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DISUNION AND RESTORATION IN TENNESSEE
by
JOHN RANDOLPH NEAL, M.A., LL.B.
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in the Faculty of Political Science
Columbia University
New York
The Knickerbocker Press
1899
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. SEPARATION 1
II. RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEPARATION 12
III. LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE 16
IV. RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 24
V. RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS 32
VI. TENNESSEE AND THE NEW AMENDMENTS 39
VII. FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE RADICAL GOVERNMENT 44
VIII. RADICAL MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 52
IX. KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 57
X. CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION 66
XI. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1870 74
DISUNION AND RESTORATION IN TENNESSEE
CHAPTER I
SEPARATION
The vote of Tennessee in the presidential election of 1860 shows
conclusively that at that time a majority of her citizens did not hold
disunion sentiments. Her electoral vote was cast for John Bell and
Edward Everett, who represented, as their platform expressed it, “no
political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the
Union of the States, and the enforcement of the laws.”
The first step toward secession was not the result of popular
initiative, but was mainly due to the efforts of the Governor of the
State, Isham G. Harris. Governor Harris had entered public life just
after the rupture between Andrew Jackson and Hugh Lawson White, which
had resulted in the formation, in Tennessee, of the Whig party. For
thirty years the Whigs and Democrats contended for the control of the
State. They were so equally matched that victory often turned upon the
individual strength of the candidate. This resulted in the development
of a class of public men who possessed, in a high degree, the usually
divergent abilities of public speakers and party leaders. From this
school of practical politics were graduated James K. Polk, Cave
Johnson, Felix Grundy, John Bell, and Andrew Johnson.
The contest between the Whigs and Democrats, which was at first merely
a personal quarrel, soon ripened into a division along true party
lines. The Democrats, after the death of Andrew Jackson, joined the
national Democratic party in its struggle for the perpetuation and
extension of slavery. The Whigs on the other hand shared in the broad
policies and national aspirations of the national Whig party.
Governor Harris had at the very beginning of his career allied himself
with the Democrats. As early as 1849, he had been elected to Congress,
where he became conspicuous for his advocacy of extreme State rights.
In 1857 he defeated Neil S. Brown for governor, and was re-elected in
1859. It was not difficult to predict what his action would be in the
crisis of 1860. Immediately after the election of President Lincoln,
he issued a call for an extra session of the Legislature. It convened
on the seventh day of January, and on the same day he sent in his
message. This message is worthy of study, as it has been pronounced by
a distinguished writer to be “the ablest and most succinct as well as
the most intelligent presentation and justification of the reasons for
the action of the seceding States.”[1] It began with the following
description of the crisis confronting the State: “The long,
systematic, and wanton agitation of the slavery question, with actual
and threatened aggressions of the Northern States and a portion of
their people upon the well-defined constitutional rights of the
Southern citizens, the rapid increase of a purely sectional party,
whose bond of union is uncompromising hostility to the rights and
institutions of the fifteen Southern States, have produced a condition
in the affairs of the country unparalleled in the history of the past,
resulting already in the withdrawal from the Confederacy of one of the
sovereignties which compose it, while others are rapidly preparing to
move in the same direction.”[2]
This opening statement was followed by an historical review in which
was traced the growth of the Republican party. The offences it had
committed against the Southern States were then enumerated. Among
other things, he said:
“It has sought to appropriate to itself, and to exclude the
slaveholders from, the territory acquired by the common
blood and treasure of all. It has, through the
instrumentality of the Emigrants’ Aid Society under State
patronage, flooded the territories with its minions armed
with Sharp’s rifles and bowie knives, seeking thus to
accomplish by intimidation, violence, and murder what it
could not do by constitutional means.
“It claimed the constitutional right to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia, the forts, arsenals, dock-yards,
and other places ceded to the United States within the
bounds of the slaveholding States. It proposed a prohibition
of the slave-trade between the States, thereby crowding the
slaves together, and preventing the exit south until they
became unprofitable to such an extent that it would force
the owner finally to abandon them in self-defence. It has,
by the deliberate legislative enactments of a large majority
of the Northern States, openly and flagrantly nullified the
clause of the Constitution which provided for the return of
fugitive slaves.
