THE MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION ACT.
Proposition by Mr. Stevens -- "Piratical Governments" not to
be Recognized -- The Military Feature Introduced -- Mr.
Schofield's Dog -- The Only Hope of Mr. Hise -- Conversation
Concerning the Reconstruction Committee -- Censure of a
Member -- A Military Bill Reported -- War Predicted -- The
"Blaine Amendment" -- Bill Passes the House -- In the Senate
-- Proposition to Amend -- Mr. Mcdougall Desires Liberty of
Speech -- Mr. Doolittle Pleads for the Life of the Republic
-- Mr. Sherman's Amendment -- Passage in the Senate --
Discussion and Non-concurrence in the House -- The Senate
Unyielding -- Qualified Concurrence of the House -- The Veto
-- "The Funeral of the Nation" -- The Act -- Supplementary
Legislation.
Soon after the passage of the bill extending the elective franchise in
the District of Columbia, Congress was occupied in devising and
discussing a practical and efficient measure for the reconstruction of
the rebel States. The germ of the great "Act for the more efficient
government of the rebel States" is to be found in the previous session
of Congress in a proposition made by Mr. Stevens on the 28th of May
"to enable the States lately in rebellion to regain their privileges
in the Union."
The Constitutional Amendment had been eliminated in the Senate of
features which Mr. Stevens regarded as of great importance. There was
an indisposition on the part of the House to declaring by an act of
Congress that the rebel States should be restored on the sole
condition of their accepting and ratifying the Constitutional
Amendment. The bill proposed by Mr. Stevens was designed by its author
as a plan of restoration to take the place of the proposition which
accompanied the Constitutional Amendment. This bill recognized the _de
facto_ State governments at the South as valid "for municipal
purposes." It required the President to issue a proclamation within
six months calling conventions to form legitimate State constitutions,
which should be ratified by the people. All male citizens above
twenty-one years of age should be voters, and should be eligible to
membership in these constitutional conventions. All persons who held
office under the "government called the Confederate States of
America," or swore allegiance thereto, were declared to have forfeited
their citizenship, and were required to be naturalized as foreigners
before being allowed to vote. All citizens should be placed upon an
equal footing in the reörganized States.
On the 28th of July, the last day of the session, Mr. Stevens brought
this bill to the notice of the House, without demanding any action
upon it. He made a solemn and affecting appeal to the House, and
insisted upon it as the great duty of Congress to give all loyal men,
white and black, the means of self-protection. "In this, perhaps my
final action," said he, "on this great question, upon careful review,
I can see nothing in my political course, especially in regard to
human freedom, which I could wish to have expurged or changed."
On the 19th of December, 1866, a few days after the reässembling of
Congress for the second session, Mr. Stevens called up his bill for
the purpose of amending it and putting it in proper shape for the
consideration of Congress after the holidays.
On the 3d of January, 1867, Mr. Stevens addressed the House in favor
of his plan of reconstruction. "This bill," said he, "is designed to
enable loyal men, so far as I could discriminate them in these States,
to form governments which shall be in loyal hands, and may protect
them from outrages."
As an amendment to this bill, Mr. Ashley, chairman of the Committee on
Territories, offered a substitute which was intended to establish
provisional governments in the rebel States.
Mr. Pike brought in review before the House three modes of dealing
with the rebel States which had been proposed for the consideration
and decision of Congress. The first was the immediate admission of the
States into a full participation in the Government, treating them as
if they had never been in rebellion. The second was "the let-alone
policy, which would merely refuse them representation until they had
adopted the constitutional amendments." The third mode was "the
immediate action by Congress in superseding the governments of those
States set up by the President in 1865, and establishing in their
place governments founded upon loyalty and universal suffrage." The
policy last mentioned was advocated by Mr. Pike. "It has got to be
time for action," said he, "if we are to fulfill the reasonable
expectations of the country during the life of this Congress."
On the 7th of January Mr. Stevens proposed to amend his bill by
inserting a provision that no person should be disfranchised as a
punishment for any crime other than insurrection or treason. He gave
as a reason for proposing this amendment that in North Carolina, and
other States where punishment at the whipping-post deprives the person
of the right to vote, they were every day whipping negroes for trivial
offenses. He had heard of one county where the authorities had whipped
every adult negro they knew of.
On the 8th of January a speech was made by Mr. Broomall advocating the
passage of the bill before the House. "Can the negro in the South
preserve his civil rights without political ones?" he asked. "Let the
convention riot of New Orleans answer; let the terrible three days in
Memphis answer. In the latter city three hundred negroes, who had
periled their lives in the service of their country, and still wore
its uniform, were compelled to look on while the officers of the law,
elected by white men, set their dwellings in flames and fired upon
their wives and children as they escaped from the doors and windows.
Their churches and school-houses were burned because they were their
churches and school-houses. Yet no arrest, no conviction, no
punishment awaits the perpetrators of these deeds, who walk in open
day and boast of their enormities, because, forsooth, this is a white
man's Government."
On the 16th of January the discussion was resumed. Mr. Paine first
addressed the House. He opposed the second section of the bill, which
recognized the _de facto_ governments of the rebel States as valid for
municipal purposes. "I am surprised," said he, "that the gentleman
from Pennsylvania should be ready, voluntarily, to assume this burden
of responsibility for the anarchy of murder, robbery, and arson which
reigns in these so-called _de facto_ governments. He may be able to
get this fearful burden upon his back; but if he does, I warn him of
the danger that the sands of his life will all run out before he will
be able to shake it off. He will have these piratical governments on
his hands voluntarily recognized as valid for municipal purposes until
duly altered. He will have gratuitously become a copartner in the
guilt which hitherto has rested upon the souls of Andrew Johnson and
his Northern and Southern satellites, but which thenceforth will rest
on his soul also until he can contrive duly to alter these
governments. And so it will happen that the great Union party to which
he belongs, and to which I belong, will become implicated, for how
long a time God only knows, in this unspeakable iniquity which daily
and hourly cries to Heaven from every rood of rebel soil for vengeance
on these monsters."
