PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HIS PROCEEDINGS IN
REALIZATION OF IT
The Character of Mr. Johnson--The Radical Nature of Johnson's First
Views on Reconstruction--The Retention of Lincoln's Cabinet by Mr.
Johnson and the Modification of Johnson's Views by Mr. Seward's
Arguments--Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation of May 29th, 1865--The
Excepted Classes--The Effect of these Exceptions--The President's
Plan--The Realization of it--The Administering of the
Oath--Reconstruction in North Carolina--The Identity of Johnson's Plan
with that of Lincoln--Reconstruction in Mississippi--Reconstruction in
Georgia--Reconstruction in Alabama, South Carolina and
Florida--Reconstruction in Virginia--Reconstruction in Louisiana,
Arkansas and Tennessee--The Constitutional Conventions of 1865--The
Form of the Work Done in these Conventions, and its Substance--The
Erection of "State" Governments and the Election of Members of
Congress--The Orders of the President Putting the Civil Government of
the United States into Operation Everywhere--The President's First
Annual Message.
[Sidenote: The character of Mr. Johnson.]
Mr. Johnson was a man who rose from very low estate through his own
efforts. He was a man of considerable intellectual power and of great
will power. He was somewhat vain of his success and somewhat piqued by
the social neglect which he had suffered at the hands of the "old
families." He was intensely loyal to the Union, and could regard
secession and rebellion only as treason. Having suffered so much for
his loyalty, he was somewhat moved by considerations of revenge. He was
profoundly stirred by {32} the assassination of Lincoln, and apparently
believed it to have been planned by those high in authority in the
Confederacy; and he was possessed with an intense desire to
re-establish the Union on an enduring foundation.
[Sidenote: The radical nature of Johnson's first views on
Reconstruction.]
With such a history behind him, and such a disposition impelling him,
it is not to be wondered at that his policy in regard to Reconstruction
should have been more stringent than that of Mr. Lincoln. In fact it
was feared, even by the more radical Republicans, such, for instance,
as Mr. Wade, that he would be bloody minded in the treatment of the
rebel chiefs. He had, before his accession to the Presidency, declared
so often, and so vehemently, that "traitors should be arrested, tried,
convicted and hanged," that most men were expecting the strict
application of the criminal law to the Confederate leaders.
[Sidenote: The retention of Lincoln's Cabinet by Mr. Johnson, and the
modification of Johnson's views by Mr. Seward's arguments.]
Mr. Johnson retained Lincoln's Cabinet, and among them the conciliatory
and persuasive Seward, who, in about six weeks from the night of the
assassination, at which time he himself was seriously wounded, returned
to his work in the State Department. There is no doubt that it was the
influence of Seward which modified the views and purposes of Mr.
Johnson. The compliant spirit manifested at this time by the
Confederate chiefs helped strongly in the same direction. By the 1st of
June, Seward had won Johnson completely for his plan of a rapid and
forgiving reconstruction by the Executive. Congress was not in session,
and the President was not inclined to call an extra session. The late
rebel chieftains were pressing for the political rehabilitation of
their section, and the President now fully believed that he had the
power to proceed with the problem of Reconstruction, and was inclined
to do so.
{33} [Sidenote: Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation of May 29, 1865.]
On the 29th of May, he issued his proclamation of amnesty and pardon to
all persons who, having engaged in rebellion, had failed to take the
benefits of Mr. Lincoln's proclamations of December 8, 1863, and March
26, 1864. To all such persons Mr. Johnson offered his pardon upon their
taking an oath of the following tenor: "I ---- do solemnly swear (or
affirm) in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth
faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States and the Union of the States 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."
[Sidenote: The excepted classes.]
He, however, excepted the following classes of persons from the
benefits of the offer: 1st. Those who held or had held, under the
pretended Confederate Government, civil or diplomatic office or agency,
or military office above the rank of colonel in the army and lieutenant
in the navy, or military or naval office of any grade, if educated by
the United States Government in the Military Academy at West Point or
the United States Naval Academy; and all those who held, or had held,
the pretended office of Governor of a "State" in insurrection against
the United States;
2d. Those who had left seats in the Congress of the United States or
judicial stations under the United States to aid in the rebellion
against the United States, and those who had resigned or tendered
resignations of their commissions in the army or navy of the United
States to evade duty in resisting the rebellion;
3d. Those who had, in any way, treated persons found in the service of
the United States, in any capacity, otherwise than lawfully as
prisoners of war;
{34} 4th. Those who had been engaged in destroying the commerce of the
United States on the high seas, or upon the lakes and rivers separating
the British Provinces from the United States, or in making raids from
Canada into the United States;
5th. Those who were, or had been, absent from the United States, or had
left their homes within the jurisdiction of the United States, and
passed beyond the military lines of the United States into the
pretended Confederate States, for the purpose of aiding the rebellion;
6th. Those who, at the time they might seek to obtain the benefits of
the proclamation by taking the oath, were prisoners of war, or under
civil or criminal arrest, and those who had taken the oath of
allegiance to the United States since December 8, 1863, and had failed
to keep it;
And, finally, those who had voluntarily participated in any way in the
rebellion and were the owners of taxable property to the value of more
than twenty thousand dollars.
