MR. PRESIDENT,--I shall vote for this bill,--not because it is what I
desire, but because it is all that Congress is disposed to enact at
the present time. I do not like to play the part of Cassandra,--but I
cannot forbear declaring my conviction that we shall regret hereafter
that we have not done more. I am against procrastination. But I am also
against precipitation. I am willing to make haste; but, following the
ancient injunction, I would make haste slowly: in other words, I would
make haste so that our work may be well done and the Republic shall not
suffer. Especially would I guard carefully all those who justly look to
us for protection, and I would see that the new governments are founded
in correct principles. You have the power. Do not forget that duties
are in proportion to powers.
I speak frankly. Let me, then, confess my regret that Congress chooses
to employ the military power for purposes of Reconstruction. The army
is for protection. This is its true function. When it undertakes to
govern or to institute government, it does what belongs to the civil
power. Clearly it is according to the genius of republican institutions
that the military should be subordinate to the civil. _Cedant arma
togæ_ is an approved maxim, not to be disregarded with impunity.
Even now, a fresh debate in the British Parliament testifies to this
principle. Only a fortnight ago, the Royal Duke of Cambridge, cousin to
the Queen, and commander of the forces, used these words:--
“The practice of calling out troops to quell civil disturbances
is exceedingly objectionable; _but it must not be forgotten
that the initiative in such cases is always taken by the civil
authorities themselves_.”[95]
This declaration, though confined to a particular case, embodies an
important rule of conduct, which to my mind is of special application
now.
By the system you have adopted, the civil is subordinate to the
military, and the civilian yields to the soldier. You accord to
the army an “initiative” which I would assure to the civil power.
I regret this. I am unwilling that Reconstruction should have a
military “initiative.” I would not see new States born of the bayonet.
Leaving to the army its proper duties of protection, I would intrust
Reconstruction to provisional governments, civil in character and
organized by Congress. You have already pronounced the existing
governments illegal. Logically you should proceed to supply their
places by other governments, while the military is in the nature of
police, until permanent governments are organized, republican in form
and loyal in character. During this transition period, permanent
governments might be matured on safe foundations and the people
educated to a better order of things. As the twig is bent the tree
inclines: you may now bend the twig. These States are like a potter’s
vessel: you may mould them to be vessels of honor or of dishonor.
From the beginning I have maintained these principles. Again and again
I have expressed them in the Senate and elsewhere. At the last session
I insisted upon the Louisiana Bill in preference to the Military
Bill. In the earliest moments of the present session I introduced a
bill of my own, prepared with the best care I could bestow, in which
was embodied what seemed to me a proper and practical system of
Reconstruction, with provisional governments to superintend the work
and pave the way for permanent governments. This measure, which I now
hold in my hand, is entitled “A Bill to guaranty a republican form
of government in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and to
provide for the restoration of these States to practical relations with
the Union.” Its character is seen in its title. It is not a military
bill, or a bill to authorize Reconstruction by military power; but it
is a bill essentially civil from beginning to end.
The principles on which this bill proceeds appear in its preamble,
which, with the permission of the Senate, I will read.
“Whereas in the years 1860 and 1861 the inhabitants of
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas changed
their respective constitutions so as to make them repugnant to
the Constitution of the United States;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States made war upon the
United States, and after many battles finally surrendered,
under the rules and usages of war;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States, at the time of
their surrender, were without legal State governments, and,
as a rebel population, were without authority to form legal
State governments, or to exercise any other political functions
belonging to loyal citizens, and they must so continue until
relieved of such disabilities by the law-making power of the
United States;
“And whereas it belongs to Congress, in the discharge of its
duties under the Constitution, to secure to each of these
States a republican form of government, and to provide for the
restoration of each to practical relations with the Union;
“And whereas, until these things are done, it is important
that provisional governments should be established in these
States, with legal power to protect good citizens in the
enjoyment of their rights, and to watch over the formation of
State governments, so that the same shall be truly loyal and
republican: Therefore”----
With this preamble, exhibiting precisely the necessity and reasons
of Reconstruction, the bill begins by declaring that the provisional
governments shall convene on the fourth Monday after its passage, and
shall continue until superseded by permanent governments, created by
the people of these States respectively, and recognized by Congress as
loyal and republican. It then establishes an executive power in each
State, vested in a governor appointed by the President by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except by such
advice and consent. The legislative power is vested in the governor and
in thirteen citizens, called a legislative council, appointed by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except
by such advice and consent. All these, being officers of the United
States, must take the test oath prescribed already by Act of Congress;
and the bill adds a further oath to maintain a republican form of
government, as follows:--
“I do hereby swear (or affirm) that I will at all times use my
best endeavors to maintain a republican form of government in
the State of which I am an inhabitant and in the Union of the
United States; that I will recognize the indissoluble unity of
the Republic, and will discountenance and resist any endeavor
to break away or secede from the Union; that I will give my
influence and vote to strengthen and sustain the National
credit; that I will discountenance and resist every attempt,
directly or indirectly, to repudiate or postpone, in any part
or in any way, the debt which was contracted by the United
States in subduing the late Rebellion, or the obligations
assumed to the Union soldiers; that I will discountenance
and resist every attempt to induce the United States or any
State to assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid
of rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the
loss or emancipation of any slave; that I will discountenance
and resist all laws making any distinction of race or color;
that I will give my support to education and the diffusion of
knowledge by public schools open to all; and that in all ways I
will strive to maintain a State government completely loyal to
the Union, where all men shall enjoy equal protection and equal
rights.”
I know well the whole history of oaths, and how often they are
the occasion of perjury by the wholesale. But I cannot resist the
conclusion that at this moment, when we are taking securities for the
future, we ought to seize the opportunity of impressing upon the people
fundamental principles on which alone our Government can stand. You
may exclude Rebels; but their children, who are not excluded, have
inherited the Rebel spirit. The schools and colleges of the South
have been nurseries of Rebellion. I would exact from all seeking the
public service, or even the elective franchise, a pledge to support a
republican government; and to make this pledge perfectly clear, so that
all may understand its extent, I would enumerate the points which are
essential. If a citizen cannot give this pledge, he ought to have no
part in Reconstruction. He must stand aside.
From this requirement the bill proceeds to enumerate certain classes
excluded from office and also from the elective franchise. This is
less stringent than what is known as the Louisiana Bill. It does not
exclude citizens who have not held office, unless where they have left
their homes within the jurisdiction of the United States and passed
within the Rebel lines to give aid and comfort to the Rebellion,--or
where they have voluntarily contributed to any loan or securities
for the benefit of any of the Rebel States or the central government
thereof,--or where, as authors, publishers, editors, or as speakers
or preachers, they have encouraged the secession of any State or the
waging of war against the United States.
The bill then provides for executive and judicial officers, and for
their salaries, under the provisional government; also for grand
and petit juries; also for a militia. But all officers, jurors, and
militiamen must take the oath that they are not in the excluded
classes, and also the oath to support a republican form of government.
The bill then annuls existing legislatures; also the acts of
conventions which framed ordinances of secession, and the acts of
legislatures since, subject to certain conditions; and it provides that
the judgments and decrees of court, which have not been voluntarily
executed, and which have been rendered subsequently to the date of the
ordinance of secession, shall be subject to appeal to the highest court
in the State, organized after its restoration to the Union. Safeguards
like these seem essential to the protection of the citizen.