Mr. Bingham moved to refer the two bills--that of Mr. Stevens and that
of Mr. Ashley--to the Committee on Reconstruction. He opposed these
bills as "a substantial denial of the right of the great people who
saved this republic by arms to save it by fundamental law." He
advocated the propriety of making the proposed Constitutional
Amendment the basis of reconstruction. It had already received the
ratification of the Legislatures representing not less than twelve
millions of the people of this nation. The fact that all the rebel
States which had considered the amendment in their Legislatures had
rejected it did not invalidate this mode of reconstruction. "Those
insurrectionary States," said he, "have no power whatever as States of
this Union, and can not lawfully restrain, for a single moment, that
great body of freemen who cover this continent from ocean to ocean,
now organized States of the Union and represented here, in their fixed
purpose and undoubted legal right to incorporate the amendment into
the Constitution of the United States."
Mr. Bingham maintained that Congress has the power, without
restriction by the Executive or the Supreme Court, to "propose
amendments to the Constitutions, and to decide finally the question of
the ratification thereof, as well as to legislate for the nation." "I
look upon both these bills," said Mr. Bingham, "as a manifest
departure from the spirit and intent of our Constitutional Amendment.
I look upon it as an attempt to take away from the people of the
States lately in rebellion that protection which you have attempted to
secure to them by your Constitutional Amendment."
Mr. Dawson, in a speech of an hour's duration, maintained the
doctrine, which he announced as that which had given shape to
presidential policy, "that the attempt at secession having been
suppressed by the physical power of the Government, the States, whose
authority was usurped by the parties to the movement, have never, at
any time, been out of the Union; and that having once expressed their
acquiescence in the result of the contest and renewed their allegiance
to the Union, they are, at the same time, restored to all the rights
and duties of the adhering States."
On the other hand, the policy of Congress, in the opinion of Mr.
Dawson, was "a shameless outrage upon justice and every conservative
principle,"--a "usurpation of Federal powers and a violation of State
rights."
Mr. Maynard gave expression to his opinions by asking the significant
question, "Whether the men who went into the rebellion did not by
connecting themselves with a foreign government, by every act of which
they were capable, denude themselves of their citizenship--whether
they are not to be held and taken by this Government now as men
denuded of their citizenship, having no rights as citizens except such
as the legislative power of this Government may choose to confer upon
them? In other words, is not the question on our part one of
enfranchisement, not of disfranchisement?"
On the 17th of January, Mr. Baker addressed the House in favor of
referring the pending bill to the Committee on Reconstruction. He was
opposed to the use of the term "Government," without qualification or
restriction, as applied to the lately revolted States. He opposed the
second section, as causing the _de facto_ governments to become valid
for municipal purposes long before the scheme of reconstruction
contemplated by the bill is effectuated. "To recognize them in
advance," said he, "would be to incur the danger of further
embarrassing the whole subject by the illogical consequences of our
own illogical procedure."
At this stage Mr. Stevens arose and modified his substitute by
withdrawing the second section, which contained the provision objected
to by Mr. Baker as well as by his "ardent friend" Mr. Paine. Mr. Baker
objected to that feature of the bill which provided that none should
be deprived of the right to vote as a punishment for any crime save
insurrection or treason. "The penitentiaries of these States," said
he, "might disgorge their inmates upon the polls under the operation
of this bill."
Mr. Grinnell was opposed to sending the question to the Committee on
Reconstruction. He did not think it the most modest proposition in the
world for Mr. Bingham to urge the reference to his committee of a
great question which, the House generally desired to consider. "Let us
have no delay," said he, "no recommitment, rather the earliest action
upon this bill, as the requirement of the people who have saved the
country, what the suffering implore, what justice demands, and what I
believe God will approve."
"It is to my mind most clear," said Mr. Donnelly, in a speech upon the
pending question, "that slavery having ceased to exist, the slaves
became citizens; being citizens they are a part of the people, and
being a part of the people no organization deserves a moment's
consideration at our hands which attempts to ignore them."
Of the Southern States as under rebel rule, Mr. Donnelly remarked:
"The whites are to make the laws, execute the laws, interpret the
laws, and write the history of their own deeds; but below them; under
them, there is to be a vast population--a majority of the whole
people--seething and writhing in a condition of suffering, darkness,
and wretchedness unparalleled in the world. And this is to be an
American State! This is to be a component part of the great, humane,
Christian republic of the world."
"It is hard," said Mr. Eldridge, in a speech against the bill, "sad to
stand silently by and see the republic overthrown. It is indeed
appalling to those accustomed from early childhood to revere and love
the Constitution, to feel that it is in the keeping of those having
the power and determination to destroy it. With the passage of this
bill must die every hope and vestige of the government of the
Constitution. It is indeed the final breaking up and dissolution of
the union of the States by the usurpation and revolutionary act of
Congress."
"Your work of restoration," said Mr. Warner, "will never commence
until the Congress of the United States assumes to be one of the
departments of the General Government. It will never commence until
you have declared, in the language of the Supreme Court, that the
Executive, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, 'can not
exercise a civil function.'"
"In less than two brief years of office," said Mr. Warner, speaking of
the President, "he has exercised more questionable powers, assumed
more doubtful constitutional functions, obliterated more
constitutional barriers, and interposed more corrupt schemes to the
expression of the popular sentiment or will of the people than all
other Executives since the existence of the Government."
Mr. Spalding feared that the bill, should it become a law, would be
found defective in not affording any protection to that loyal class of
the inhabitants of those communities upon whom the elective franchise
was conferred. "These colored men," said he, "who are now recognized
by the Government as possessing the rights of freemen, are to be in
jeopardy of being shot down like so many dogs when they attempt to
visit the polls." He then offered an amendment, which was accepted by
Mr. Stevens, by which a section was added to the bill suspending the
writ of _habeas corpus_ in the ten rebel States, and placing them
under martial law until they should be admitted to representation in
Congress under the provisions of the bill. In this section thus
introduced may be seen the origin of that feature which, in an
enlarged and extended form, gave character to the important measure
ultimately adopted by Congress, which is popularly known as the
"Military Reconstruction Bill."
The discussion was continued by Mr. Koontz. "It is a solemn,
imperative duty," said he, "that this nation owes to its colored
people to protect them against their own and the nation's foes. It
would be a burning, lasting disgrace to the nation were it to hand
them over to their enemies. I know of no way in which this protection
can be better given than by extending to them the elective franchise.
