RECONSTRUCTION RESUMED
The McCardle Case--The Congressional Acts Admitting the Senators- and
Representatives-elect from the Reconstructed "States" to Seats in
Congress--The Veto of these Bills by the President--The Vetoes
Overridden--Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and the
President's Proclamations Declaring Reconstruction Completed--Seward's
Proclamation Declaring the Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by
the Required Number of "States"--The Questions Suggested by Mr.
Seward's First Proclamation--The Concurrent Resolution of Congress upon
these Questions--The Correct Procedure--The National Conventions of
1868--Platform and Nominees of the Republican Party--Democratic
Platform and Nominees--The Election and the Electoral Vote--The Conduct
of the President during the Campaign--Congress and the President--The
President's Last Annual Message--The President's Amnesty Proclamation
of December 25th, 1868--The President's Veto of the Bill in Regard to
the Colored Schools in the District of Columbia--The Fifteenth
Amendment--Criticism of the Republican View--Johnson's Retirement from
the Presidency--The President and the Republican Party.
[Sidenote: The McCardle case.]
During the period of the impeachment trial, a case was in progress
before the Supreme Court of the United States, which in its final
settlement was destined to deprive the President of any hope that a
judicial decision in regard to the constitutionality of the
Reconstruction Acts could ever be attained. We have seen that in the
cases of Mississippi vs. Johnson and of Georgia vs. Stanton the
President had resisted the jurisdiction of the Court when {196} aimed
directly at the Executive and his immediate agents. This was his duty,
and he performed it sincerely and successfully. But it is not to be
inferred from this that he would not have welcomed a judicial decision
from the Supreme Court of the United States pronouncing these Acts null
and void, if it could have been reached through the forms of a proper
case, one not involving the executive authority at all.
Such a case had appeared in this Court in the winter term of 1867-68,
and the argument as to the jurisdiction of the Court, and the decision
of this point in the affirmative, had both been made before the
impeachment trial began. One William H. McCardle, arrested and held by
the military authorities in Mississippi for trial before a military
commission on charge of having published in a newspaper, of which he
was editor, libellous and incendiary articles, petitioned the Circuit
Court of the United States for a writ of Habeas Corpus. The writ was
issued, and return was made by the military commander, General A. C.
Gillem, admitting the arrest and detention of McCardle, but contending
that these acts were lawful. The Circuit Court, on the 25th of
November, 1867, remanded McCardle, who had been held in custody between
the time of the return to the writ and this date by the United States
marshal, to the custody of General Gillem. McCardle then appealed from
this judgment of the Circuit Court to the Supreme Court of the United
States. Upon a motion to dismiss the appeal, made by the counsel of the
military authorities, this Court decided that under the statute of
February 5th, 1867, the Supreme Court of the United States could hear
the appeal, and denied the motion to dismiss it.
The question was now before the Supreme Court upon its merits, and it
involved the constitutionality {197} of the Reconstruction Acts. It was
argued very ably, and the part of the Reconstruction Acts putting the
districts of the South under martial law two years after the Civil War
had ended, and when the civil authority of the United States was
everywhere recognized and enforced, was pretty clearly shown to have
been a very serious stretching of its powers by Congress, if not a
distinct usurpation. The Republicans in Congress were greatly
frightened, and while the case was under advisement in the Court, they
hastened to repeal the Act of February 5th, 1867, and to make the
repeal apply to appeals already taken under that Act, as well as to
such as might be attempted in the future. The repealing bill was vetoed
by the President on the 25th of March, but it was immediately repassed
by the majority necessary to override the veto, repassed without the
slightest regard to the President's very sound and convincing
objections. This Act of the 27th of March was intended to prevent any
decision upon the constitutionality of the Reconstruction Acts, and did
do so most effectively, but it was an abominable subterfuge on the part
of Congress and a shameful abuse of its powers.
As will be remembered, seven of the ten Southern communities, viz.,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana,
and Arkansas, had already before the close of the impeachment trial
ratified the "State" constitutions framed for them by the "carpet-bag,
scalawag, negro conventions" held in each for them, had elected "State"
officers and legislators, and the legislature of one of them, Arkansas,
had ratified the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States, as the legislature of each of them was required to
do before it could be admitted to representation in Congress.
{198} [Sidenote: The Congressional Acts admitting the Senators- and
Representatives-elect from the reconstructed "States" to seats in
Congress.]
