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HISTORY 1861-r86s1 denounced as the See also:tool of the See also:Southern slave-holders, was spending the closing days of See also:life in expressing the determination of the See also:North-See also:West that it would never submit to have " a See also:line of See also:custom-houses " between it and the ocean. The batteries which Confederate authority was erecting on the See also:banks of the See also:Mississippi were See also:fuel to the See also:flame. Far-off See also:California, which had been considered neutral by all parties, pronounced as unequivocally for the See also:national authority. 232. The See also:shock of arms put an end to opposition in the See also:South as well. The See also:peculiar See also:isolation of life in the South "Following precluded the more ignorant voter from any See also:corn-the See also:State." parisons of the See also:power of his state with any other; to him it was almost inconceivable that his state should own or have a See also:superior. The better educated men, of wider experience, had been trained to think state See also:sovereignty the See also:foundation of See also:civil See also:liberty, and, when their state spoke, they See also:felt See also:bound to " follow their state." The See also:president of the Confederate States issued his See also:call for men, and it also was more than met. 233. See also:Lincoln's call for troops met with an angry reception wherever the See also:doctrine of state sovereignty had a foothold. The Border The See also:governors of the Border states generally States, returned it with a refusal to furnish any troops. Two states, North Carolina and See also:Arkansas, seceded and joined the Confederate States. In two others, See also:Virginia and See also:Tennessee, the state politicians formed " military leagues " with the Confederacy, allowing Confederate troops to take See also:possession of the states, and then submitted the question of See also:secession to " popular See also:vote." The secession of these states was thus accomplished, and See also:Richmond became the Confederate See also:capital. The same See also:process was attempted in See also:Missouri, but failed, and the state remained loyal. The politician class in See also:Maryland and See also:Kentucky took the extraordinary course of attempting to maintain See also:neutrality; but the growing power of the Federal See also:government soon enabled the See also:people of the two states to resume See also:control of their governments and give consistent support to the See also:Union. Kentucky, however, had troops in the Confederate armies; and one of her citizens, the See also:late See also:vice-president, See also: The territory within it comprised about 800,000 sq. m., with a See also:population of over g,000,000 and See also:great natural resources. Its See also:cotton was almost essential to the manufactories of the See also:world; in See also:exchange for it every munition of war could be "procured; and it was hardly possible to See also:blockade a See also:coast over 3000 M. in length, on which the blockading force had but one See also:port of See also:refuge, and that about the See also:middle of the line. Nevertheless President Lincoln issued his first call for troops on the 15th of April, President See also:Davis then issued a See also:proclamation (on the 17th) offering letters of marque and reprisal against the com- merce of the See also:United States to private vessels, and on the 19th 707 Lincoln answered with a proclamation announcing the blockade of the Southern coast. The See also:news brought out proclamations of neutrality from Great See also:Britain and See also:France, and, according to subsequent decisions of the Supreme See also:Court; made the struggle a civil war, though the minority held that this did not occur legally until the See also:act of Congress of the 13th of July 1861; authorizing the president, in See also:case of insurrection, to shut up ports and suspend commercial intercourse with the revolted See also:district. 235. The president found himself compelled to assume See also:powers never granted to the executive authority, trusting to the subsequent See also:action of Congress to validate his suspension action. He had to raise and support armies and of "Habeas navies; he even had to authorize seizures of neces- corpus.' sary See also:property, of railroad and See also:telegraph lines, arrests of suspected persons, and the suspension of the See also:writ of habeas corpus in certain districts. Congress supported him, and proceeded in 1863 to give the president power to suspend the writ anywhere in the United States; this power he promptly exercised. The Supreme Court, after the war, in the See also:Milligan case (4 See also:Wallace, 133) decided that no See also:branch of the government had power to suspend the writ in districts where the courts were open—that the See also:privilege of the writ might be suspended as to persons properly involved in the war, but that the writ was still to issue, the court deciding whether the See also:person came within the classes to whom the suspension applied. This decision, however, did not come until " arbitrary arrests," as they were called, had been a feature of the entire war. A similar suspension took place in the Confederate States. 236. When Congress met (July 4, 1861) the" See also:absence of Southern members had made it heavily Republican. It decided to consider no business but that connected with the war, authorized a See also:loan and the raising Congress. of 500,000 See also:volunteers, and made See also:confiscation of property a See also:penalty of See also:rebellion. While it was in session the first serious See also:battle of the war—See also:Bull Run, or Manassas-took place (July 21), and resulted in the defeat of the Federal See also:army. (For this and the other battles BnuRun. of the war see See also:AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, and the supplementary articles dealing with particular battles and See also:campaigns.) The over-zealous action of a See also:naval officer in taking the Confederate envoys See also: Another important act (1862) granted public lands for the See also:establishment of agricultural and See also:mechanical colleges (see See also:MoRRILL, J. S.). 