Place the ballot in the hands of the black man and you give him that
which insures him respect as well as protection."
Mr. Scofield maintained that the ratification of the Constitutional
Amendment by three-fourths of the loyal States was all that was
necessary. "Twenty-three of the twenty-six States elected Legislatures
instructed to adopt it. Very soon these twenty-three States, having a
population in 1860 of twenty-one million five hundred thousand, and
not less than twenty-seven millions now, will send to a perfidious
Secretary the official evidence of the people's will. Delaware,
Maryland, and Kentucky alone give a negative answer. Who, then, stands
in the way? One old man who is charged by law with the duty of
proclaiming the adoption of the amendment, but who has determined to
incorporate into the Union the _debris_ of the late Confederacy--he
stands in the way."
"The Secretary is clever in work of this kind. An English nobleman was
at one time exhibiting his kennel to an American friend, and passing
by many of his showiest bloods, they came upon one that seemed nearly
used up. 'This,' said the nobleman, 'is the most valuable animal in
the pack, although he is old, lame, blind, and deaf.' 'How is that?'
inquired the visitor. The nobleman explained: 'His education was good,
to begin with, and his wonderful sense of smell is still unimpaired.
We only take him out to catch the scent, and put the puppies on the
track, and then return him to the kennel.' Do not suppose that I
intend any comparison between the Secretary of State and that veteran
hunter. Such a comparison would be neither dignified nor truthful,
because the Englishman went on to say, 'I have owned that dog for
thirteen years, and, hard as he looks, he never bit the hand that fed
him nor barked on a false trail.'"
The laughter and applause which followed, were checked by the
Speaker's gavel, which Mr. Schofield mistook for a notice to quit.
"Has my time expired?" asked he. "It has not," replied the Speaker.
"The Chair called you to order," said Mr. Stevens, in his seat, "for
doing injustice to the dog."
Mr. Ward, who next addressed the House, presented a novel theory of
the rebel war. "The people of the South," said he, "did not make war
upon our republican form of government, nor seek to destroy it; they
only sought to make two republics out of one. They are now, and have
been all the time, as much attached to our system of free republican
government as those who abuse them for disloyalty."
Mr. Ward presented his view of the state of things which would result
from the passage of the pending bill. "These negro judges," said he,
"will sit and hold this election backed by the United States army.
That is rather an elevated position for the new-made freedman; the
_habeas corpus_ suspended, martial law proclaimed, the army at the
back of the negro conducting an election to reconstruct States."
Mr. Plants addressed the House in favor of the pending bill. Of the
reception given by the rebels to the proposed constitutional
amendment, he said: "They have not only refused to accept the more
than generous terms proposed, but have rejected them with contumely,
and with the haughty and insulting bravado of assumed superiority
demand that the nation shall submit to such terms as they shall
dictate."
Mr. Miller, while advocating the pending measure, favored its
reference to the Committee on Reconstruction. He gave a detailed
account of the Constitutional Amendment, and its progress toward
ratification among the Legislatures. He showed that the progress of
reconstruction was delayed through fault of the rebels themselves. "It
is not the desire of the great Republican party," said he, "to retard
the restoration of those ten States to full political rights, but on
the contrary they are anxious for a speedy adjustment, in order to
secure adequate protection to all classes and conditions of men
residing therein, and at the same time afford ample security to the
United States Government against any future refractory course that
might be pursued on the part of those States."
On the 21st of January the discussion was resumed by Mr. Kerr in a
speech against the bill. He quoted extensively from judicial decisions
and opinions to show that the rebel States were still entitled to
their original rights in the Union. "The undisguised and most
unrighteous purpose of all this kind of legislation," said he, "is to
usurp powers over those States that can find no warrant except in the
fierce will of the dominant party in this Congress. It is alike at war
with every principle of good and free government, and with the highest
dictates of humanity and national fraternity."
Mr. Higby was in favor of the pending bill, and opposed its reference
to the Committee on Reconstruction. He preferred that it should be
retained in the House, where it could be changed, matured, and finally
passed. He contended that the rebel States should not come into the
Union under any milder conditions than those imposed upon Territories
recently passed upon in Congress. "Impartial suffrage," said he, "is
required of each of those Territories as a condition precedent to
their becoming States; and shall South Carolina, upon this basis of
reconstruction, become a part of this Union upon different terms and
principles entirely from those implied by the votes we have just
given?"
Mr. Trimble denounced the pending legislation in violent terms. "By
this act," said he, "you dissolve their connection with the Government
of the United States, blot them out of existence as freemen, and
degrade them to the condition of negro commonwealths. We have this
monstrous proposition: to declare martial law in ten States of this
Union; and in making this declaration, we, in my judgment, step upon
the mangled ruins of the Constitution; for the Constitution plainly
gives this power neither to the executive nor the legislative
department of the Government."
Mr. Dodge, although a Republican, and in favor of "protecting the best
interests of the colored man," could not vote for either of the
propositions before the House. "The result of the passage of this
bill," said he, "if it shall become operative, will be to disfranchise
nearly the entire white population of the Southern States, and at the
same time enfranchise the colored people and give them the virtual
control in the proposed organization of the new State governments."
Mr. Dodge was particularly opposed to the military feature proposed by
Mr. Spalding. "This is not likely," said he, "in the nature of things,
to bring about an early reörganization of the South. The commercial,
the manufacturing, and the agricultural interests of this country, as
they look at this matter, will see in it a continuance of taxation
necessary to support this military array sent to these ten States."
"This bill, if executed," said Mr. Hise, in the course of a speech
against the measure, "will in effect establish corrupt and despotic
local governments for all those States, and place in all the offices
the most ignorant, degraded, and corrupt portion of their population,
who would rule and ruin without honesty or skill the actual
property-holders and native inhabitants, making insecure life,
liberty, and property, and still holding those States in their Federal
relations subject to the most rapacious, fierce, and unrelenting
despotism that ever existed, that of a vindictive and hostile party
majority of a Congress in which they have no voice or representation,
and by which irresponsible majority they would be mercilessly
oppressed for that very reason; and this will be continued, I fear,
until the country shall again be precipitated into civil war."