Congress now looked upon the work of its hands and pronounced it good,
and proceeded to pass the acts, necessary in its conceit, to admit
these communities to representation in the legislative houses of the
Nation. First came the Act in reference to Arkansas, of the 22d of
June, 1868, since, as has been just said, the new legislature of
Arkansas had already ratified the proposed Fourteenth Amendment. It
provided "that the State of Arkansas is entitled and admitted to
representation in Congress, as one of the States of the Union, on the
following fundamental condition: That the constitution of Arkansas
shall never be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen, or
class of citizens, of the United States of the right to vote who are
entitled to vote by the constitution herein recognized, except as a
punishment for such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof
they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to
all the inhabitants of said State: Provided that any alteration of said
constitution prospective in its effect may be made in regard to the
time and place of residence of voters."
Three days later, that is on the 25th, Congress provided in a single
act for the admission of the Senators and Representatives from the
other six reconstructed "States" to the national legislature in the
following language: "_Be it enacted, &c._, That each of the States of
North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and
Florida, shall be entitled and admitted to representation in Congress
as a State of the Union when the legislature of such State shall have
duly ratified the Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as Article XIV., upon
the following fundamental {199} conditions: That the constitution of
neither of said States shall ever be so amended or changed as to
deprive any citizen, or class of citizens, of the United States of the
right to vote in said State who are entitled to vote by the
constitution thereof, herein recognized, except as a punishment for
such crimes as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have
been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to all the
inhabitants of said State: _Provided_, that any alteration of said
constitutions may be made with regard to the time and place of
residence of voters." It was also further provided that the legislature
of Georgia should, by solemn public act, declare its assent to the
fundamental condition that the article of the new constitution of
Georgia prohibiting the courts within the "State" from entertaining any
suit against any resident of the "State" for any debt existing prior to
June 1st, 1865, and prohibiting the judicial and ministerial officers
of the "State" from executing any process in reference to such debts,
should be considered and treated as null and void.
[Sidenote: The veto of these bills by the President.]
The President had placed his veto on both of these bills. The veto of
the Arkansas bill bears the date of June 20th, and that of the other
bill bears the date of June 25th. There are parts of the President's
argument which are entirely convincing to any candid mind at the
present day. He pointed out that the fundamental condition imposed by
Congress, in all these cases, upon the admission of Senators and
Representatives to Congress, viz., that no change should ever be made
in the suffrage qualifications provided in these "State" constitutions
whereby any citizen or class of citizens of the United States having
the right to vote under these constitutions should be deprived of such
right, was an assumption of power by Congress to regulate a subject,
within the "States," which by the {200} existing Constitution of the
United States belonged exclusively to the "States," to each "State" for
itself.
There can be no question that the President was entirely correct in
this contention. The Fifteenth Amendment was as yet no part of the
Constitution. It had not even been proposed by Congress to the
"States." It is very questionable whether a majority in Congress could
have been found, at that time, in favor of making such a proposition,
much less the required extraordinary majority of two-thirds. And until
the Fifteenth Amendment had been ratified as a part of the Constitution
of the United States, Congress had no power to exact such a concession,
or anything like it, from any "State" as the price of the admission of
representatives from it to the Houses of the National Legislature. And
even since the Fifteenth Amendment has become a part of the
Constitution, the Government of the United States cannot prohibit such
changes in a "State" constitution, unless the deprivation of suffrage
is made on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
The President also called attention to the fact that no way was
provided in the bills whereby the "States" should signify their
acceptance of this "fundamental condition" of admission to
representation in Congress, and that no penalty was prescribed for a
violation of the condition. Did Congress mean that, in case of any
violation of its "fundamental condition," it would throw the "State"
back under martial law, and proceed to reconstruct anew? That was a
question which might well be asked in view of what Congress had already
done; and it was a question which was not calculated to allay
uneasiness in the minds of the people in the Southern communities.
{201} Finally, in the veto of the Arkansas bill, the President
expressed his very serious doubts whether the new "State" constitution
had been ratified by the electorate created by the Acts of Congress for
that purpose, since a section in that constitution prescribed that no
person would be allowed to vote upon the ratification of the
constitution who had not previously taken an oath to the effect "that
he accepted the doctrine of the civil and political equality of all
men, and agreed not to attempt to deprive any person or persons, on
account of race, color, or previous condition, of any political or
civil right, privilege or immunity enjoyed by any other class of men,"
thus adding a new qualification for registration and voting to those
prescribed in the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. There is no question
that the President was right about this, too. And there is no question
that this new qualification was entirely null and void, in so far as it
applied to voting upon, and registering to vote upon, the ratification
of the constitution itself, unless we ascribe constituent power to the
convention which framed the constitution, instead of the power of
initiation only. We know that no constitutional convention has, or then
had, any such powers in our system. It was nothing more or less than a
palpable usurpation of constituent power when the convention in
Arkansas presumed to add this qualification to those prescribed by
Congress for voting upon the ratification of the constitution itself.
