest, that the
United States Government was stronger in resources than the
Confederate Government, and that the Confederate States had not
achieved their independence.
Nothing remained to be done but for the sovereigns, the people of
each State, to assert their authority and restore order. If the
principle of the sovereignty of the people, the cornerstone of all
our institutions, had survived and was still in force, it was
necessary only that the people of each State should reconsider their
ordinances of secession, and again recognize the Constitution of the
United States as the supreme law of the land. This simple process
would have placed the Union on its original basis, and have restored
that which had ceased to exist, the Union by consent. Unfortunately,
such was not the intention of the conqueror. The Union of free-wills
and brotherly hearts, under a compact ordained by the people, was not
his object. Henceforth there was to be established a Union of force.
Sovereignty was to pass from the people to the Government of the
United States, and to be upheld by those who had furnished the money
and the soldiers for the war.
The first step required, therefore, in the process for the
reconstruction of the new and forced Union, was to prepare those who
had been the late champions of the sovereignty of the people to
become suitable subjects under the new sovereign. Standing
defenseless, stripped of their property, and exposed, as it was
asserted, to the penalties of insurrection on the one hand, and that
of treason on the other, the President of the United States, Mr.
Andrew Johnson, who, as Vice-President, became President after the
death of Mr. Lincoln, on May 29, 1865, thus addressed them:
"To the end, therefore, that the authority of the Government of the
United States may be restored, and that peace, order, and freedom may
be reestablished, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States,
do proclaim and declare that I hereby grant to all persons who have
directly or indirectly participated in the existing rebellion, except
as hereinafter excepted, amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all
rights of property, except as to slaves, and except in cases where
legal proceedings under the laws of the United States providing for
the confiscation of property of persons engaged in the rebellion have
been instituted; but on the condition, nevertheless, that every such
person shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation,
and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which
oath shall be registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of
the tenor and effect following, to wit:
"I, ---- ----, do solemnly swear, or affirm, in presence of
Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support and defend
the Constitution of the United States and the Union thereunder, and
that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all laws
and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion
with reference to the emancipation of slaves, so help me God."
The permission to take this oath was withheld from large classes of
citizens. It will be seen that there are two stipulations in this
oath, the first faithfully to support the Constitution of the United
States and the Union thereunder. This comprises obedience to the laws
made in conformity to the Constitution, and is all that is requisite
in the simple oath of allegiance of an American citizen. The second
stipulation is:
"To abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which
have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the
emancipation of slaves."
What need was thereof this second stipulation? Because the laws were
not enacted, nor the proclamation issued under any grant of power in
the Constitution or under its authority. Now, the exercise of a power
by Government, for which it has no constitutional authority, is not
only a usurpation, but it destroys the sanction of all written
instruments of government. Also, what has become of the unalienable
right of property, which all the State governments were created to
protect and preserve? Where was the sovereignty of the people under
these proceedings? Yet the Confederate citizen was required to bind
himself by an oath to abide by and faithfully support all these
usurpations; the alternative being to resist the Government, or to
aid and abet a violation of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, each of the late Confederate States was occupied by a
military force of the Government of the United States, and military
orders were the supreme law; and that Government thereby proceeded to
establish a State organization based on the principle of its own
sovereignty. In the first place, the President of the United States
issued a proclamation in such terms as to be applicable to each of
the Confederate States wherever its affairs were in such process of
subjugation as to permit the commencement of the proposed
organization. This proclamation begins by setting forth four
propositions as the basis of his authority: First, the Constitution
declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the
Union a republican form of government, and protect each against
invasion and domestic violence. Second, the President is
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, as well as chief civil
executive officer, and bound to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed. Third, the rebellion, in its revolutionary progress,
deprived the people of all civil government. Fourth, it becomes
necessary and proper to enforce and carry out the obligations of the
United States to the people of the State in securing it in the
enjoyment of a republican form of government. Therefore, etc.