238. The railway system of the United States was but twenty years old in 1850, but it had begun to assume some consistency. The See also:day of See also:short and disconnected lines had passed, and the connexions which were Inhallways f850. to develop into railway systems had appeared. Consolidation of smaller companies had begun; the all-See also:rail route across the state of New See also:York was made up of more than a dozen See also:original companies at its consolidation in 1853. The See also:Erie railway, chartered in 1832, was completed from The Blockade. 708 Piermont to See also:Dunkirk, New York, in 1851; and another line—the See also:Pennsylvania—was completed from See also:Harrisburg to See also:Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1854. These were at least the germs of great See also:trunk lines. The cost of American railways has been only from one-See also:half to one-See also:fourth of the cost of See also:European railways; but an investment in a Far Western railway in 1850-186o was an extra-hazardous See also:risk. Not only did social conditions make any See also:form of business hazardous; the new railway often had to enter a territory See also:bare of population, and there create its own towns, farms and See also:traffic. Whether it could do so was so doubtful as to make additional inducements to capital neces-
Land sary. The means attempted by Congress in 1850,
[rants. in the case of the See also:Illinois Central railroad, was to
See also: Mr D. A. See also:Wells, in 1866, estimated that prices and rents had risen go % since 1861, while See also:wages had not risen more than 6o%. 241. The duties on imports were driven higher than the original Morrill See also:tariff had ever contemplated. The See also:average rates, which had been 18% on dutiable articles and 12% TariNand on the aggregate in 186o-1861, See also:rose, before the See also:Internal end of the war, to nearly 5o % on dutiable Reve See also:Taxation, articles and 35 % on the aggregate. Domestic manufactures sprang into new life under such hot-See also:house encouragement; every one who had spare See also:wealth converted it into manufacturing capital. The See also:probability of such a result had' been the means of getting votes for an increased tariff; See also:free traders had voted for it as well as protectionists. For the tariff was only a means of getting capital into positions in which taxation could be applied to it, and the " internal See also:revenue " taxation was merciless beyond precedent. The See also:annual increase of wealth from capital was then about $55o,0o0,000; the internal revenue taxation on it rose in 1866 to $310,000,000, or nearly 6o%. 242. The stress of all this upon the poor must have been great, but it was relieved in part by the See also:bond system on which Bonds. the war was conducted. While the armies and
navies were See also:shooting off large blocks of the crops of 1880 or 1890, See also:work and wages were abundant for all who were competent for them. It is true, then, that the poor paid most of the cost of the war; it is also true that the poor had shared in that anticipation of the future which had been forced on the See also:country, and that, when the drafts on the future came to be redeemed, it was done mainly by taxation on luxuries. The destruction of a Northern railway meant more work for Northern See also:iron See also:mills and their workmen. The destruction of a Southern road was an unmitigated injury; it had to be made See also:good at once, by paper issues; the South could make no drafts on the future, by bond issues, for the[HISTORY 1861-1865
blockade had put cotton out of the See also:game, and Southern bonds were hardly saleable. Every expense had to be met by paper issues; each issue forced prices higher; every rise in paper prices called for an increased issue of paper, with issues in increased effects for evil. A See also:Rebel War-Clerk's the South. See also:Diary gives the following as the prices in the Richmond See also:market for May 1864: " Boots, $200; coats, $350; pantaloons, $10o; shoes, $125; See also:flour, $275 per See also:barrel; See also:meal, $6o to $8o per See also:bushel; See also: There is an evident significance in the exemption from military See also:duty in the Confederate States of " one agriculturist on such See also:farm, where there is no white male adult not liable to duty, employing 15 able-bodied slaves between ten and fifty years of See also:age." But, to the See also:honour of the enslaved See also:race, no insurrection took place. 244. The pressing need for men in the army made the See also:Con-federate Congress utterly unable to withstand the growth of executive power. Its bills were prepared by the Confederate See also:cabinet, and the action of Congress was quite per- Congress functory. The suspension of the writ of habeas and Presicorpus, and the vast powers granted to President dent. Davis, or assumed by him under the plea of military necessity, with the absence of a watchful and well-informed public See also:opinion, made the Confederate government by degrees almost a despotism. It was not until the closing months of the war that the expiring Confederate Congress mustered up courage enough to oppose the president's will. (See CONFEDERATE STATES OF See also:AMERICA.) The organized and even See also:radical opposition to the war in the North, the meddlesomeness of Congress and its " committees on the conduct of the war," were no doubt unpleasant to Lincoln but they carried the country through the crisis without the effects visible in the South. 