Of course it would have been lawful and regular for the "State"
constitution to make this additional requirement for voting in all
future elections, after the constitution prescribing it should have
been adopted by the electorate created by the Congressional Acts,
although the requirement itself would have been unreasonable and
oppressive. But for the convention, a mere proposing {202} body, to
ordain this new qualification for voting on the question of the
adoption of the constitution itself was a political outrage of the
first order.
[Sidenote: The vetoes overridden.]
Congress was not, however, in a state of mind to listen to any
suggestions from the President, no matter how correct and important
they might be. Both Houses promptly, almost mockingly, passed the two
bills over the President's vetoes.
[Sidenote: Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and the President's
proclamations declaring Reconstruction completed.]
Such of the legislatures created under the new "State" constitutions as
were not already in session were quickly summoned to assemble, and by
July 21st all of them had ratified the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, and the legislature of Georgia
had also pledged by solemn act that the repudiation article of the new
constitution should never be enforced. By July 27th the President had
issued his several proclamations, as required by the Act of June 25th,
announcing the ratification of the proposed Fourteenth Amendment by
these legislatures, and consequently the admission of these "States" to
representation in Congress; and so far as the seven "States" of
Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and
Louisiana were concerned the work of reconstruction was now completed.
Virginia, Mississippi and Texas still remained under martial law.
[Sidenote: Seward's proclamation declaring the ratification of the
Fourteenth Amendment by the required number of "States."]
On the 28th day of July, Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, issued his
proclamation, declaring the ratification of the proposed Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States by the legislatures
of thirty States of the Union, and its consequent validity as a part of
the Constitution of the United States.
{203} [Sidenote: The questions suggested by Mr. Seward's first
proclamation.]
Eight days before this proclamation, that is on the 20th, Mr. Seward
had issued a proclamation declaring that the legislatures of
twenty-three States, viz., of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee,
New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia,
Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island,
Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Iowa,
had ratified the proposed Fourteenth Amendment, and that six
"newly-constituted and newly-established bodies avowing themselves to
be, and acting as, the legislatures, respectively, of the States of
Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and
Alabama" had also ratified it; that the legislatures of Ohio and New
Jersey had subsequently passed resolutions withdrawing their
ratification of the Amendment; and that, if these latter resolutions of
the legislatures of Ohio and New Jersey should be disregarded, the
proposed Fourteenth Amendment had been adopted by the legislatures of
twenty-nine of the thirty-seven "States" of the Union and had thus
become a valid part of the Constitution of the United States.
Besides the question expressed in this Proclamation, Mr. Seward
indicates by his language a further question, viz., whether the six
"newly-constituted and newly-established bodies, avowing themselves to
be, and acting as, the legislatures, respectively, of the States of
Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and
Alabama" were genuine "State" legislatures. They were the legislatures
established under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, but as Congress
had refused to recognize the "States" for whom these bodies acted as
entitled to representation in Congress, that is as "States" having the
rights of "States" of the Union, until {204} after these bodies had
ratified the proposed Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, it was no wonder that so good a constitutional lawyer
and so logical a thinker as Mr. Seward had his doubts as to whether
these bodies were genuine "State" legislatures.
[Sidenote: The concurrent resolution of Congress upon these questions.]
In order to quiet these doubts, if possible, the two Houses of Congress
passed on the following day, July 21st, the following concurrent
resolution: "Whereas the legislatures of the States of Connecticut,
Tennessee, _New Jersey_, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia, Kansas,
Missouri, Indiana, _Ohio_, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, Iowa, _Arkansas_, _Florida_, _North
Carolina_, _Alabama_, _South Carolina_ and _Louisiana_, being
three-fourths and more of the several States of the Union, have
ratified the Fourteenth Article of Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States, duly proposed by two-thirds of each House of the
Thirty-ninth Congress; therefore, Resolved by the Senate (the House of
Representatives concurring), That said Fourteenth Article is hereby
declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it
shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State." Upon the
basis of this resolution, which decided, in so far as Congress can
decide, that the consent of the legislature of a "State" to a proposed
amendment to the Constitution of the United States cannot be withdrawn
when once given, and that the "newly-constituted and newly-established
bodies, avowing themselves to be, and acting as, the legislatures,
respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina,
Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama" were genuine "State"
legislatures qualified to {205} vote upon the ratification of a
proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Mr. Seward
issued his proclamation of the 28th of July, above recited. As the
Georgia Legislature ratified the proposed amendment on the 21st inst.
and also gave its pledge not to allow the repudiation article in its
constitution to be enforced, Mr. Seward included Georgia in this last
proclamation.