[Sidenote: The effect of these exceptions.]
These exceptions would have shut out almost all of the leading men of
most of the "States" that passed secession ordinances from the benefits
of the proclamation, except for the subsequent provision in the
proclamation, which ordained that special application might be made to
the President for pardon by any person belonging to the excepted
classes, and held out the promise that such clemency would be as
liberally extended as might be consistent with the facts of the case
and the peace and dignity of the United States.
[Sidenote: The President's plan in a sentence.]
Briefly, the President proposed to pardon the rebel leaders, upon
special personal application, as an act of high executive grace, and to
amnesty every one else in a body; and upon the basis of {35} their
re-established loyalty to use the old electorate of the South in
reconstruction. How he succeeded we will now proceed to relate.
[Sidenote: The realization of it.]
[Sidenote: The administering of the oath.]
In the first place, the machinery for administering the cleansing oath
was made very simple and accessible. Any commissioned officer, civil,
military or naval, of the United States, and any officer, civil or
military, of a loyal "State" qualified by the laws of the "State" to
administer oaths, was declared by the President, through his Secretary
of State, to be competent to administer this oath of loyalty, a copy of
which should be given to the person taking it as his certificate of
restored citizenship, and another copy sent to the State Department at
Washington to be there deposited and kept in the archives of the
Government.
[Sidenote: Reconstruction in North Carolina.]
In the second place, and by a second proclamation, issued on the same
day, May 29th, the President appointed a Provisional Governor for North
Carolina, and authorized and commanded him to cause the election of
delegates to, and their assembly in, a constitutional convention of the
"State" for the reconstruction of the "State," and its restoration to
its constitutional relations to the United States. The electorate to be
employed by the Provisional Governor should be those persons who were
qualified to vote by the laws of North Carolina in force immediately
before the 20th of May, 1861, and had taken the oath prescribed in the
first proclamation.
This second proclamation also commanded the heads of the departments of
the United States Government to put the laws of the United States into
operation in North Carolina, the United States judges to open the
United States courts and proceed to business, and the military officers
in the district to aid the Provisional {36} Governor in carrying the
duties assigned to him into effect, and to abstain from hindering,
impeding, or discouraging, in any manner, the organization of a "State"
government as authorized by the proclamation.
[Sidenote: The identity of Johnson's plan with that of Lincoln.]
It will thus be seen that Mr. Johnson's plan of Reconstruction was in
substance the same as that of Mr. Lincoln. It rested upon the theory of
the indestructibility of the "States," their perdurance as "States"
throughout the period of rebellion, the commission of treason and
rebellion by combinations of private persons, the right of the
Executive to withdraw his military powers and put his civil powers in
operation, whenever, in his judgment, the circumstances would warrant
him in so doing, and his authority to recognize the old electorates of
the "States" in which rebellion had existed as the respective
constituent bodies of the "States," upon such terms and under such
limitations as he might prescribe. He did not lay down any rule as to
the numerical proportion which the modified electorates should bear to
the old, in order to make their acts legitimate, as Mr. Lincoln did;
and he did declare in his second proclamation that the North Carolina
convention, when convened, or the legislature that might be thereafter
assembled, should prescribe the qualification of electors, and the
eligibility of persons to hold office under the constitution and laws
of the "State," which Mr. Lincoln did not do in his proclamation. But
there is no doubt that Mr. Lincoln would have indorsed this
proposition. He could not have avoided it, while holding the theory
that North Carolina was a "State" simply engaged in amending its
constitution, the theory which his own proclamation apparently set up.
In a word Johnson's policy and acts in reconstructing the "States" in
which secession ordinances had been passed, and rebellion committed,
were {37} but a continuation of those of Mr. Lincoln. If Lincoln was
right so was Johnson, and _vice versa_.
[Sidenote: Reconstruction in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, South
Carolina and Florida.]
On the 13th of June, the President issued a proclamation of like tenor
and containing similar orders for putting the laws of the United States
into operation, and for putting similar machinery in motion for
reconstruction, in Mississippi. He appointed William L. Sharkey
Provisional Governor therein. On the 17th of June, similar steps were
taken for the reconstruction of Georgia, with James Johnson as the
Provisional Governor; on the 21st of June for the reconstruction of
Alabama, with Lewis E. Parsons as Provisional Governor; on the 30th of
June for the reconstruction of South Carolina, with Benjamin F. Perry
as Provisional Governor; and on the 13th of July for the reconstruction
of Florida, with William Marvin as Provisional Governor.
[Sidenote: Reconstruction in Virginia.]