245. Another act of Federal legislation — the National Bank Act (Feb. 25, 1863; supplemented by the act of June 3, 1864)—should be mentioned here, as it was closely connected with the See also:sale of bonds. The banks were to National be organized, and, on depositing United States Banking bonds at Washington, were to be permitted to system• issue notes up to 9o% of the value of the bonds deposited. As the redemption of the notes was thus assured, they circulated without question all over the United States. By a subsequent act (1865) the remaining state bank circulation was taxed out of existence. (See BANKS AND BANKING: United States.) 246. At the beginning of 1862 the lines of demarcation between the two powers had become plainly marked. The western part of Virginia had separated itself from See also:Admission the See also:parent state, and was admitted as a state (1863) of west under the name of West Virginia. It was certain virginia. that Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri had been saved to the Union, and that the battle was to be fought out in the territory to the south of them. 247. At the beginning of the war the people and leaders of the North had not desired to interfere with slavery, but circumstances had been too strong for them. Lincoln had declared that he meant to See also:save the Union as he best could—by preserving slavery, by destroying it, or by destroying part Prices In Paper. and preserving part of it. Just after the battle of See also:Antietam (17 See also:Sept. 1862) he issued his proclamation calling on the revolted The &nand- states to return to their See also:allegiance before the next See also:Paten See also:Pro- year, otherwise their slaves would be declared cIamation. free men. No state returned, and the threatened See also:declaration was issued on the 1st of See also:January 1863. As president, Lincoln could issue no such declaration; as See also:commander-in-See also:chief of the armies and navies of the United States he could issue directions only as to the territory within his lines; but the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside of his lines. It has therefore been debated whether the proclamation was in reality of any force. It may fairly be taken as an announcement of the policy which was to See also:guide the army, and as a declaration of freedom taking effect as the lines advanced. At all events, this was its exact effect. Its See also:international importance was far greater. The locking up of the world's source of cotton See also:supply had been a See also:general calamity, and the Confederate government and people had steadily expected that the See also:English and See also:French governments, or at least one of them, would intervene in the war for the purpose of raising the blockade and releasing the Southern cotton. The See also:conversion of the struggle into a crusade against slavery made intervention impossible for governments whose peoples had now a controlling influence on their policy and intelligence enough to understand the issue. 248. Confederate agents in See also:England were numerous and active. Taking See also:advantage of every loophole in the British See also:Foreign Enlistment Act, they built and sent to See also:sea Pri eteerstethe " See also:Alabama " and " See also:Florida," which for a time almost drove Federal See also:commerce from the ocean. Whenever they were closely pursued by United States vessels they took refuge in neutral ports until a safe opportunity occurred to put to sea again. Another, the " See also:Georgia," was added in 1863. All three were destroyed in 1864. (See ALABAMA See also:ARBITRATION.) Confederate attempts to have iron-clads equipped in England and France were unsuccessful. 249. The turning-point of the war was evidently in the See also:early days of July 1863, when the victories of See also:Vicksburg and The Current See also:Gettysburg came together. The national govern-of Success ment had at the beginning cut the Confederate changes. States down to a much smaller See also:area than might well have been expected; its armies had pushed the besieging lines far into the hostile territory, and had held the ground which they had gained; and the war itself had See also:developed a class of generals who cared less for the See also:conquest of territory than for attacking and destroying the opposing armies. The great drafts on the future which the See also:credit of the Federal government enabled the North to make gave it also a startling See also:appearance of prosperity; so far from feeling the war, it was See also:driving See also:production of every See also:kind to a higher See also:pitch than ever before. 250. The war had not merely developed improved weapons and munitions of war; it had also spurred the people on to a more careful See also:attention to the welfare of the soldiers, the fighting men drawn from their own number. The sanitary See also:commission, the See also:Christian commission, and other voluntary associations for the See also:physical and moral care of soldiers, received and disbursed very large sums. The national government was paying an average amount of $2,000,000 per day for the See also:prosecution of the war, and, in spite of the severest taxation, the See also:debt grew to $500,000,000 in June 1862, to twice that amount a year later, to $1,700,000,000 in June 1864, and reached its maxi-mum on the 31st of See also:August 1865—$2,845,907,626. But this lavish See also:expenditure was directed with See also:energy and See also:judgment. The blockading fleets were kept in perfect See also:order and with every See also:condition of success. The railway and telegraph were brought into systematic use for the first time in See also:modern warfare. Late in 1863 See also:Edwin M. See also:Stanton, the secretary of war, moved two See also:corps of 23,000 men from Washington to See also:Chattanooga, 1200 m., in seven days. A year later he moved another corps, 15,000 strong, from Tennessee to Washington in eleven days, and within a See also:month had collected vessels and transferred it to North Carolina.