It will be seen that both Mr. Seward and Congress counted all of the
Southern communities which had ever been "States" as being "States,"
making the whole number of "States" thirty-seven, and the number
necessary for ratification of the amendment twenty-eight. Upon this
basis of calculation two more than the necessary number had ratified at
the date of Mr. Seward's final proclamation. It will also be seen that
both Mr. Seward and Congress, that is that both the legislative and
executive departments of the Government, ignored the attempt of Ohio
and New Jersey to withdraw their consent to the amendment, and fixed
the precedent in the constitutional practice of the United States that
a "State" legislature cannot reconsider its ratification of an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States at any time. This
means, when scientifically appreciated, that the ratification of an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not an agreement
between the "States," and therefore becomes valid as to each only after
three-fourths of the "States," the constitutional number necessary to
make the proposed amendment a valid part of the Constitution, shall
have ratified it, but that ratification by a "State" legislature, and
_a fortiori_ by a convention of the people within a "State," is only an
indirect vote of a part of the people of the United States upon a
question submitted to the suffrages of the whole people of the United
States. When, {206} therefore, this affirmative vote has been once
officially announced by the proper authorities within the "State" to
the proper authorities of the United States there is no further control
over it by the authorities within the "State."
[Sidenote: The correct procedure.]
If, however, the votes of Ohio and New Jersey had not been counted in
the affirmative, there was still a three-fourths majority of
thirty-seven "States" in favor of ratification. And if the ten Southern
communities had been left out of the computation altogether, which
would have made the Union to consist, so far as that part of it erected
into "States" was concerned, of twenty-seven "States," there would
still have been more than a three-fourths majority in favor of
ratification, with or without Ohio and New Jersey. The correct
procedure, from a scientific point of view, would undoubtedly have been
to have computed the necessary majority upon the basis of twenty-seven
"States," to have included Ohio and New Jersey among the "States" whose
legislatures voted for ratification, and then to have admitted the ten
Southern communities as "States" under the Constitution of the United
States, _with the Fourteenth Amendment as an already established part
of it_, concerning which they had no more to say than they had in
regard to any other part of the Constitution. But, however that may be,
no objection can be made to the validity of the Fourteenth Amendment on
the ground of the majority by which it was ratified. In whatever way we
may compute the whole number of "States" and the majority voting in the
affirmative, the Amendment was lawfully ratified.
[Sidenote: The national conventions of 1868.]
During these movements in execution of the Reconstruction Acts, the
national party conventions for the nomination of candidates for the
presidency and for the formation of platforms were held. That of the
{207} Republican party assembled first, on the twenty-first day of May
in Chicago, at the moment when its radical elements were filled with
rage and chagrin at the failure of the impeachment of the President.
[Sidenote: Platform and nominees of the Republican party.]
It made General Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut, its presiding
officer; adopted a platform, a large part of which was devoted to
denunciation of the President, to the promise of bountiful pensions,
and to a twist of the British lion's tail on the subject of
expatriation; the main principles of which, however, were good faith in
the payment of the public debt with sound money, and equal suffrage by
Congressional law in the Southern communities; and nominated Grant and
Colfax for the presidency and the vice-presidency.
In pronouncing for the guaranty of negro suffrage at the South by
Congressional law, the platform attempted to steer clear of the
prejudices against negro suffrage at the North by a sort of proviso,
which read, "While the question of suffrage in all the loyal States
properly belongs to the people of those States." This was certainly
inconsistent, not to say hypocritical. Negro suffrage at the North
would have been a comparatively harmless thing on account of the
fewness of the negroes as compared with the whites in that section, and
on account of the superior average intelligence of the negroes of the
North when compared with that of those of the South. There was no sound
principle in this article of the platform. It was a mean, shuffling bit
of partisan politics. The party itself felt it to be so in the course
of the campaign, and came out finally for the settlement of the whole
question of negro suffrage upon the same basis for the whole country
and by means of a constitutional amendment.
{208} The nominees immediately accepted their nominations in
characteristic letters, that of General Grant being short, crisp,
modest and ending with the now famous sentence: "Let us have peace,"
and that of Colfax being more lengthy and wordy and containing a
rhetorical defence of some of the more questionable parts of the
platform.
[Sidenote: Democratic platform and nominees.]
The Democratic convention assembled in New York on the 4th day of July.
It was confronted at the start with the Greenback heresy, and the
candidacy of the Greenback champion for the presidency, Mr. George H.
Pendleton of Ohio. This heresy was in a sentence the doctrine that all
the public debt of the United States not made expressly payable in coin
should be paid in United States paper, which Congress might order to be
stamped, issued, and made legal tender, to any amount it might please.