Since the "beneficent conservative power" of the President was
overcome by two-thirds of Congress, Mr. Hise could see safety for the
nation in but one direction. "Our only hope," said he, "of the
preservation of a free government is in the judicial department of the
government, and in the decisions of the Supreme Court pronouncing your
acts unconstitutional and void."
Mr. Raymond preferred the Constitutional Amendment as the basis of
reconstruction, and blamed the party in power for abandoning that
policy. "Last year," said he, "that man was untrue to his party
obligations who did not stand by it; this year the man is declared to
be faithless to his party who does."
Having spoken at considerable length against the pending measure, Mr.
Raymond said: "For these reasons, sir, reasons of policy and of
authority, I do not think we ought to pass this bill. I do not believe
it would be at all effective in securing the objects at which we aim,
or that it would conduce in the slightest degree to promote peace and
secure equal rights among the people upon whom it is to take effect.
And I can not help believing that it contains provisions directly at
war with specific and peremptory prohibitions of the Constitution."
Mr. Raymond defended the Secretary of State against the accusations of
Mr. Schofield. Mr. Seward was not "a perfidious old man," but one
"venerable, not more for age than for the signal services to his
country and the cause of freedom every-where, by which his long and
laborious life, devoted wholly, from early manhood, to the public
service, has been made illustrious." The Secretary of State acted
under law. If Congress expected him to act under the theory that
three-fourths of the loyal States were sufficient for the ratification
of the Constitutional Amendment, they should pass a law to that
effect.
"The man," said Mr. Shellabarger, "who is now the acting President of
the United States, once said to me, in speaking of a bill like the one
now before the House, that it was a measure to dissolve the Union.
That proposition has been so often repeated by members upon the other
side of this hall, that I have thought the House would probably pardon
me if I should attempt to condense into a few sentences a suggestion
or two in regard to that declaration, repeated so often and worn out
so thoroughly as it is."
Mr. Shellabarger maintained the right of governments to withhold from
those who discard all the obligations pertaining to their citizenship
the powers and rights which come alone from performing these
obligations. "This identical principle," said he, "was asserted at the
origin of your Government in the legislation of every one of the
States of the Confederation; was repeated and reënacted by three, at
least, of the first Congresses under the Constitution, and has been
virtually reënacted by being kept in force by every subsequent
Congress which ever met under the Constitution."
"I see such diversity of opinion on this side of the House," said Mr.
Stevens, "upon any question of reconstruction, that, if I do not
change my mind, I shall to-morrow relieve the House from any question
upon the merits of this bill by moving to lay it on the table."
On the 26th of January the discussion was renewed. Mr. Ross,
considering the argument on the constitutionality of the measure
exhausted, endeavored to show that the bill was "in clear conflict
with the action of the party in power during the entire progress of
the war, and in conflict with the clearly-expressed opinions of the
Executive of the nation, the Supreme Court, and the Congress of the
United States."
Mr. Ashley withdrew his amendment to Mr. Stevens' bill that the House
might, in Committee of the Whole, have an opportunity to perfect the
bill so as to send it to the Senate within two or three days.
"I ask the gentleman," said Mr. Conkling, "to state his objection to
having a subject like this committed to a committee which has now no
work upon its hands, and which has a right to report at any time."
"The Committee on Reconstruction," replied Mr. Ashley, "have held no
meetings during this entire session up to this hour. Several bills
proposed by gentlemen have been referred to that committee during this
session, upon which they have taken no action. If the committee ever
gets together again--which I doubt, as it is a large committee,
composed of both branches of Congress--I have but little hope of their
being able to agree. The chairman of the committee on the part of the
Senate, as is well known, is absorbed in his efforts to perfect the
financial measures of the country, and I fear that if this bill goes
to that committee it will go to its grave, and that it will not,
during the life of the Thirty-ninth Congress, see the light. If I were
opposed to these bills, I would vote to send them to that committee as
sending them to their tomb."
"There is no difficulty," responded Mr. Conkling, "in having prompt
consideration of any thing which may be sent to the committee. It was
created originally solely to deal with this subject. It was, at first,
broken into four sub-committees, that the work of gathering evidence
might be more advantageously and speedily carried on. It became one
committee, usually working together, only during a few weeks
immediately preceding the bringing forward of its ultimate
propositions. It would not be decorous for me to praise the committee
or the work it did, but I may say with propriety that if it ever was a
good committee, if it ever should have been created and composed as it
was, it is a good committee now--better than it ever was before;
better, because more familiar with this subject, because its members,
having now become acquainted with each other's views, and having
become accustomed to act with each other, and having studied the whole
subject committed to them, can proceed with much more hope of good
results than ever before. Having a right to report at any time, and
being led, on the part of this House, by the distinguished gentleman
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], I see no reason why it can not
consider and digest wisely and promptly whatever may be referred to it
and make report."
"We are now considering a report from that very committee," said Mr.
Stevens. "That committee made a report, and I have offered a
substitute for the bill which they reported. If the gentleman thinks
the report of that committee is best, then let him vote against my
substitute. But why send this subject back again to the committee? The
gentleman knows as well as I do how many different opinions there are
in that committee; some of us believe in one thing, and some of us in
another; some of us are very critical, and some of us are not. The
idea that we can consider any thing in that committee, constituted as
it is, in less than a fortnight, it seems to me is wholly out of the
question; and as we have only about some twenty working days in which
to mature this bill in both branches of Congress, if we send this
subject to that committee and let it take its time to consider it, and
then have it reported here and considered again, I certainly need not
say to gentlemen that that would be an end of the matter, at least for
this session."
"The gentleman from Pennsylvania concurred in that report," replied
Mr. Conkling. "He had his full share in molding it and making it
precisely what it was. He supported it then; now he offers a
substitute for it. Why? Because the time which has elapsed since then,
and the events which have transpired, have modified, he thinks, the
exigencies of the case. Is not that as applicable to the judgment of
the committee as to his own? Is it not proper that it should have the
opportunity of acting for once in the light of all the facts and
circumstances as they are to day?"
"Two or three bills on this subject," said Mr. Stevens, "have been
referred during this session to that committee. Why has not the
committee acted on them?"