These propositions call for a notice as well because of their fallacy
as their enormity. The third declares that the so-called rebellion,
in its progress, deprived the people of each Confederate State of all
civil government. There was a government over each Confederate State,
then existing and in full operation. It was, in all its internal
relations, the same government which existed when the State was a
member of the Union, whereby it was recognized by the Government of
the United States and by the other States as a lawful and republican
State government. It had been created by the free consent of the
people of the State, and they had defended it with their lives and
their fortunes. It had been denied by the Government of the United
States that any one of the Confederate States was a foreign state or
outside the Union by its secession. There was, therefore, neither in
law nor in fact, any foundation for the assertion that the so-called
rebellion had deprived the people of each Confederate State of all
civil government.
Having thus stripped each Confederate State of all civil government,
it was asserted that the Constitution declares that the United States
shall guarantee to each State a republican form of government. But to
guarantee is not to create, to organize, or to bring into existence.
This can be done for a State government only by the free and
unconstrained action of the whole people of a State. The creation of
such a government is beyond the powers of the Government of the
United States, as has already been shown. After a republican
government has been instituted by the people, the Constitution
requires the United States to guarantee its existence, and thereby
forbids them or their Government to overthrow it and set up a
creature of its own. The duty to guarantee commands the preservation
of that which already exists. Such were the governments of the
Confederate States before the war and after the war. Thus the power
granted in the Constitution to preserve and guarantee State
governments was perverted to overthrow and destroy republican
governments, and to erect in their places military Governors,
Legislatures, and judicial tribunals.
The third proposition is that the President is Commander in-Chief of
the Army and Navy and the chief civil executive. His troops already
occupied each of these States, and held the people in subjection. His
proclamation was therefore merely a military order from the hand of
the conqueror. Everything which he can do under such a character
partakes of the nature, simply and solely, of martial law. Therefore
he proceeds under the fourth proposition, wherein it "becomes
necessary and proper to carry out the obligations of the United
States to the people" of each Confederate State, "in securing them in
the enjoyment of a republican form of government." The American
people were now about to witness, on an extensive scale, the
tyrannical experiment of instituting republican governments by the
processes of martial law. They had declared it to be a self-evident
truth that it was "the right of the people to alter or to abolish it
[their government], and to institute a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness." [130] This principle of the sovereignty of the people was
now rejected, and the sovereignty of fleets and armies was
substituted.
"Now, therefore," says the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy,
and the chief civil executive officer of the United States, "in
obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed upon me by the
Constitution of the United States, and for the purpose of enabling
the loyal people of said State (or States) to organize a State
government, whereby justice may be established, domestic tranquillity
restored, and loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life,
liberty, and property, I do hereby appoint ---- ---- provisional
Governor of the State" It will be here noticed that all the
proceedings are undertaken for the sake of the "loyal" persons in the
State. Who is to decide what persons are "loyal"? He who issues the
military order--the President and his agent the provisional
Governor; and they naturally will decide those to be loyal who
support and obey their orders. The free assent and dissent which are
the basis of the validity of every political action under our system,
are unknown in this case.
The duty of the provisional Governor is declared in the proclamation
to be, "to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary
and proper for convening a convention composed of delegates to be
chosen by that portion of the people of the State who are 'loyal' to
the United States, and no others, for the purpose of altering and
amending the Constitution thereof." In the third of the four
propositions laid down as the basis of authority for the President's
proceedings, above mentioned, it is declared that the so-called
rebellion, "deprived the people of the State of all civil
government"; but here it is made the first duty of the provisional
Governor to procure a convention of "loyal" persons "to alter and
amend the Constitution" of the State. Thus it seems that there was a
State in existence, and a Constitution in full vigor, notwithstanding
the above declaration of the President to the contrary. This was that
Constitution of the State which was in force during that long and
peaceful period through which the Constitution of the United States
was observed, and constitutional laws enacted. Now it was to be
altered and amended from what the sovereign people of those days had
ordained it to be, at the command, and to conform to the views, of
another sovereign. The nature of those alterations and amendments
will be stated hereafter.