The shibboleth was, "the same currency for the bondholder and the
plough-holder." It had taken firm hold in Ohio, and was rapidly
spreading through the valley of the Mississippi. The Eastern Democrats,
however, looked upon it with disfavor, and were determined to defeat
the nomination of Mr. Pendleton. They were obliged, however, to accept
the platform, in so far as it related to this subject, as dictated by
their Western compatriots. The third plank in the platform read, "...
and where the obligations of the Government do not expressly state upon
their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide,
that they shall be paid in coin, they ought in right and in justice to
be paid in the lawful money of the United States." The fifth plank also
read, "one currency for the Government and the people, the laborer and
the officeholder, the pensioner and the soldier, the producer and the
bondholder." It is true that the {209} platform did not expressly
pronounce in favor of an unlimited issue of paper money with which to
pay the bonds, but it was generally understood that this was what was
meant. The questions then of sound money and of the faithful discharge
of the public obligations were thus put in issue. The Democrats also
met squarely the Republican doctrine of Reconstruction. They demanded
the "immediate restoration of all the States to their rights in the
Union under the Constitution, and of civil government to the American
people," with "amnesty for all past political offences, and the
regulation of the election franchise in the States by their citizens."
And they denounced the Radical party, as they termed the Republicans,
"for its disregard of right, and the unparalleled oppression and
tyranny which have marked its career," declared the Reconstruction Acts
to be unconstitutional, revolutionary and void, and lauded President
Johnson for his unflinching resistance to "the aggressions of Congress
upon the constitutional rights of the States and the people."
[Sidenote: Weakness of the platform.]
There is no question that the platform of the Democrats, with its paper
money doctrine, and its hostility to Reconstruction and universal
suffrage, was a shaky foundation for any party to attempt to stand upon
at that juncture. Not much conscience and not much sentiment could be
aroused with such tenets. Conscience and sentiment were much more
amenable to the appeals of the Republican platform upon these points.
Moreover, the tremendous popularity of the Republican candidates had to
be reckoned with. Where could the Democrats find a candidate who would
both match Grant in the popular affection and overbalance also the
weakness of the platform? The New Yorkers in the convention, led by
Seymour, Tilden, Schell and Kernan, {210} had their man for this
emergency, but they dared not reveal at the outset their plan. They
were resolved to nominate Chief Justice Chase. They thought that
Chase's well-known devotion to the principles of universal suffrage and
his career as Secretary of the Treasury would satisfy the Eastern men
in regard to the platform, and that his attachment to the principles of
civil government versus militarism would, in some degree at least,
neutralize the popularity of the military hero. The delegates from
Ohio, Mr. Chase's own "State," suspected the purpose of the New
Yorkers, and were determined to foil it. If they could not get
Pendleton, they were determined not to have Chase. After the first six
ballots without result, Pendleton, however, leading, the New Yorkers
brought forward Hendricks of Indiana, in order to break down
Pendleton's vote. Having succeeded in this after some six more ballots,
the name of Chase was brought before the convention by a half vote from
California. The purpose was probably to feel of the convention. It was
highly successful. The announcement of the half vote was received with
enthusiastic applause. Masking themselves behind Hancock, who was at
that juncture in the lead, and Hendricks, the New Yorkers now prepared
to present Chase; but the Ohioans were too quick for them. They
succeeded in withdrawing Pendleton and presenting Seymour himself as
their candidate, before the New Yorkers knew what they were about.
Seymour, who was occupying the presidency of the convention, declared
from his seat that he could not accept, but the Ohioans stuck to their
nomination, and the New Yorkers had to assent. They were fairly caught
in their own net.
[Sidenote: The nominees.]
Seymour finally yielded, and the convention addressed itself to the
nomination of its candidate for the vice-presidency. The ex-Confederate
General William Preston of {211} Kentucky presented the name of the
noted Union General Francis P. Blair of Missouri for the place. The
nomination was seconded by the ex-Confederate General Wade Hampton of
South Carolina, and was made by acclamation. While General Blair was a
noted Union soldier of high ability and undoubted loyalty, he was a
fierce enemy of the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, and was for this
reason very popular with the ex-Confederates. In an open letter to
Colonel J. O. Brodhead of St. Louis, written five days before the
assembly of the Democratic convention, he not only denounced the
Reconstruction Acts as unconstitutional, but advanced a method for
getting rid of them and their effects in case a Democratic President
should be elected. He proposed that the new President should "declare
these Acts null and void, compel the army to undo its usurpations at
the South, disperse the carpet-bag State governments, allow the white
people to reorganize their own governments, and elect Senators and
Representatives." He said, further, that the House of Representatives
would contain a majority of Democrats from the North, who would admit
the members elected to that body from the South to seats, and that the
House with the President would exert such a pressure on the Senate as
to cause the doors of that body to be opened to the members from the
Southern "States." When General Blair wrote this letter he was being
spoken of as a candidate for the presidency, and this letter was taken
as the declaration of what he would do if elected to the position of
Chief Magistrate of the nation. After his nomination for the
vice-presidency, in his speech and letter of acceptance, he announced
the chief issue in the contest to be the relief of the South from
martial law and negro domination. The ex-Confederates represented it
the same way at the South, and threw themselves into {212} the campaign
with great enthusiasm for Seymour and Blair.