"If I were the chairman of the committee on the part of this House,"
replied Mr. Conkling, "I should be able to answer that question,
because then I could tell why I had not called the committee together.
But as I am only a subordinate member of the committee, whose business
it is to come when I am called, and never to call others, I am
entirely unable to give the information for which the gentleman
inquires."
"If I could have any assurance," said Mr. Ashley, "that this committee
would be able to report promptly a bill upon which this House could
probably agree, I would not hesitate a single moment to vote for the
reference of this measure to that committee; but, believing that they
will be unable to agree, I shall vote against a recommitment."
In describing the character of the opposition arrayed against the
Congressional plan of reconstruction, Mr. Ashley used the following
emphatic language: "Why, sir, the assumption, the brazen-faced
assumption of men who during the entire war were in open or secret
alliance with the rebels, coming here now and joining hands with the
apostate at the other end of the avenue, who is the leader, the
recognized leader of a counter-revolution--a negative rebellion, as I
said awhile ago--passes comprehension."
"If intended to apply to us," said Mr. Winfield, speaking for the
Democratic members, "it is a base and unfounded slander."
"So far as I am concerned, it is a base lie," said Mr. Hunter. For
using these words, "condemned by gentlemen every-where, as well as by
parliamentary law," the House passed a vote of censure on Mr. Hunter,
and he was required to go forward and receive a public reprimand from
the Speaker.
On the 28th of January, the House having resumed the consideration of
the bill to restore to the rebel States their full political rights,
Mr. Julian expressed his belief that the time had come for action, and
that having the great subject before them, they should proceed
earnestly, and with little delay, to mature some measure which would
meet the demand of the people. "Let us tolerate no further
procrastination," said he; "and while we justly hold the President
responsible for the trouble and mal-administration which now curse the
South and disturb the peace of the country, let us remember that the
national odium already perpetually linked with the name of Andrew
Johnson will be shared by us if we fail in the great duty which is now
brought to our doors."
Mr. Julian differed with many others in his opinion of the real wants
of the rebel States. "What these regions need," said he, "above all
things, is not an easy and quick return to their forfeited rights in
the Union, but _government_, the strong arm of power, outstretched
from the central authority here in Washington, making it safe for the
freedmen of the South, safe for her loyal white men, safe for
emigrants from the Old World and from the Northern States to go and
dwell there; safe for Northern capital and labor, Northern energy and
enterprise, and Northern ideas to set up their habitation in peace,
and thus found a Christian civilization and a living democracy amid
the ruins of the past."
"It would seem," said Mr. Cullom, "that the men who have been
struggling so hard to destroy this country were and still are the
instruments, however wicked, by which we are driven to give the black
man justice, whether we will or no.
"By the unholy persistence of rebels slavery was at last overthrown.
Their contempt of the Constitutional Amendment, now before the
country, will place in the hands of every colored man of the South the
ballot."
The bill before the House was referred to the Committee on
Reconstruction by a vote of eighty-eight to sixty-five.
On the 4th of February, Mr. Williams, of Oregon, introduced into the
Senate "A bill to provide for the more efficient government of the
insurrectionary States," which was referred to the Committee on
Reconstruction.
[Illustration: Geo. H. Williams, Senator from Oregon.]
This bill, having been considered by the Committee, was adopted by
them, and was reported by their chairman to the House, on the 6th of
February, in the following form:
"_Whereas_, the pretended State Governments of the late
so-called Confederate States of Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,
Florida, Texas, and Arkansas were set up without the
authority of Congress and without the sanction of the
people; and _whereas_ said pretended governments afford no
adequate protection for life or property, but countenance
and encourage lawlessness and crime; and _whereas_ it is
necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in
said so-called States until loyal and Republican State
Governments can be legally established: Therefore,
"_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That
said so-called States shall be divided into military
districts and made subject to the military authority of the
United States, as hereinafter prescribed; and for that
purpose Virgina shall constitute the first district, North
Carolina and South Carolina the second district, Georgia,
Alabama, and Florida the third district, Mississippi and
Arkansas the fourth district, and Louisiana and Texas the
fifth district.
"SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be the
duty of the General of the army to assign to the command of
each of said districts an officer of the regular army not
below the rank of brigadier general, and to detail a
sufficient force to enable such officer to perform his
duties and enforce his authority within the district to
which he is assigned.
"SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be the
duty of each officer assigned, as aforesaid, to protect all
persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress
insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish, or
cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and
criminals; and to this end he may allow civil tribunals to
take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or when in his
judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders he
shall have power to organize military commissions or
tribunals for that purpose, any thing in the constitution
and laws of the so-called States to the contrary
notwithstanding; and all legislative or judicial proceedings
or processes to prevent the trial or proceedings of such
tribunals, and all interference by said pretended State
governments with the exercise of military authority under
this act shall be void and of no effect.
"SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That courts and
judicial officers of the United States shall not issue writs
of _habeas corpus_ in behalf of persons in military custody
unless some commissioned officer on duty in the district
wherein the person is detained shall indorse upon said
petition a statement certifying upon honor that he has
knowledge or information as to the cause and circumstances
of the alleged detention, and that he believes the same to
be rightful; and further, that he believes that the indorsed
petition is preferred in good faith and in furtherance of
justice, and not to hinder or delay the punishment of crime.
All persons put under military arrest, by virtue of this
act, shall be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel
or unusual punishment shall be inflicted.
"SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That no sentence of
any military commission or tribunal hereby authorized,
affecting the life or liberty of any person, shall be
executed until it is approved by the officer in command of
the district; and the laws and regulations for the
government of the army shall not be affected by this act,
except in so far as they conflict with its provisions."
Mr. Stevens, having been remonstrated with by a Democratic member for
expressing a wish to bring the question to vote without a prolonged
debate, replied: "I am very willing that the debate which has been
going on here for three weeks shall all be read over by the gentleman
whenever he can take time to read it." "On behalf of the American
people," said the same member, "I ask more time for debate." "I will
see what the American people think of it in the morning. If they are
generally for a prolongation of the debate, of course I will go with
them. But I will wait until then, in order to ascertain what the
people want."