“It has, through the executive authority of the States,
denied the extradition of murderers and marauders.
“It obtained its own compromise in the Constitution to
continue the importation of slaves, and now sets up a higher
law than the Constitution to destroy the property imported
and sold to us by their fathers.
“It has caused the murder of owners in the pursuit of the
fugitive slave, and shielded from punishment the murderers.
“It has on many occasions sent its emissaries into the
Southern States to corrupt our slaves, induce them to run
off, and excite them to insurrection. It has by its John
Brown and Montgomery raids invaded sovereign States and
murdered peaceful citizens. It has justified and exalted to
highest honors of admiration the horrid murders, arsons, and
rapines of the John Brown raid, and canonized the felons as
saints and martyrs.
“It has burned the towns, poisoned the cattle, and conspired
with the slaves to depopulate Northern Texas. In has through
certain leaders proclaimed to the slaves the terrible motto:
‘Alarm to the sleep, fire to the dwellings, and poison to
the food and water of the slaveholders.’
“It has repudiated the decision of the Supreme Court.
“It has assailed our rights, guaranteed by the plainest
provisions of the Constitution, from the floor of each House
of Congress, the pulpit, the hustings, the schoolroom, their
State Legislatures, and through the public press, dividing
churches, and disrupting political parties and civil
government.”
The party that had committed the offences enumerated was in possession
of the House of Representatives, and had elected one of its leaders to
the presidency, and in the progress of events the Supreme Court and
Senate must also pass into its hands. With such a party in power,
Governor Harris contended that the Union could be preserved only on
the condition that certain amendments to the Constitution should be
adopted, which would put slavery beyond its attacks.
The amendments he suggested were:
1. Establish a line upon the northern boundary of the present slave
States, extend it through the territories to the Pacific Ocean, upon
such parallel of latitude as will divide them equitably between North
and South, expressly providing that all territory now owned, or that
may be hereafter acquired, north of said line shall be forever free,
and south of it forever slave.
2. In addition to the fugitive-slave clause, provide, that, whenever a
slave has been demanded of the executive authority of the State to
which he has fled, and is not delivered, and the owner permitted to
carry him out of the State in peace, the State so failing to deliver
shall pay to the owner double the value of such slave, and secure his
right of action in the Supreme Court.
3. Provide for the protection of the owner in the peaceable possession
of his slave while in transition or temporarily sojourning in any of
the States of the Confederacy, and, in the event of the slave’s
escaping or being taken from the owner, require the State to return,
or account for, him as in the case of a fugitive.
4. Especially prohibit Congress from abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia, in any dock-yard, navy-yard, arsenal, or any
district of any character whatever, within the limits of any slave
State.
5. Provide that these amendments shall never be changed except by
consent of all the slave States.
With these amendments to the Constitution, Governor Harris said that
he could feel that the rights of the Southern States were reasonably
secure, not only in theory, but in fact, and should indulge the hope
of living in the Union in peace. “If the non-slaveholding States
refuse to comply with a demand so just and reasonable; refuse to
abandon at once and forever their unjust war upon us, our
institutions, and our rights; refuse, as they have heretofore done to
perform, in good faith, the obligations of the compact of the Union,
much as we appreciate the power, prosperity, and glory of this
government, deeply as we deplore the existence of the causes which
have already driven one State out of the Union, much as we regret the
imperative necessity which they have wantonly and wickedly forced upon
us, every consideration of self-preservation and self-respect requires
that we should assert and maintain our equality in the Union, or our
independence out of it.”