On the other hand, the bland, politic and persuasive Seymour pursued a
much more moderate and conciliatory course, and when it became evident
that General Blair's violent expressions and revolutionary purposes
were ruining the Democratic prospects at the North, he went into the
campaign personally, and by his diplomatic manners and fine oratory
succeeded in stemming the tide which, running against the Democrats
from the moment when their platform was proclaimed, had been driven on
to a flood by General Blair's indiscretions, to put it very mildly, in
speech and conduct. But while some lost ground was regained, it was
evident that the hopes of the Democrats had been blasted.
[Sidenote: The election and the electoral vote.]
The electoral votes of thirty-four "States" were counted, Virginia,
Mississippi and Texas being still regarded by Congress as
unreconstructed. Of these thirty-four, eight cast their votes for
Seymour and Blair. These were New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, Oregon, Georgia and Louisiana. The rest went for Grant and
Colfax. The electoral vote stood eighty for Seymour and Blair and two
hundred and fourteen for Grant and Colfax. The popular vote stood two
millions seven hundred and three thousand two hundred and forty-nine
for Seymour and Blair, and three millions and twelve thousand eight
hundred and thirty-three for Grant and Colfax. The exclusion of
Virginia, Mississippi and Texas from the vote and the inclusion of the
suffrages of the "carpet-baggers" and the negroes, under the protection
of the military, in the reconstructed "States," had saved the day for
Grant and Colfax. If the electorate of the South had been as in 1860,
or probably as it was in the years of the Johnson governments, Seymour
and Blair {213} would have triumphed. As it was, but for the Greenback
plank in the Democratic platform and the indiscretions of General
Blair, they might have triumphed. That is to say, if the Reconstruction
policy of Congress had been the sole issue, it is quite possible that
the Republicans would have lost the election, even with the most
popular man in the North as their standard bearer.
[Sidenote: The conduct of the President during the campaign.]
Meanwhile the President had continued to ply the Congress with his
vetoes and messages and to address the country with his proclamations.
He had thought that he ought to be vindicated by being nominated by the
Democrats for the presidency, and had actually received sixty-five
votes on the first ballot. His failure before the convention ought to
have taught him that he was no longer a factor to be reckoned with in
the domain of politics, and that his proper course was to execute
quietly the functions of his office to the end of his term, and then
retire to private life. But he seemed to think that his political
opinions were still of great value, and in a very few days after the
adjournment of the Democratic convention he addressed a message to
Congress advising a most radical change in the structure of the
government by means of constitutional amendment. He therein recommended
that Congress should propose to the "States" so to amend the
Constitution as to provide for the election of the President and
Vice-President by a direct vote of the people, for the ineligibility of
these officers for a second term, for the designation of the members of
the Cabinet in a certain order, beginning with the Secretary of State,
as the persons to discharge the duties of the President in case of a
vacancy in the presidential office by the death, resignation or removal
of both the President and the Vice-President, for the election of the
Senators by the direct vote of the people, {214} and for the limitation
of the terms of the United States judges to a period of years. There
was sound reason for the third of these suggestions, the designation by
the Constitution of the Cabinet officers in a certain order as the
successors to the powers and duties of the President, when the country
might be without both a President and a Vice-President, and it has
since then been made law under the form of a statute of Congress.
[Sidenote: Congress and the President.]
But the Congress was not then in a mood to hear anything from Mr.
Johnson. Two days later, July 20th, the President vetoed the joint
resolution passed by the two Houses, excluding from the electoral
college in the coming presidential election the votes of "States"
lately in rebellion which should not have been reorganized under the
Reconstruction Acts of Congress. In this veto he went over his whole
argument once more against the constitutionality of these Acts and in
favor of his own method of Reconstruction. But the Congress treated the
message with contempt and promptly repassed the resolution.
[Sidenote: The President's last annual Message.]