251. On the other See also:hand, the Federal armies now held almost all the great southern through lines of railroad, except the Georgia lines and those which supplied See also: All the resistance was put down; but exemptions and substitute purchases were so freely permitted that the draft in the North had little effect except as a stimulus to the states in filling their quotas of volunteers by voting bounties.
252. In 1864 Lincoln was re-elected with See also:Andrew See also: Lee to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox, Va., on the 9th of April 1865.
Surrender
All the terms of surrender named by Grant were of Lee. generous: no private property was to be surrendered;
both See also:officers and men were to be dismissed on See also:parole, not to be disturbed by the United States government so See also:long as they pre-served their parole and did not violate the laws; and he instructed the officers appointed to receive the paroles " to let all the men who claim to own a See also:horse or See also:mule take the animals home with them to work their little farms. It should be stated, also, to Grant's honour that, when the politicians afterwards undertook to repudiate some of the terms of surrender, he personally intervened and used the power of his own name to force an exact fulfilment. General See also:Joseph E. See also:Johnston, with the only other considerable army in the See also: Even this modified punishment was not inflicted. There was no See also:hanging; some of the leaders were imprisoned for a time, but never brought to trial.
255. The armies of the Confederacy are supposed to have been at their strongest (700,000) at the beginning The of 1863; and it is doubtful whether they contained Opposing 200,000 men in See also: 586) at £740,000,000; by See also:Nicolay and See also:Hay (See also:Abraham Lincoln, vol. x., p. 339) at $3,250,000,000 to the North and $1,500,000,000 to the South; by See also:Edward See also:Atkinson (the See also:Forum, See also:October 1888, p. 133), including the first three years of Reconstruction at $5,000,000,000 to the North and $3,000,000,000 to the South. The last alone of these estimates is an approximation to the truth. The See also:ordinary receipts of the government for the four fiscal years 1862 to 1865 totalled $729,458,336, as compared with $196,963,373 for the four preceding years, 1858-1861; the difference representing the effort of the See also:treasury to meet the burden of war. In the same See also:period more than $2,600,000,000 was secured in loans upon the credit of the nation; and this See also:total was raised by later borrowings on See also:account of the war to more than $2,800,000,000. The immediate and See also:direct cost of the struggle to the North was therefore about $3,330,000,000. To this sum must be added, in order to obtain the final and total cost: (I) the military See also:pensions paid on account of the war since 1861—about $3,600,000,000 up to 1909, inclusive; (2) the See also:interest on the war debt, approximately $3,024,000,000 in the same period; (3) the expenditures made during the war by state and See also:local governments, which have never been totalled, but may be put at $1,000,000,000; and (4) the abnormal expenditures for army and See also:navy during some years following the war, which may be put, conservatively, at $500,000,000. The result is a total of some $11,450,500,000 for the North alone. But the cost to the South also was enormous; $4,000,000,000 cannot be an exaggeration. It follows that, up to 1909, the cost of the war to the nation had approximated the tremendous total of $15,500,000,000. 256. In return for such an expenditure, and the death of probably 300,000 men on each See also:side, the abiding gain was incal-Resutts of culable. The See also:rich See also:section, which had been kept back the war. in the general development by a single institution,
and had been a clog on the advance of the whole country, had been dragged up to a level with the See also:rest of the country. Free labour was soon to show itself far superior to slave labour in the South; and the South was to reap the largest material gain from the destruction of the Civil War. The persistent policy of paying the debt immediately resulted in the higher taxation falling on the richer North and West. As a result of the struggle the moral stigma of slavery was removed. The power of the nation, never before asserted openly, had made a place for itself; and yet the continuing power of the states saved the national power from a development into centralized tyranny. And the new power of the nation, by guaranteeing the_ restriction of government to a single nation in central North America, gave See also:security against any introduction of international relations, international armament, international See also:wars, and continual war taxation into the territory occupied by the United States. Finally, See also:democracy in America had certainly shown its ability to maintain the unity of its See also:empire.