On the following day, February 7th, Mr. Stevens introduced the
discussion with a brief speech. "This bill provides," said he, that
"the ten disorganized States shall be divided into five military
districts, and that the commander of the army shall take charge of
them through his lieutenants as governors, or you may call them
commandants if you choose, not below the grade of brigadiers, who
shall have the general supervision of the peace, quiet, and the
protection of the people, loyal and disloyal, who reside within those
precincts; and that to do so he may use, as the law of nations would
authorize him to do, the legal tribunals where-ever he may deem them
competent; but they are to be considered of no validity _per se_, of
no intrinsic force, no force in consequence of their origin, the
question being wholly within the power of the conqueror, and to remain
until that conqueror shall permanently supply their place with
something else. I will say, in brief, that is the whole bill. It does
not need much examination. One night's rest after its reading is
enough to digest it."
"Of all the various plans," said Mr. Brandegee, "which have been
discussed in this hall for the past two years, to my mind it seems the
plainest, the most appropriate, the freest from constitutional
objection, and the best calculated to accomplish the master aims of
reconstruction.
"It begins the work of reconstruction at the right end, and employs
the right tools for its accomplishment. It begins at the point where
Grant left off the work, at Appomattox Court-house, and it holds those
revolted communities in the grasp of war until the rebellion shall
have laid down its spirit, as two years ago it formally laid down its
arms."
Mr. Le Blond characterized the Committee on Reconstruction as "the
maelstrom committee, which swallows up every thing that is good and
gives out every thing that is evil."
"There is nothing left," said he, in the conclusion of his speech,
"but quiet submission to your tyranny, or a resort to arms on the part
of the American people to defend themselves.
"I do not desire war; but as one American citizen, I do prefer war to
cowardly submission and total destruction of the fundamental
principles of our Government. In my honest conviction, nothing but the
strong arm of the American people, wielded upon the bloody
battle-field, will ever restore civil liberty to the American people
again."
"Is it possible," said Mr. Finck, "that in this Congress we can find
men bold enough and bad enough to conspire against the right of trial
by jury, the great privilege of _habeas corpus_; men who are willing
to reverse the axiom that the military should be subordinate to the
civil power, and to establish the abhorred doctrine resisted by the
brave and free men of every age, that the military should be superior
to the civil authority?"
"It does not seem to me," said Mr. Pike, "that the change proposed to
be made by this bill in the management of the Southern States is so
violent as gentlemen on the other side would have us suppose. They
seem to believe that now the people of those States govern themselves;
but the truth is, since the suppression of the rebellion, that is,
since the surrender of the rebel armies in 1865, the government of
those States have been virtually in the hands of the President of the
United States.
"This bill does not transfer the government of those States from the
people to the officers of the army, but only from the President to
those officers."
Mr. Farnsworth, who next addressed the House, gave numerous
authenticated instances of outrages and murders perpetrated by rebels
upon Union soldiers and citizens. "It is no longer a question of
doubt," said he, "it can not be denied that the loyal men, the Union
soldiers and the freedmen in these disorganized and disloyal States
are not protected. They are murdered with impunity; they are despoiled
of their goods and their property; they are banished, scattered,
driven from the country."
Mr. Rogers denounced the pending bill in most emphatic language. "You
will carry this conflict on," said he, "until you bring about a war
that will shake this country as with the throes of an earthquake; a
war that will cause the whole civilized world to witness our dreadful
shock and fill nature with agony in all her parts, with which the one
we have passed through is not at all to be compared."
He eulogized President Johnson in the highest terms. "Free
government," said he, "brought him from a poor boy to as great a man
as ever lived, and he deserves as much credit as Washington and will
yet receive it. He will not submit to have the citadel of liberty
invaded and destroyed without using the civil and military powers to
prevent it. He will maintain the Constitution, sir, even to the
spilling of blood."
Mr. Bingham proposed to amend the bill to make it accord with his
theory by substituting the phrase "the said States" for the words
"so-called States." He also proposed some limitation of the extent to
which the _habeas corpus_ should be suspended. "When these men," said
he, "shall have fulfilled their obligations" and when the great people
themselves shall have put, by their own rightful authority, into the
fundamental law the sublime decree, the nation's will, that no State
shall deny to any mortal man the equal protection of the laws--not of
the laws of South Carolina alone, but of the laws national and State,
and above all, sir, of the great law, the Constitution of our own
country, which is the supreme law of the land, from Georgia to Oregon,
and from Maine to Florida--then, sir, by assenting thereto those
States may be restored at once. To that end, sir, I labor and for that
I strive."
"Unless the population of these States," said Mr. Lawrence, "is to be
left to the merciless rule of the rebels, who employ the color of
authority they exercise under illegal but _de facto_ State governments
to oppress all who are loyal without furnishing them any protection
against murder and all the wrongs that rebels can inflict on loyal
men, we can not, dare not refuse to pass this bill."
Since, however, the bill did not propose any "plan of reörganizing
State governments in the late rebel States," Mr. Lawrence read
amendments which he desired to introduce at the proper time, providing
that the laws of the District of Columbia, "not locally inapplicable,"
should be in force in the rebel territory and that the United States
courts should have jurisdiction.
Mr. Hise declared this a "stupid, cruel, unwise, and unconstitutional
measure." "If I had not been prepared," said he, "by other measures
hitherto adopted and others hitherto introduced into this House, I
should not have been less startled at the introduction of this than if
I had received the sudden intelligence that the ten States enumerated
in this bill had been sunk by some great convulsion of nature and
submerged under an oceanic deluge."
"This is not, strictly speaking, a measure of reconstruction," said
Mr. Ingersoll, "but a measure looking simply to the enforcement of
order. It seems to me clear, then, that, not only under the laws of
war and under the laws of nations, but under the express authority of
the Constitution itself, Congress possesses the rightful authority to
establish military governments, as proposed by the bill under
consideration."
Referring to Mr. Le Blond's anticipated war, Mr. Ingersoll said: "I
desire to ask the gentleman where he is going to get his soldiers to
make war upon the Government and the Congress of the United States?