This convention was to possess the authority to exercise all the
powers necessary "to restore the State to its constitutional
relations with the Federal Government." It was further provided that
no person should vote unless he had taken the amnesty oath mentioned
on a previous page, and was a qualified voter previous to the
secession of the State. The convention or the subsequent Legislature
was to prescribe the qualification of all voters afterward--"a
power," says the President, "the people of the several States
composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the origin
of the Government to the present time." The proclamation then
continued: "And I do hereby direct: first, that the military
commander of the department and all officers and persons in the
military and naval service aid and assist the said provisional
government in carrying into effect this proclamation; and they are
enjoined to abstain from in any way hindering, impeding, or
discouraging 'loyal' people from the organization of a State
government as herein authorized." The proclamation closed with
instructions to the Secretary of each department of the Government to
proceed to put in operation his department within the limits of the
State.
The first movement for the restoration of the Confederate States to
the Union under subjugation was commenced in Virginia. Richmond was
occupied by the forces of the United States Government, and the
authority of all State officers elected during the war was annulled.
Affairs remained in this position until May 9, 1865, when the
President of the United States issued an order declaring all the acts
and proceedings of the political, military, and civil organizations
in the State which had been in insurrection against the United States
to be null and void; and that all persons who should attempt to
exercise any authority as under the late State or Confederate
officers, should be deemed and taken as in rebellion, etc. At this
time Francis H. Pierpont, who had assumed to exercise the office of
Governor of Virginia over ten counties around Alexandria, was
recognized by the President as the true Governor of the State. He was
aided to remove the seat of his government from Alexandria to
Richmond, and there maintained by the military force. No hostile
opposition, however, was anywhere manifested, while at Alexandria
delegates from the ten counties had assembled in convention and
assumed to amend the State Constitution, and the little so-called
legislative body had undertaken to pass various acts of importance.
The so-called Governor, in presenting a summary of them, concluded by
saying, "Thus, State sovereignty--the _status_ of the African race--
the armed resistance to the Government of the United States--are
disposed of." An election for a new Legislature and State officers
was held on October 12th. All were allowed to vote who had not held
office under the State government or the Confederacy during the war,
after they had taken the amnesty oath. The so-called Legislature
assembled and entered upon the regulation of all the affairs of the
State. A general act of vagrancy was passed, whereupon the
major-general in command issued an order "that no magistrate, civil
officer, or other person shall, in any way or manner, apply, or
attempt to apply, the provisions of the said statute to any colored
person in this department." At the municipal election in Richmond,
the Mayor, Attorney, and Superintendent of the Poor, elected, were
persons who had held office under the Confederate States. They were
not allowed by the military authority to qualify, and subsequently
declined.
In 1865 the Congress of the United States passed an act which
provided that the following amendment to the Constitution should be
submitted to the Legislatures of the several States for ratification
or rejection:
"SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject
to its jurisdiction.
"SECTION 2. Congress shall have full power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."
One Dr. James L. Watson was tried for killing a negro in Rockbridge
County, and acquitted. Major-General Schofield, in command of the
military forces of the department, immediately ordered his arrest and
trial by a military commission. On the assembling of the commission a
writ of _habeas corpus_ was sued out of the Circuit Court of Richmond
in behalf of Watson, and served on the General. In his answer, he
declined compliance with the writ, saying:
"Dr. Watson is held for trial by military commission, under the
authority of the act of Congress of July 16, 1866, which act directs
and requires the President, through the commissioner and officers of
the Freedmen's Bureau, to exercise military jurisdiction over all
cases and questions concerning the free enjoyment of the right to
have full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning
personal liberty, personal security, etc., by all citizens, without
respect to race or color, or previous condition of slavery, of the
States whose constitutional relations to the Government of the United
States have been discontinued by the rebellion, and have not been
restored."
In the mean time, the United States Attorney-General having examined
the case, and reported that, in his opinion, the military commission
had not competent jurisdiction, the President thereupon directed that
the commission be dissolved and the prisoner discharged without delay.
Meantime Congress had passed an act, known as the Civil Rights Bill,
and a case came before the Circuit Court, at Alexandria, in which one
of the parties offered to produce negro evidence. The Judge (Thomas)
ruled that, inasmuch as the State laws of Virginia forbade the
introduction of negro testimony in civil suits to which white men
alone were parties, the evidence of the negro was inadmissible; and
that Congressional legislation could not impair the right of the
States to decide what classes of persons were competent to testify in
her courts.