On the 9th of December President Johnson sent his last annual Message
to Congress. It was a grave, dignified and statesmanlike document both
in form and content. In it he told Congress plainly and respectfully
that its Reconstruction policy had arrayed the races against each other
at the South, had impaired, if not destroyed, the kindly relations that
had previously existed between them, and had given mortal offence to
the civilized race by placing the uncivilized race in domination over
it; and he urged that legislation which had produced such baleful
consequences ought to be abrogated. He also told Congress that it had
seriously impaired the power of the President to exact the necessary
accountability of the public officers by its Tenure-of-Office Act, and
had embarrassed {215} the Executive in the exercise of his
constitutional military functions by the Act of March 2d, 1867; and he
urged the repeal of both of these measures. He also gave a most serious
and startling account of the condition of the public finances, and of
the consumption of the wealth of the Nation by the bondholders,
officials and pensioners. He pointed out that the public debt, which in
1860 was 64,000,000 dollars, had become 2,527,129,552 dollars; that the
annual expenditure, which was, in 1860, 63,000,000 dollars, had become
336,000,000 dollars and more, and that the expenditure per capita,
which was two dollars in 1860, had become nearly ten dollars. And he
suggested the ways in which this threatening condition might be
relieved, viz., by a refunding of the bonds at a lower interest, by a
speedy resumption of specie payment, by a reduction of the army and of
the horde of Reconstruction officials in the South, and by a strict
accountability of the revenue officials to their superiors and of these
latter to the President. From the point of view of sound political
science, good public policy and true patriotism all of these
suggestions were at least worth consideration, but Congress took no
more notice of them than it did of the distant murmurs of the waters of
the Potomac.
[Sidenote: The President's amnesty proclamation of December 25th,
1868.]
Only once again did the Congress break over its apparent resolve to
ignore the President, and that was upon the occasion of his issue of
his universal and unconditional pardon and amnesty to all persons who
had participated, either directly or indirectly, in the rebellion, with
the restoration of all their rights, privileges and immunities under
the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof. The date of
this document was December 25th, 1868. On the 5th of January, 1869, the
Senate called him to account for this by a {216} resolution calling
upon him "to transmit to the Senate a copy of any proclamation of
amnesty made by him since the last adjournment of Congress, and also to
communicate to the Senate by what authority of law the same was made."
The President replied on the 18th, sending a copy of his proclamation
of December 25th, 1868, and declaring that he issued it by authority of
the second section of Article second of the Constitution, which vested
in the President the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment, and in
accordance with precedents established by his predecessors in office,
Washington, Adams, Madison and Lincoln. The Senate did not say that he
had no right to claim any constitutional prerogative, and that he was
not worthy to act under precedents set by Washington, Adams, Madison,
and Lincoln, but most of the Senators evidently so thought. The
proclamation had no effect upon the qualifications for suffrage in the
face of the Reconstruction Acts and the "State" constitutions framed
and established in accordance with them. It was little more than the
bull against the comet.
[Sidenote: The President's veto of the Bill in regard to the colored
schools in the District of Columbia.]
As a sort of final stroke the President vetoed the bill concerning the
transfer of the control of the colored schools in the District of
Columbia, and the bill for raising the duties on imported copper and
copper ores. He gave excellent reasons for both of these vetoes, but
Congress had long ceased to be guided by reason in matters which
related to the President.
[Sidenote: The Fifteenth Amendment.]
On its side it was busy with a project which, though not intended as a
blow at him particularly, was not in accordance with his view that the
regulation of the suffrage within the "States" was, and should be, left
to the "States" respectively, and exclusively, viz., {217} the proposed
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Reference has already been
made to the inconsistent doctrine, we might almost say the timorous
subterfuge, of the Republican platform on the matter of negro suffrage,
and to the growing conviction on the part of the Republicans during the
campaign that this question must be settled for the entire country
alike, and by a constitutional amendment. At the opening of Congress in
December, and during the first days of the session, the proposition was
presented which finally took on the form given it by the conference
committee of the two Houses in the words: "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. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation." It was passed by both Houses with the
requisite two-thirds majority on the 26th of February and sent to the
legislatures of the "States" for ratification. The Republicans had at
last come to the view that the emancipation of the freedmen involved
their civil equality with the whites, and that such equality could not
be maintained unless they possessed the elective franchise, and that it
was cowardly for the "States" of the North to force negro suffrage on
the South without accepting it for themselves.
[Sidenote: Criticism of the Republican view.]