You will hardly find them in the rebel States. They have had enough of
war; they have been thoroughly whipped, and do not desire to be
whipped again. You will not get them from the loyal people of the
Northern or Southern States. If you get any at all, you may drum up a
few recruits from the Democratic ranks, but in the present weak and
shattered condition of that party you would hardly be able to raise a
very formidable army, and I tell the gentleman if the party decreases
in the same ratio in the coming year as it has in the last, the whole
party together would not form a respectable _corps d'armée_."
"How about the bread and butter brigade?" interposed a member.
"I did not think of that heroic and patriotic band," replied Mr.
Ingersoll, "but I do not apprehend much danger from that source; it
would be a bloodless conflict; we would have no use either for the
sword or musket; all that would be necessary to make a conquest over
them would be found in the commissary department. Order out the bread
and butter and peace would be restored."
Mr. Shanklin warned the House of the danger of establishing military
governments in the South. "You may be in the plenitude of power
to-day," he said, in conclusion, "and you may be ousted to-morrow. And
I hope, if you do not cease these outrages upon the people of the
country, such as you propose here, such as are attempting to be
inflicted by your Freedmen's Bureau and your Civil Rights Bills, that
the time will not be long before that army which the gentleman from
Illinois [Mr. Ingersoll] seemed to think could not be raised--an army
armed with ballots, and not with bayonet--will march to the polls and
hurl the advocates of this and its kindred measures out of their
places, and fill them with men who appreciate more highly and justly
the rights of citizens and of freemen, with statesmen whose minds can
grasp our whole country and its rights and its wants, and whose hearts
are in sympathy with the noble, the brave, and the just, whether they
live in the sunny South or the ice-bound regions of the North."
"I hail this measure," said Mr. Thayer, "as interrupting this baleful
calm, which, if not disturbed by a proper exercise of legislative
power upon this subject, may be succeeded by disaster and collision.
It furnishes at least an initial point from which we can start in the
consideration and adjustment of the great question of reconstruction.
I regard this as a measure which lays the grasp of Congress upon this
great question--a grasp which is to hold on to it until it shall be
finally settled. I regard it as a measure which is to take that great
question out of that sea of embarrassment and sluggish inactivity in
which, through the course which the President has thought proper to
pursue, it now rests."
"For our neglect," said Mr. Harding, of Illinois, "to exert the
military power of the Government, we are responsible for the blood and
suffering which disgrace this republic. Let us go back, then, or
rather let us come up to where we were before, and exercise
jurisdiction over the territory conquered from the rebels, which
jurisdiction the President has given up to those rebels, to the great
suffering and injury of the Government and of loyal people."
"Let it be remembered all the time," said Mr. Shellabarger, "that your
country has a right to its life, and that the powers of your
Government are given for its preservation. Let it be remembered that
one portion of your republic has fallen into a state of rebellion, and
is still in a state of war against your Government, and that the
powers of the Government are to be exercised for the purposes of the
protection and the defense of the loyal, and the disloyal too, in that
part of the republic; and that, for the purpose of that defense, you
are authorized to suspend the privilege of the writ of _habeas
corpus_, and to exercise such extraordinary powers as are necessary to
the preservation of the great life of the nation. Let these things be
remembered; and then let it also be remembered that the law-making
power of the Government not only controls the President, but controls
the purposes and the ends and the objects of war, and, of course, the
movements of the armies that are to be employed in war. Let these
things be remembered, and it seems to me that all the difficulties
with which it is sought to surround this measure will at once
disappear."
"What carried our elections overwhelmingly?" asked Mr. Hotchkiss. "It
was the story of the Southern refugees told to the people of the North
and the West. They told us they demanded protection. They enlisted the
sympathy of Northern soldiers by telling that the very guerrillas who
hung upon the skirts of our army during the war were now murdering
Southern soldiers who fought on the Union side, and murdering peaceful
citizens, murdering black men who were our allies. We promised the
people if we were indorsed we would come back here and protect them,
and yet not a step has been taken."
Mr. Griswold regretted to vote against a measure proposed by those
whom he believed to "have at heart the best interest of the whole
country." "It seems to me," said he, "that the provisions of this bill
will lead us into greater danger than is justified by the evils we
seek to correct. It is, Mr. Speaker, a tremendous stride that we
propose to make by this bill to subject to military control ten
million people who have once been partners of this common country, and
who are to be united with us in its future trials and fortunes. This
bill proposes to place all the rights of life, liberty, and happiness
exclusively in the control of a mere military captain. This bill
contains no provisions for the establishment in the future of civil
governments there; it simply provides that for an indefinite period in
the future a purely military power shall have exclusive control and
jurisdiction there. That is, therefore, to me, another and a very
serious objection to this bill."
"There is a necessity," said Mr. Raymond, "for some measure of
protection to the people of the Southern States. I think it is clear
that life, liberty, and property are not properly guarded by law, are
not safe throughout those Southern States. They are not properly
protected by the courts and judicial tribunals of those States; they
are not properly protected by the civil authorities that are in
possession of political power in those States."
Of the pending bill, he said: "It is a simple abnegation of all
attempts for the time to protect the people in the Southern States by
the ordinary exercise of civil authority. It hands over all authority
in those States to officers of the army of the United States, and
clothes them as officers of the army with complete, absolute,
unrestricted power to administer the affairs of those States according
to their sovereign will and pleasure. In my opinion there has not
occurred an emergency which justifies a resort to this extreme remedy.
The military force ought to follow the civil authority, and not lead
it, not take its place, not supersede it."
"We must compel obedience to the Union," said Mr. Garfield, "and
demand protection for its humblest citizen wherever the flag floats.
We must so exert the power of the nation that it shall be deemed both
safe and honorable to have been loyal in the midst of treason. We must
see to it that the frightful carnival of blood now raging in the
South, shall continue no longer. The time has come when we must lay
the heavy hand of military authority upon these rebel communities and
hold them in its grasp till their madness is past."
Mr. Stevens having expressed a wish to have an immediate vote, Mr.
Banks remarked: "I believe that a day or two devoted to a discussion
of this subject of the reconstruction of the Government will bring us
to a solution in which the two houses of Congress will agree, in which
the people of this country will sustain us, and in which the President
of the United States will give us his support."
"I have not the advantage," replied Mr. Stevens, "of the secret
negotiations which the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr.