Already on May 9th, twenty days before the issue of his proclamation of
amnesty, the President had issued an executive order putting the laws
of the United States in operation in Virginia, and guaranteeing the
support of the United States Government to Governor Francis H. Pierpont
in all lawful measures for the extension and administration of the
"State" government throughout the geographical limits of Virginia. This
meant, of course, that the United States Government recognized the
shadowy loyal "State" government, which had kept up at least a show of
existence throughout the rebellion, as the true "State" government of
Virginia, and that Virginia did not need reconstruction, but only the
extension of the authority of this government throughout her
territorial limits. This was, also, a simple continuation of Mr.
Lincoln's policy, as we well know.
{38} [Sidenote: Reconstruction in Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee.]
Of course Mr. Johnson recognized the reconstruction of Louisiana,
Arkansas and Tennessee as effected by Mr. Lincoln; so that by
mid-summer of 1865 the reconstruction of all the "States" which had
passed secession ordinances, except only Texas, had been completed, or
had been put in course of completion.
[Sidenote: The constitutional conventions of 1865.]
During the summer, autumn and early winter of 1865, the Provisional
Governors of Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina,
Georgia, and Florida ordered elections for the choosing of delegates to
constitutional conventions, upon the basis of the old suffrage laws of
the respective "States" once answering to these names, modified by the
requirements of the Presidential pardon, received after taking the oath
of allegiance; and these elections were held and these conventions
assembled.
[Sidenote: The form of the work done in these conventions, and its
substance.]
These bodies chose to do their work in the form of amendments to the
old constitutions of the "States," whose constituent powers they
assumed to hold, rather than in the form of new constitutions. Before
the meeting of Congress on the first Monday of December, they had all
passed ordinances, either repealing the secession ordinances of their
respective "States," or pronouncing them null and void; had all voted
amendments to the constitutions of their respective "States" abolishing
slavery; and all, except Mississippi and South Carolina, had passed
ordinances repudiating the debt incurred by their respective "States"
in aid of rebellion against the United States.
[Sidenote: The erection of "State" governments and the election of
Members of Congress.]
Before the meeting of Congress also, elections of the members of the
respective "State" legislatures and of "State" officers, and of the
members of the House of Representatives in Congress, had been held by
the {39} Provisional Governors, under the direction of the respective
conventions. And, finally, before the assembly of Congress, these
Legislatures had, with the exception of that of Florida, met,
organized, and elected United States Senators, and, with the exception
of those of Florida and Mississippi, had adopted the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution. The legislature of Florida, not having
met and organized, had not at that date been able to consider the
Amendment. It met on December 18th and elected United States Senators,
and adopted the Thirteenth Amendment on the 28th. The legislature of
Mississippi, on the other hand, rejected the Thirteenth Amendment on
the 27th of November.
[Sidenote: The orders of the President putting the civil Government of
the United States into operation everywhere.]
During the same period, the President had by his several proclamations
and orders declared the cessation of armed resistance, the restoration
of intercourse throughout the country, and the raising of the blockade
and the opening of the ports, and had put the different branches of the
civil Government of the United States into operation in all the
"States" which had been the scene of the recent rebellion. He had not,
however, restored the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus in these
regions or in the District of Columbia, and he reserved the right to
have recourse to military control therein in case of necessity. The
Governors of South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida under the
Confederacy had, in the spring of 1865, assumed to summon the
legislatures, chosen by these "States" while members, or pretended
members, of the Confederacy, to meet together for reconstruction
purposes. The President had, through his military officials, ignored
and prevented all such movements. No farther resistance to his plan of
Reconstruction had been attempted, but he saw {40} plainly that,
without the United States military power to sustain the new "State"
governments, there might be.
[Sidenote: The President's first annual Message.]
This was the situation when Congress met on the first Monday of
December, and received President Johnson's first annual Message. This
document contained a disquisition upon the political system of the
United States, as "an indissoluble union of indestructible States,"
with the natural conclusion that by attempting secession, the "States"
impaired, but did not extinguish, their vitality, suspended, but did
not destroy, their functions. It then proceeded with a narration of the
facts above stated, in which the President sought to establish, upon
the basis of his power to pardon and withdraw military rule, and to
guarantee a republican form of government to every "State," his
authority to reconstruct "State" government, or at any rate to permit
the pardoned citizens to do so under his direction.
Finally, this paper contained the official notice to Congress that the
President had admitted the reconstructed "States"--and that would mean
all that had passed the secession ordinance, except perhaps Texas,
whose convention did not assemble until March of 1866--to participate
in amending the Constitution of the United States. The President
concluded his narration and argumentation upon this all-important
subject in these words: "The amendment to the Constitution being
adopted, it will remain for the States whose powers have been so long
in abeyance to resume their places in the two branches of the National
Legislature, and thereby complete the work of restoration. Here it is
for you, fellow citizens of the Senate, and for you, fellow citizens of
the House of Representatives, to judge, each of you for yourselves, of
the elections, returns and qualifications of your own members."
{41} It is entirely evident from all this that the President denied the
power of the Houses of Congress, either separately or jointly, to
prevent the Senators and Representatives from the reconstructed
"States" from taking their seats upon any other grounds than defects in
the election and return, or in the personal qualifications, of the
particular persons under consideration.
{42}