The message closed with the following recommendation to the
Legislature: “I recommend that you provide by law for submitting to
the people of the State the question of Convention or No Convention;
and also the election of delegates by the people to meet in State
Convention at the Capitol at Nashville, at the earliest day
practicable, to take into consideration our federal relations, and
determine what action shall be taken by the State of Tennessee for the
security of the rights and the peace of her citizens. This will place
the whole matter in the hands of the people, for them, in their
sovereignty, to determine how far their rights have been violated, the
character of the redress or guaranty they will demand, or the action
they will take for their present and future security.”
The Legislature proceeded without delay to put into effect the
recommendations contained in Governor Harris’s message. On January
19th it passed an act known as the Convention Bill,[3] which provided
for submitting the question of holding a convention to the vote of the
people. The convention was to take into consideration the relation
between the government of the United States and the people of the
State, and was to have the power to adopt any measures for vindicating
the sovereignty of the State and the people it saw fit.
Only a few days intervened between the passage of the Convention Bill
and the day appointed for taking the popular vote; nevertheless, an
exciting canvass of the State ensued. The people came together in vast
crowds to hear the question debated. The Whig leaders were almost
unanimous in their opposition. They were joined by the Democrats of
East Tennessee. The vote was taken on the fifth of February, 1861. The
result was: 24,749 for the Convention; and, 91,803 against it.
This defeat put a stop for the moment to all official action, as the
Legislature had adjourned, but the public agitation and discussion
continued. The disunion sentiment began to grow very rapidly as a
result of events which were transpiring outside the State. Amid the
intense excitement which followed the taking of Fort Sumter, Governor
Harris issued a call for a second extra session of the Legislature. On
the 18th of April he had replied to President Lincoln’s call for
troops: “Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but
fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those
of our Southern brothers.”
The Legislature convened on the twenty-seventh of April. The public
were excluded from its meeting, and its members were pledged to
secrecy. The session opened with the reading of the gubernatorial
message,[4] which asserted that the President of the United States had
wantonly inaugurated an internecine war upon the people of the slave
States. “This war,” he said, “is likely to assume an importance,
nearly, if not equal to the struggle of our revolutionary fathers in
their patriotic efforts to resist usurpations and throw off the
tyrannical yoke of the British Government.
“This declaration of war upon the South has virtually dissolved the
Union. It will be idle to speak of ourselves any longer as members of
the Federal Union; and it is believed by many whose opinions are
entitled to the highest respect, that, by reason of the subversion of
the Constitution by the authorities in power, inaugurating a
revolution between the States thereof, each and every individual is
already released from his obligations to that government; yet, as best
comports with the dignity of the subject, and also from due regard to
those who may hold a different opinion――and further still, that all
the world may be advised of our action,――I respectfully recommend that
our connections with the Federal Union be formally annulled in such
manner as shall involve the highest exercise of the sovereign
authority of the people of the State and best secure that harmony, so
much to be desired, in times like the present, in questions of detail.
The speediest method of accomplishing this will be the perfecting of
an ordinance by the Legislature formally declaring the independence of
the State of Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority,
and resuming each and every function belonging to a separate
sovereignty; and said ordinance when perfected should be submitted to
a vote of the people to be by them adopted or rejected. Under existing
circumstances I can see no propriety in encumbering the people of the
State with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our power
to enable them to do directly for themselves. The most direct as well
as the highest act of sovereignty, according to our theory, is that by
which the people vote, not merely for men, but for measures submitted
for their approval or rejection. Since it is only the voice of the
people that is to be heard, there is no reason why they may not as
readily and effectively express themselves upon an ordinance framed
and submitted to them by the Legislature as if submitted by a
convention.“
The Legislature was as eager as before to execute the will of the
Governor. It embodied his recommendations in an act passed May 6,
1861.[5] This act contained two important provisions. The first was:
“Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the
federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the
United States of America.