A storm was now brewing which was soon to involve the President and
Congress in open conflict. The reader will remember that, during the
period in which these proceedings took place in Virginia, similar
ones occurred in all the remaining Confederate States. Not only in
Virginia, but in several of the other States, some persons had been
voted for as members of Congress, but in no case had they been
admitted to seats. This was one of the measures taken by Congress to
indicate its disapproval of the President's plan for the treatment of
the late Confederate States.
The difficulties that now arose between the President and Congress
had reference entirely to the affairs of the Confederate States. The
plan of the President left the negroes to the care of the States
alone after the establishment of their emancipation. Congress desired
them to be made American citizens, secure in all the rights of
freemen and voters. The refusal to admit Senators and Representatives
to Congress from the Confederate States served to arrest the
operation of the President's plans to hold these States in abeyance.
No compromise could be made between the two. Each appealed to the
Constitution, forgetful that each had sustained all its ruthless
violations during the last four years. Congress, therefore, commenced
an independent action, and in its reckless course sought,
unsuccessfully, to rid itself of the President by impeachment. Its
first act, at the commencement of the session, in December, 1865, was
the appointment, by a large majority in each House, of a joint
Committee of Fifteen, to which was referred all questions relating to
the conditions and manner in which Congress would recognize the late
Confederate States as members of the Union. Meantime the credentials
of all persons sent as Representatives and Senators from them were
laid upon the table in each House, there to remain until the final
action of the Committee of Fifteen. This was followed by the passage,
in February, 1866, of "an act to establish a bureau for the relief of
freedmen, refugees, and abandoned lands." It proposed to establish
military jurisdiction over all parts of the United States containing
refugees and freedmen. This bill was vetoed by the President, and
passed over his veto.
In March an act was passed "to protect all persons in the United
States in their civil rights, and furnish the means of their
vindication." The first section declared all persons born in the
United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding
Indians not taxed, to be citizens of the United States, and
enumerates the rights to be enjoyed by those so declared to be
citizens. The second section affords discriminating protection to
colored persons in the full enjoyment of all the rights secured to
them by the preceding section. This bill was vetoed by the President,
and passed over his veto.
On June 8, 1866, a majority and a minority report were made by the
Committee of Fifteen. Meanwhile, a report had been made from the same
committee, at a previous date, in the form of an amendment to the
Constitution, which was debated and amended in each House, and
finally passed by the requisite majority in each. Thus was to be
secured the political support and votes of the negroes, who were
expected to be the controlling citizens of the late Confederate
States.
The amendment to the Constitution was now submitted to the
Legislatures of all the States, to be valid as a part of the
Constitution, when ratified by three fourths, in the following form:
"ARTICLE--, SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.
"SECTION 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But,
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for
President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in
Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the
members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
"SECTION 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any
State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress,
or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State
Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort
to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of
each House remove such disability.
"SECTION 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States,
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions
and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,
shall not be questioned. But the United States shall neither assume
nor pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and
claims shall be held illegal and void.
"SECTION 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article."
It may here be stated that the restoration of the late Confederate
States to all the rights and privileges of States as co-equal members
of the Union, under the plan of President Johnson, received the
approval of the executive and judicial branches of the Government
soon after the cessation of hostilities. Congress, however, not only
withheld its assent, but, during its session in 1866, required as a
condition precedent to a recognition of any one of these States, and
the admission of its Representatives and Senators to seats, the
adoption by its Legislature of the above-mentioned amendment. The
question really involved in this amendment was the admission to
citizenship and the ballot of the negroes in these States. It was the
acknowledged fact that the authority to determine this question
resided in the States severally and nowhere else. The amendment
itself, in its second section, recognized the authority to grant or
withhold the elective franchise as existing in the State governments.