Life, by C. F. See also: See also:Ford (to vols., New York, 1892-1899), representing the See also:Anti-Federalists or Republicans; The Writings of James Monroe, edited by S. H. See also: See also:Baker (5 vols., 2nd ed., Boston, 1883—189o), and The Works of See also: McLaughlin, The See also:Confederation and the Constitution, vol. x. of " The American Nation See also:Series " (New York, 1905) ; J. S. Bassett, The Federal System, vol. ii. of " The American Nation Series "; Henry Adams, History of the United States of America during the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison (9 vols., New York, 1891), quotes freely from records in foreign archives; J. W. See also:Burgess, The Middle Period, 1817—1858 (New York, 1901), and J. F. See also:Rhodes, History of the United States from the See also:Compromise of 1850 (7 vols., New York, 1900—1906), which, although written largely from Northern See also:sources, is for the most part See also:fair and judicial. For lists of works dealing with special events (e.g. the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law, &c.), see the articles devoted to those subjects. See also vols. xii. to xxi. of " The American Nation Series, " consisting of Edward See also:Channing, The Jeffersonian System; K. C. Babcock, The Rise of American See also:Nationality; F. J. See also:Turner, Rise of the New West; William See also:MacDonald, Jacksonian Democracy; A. B. Hart, Slavery and Abolition; G. P. See also:Garrison, Westward Expansion; T. C. See also: W. Burgess, The Civil War and the Constitution (2 vols., New York, 1901). The best account of the military operations of the Mexican War is in R. S. See also:Ripley, The War with See also:Mexico, (2 vols., New York, 1849). For a See also:list of works See also:relating to the military events of the War of 1812 and the Civil War see the See also:separate articles on those subjects. On the War with France, 1798, see G. W. See also:Allen, Our Naval War with France (New York, 1909). On the development of the \'Vest there are: H. B. Adams, Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States (Baltimore, 1885); B. A. Hinsdale, The Old North-West (revised ed., New York, 1899), a scholarly work; See also:Justin See also:Winsor, The Westward See also:Movement (Boston, 1897), a storehouse of facts, but dry for the general reader; See also:Theodore See also:Roosevelt, The Winning of the West (4 vols., New York, 1889—1896), a graphic outline. Other important works on special subjects are: Edward Stanwood, History of the See also:Presidency (Boston, 1898), a study of presidential campaigns; J. P. Gordy, History of Political Parties in the United States (2 vols., rev. ed., New York, 1900—1902) ; E. D. Warfield, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 (New York, 1887) ; See also:Freeman See also:Snow, See also:Treaties and Topics in American See also:Diplomacy (Boston, 1894); J. B. See also:Moore, A See also:Digest of International Law (6 vols., Washing-ton, 1906), and History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States has been a Party (6 vols., Washington, 1898) ; E. S. Maclay, History of the United States Navy from 1775 to 1894 (3 vols., New York, 1897—1902) ; G. W. Allen, Our Navy and the See also:Barbary Corsairs (Boston, 1905) ; J. R. Spears, History of our Navy (4 vols., New York, 1897); D. R. See also:Dewey, See also:Financial History of the United States (New York, 1903) ; W. G. Sumner, History of Banking in the United States (New York, 1896) ; R. C. H. Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States (Chicago, 1903) ; F. W. See also:Taussig, Tariff History of the United States (4th ed., New York, 1898); E. L. Bogart, Economic History of the United States (New York, 1907); E. D. Fite, Social and See also:Industrial Conditions in the North during the Civil War (New York, 1910), and J. L. See also:Bishop, History of American Manufactures (3 vols., 3rd ed.,, Philadelphia, 1867). For See also:biographies of the leading statesmen of the period see American Statesmen, edited by J. F. See also:Morse, jun. (32 vols., new ed., Boston, 1899) ; see also the See also:bibliographies at the See also:close of the See also:biographical sketches of statesmen in this edition of the Ency. Brit. There is a " See also:Critical See also:Essay on Authorities " in each See also:volume of The American Nation; and both The Literature of American History, edited by J. N. Lamed (Boston, 1902), and Channing and Hart's Guide to the Study of American History, are valuable See also:bibliographical guides. (A. J.; C. C. W.) L. History, '865-1910. 2S7. The See also:capitulation of Lee (April 9, 1865), followed by the assassination of Lincoln (April 15) and the surrender of the last important Confederate army, under J. E. Johnston, marked the end of the era of war and the beginning of that of Reconstruction, a problem which involved a revolution in the social and political structure of the South, in the relation of state and nation in the American Federal Union, and in the economic life of the whole country. 258. Economically the condition of the South was desperate. The means of transport were destroyed; railways and See also:bridges were ruined; Southern securities were valueless; the Confederate currency system was completely disorganized. Great numbers of the emancipated negroes wandered idly from place to place, trusting the Union armies for sustenance, while their former masters toiled in the See also:fields to restore their plantations.