It is certainly true that full freedom implies civil liberty and civil
equality, but there was another way, and a better way, to have secured
these than by the immediate and universal suffrage of the newly
emancipated in all their ignorance, immorality and poverty, and that
was by the nationalization of civil liberty, and its protection and
enforcement by the United States courts. Most of the {218} Republicans
believed, at that moment, that that had been secured by the Fourteenth
Amendment; and there can be little question that a very important
consideration with such was the fear that after Reconstruction should
be accomplished, the Southern "States" might amend negro suffrage out
of their "State" constitutions, and thus destroy the Republican party
in these "States," unless the Constitution of the United States should
be so amended as to prevent it. The most radical among them were no
doubt moved chiefly by the extravagant humanitarianism of the period,
which had developed in their minds to the point of justifying not only
the political equality of the races, but the political superiority, at
least in loyalty to the Union, the Constitution and republican
government, of the uncivilized negroes over the whites of the South;
but that this conviction was not very strong among the masses of them
can be readily concluded from the fact that that party is to-day the
party which is following the European idea of the duty of civilized
races to impose their political sovereignty upon uncivilized, or half
civilized, or not fully civilized, races anywhere and everywhere in the
world. No party can, in so short a time, so completely change its
fundamental principle of political ethics when it is really and
conscientiously believed in by the masses of the party.
[Sidenote: Johnson's retirement from the presidency.]
This proposed Fifteenth Amendment was not sent to the President for his
approval, but went, according to custom, to the Secretary of State, to
be submitted to the "State" legislatures. The President was now within
a very few days of the end of his term. His sun had fairly set, and the
disrespect felt for him by the members of the dominant party in
Congress and out of Congress was expressed in the rude and quite
unprecedented refusal of General Grant to sit in the same carriage with
him in the {219} procession from the White House to the Capitol, on the
4th of March, for the ceremonies of the inauguration of the new
President. Discredited, despised, and scoffed at, as a traitor to his
party, to his political creed, and to his country, Mr. Johnson stepped
down from the high office which he had occupied during one of the two
most critical periods in American history since the establishment of
the present Constitution.
[Sidenote: The President and the Republican party.]
And yet it is certainly true that the Republican party had left him
rather than that he had left the party. This party began simply as a
Union party and an anti-slavery extension party. Mr. Johnson, an
original Democrat, joined with the Republicans upon this basis, and he
never left it. On the other hand, when the necessities of the war for
the Union made it evident that the slaves within the Southern
communities which had declared secession, and were engaged in
rebellion, must be proclaimed free, Mr. Johnson still went with the
Republicans in the justification of this measure. And when, finally,
the war was ended and the Union was preserved, and the Republicans
decided that the legitimate outcome of the victory was the prohibition
of slavery everywhere within the United States by an amendment to the
Constitution, Mr. Johnson still marched with them, at the head of the
column. It was only when they became more and more radical in their
policy, and insisted upon transforming rather than restoring the
"States" of the South, by placing civil rights under national
protection instead of "State" protection, disfranchising the whites of
the South, and enfranchising the negroes, and upon overcoming the
Executive's objections to these movements not simply by overriding the
veto, but by generally subordinating the Executive to Congress--it was
only then that he {220} separated from them and fell back naturally on
such support as he could get, which was chiefly from the Democratic
party.
No fair mind can claim that the Republicans in their quarrel with the
President had not departed from their solemn declaration made in
Congress assembled in those dark July days of 1861, just after the
first great defeat of the Union arms, "That this war is not waged upon
our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest
or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the
rights or established institutions of the Southern States, but to
defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve
the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several
States unimpaired." And it was upon the basis of this understanding
that the Democrats in Congress, Mr. Johnson among them, stood with the
Republicans in the prosecution of the war. It is indeed a serious
question of political casuistry as to how far declarations of policy
are binding upon a political party. They are certainly not like
agreements entered into between sovereign states, and the law of
development rather than the law of contract must be the constructive
force in party creed. But this, at least, must be held, viz., that a
man originally not of a given political party, but acting with it upon
the basis of a given creed, cannot be accused of being an apostate from
that party if he does not continue with it when it adopts a new creed
in many respects the very opposite of that given creed, except in the
most groveling sense of machine politics; and that when he and it do
part company, more by its own departures from the given creed than by
his, he is certainly not on that account to be necessarily considered
as a traitor to his country. The truth is, that while all men who
occupy high station are {221} peculiarly subject to wanton, as well as
ignorant, assaults upon their purposes and their conduct, few men that
have occupied so high a station have ever been so unreasonably
slandered and vilified as Andrew Johnson. His own unfortunate and
irritating manners and methods will account for a good deal of the
misunderstanding of his character, but the violence of the times was
the occasion of a great deal more of it. The true Union men of
Tennessee will, however, never forget the hope, and encouragement, and
support which he gave to them, when they were left in the lurch by
their own natural leader, John Bell; and the Nation should for this, if
nothing else, write his name in the book of its heroes.
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