This amendment was submitted to the Legislatures of the States
immediately after its adoption by Congress in June, 1866, and by
March 30, 1867, it had been ratified by twenty States, including West
Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and Tennessee, and rejected by
thirteen, including Delaware and Kentucky, and eleven of the late
Confederate States. There were thirty-four States at that time, and
thirty had voted. A ratification by three fourths was required to
make it valid.
When this amendment was presented for ratification to the Legislature
of Virginia at its session commencing December, 1866, it was rejected
in the Senate by a unanimous vote, and in the House by a vote of
seventy-four to one. Meantime the Freedmen's Bureau was organized and
put in operation in the State, but the military occupation continued,
and the condition of affairs remained unchanged during the
proceedings of Congress to construct its plan for subjugation.
After the vote of the States up to March, 1867, it was manifest that
no real advance had been made in the extension of the franchise to
the negro population of the States. In this position of affairs
Congress, on March 2d, adopted an entirety new system of measures
relative to the late Confederate States, The fiction upon which these
measures were based is thus expressed in the preamble of the first
act:
"_Whereas_, No legal State governments, or adequate protection for
life or property, now exists in the rebel States of Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and, _whereas_, it is necessary that
peace and good order should be enforced in said States, until loyal
and republican State governments can be legally established:
therefore, _be it enacted_," etc.
These States were then divided into five military districts, and it
was further provided:
"Until the people of the said rebel States shall by law be admitted
to representation to the Congress of the United States, all civil
governments that may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only,
and shall be in all respects subject to the paramount authority of
the United States, at any time to abolish, modify, control, and
supersede the same, and in all elections to any office under such
provisional governments, all persons shall be entitled to vote under
the provisions of the fifth section of this act."
Thus these States, when held by military force as conquered
territory, with the sovereignty of the people extinct, were not
allowed to claim to possess any rights under the Federal
Constitution, or any other than such as might be granted by the will
of the conqueror. It was asserted that the right to regulate the
elective franchise, recognized as belonging to the States in the
Union, could not attach to those out of the Union, and having only
provisional political institutions. Congress then proceeded to
declare, in the fifth section of the bill, the terms upon which a
late Confederate State could become a member of the Union:
"SECTION 5. That, when the people of any one of said rebel States
shall have formed a Constitution of government in conformity with
the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a
convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State,
twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous
condition, who have been resident in said State for one year previous
to the day of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for
participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, and when
such Constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be
enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated
for electors of delegates, and when such Constitution shall be
ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of
ratification who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when
such Constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for
examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same,
and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature elected under said
Constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known
as Article XIV, and when said article shall have become a part of the
Constitution of the United States, said State shall be declared
entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and
Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath
prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of
this act shall be inoperative in said State," etc.
The bill became a law, notwithstanding the veto of the President.
On March 4th a new Congress commenced its session, and on March 23d a
supplement to the preceding act was passed. It ordered a registration
to be made of the qualified voters in each military sub-district of
the State, an election to be held for the State Convention to draft a
Constitution for the State, and for delegates to such convention; and
that such Constitution should be submitted to the voters for adoption
or rejection, and upon its adoption a State government should be
organized, etc. The registration was required to be made of all
citizens as defined by the "act to protect all persons in the United
States in their civil rights," etc. Many disqualifications of voters,
arising from participation in the war, were also expressed. This act
also became a law, notwithstanding the objections of the President.
It will be seen that this act contemplated two distinct governments
in each of the ten States--the one military and the other civil.
Both were provisional, and both were to continue until the new State
Constitution was framed, and the State was admitted to representation
in Congress. The two were to be carried on together, and the people
were made subject to both and obliged to obey both. The law was next
put in operation by constituting the districts, as follows: 1.
Virginia, commander, Major-General Schofield; 2. North Carolina and
South Carolina, commander, Major-General Sickles; 3. Georgia,
Florida, and Alabama, commander, Major-General John Pope; 4.
Mississippi and Arkansas, commander, Major-General Ord; 5. Louisiana
and Texas, commander, Major-General Sheridan.