259. The social organization of the South had been based on See also:negro slavery. Speaking generally, the large planters had constituted the dominant class, especially social and in the cotton states; and in the areas of heaviest Economic negro population these planters had belonged for condition of the most part to the old Whig party. Outside the South. of the larger See also:plantation areas, especially in the See also: Democrat, and whose state rights' principles and indifference to Northern ideals of the future of the negro made him distrusted by large numbers of the Union Republican party. 261. The See also:composition of this party was certain to endanger its stability when See also:peace came. It had carried on the war by a coalescence of Republicans, War Democrats, Whigs, union Constitutional Unionists and Native Americans, Republican who had rallied to the cause of national unity. Party At the outset it had asserted that its purpose was not to interfere with the established institutions in slave states, but to defend the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality and rights of the several states unimpaired. But the war had destroyed slavery, as well as preserved the Union, and the civil status of the negro and the position of the revolted states now became burning questions, reviving old antagonisms and party factions. To the extremists of the Radical wing it seemed in accordance with the principles of human liberty that the negro should not only be released from slavery but should also receive full civil rights, including the right to vote on an equality with the whites. This See also:group was also ready to revolutionize Southern society by destroying the old ascendancy of the great planter class. Of this idealistic school of radical Republicans, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, was the spokesman in the Senate, and Thaddeus See also:Stevens, of Pennsylvania, in the House. 262. For many years before the war parties had differed on such important questions as the tariff, internal improvements and foreign policy; and the South had used its See also:alliance with the Northern Democracy to resist the economic demands of the industrial interests of the North. A return of Southern congressmen, increased in numbers by the inapplicability to the new conditions of the constitutional See also:provision by which they had See also:representation for only a fraction of the slaves, might mean a revival of the old political situation, with the South and the Northern Democracy once more in the See also:saddle. 263. Any See also:attempt to restore the South to full rights, there-fore, without further provision for securing for the freedmen Northern the reality of their freedom, and without some Attitude means of establishing the political control of the towards the victorious party, would create party dissension. south. Even Lincoln had aroused the See also:bitter opposition of the radical leaders by his generous See also:plan of Reconstruction. Johnson could have secured party support only by important concessions to the powerful leaders in Congress; and these concessions he was temperamentally unable to make. The masses of the North, especially in the first rejoicings over the peace, were not ungenerous in their attitude; and the South, as a whole, accepted the results of defeat in so far as to acquiesce in the permanence of the Union and the emancipation of the slaves, the original issues of the war. 264. In the settlement of the details of Reconstruction, however, there were abundant opportunities for the hatred engendered by the war to flame up once more. As it became clear that the Northern See also:majority was determined to exclude the leaders of the South from political rights in the re-construction of the Union, and especially as the radicals disclosed their purpose to ensure Republican ascendancy by subjecting the section to the See also:rule of the loyalist whites and, later, to that of the emancipated negroes, good will disappeared, and the South entered upon a fight for its social system. The natural leaders of the people, men of intelligence and property, had been the leaders of the section in the war. Whatever their views had been at first as to secession, the great majority of the Southern people had followed the fortunes of their states. To disfranchise their leaders was to throw the control into the hands of a less able and small minority of whites; to enfranchise the blacks while disfranchising the white leaders was to under-take the task of subordinating the former political people of a section to a different race, just released from slavery, ignorant, untrained, without property and fitted only to follow the See also:leader-See also:ship of outside elements. The history of this attempt and its failure constitutes much of that of the Reconstruction. 265. These underlying forces were in reality more influential than the constitutional theories which engaged so much of the discussion in Congress, theories which, while they afford See also:evidence of the characteristic See also:desire to proceed constitutionally were really urged in support of, or opposition to, the interests just named. 266. The most extreme northern Democrats, and their southern sympathizers, starting from the premise that con-Theories stitutionally the Southern states had never been out Regarding of the Union, contended that the termination of the Status hostilities restored them to their former rights in the of the Federal Union unimpaired and without further Southern action. This theory derived support from President States. Lincoln's view that not states, but assemblages of individuals, had waged war against the government. The theory of the extreme Republican Radicals was formulated by Sumner and Stevens. The former contended that, whilethe states could not secede, they had by waging war reduced themselves to See also:mere Territories of the United States, entitled only to the rights of Territories under the Constitution. Stevens went further and, appealing to the facts of secession, declared the Southern states conquered provinces, subject to be disposed of under international law at the will of the conqueror. In the end Congress adopted a middle ground, holding that white the states could not leave the Union, they were, in fact, out of normal relations, and that the constitutional right of the Federal government to See also:guarantee republican governments to the various states gave to Congress the power to impose conditions precedent to their rehabilitation. 