Banks] has, and from which he seems to expect such perfect harmony
between the President and the Congress of the United States--within a
few days. If I had that advantage, I do not know what effect it might
have upon me. Not having it, I can not, of course, act upon it."
"In the remarks which I made," said Mr. Banks, "I made no allusion to
any negotiations with the President. I have had no negotiations with
the President of the United States, nor do I know his opinions, and in
the vote which I shall give upon this question, neither the gentleman
from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] nor any other man has the right to
assume that I accept the policy of the Executive in the smallest
particular. I hope for a change of his position; I think that it is
not impossible. At all events, I think it is something which is worth
our while to try for."
The previous question was moved by Mr. Stevens; but a majority
refusing to second the motion, the discussion was continued.
Mr. Kasson denied the existence of a right in Congress "to establish a
military government over people who have been in insurrection." He
proposed as a substitute for the pending measure "A bill to establish
an additional article of war for the more complete suppression of the
insurrection against the United States." This provided for a division
of the rebel territory into military districts, as did the original
bill, and authorized commanders to declare martial law wherever it
should be necessary for the "complete suppression of violence and
disorder."
Mr. Ashley moved an amendment providing for the restoration to loyal
owners of property confiscated by the rebel government, and providing
that military government should cease so soon as the people of the
rebel States should adopt State constitutions securing to all citizens
equal protection of the laws, including the right of the elective
franchise, and should ratify the proposed amendment to the
Constitution.
Mr. Raymond thought that, on account of the great diversity of
opinion, the whole subject should be referred to a select committee,
who should be instructed to report within three or four days a bill
which should "provide temporarily for the protection of rights and the
preservation of the peace in the States lately in rebellion, and also
for the speedy admission of those States to their relations in the
Union upon the basis of the Constitutional Amendment." Thus he hoped a
result could be reached which "would command the support of Congress
and of the country, and the approval, or at least the assent, of the
Executive."
Mr. Boutwell remarked that previous propositions having been referred
to the Committee on Reconstruction, they had agreed upon the bill
before the House with a unanimity which no other report had ever
obtained, nor had any bill submitted by that committee ever been so
carefully considered as this. "To-day," said he, "there are eight
millions and more of people, occupying six hundred and thirty thousand
square miles of the territory of this country, who are writhing under
cruelties nameless in their character--injustice such as has not been
permitted to exist in any other country in modern times; and all this
because in this capital there sits enthroned a man who, so far as the
executive department is concerned, guides the destinies of the
republic in the interest of rebels; and because, also, in those ten
former States rebellion itself, inspired by the executive department
of this Government, wields all authority, and is the embodiment of law
and power every-where. Until in the South this obstacle to
reconstruction is removed, there can be no effectual step taken toward
the reörganization of the Government."
"A well man needs no remedies," said Mr. Niblack, in a speech against
the bill; "it is only when he is sick that you can require him to
submit to medicinal applications. A country at peace does not need and
ought not to allow martial law and other summary remedies incident to
a state of war. The highest and dearest interests of this country are
made subordinate to party exigencies and to special and particular
interests. No wonder, then, that trade languishes and commerce
declines."
On the 12th of February, Mr. Bingham proposed an amendment making the
restoration of the rebel States conditional upon their adoption of the
Constitutional Amendment, and imposing upon them, meanwhile, the
military government provided by the pending bill.
Mr. Kelley advocated the bill as reported from the committee. "This,"
said he, "is little more than a mere police bill. The necessity for it
arises from the perfidy of the President of the United States. Had he
been true to the duties of his high office and his public and repeated
pledges, there would have been no necessity for considering such a
bill."
"Throughout the region of the unreconstructed States," said Mr.
Maynard, "the animating, life-giving principle of the rebellion is as
thoroughly in possession of the country and of all the political power
there to-day as it ever has been since the first gun was fired upon
Fort Sumter. The rebellion is alive. It is strong--strong in the
number of its votaries, strong in its social influences, strong in its
political power, strong in the belief that the executive department of
this Government is in sympathy and community of purpose with them,
strong in the belief that the controlling majority of the supreme
judiciary of the land is with them in legal opinion, strong in the
belief that the controversy in this body between impracticable zeal
and incorrigible timidity will prevent any thing of importance being
accomplished or any legislation matured."
"It is," said Mr. Allison, "because of the interference of the
President of the United States with the military law which exists in
those States that this bill is rendered necessary. In my judgment, if
we had to-day an Executive who was desirous of enforcing the laws of
the United States to protect loyal men in those States, instead of
defending the rebel element, this bill would not be needed."
Mr. Blaine submitted an amendment providing that any one of the "late
so-called Confederate States" might be restored to representation and
relieved of military rule when, in addition to having accepted the
Constitutional Amendment, it should have conferred the elective
franchise impartially upon all male citizens over twenty-one years of
age.
Mr. Blaine maintained that the people in the elections of 1866 had
declared in favor of "universal, or, at least, impartial suffrage as
the basis of restoration."
On the 13th of February the discussion was continued. "That the spirit
of rebellion still lives," said Mr. Van Horn, of New York, "and now
thrives in the South no sane man can deny; that the determination
exists to make their rebellion honorable and the loyalty of the South
a lasting disgrace and a permanent badge of dishonor is equally true
and can not be denied. The leaders of the rebellion, being in power in
all the ten States unreconstructed, still defy the authority of the
United States to a great extent, and deny the-power of the loyal
millions of the country, who have saved our nation's life against
their treason and rebellion, to prescribe terms of settlement of this
great controversy, and deny also that they have lost any rights they
had before the war or committed any treason against the Government."
The measure before the House, as it came from the Committee on
Reconstruction, "was not intended as a reconstruction bill," according
to the interpretation of Mr. Stevens. "It was intended simply as a
police bill to protect the loyal men from anarchy and murder, until
this Congress, taking a little more time, can suit gentlemen in a bill
for the admission of all those rebel States upon the basis of civil
government."
The various amendments proposed were designed by their authors to add
a plan of reconstruction to the pending bill. Of these Mr. Boutwell
remarked: "Without examining into the details of the amendments, I
have this to say, that any general proposition for the restoration of
these States to the Union upon any basis not set forth in an act of
Congress is fraught with the greatest danger to future peace and
prosperity of the republic."