Previous to adjournment, on July 19, 1867, Congress passed an
additional supplement to the act of March 3d and the supplement of
March 23d. It declared the intent and meaning of the previous acts to
have been: that the civil governments of the ten States were not
legal governments, and, if continued, were to be subject in all
respects to the military commanders and the paramount authority of
Congress. It made the acts of the military commanders subject only to
the disapproval of the General of the Army, U. S. Grant, and
authorized them to remove any person from office under the State
government. It further defined the classes disfranchised, and
directed that no district commander should be bound in his action by
any opinion of any civil officer of the United States.
The President vetoed the bill, and in his message said:
"Thus, over all these ten States, this military government is now
declared to have unlimited authority. It is no longer confined to the
preservation of the public peace, the administration of criminal law,
the registration of voters, and the superintendence of elections;
but, 'in all respects,' is asserted to be paramount to the existing
civil governments. It is impossible to conceive any state of society
more intolerable than this, and yet it is to this condition that
twelve millions of American citizens are reduced by the Congress of
the United States. Over every foot of the immense territory occupied
by these American citizens, the Constitution of the United States is
theoretically in full operation. It binds all the people there, and
should protect them; yet they are denied every one of its sacred
guarantees. Of what avail will it be to any one of these Southern
people, when seized by a file of soldiers, to ask for the cause of
arrest, or for the production of the warrant? Of what avail to ask
for the privilege of bail when in military custody, which knows no
such thing as bail? Of what avail to demand a trial by jury, process
for witnesses, a copy of the indictment, the privilege of counsel, or
that greater privilege, the writ of _habeas corpus_?"
Congress having thus completed its plan of operations, the crashing
wheels of subjugation began to move forward. Let us proceed with the
narration of affairs in Virginia.
On the appearance of Major-General Schofield at Richmond, all the
proceedings of the so-called civil government, for the organization
and restoration of the State to the Union, at once ceased, and he
assumed command. A board of army officers was named by the commanding
General for the purpose of selecting suitable persons for appointment
as registering officers throughout the State. In making the
selections, the preference was given, first, to officers of the army
and of the Freedmen's Bureau, on duty in the State; second, to
persons who had been discharged from the Federal army, after
"meritorious" services during the war; third, to "loyal" citizens of
the county or city where they were to serve. On April 2d an order
appeared from the major-general, suspending all elections, whether
State, county, or municipal, "under the provisional government,"
until after the registration was completed. A lecture on the
"Chivalry of the South," advertised to be delivered in Lynchburg, was
suppressed by the order of the post commander at that place. A
warning was given by the major-general to the editor of the Richmond
"Times," which said, "The efforts of your paper to foster enmity,
create disorder, and lead to violence, can no longer be tolerated."
On the refusal of five magistrates of the Corporation Council of
Norfolk to receive the testimony of a negro, they were arrested on a
process issued under the Civil Bights Bill, and held to bail to
appear before the District Court. All armed organizations in the
State were disbanded. Inflammatory meetings of freedmen and those who
sought their political alliance were held in different parts of the
State.
Military commissioners were appointed over sub-districts for the
suppression of disorder and violence, for the protection of all
persons in their so-called rights of person and property, and clothed
with all the powers of justices of a county or police magistrates of
a city. The State was also divided into sub-districts, and commanders
appointed over the same. These officers were empowered to exercise a
general supervision over the military commissioners, and to furnish
them, when necessary, with sufficient military force to enable them
to discharge their duties. Further orders relative to the
qualification of voters were issued by the major-general, in which it
was declared that "all persons who voluntarily joined the rebel army,
and all persons in that army, whether volunteers or conscripts, who
committed voluntarily any hostile act, were thereby engaged in
insurrection or rebellion; and all who voted for the ordinance of
secession, gave aid and comfort to the enemy. Also all who
voluntarily furnished supplies of food, or clothing, arms,
ammunition, horses, or mules, or any other material of war,
participated in the rebellion," and were disfranchised. The whole
number registered was 116,982 whites and 104,772 blacks. The vote for
the Convention was 14,835 whites and 92,507 blacks; against the
Convention, 61,249 whites and 638 blacks.