267. It is necessary to recall the See also:initiation of Reconstruction See also:measures by President Lincoln rightly to understand the position which was taken by President Johnson. President Impatient of theoretical discussion, Lincoln laid Lincoln's down See also:practical conditions of restoration in his pro- Poiky clamation of the 8th of See also:December 1863. In this he offered See also:amnesty to those who would take an See also:oath of See also:loyalty for the future and accept the acts of Congress and the proclamation of the president with reference to slaves. From the amnesty he excepted the higher military, civil and See also:diplomatic officers of the Confederacy as well as those who had relinquished judicial stations, seats in Congress, or commissions in the army or navy to aid the rebellion, and those who had treated persons in the Federal service otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war. The proclamation provided, further, that when in any of the seceding states (except Virginia, where the president had already recognized the loyal government under Governor See also:Francis H. Pierpont) a number of persons not less than one-tenth of the voters in 186o should have taken the above described oath, and, being qualified voters under the laws of the state in 186o, should have established a state government, republican in form, it should be recognized. Lincoln's comprehension of Southern difficulties was shown in his declaration in this proclamation that the president would not See also:object to such provisions by the states regarding the freedmen as should, while declaring their freedom and providing for their See also:education, recognize their condition as a labouring, landless and homeless class. 268. Although Lincoln expressly pointed out that the admission of the restored states to representationAttitude of in Congress rested exclusively with the respective congress; houses, and announced his readiness to consider the First other plans for Reconstruction, heated opposition Reconstrucby the radicals in Congress was called out by tion Bii4 this proclamation. They feared that it did not sufficiently guarantee the abolition of slavery, which up to this time rested on the war powers of the president, and they asserted that it was the right of Congress, rather than that of the president, to determine the conditions and the process of Reconstruction. In a See also:bill which passed the House by a vote of 93 to 59 and was concurred in by the Senate, Congress provided that Reconstruction was to be begun only when a majority of the white male citizens of any one of the Confederate States should take oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The president should then invite them to call a constitutional convention. The See also:electors of this convention would be required to take an oath of allegiance which excluded a much larger class than those deprived of the benefit of the amnesty proclamation, for it eliminated all who had voluntarily See also:borne arms against the United States, or encouraged hostility to it, or voluntarily yielded support to any of the Confederate governments. In addition to entrusting the formation of a constitution to the small minority of thorough-going See also:loyalists, the bill required that the state constitution should exclude a large proportion of the civil and military officers of a Confederate government from the right of voting, and that it should provide that slavery be for ever abolished and that state and Confederate debts of the war period should never be paid. In July 1864 Lincoln gave a " See also:pocket See also:veto " to the bill and issued a proclamation explaining his reasons for refusing to sign, where-upon See also:Benjamin F. See also:Wade and Henry W. Davis (q.v.), leaders of the radicals, violently attacked the president. The See also:triumph of Lincoln in the election of 1864 did not clearly signify the will of the people upon the conditions of Reconstruction, or upon the See also:organ of government to formulate them, for the declaration of the Democratic convention that the war was a failure over-shadowed the issue, and the Union party which supported Lincoln was composed of men of all parties. 269. On January 31st 1865 the House concurred in the vote of the Senate in favour of the Thirteenth See also:Amendment to the Thirteenth Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the Amendment. Union. Four years earlier Congress had submitted to the states another Thirteenth Amendment by the terms of which no amendment should ever authorize Congress to interfere with slavery within the states. But owing to the war this amendment had remained unratified, and now Congress proposed to place beyond constitutional doubt, or the power of states to See also:change it, the emancipation of slaves. By the 18th of December 1865 the amendment had been ratified and was proclaimed in force. 