“We the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any
expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of
secession, but asserting the right, as a free and
independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of
government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and
declare, that all the laws and ordinances by which the State
of Tennessee became a member of the Federal Union of the
United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled,
and that all obligation on our part be withdrawn therefrom;
and we do hereby resume all the rights, functions, and
powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were
conveyed to the Government of the United States, and absolve
ourselves from all obligations, restraints, duties, incurred
thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign,
and independent State.“
This ordinance was to be submitted to a direct vote of the people. Two
sets of tickets were to be prepared; one set marked Separation, the
other Non-Separation. Those favoring the ordinance were to vote the
former ticket, those opposed, the latter. The act of May 6th further
provided for the submission at the same election of the question as to
whether Tennessee, if it severed its relations with the Union, should
join the Confederacy. This question was also embodied in the form of
an Ordinance.
But the Governor and the Legislature did not wait for the popular
verdict upon these Ordinances. As early as May 7th, they extended an
invitation to the Confederacy to select Nashville as its capital city.
A few days later a still more extraordinary step was taken. Governor
Harris, acting under a joint resolution of the Legislature, appointed
three commissioners to negotiate a military league with the
Confederate authorities. These commissioners, representing the State
of Tennessee, and Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, an agent of the Confederacy,
drew up the following agreement:
“Convention between the State of Tennessee and Confederate
States of America.[6]
“The State of Tennessee, looking to a speedy admission into
the Confederacy established by the Confederate States of
America, in accordance with the Constitution for the
Provisional Government of said States, enters into the
following temporary Convention, Agreement, and Military
League with the Confederate States, for the purpose of
meeting pressing exigencies affecting common rights,
interests, and safety of said State and said Confederacy.
“First. Until the said State shall become a member of said
Confederacy, according to the constitutions of both powers,
the whole military force and military operations, offensive
and defensive, of said State in the impending conflict with
the United States, shall be under the chief control and
direction of the President of the Confederate States, upon
the same basis, principle, and footing as if said State were
now during the interval a member of said Confederacy, said
force, together with that of the Confederate States, to be
employed in common defence.
“Secondly. The State of Tennessee will, upon becoming a
member of said Confederacy under the permanent Constitution
of said Confederate States, if the same shall ever occur,
turn over to the Confederate States all the public property
acquired from the United States on the same terms as the
other States of said Confederacy have done in like case.”
This agreement was laid before the Legislature in a special message,
and almost unanimously ratified. Its provisions were promptly
executed. The vote of the people upon the Declaration of Independence
and the Ordinance adopting the Provisional Constitution of the
Confederacy did not occur till the eighth of June. The result of the
vote, as shown by the official returns, was as follows:
------------------+---------------+-----------------
| Separation. | No Separation.
------------------+---------------+-----------------
East Tennessee | 14,780 | 32,923
Middle Tennessee | 58,265 | 7,956
West Tennessee | 29,127 | 6,117
Camps | 6,246 |
+---------------+-----------------
Total | 108,418 | 46,996
------------------+---------------+-----------------
------------------+-----------------+-------------------
| Representation. | No Representation.
------------------+-----------------+-------------------
East Tennessee | 14,061 | 32,962
Middle Tennessee | 58,198 | 8,298
West Tennessee | 28,912 | 6,104
Camps | 6,340 |
+-----------------+-------------------
Total | 107,511 | 47,364
------------------+-----------------+-------------------
Immediately after the election, Gov. Harris issued a proclamation
announcing Tennessee’s withdrawal from the Union. This was followed by
the proclamation of Jefferson Davis, officially declaring that
Tennessee had become a member of the Confederacy. On the first of
August the State adopted the permanent Confederate Constitution by
vote of 83,133 for, 30,357 against.
Nothing now remained to complete Tennessee’s absorption into the
Confederacy but the election of representatives to the Confederate
Congress. In October, the Legislature selected Langdon C. Haynes and
Gustavus Henry as Confederate Senators. Haynes was a distinguished
Democrat of East Tennessee, while Henry was a Whig. Representatives to
the Lower House were chosen by a vote of the people. Here again the
Whigs and Democrats were equally represented.
[1] Cox: _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_.
[2] Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1861, pp. 1 to 13.
[3] Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1861, p. 14.
[4] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, pp. 1 to 11.
[5] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 13.
[6] Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 19.