The Convention assembled on December 3d and adjourned on April 17,
1868. The Bill of Eights adopted declared that--
"The State shall ever remain a member of the United States of
America, and the people thereof a part of the American nation, and
all attempts, from whatever source, and upon whatever pretext, to
dissolve said Union, or to sever said Union, are unauthorized, and
ought to be resisted with the whole power of the State.
"The Constitution of the United States, and the laws of Congress
passed in pursuance thereof, constitute the supreme law of the land,
to which paramount allegiance and obedience are due from every
citizen, anything in the Constitution, ordinances, or laws of any
State to the contrary notwithstanding."
Suffrage was granted to every male citizen twenty-one years of age.
All officers of the State were required to take the following oath:
"I, ---- ----, do solemnly swear that I will support and
maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the
Constitution and laws of the State of Virginia; and that I recognize
and accept the civil and political equality of all men before the
law," etc.
In addition, all State, city, and county officers were required to
take the test-oath prescribed by Congress on July 2, 1862, as follows:
"I do solemnly swear that I have never borne arms against the United
States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily
given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons
engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have never sought or
accepted, nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office
whatever, under any authority, or pretended authority, in hostility
to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to
any pretended government, authority, power, or Constitution within
the United States, hostile or inimical thereto; and I do further
swear that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support
and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,
foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to
the same; that I will take this obligation freely, without any mental
reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to
enter."
Major-General Schofield, in an address to the Convention in
opposition to these stringent provisions, said:
"You can not find in some of the counties a sufficient number of men
who are capable of filling the offices, and who can take the oath you
have prescribed here, I have no hesitation in saying that I believe
it impossible to inaugurate a government upon that basis."
Meantime the so-called Constitution was adopted by the Convention,
and June 2d fixed for the popular vote upon it. But no appropriation
was made for the expenses of the election, and it was not held.
Major-General Stoneman now succeeded Major-General Schofield.
The utter subjugation of the sovereign people of Virginia was now
manifest. Not a public act of the least importance could they do
without the consent of the military chief who ruled over them, and
who was a stranger in their State. Finding the provisions of this
Constitution were so restrictive as to exclude from the elective
franchise nearly all of the most intelligent and best-educated
citizens, on account of their participation in the late war, a
movement was commenced for a modification of these clauses or their
entire omission. The sovereignty of the people was extinct, so no
relief could be secured except through the action of the sovereign
sitting in Washington. Congress, therefore, passed an act authorizing
the President (Grant), at such time as he might deem best, to submit
the Constitution to the registered voters of Virginia, and also
submit to a separate vote such provisions of the Constitution as he
thought proper. The act also required the Legislature that should be
elected to ratify the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the
Constitution of the United States, as a condition precedent "to the
readmission of the State into the Union."
The fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution was passed by
Congress in February, 1869, and submitted to the Legislatures of the
States. It was as follows:
"SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
"SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation."
On the passage of the amendment by the United States Senate, Senator
Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, said:
"Sir, your amendments to the Constitution are all void; they are of
no effect. They were proposed by a mutilated Congress; they were
proposed by a mutilated House of Representatives and Senate."
The election in Virginia took place on July 6, 1869. The vote on the
Constitution was, for it, 206,233; against it, 9,189. For the
disfranchising clause, 84,404; against it, 124,361. In favor of the
test-oath clause, the votes were, 83,114; against it, 124,106. State
officers and a Legislature were chosen.
Meantime the civil or provisional Governor had been removed by the
military commander, Major-General Stoneman, and the commander of the
first district put in the vacancy. At the same time the
President-Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals was a staff-officer
of the General commanding, and assigned to that duty; and another one
of the judges of that court was an officer of the Federal army,
receiving his appointment from the same source.
On October 5th the Legislature assembled, the State officers-elect
having already entered upon their duties. The fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments to the United States Constitution were adopted,
and Senators elected to Congress. On January 26, 1870, a bill for the
admission of the State into the Union, "without further condition,"
was passed. Her subjugation was now completed. The military
commanders were withdrawn, and she was left in the hands of
"carpet-baggers."
[Footnote 130: Declaration of Independence.]