270. In the meantime, See also:Louisiana, in accordance with Lincoln's proclamation, had adopted a constitution and abolished slavery within the state. Owing to the obstructive See also:tactics of Sumner, aided by Democrats in the Senate, Congress adjourned on the 4th of March 1865 without having recognized this new state government as legitimate. " If we are wise and discreet," said Lincoln, " we shall reanimate the states and get their governments in successful operation with order prevailing and the Union re-established before Congress comes together in December." 271. Such was the situation when Johnson took up the presidency upon Lincoln's death. After an See also:interval of uncertainty, in which he threatened vengeance against various Southern leaders and gave the radicals some See also:hope that. he would favour negro See also:suffrage, President Johnson accepted the See also:main features of Lincoln's policy. Congress not being in session, he was able to work out an executive Reconstruction on the lines of Lincoln's policy during the summer and autumn of 1865. On the 29th of May he issued a proclamation of amnesty, requiring of those who desired to accept its provisions an oath to support the Constitution and Union, and the laws and proclamations respecting the emancipation of slaves. Certain specified classes of persons were excepted, including certain additions to those excluded by Lincoln, especially " all persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebellion and the estimated value of whose taxable property is over twenty thousand dollars." This provision was characteristic of Johnson, who disliked the Southern planting See also:aristocracy, and aimed at placing the preponderant power in the hands of the Democratic small farmers, who had been his supporters. To those of the excepted classes who would ask See also:pardon from the president, he promised a liberal clemency. As part of his system he issued Porky of another proclamation in which he appointed a President governor for North Carolina and laid down a Johnson. plan for Reconstruction. By this proclamation it was made the duty of the governor to call a convention chosen by the loyal people of the state, for the purpose of altering the state constitution and establishing a state government. The right to vote for delegates to this convention was limited to those who had taken the oath of amnesty and who had been qualified to vote See also:prior to the secession of the state. To the state itself was to be left the determination of the future qualifications of electors and See also:office-holders. 272. Already Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas had governments which had been recognized by Lincoln. Between the 13th of June and the 13th of July 1865 Johnson applied the same process which he had outlined for North Carolina to the remaining states of the Confederacy. Before Congress met in December all the Confederate states, except Texas (which delayed until the See also:spring of 1866), had formed constitutions and elected governments in accordance with the presidential plan. All of their legislatures, except that of Mississippi, ratified the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. 273. Gradually, however, the South turned to its former leaders to shape its policy, and the radical . Republicans of the North were alarmed at the rapidity of the process of restoration on these principles. The disorganized and idle condition of the former slaves constituted a serious element in the Southern situation, as Lincoln had foreseen. The negroes expected a grant of land from confiscated Southern estates, and it was difficult to preserve order and to secure a proper labour supply. 274. Under these conditions the efforts of the South to provide security for their communities by bodies of white See also:militia were looked upon with See also:apprehension by the North, and there was sufficient conflict between the two races to give See also:colour to charges that the South was not accepting in good faith the emancipation of the slaves. Especially irritating to Northern sentiment were the so-called " See also:black codes " or " See also:peonage laws," passed by the newly elected Southern legislatures. Southern They rested on the belief that it was necessary "Black that the former slaves should be treated as a separate Codes." and dependent class, and varied in severity in the different states. Some of these imposed special disabilities upon the negro in the See also:matter of carrying weapons and serving as witnesses. See also:Vagrancy laws and provisions regarding labour contracts which had precedents in colonial and English legislation, but were specifically framed to restrain the negroes only, were common. Mississippi denied them the right to own land, or even to See also:rent it outside of incorporated towns; South Carolina restricted them to husbandry and to farm or domestic service, unless specially licensed. Although several of the Southern states, perceiving that their course was likely to arouse the North to drastic measures, repealed or mitigated the most objectionable laws, the North had received the impression that an attempt had been made to restore slavery in disguised form. 275. The problem of succouring and protecting the negroes had forced itself upon the attention of the North from the beginning of the war, and on the 3rd of March 1865 The Congress had created the Freedmen's See also:Bureau (q.v.), Freedmen's with the power to assign abandoned lands, in the Bureau. states where the war had existed, to the use of the freed-men; to supervise charitable and educational activities among them; to exercise See also:jurisdiction over controversies in which a freedman was a party; and to regulate their labour contracts. The local agents of the bureau were usually Northern men; some of them gave the worst See also:interpretation to Southern conditions and aroused vain hopes in the negroes that the lands of the former masters would be divided among them; and later many of them became active in the political organization of the negro. 276. Although the national government itself had thus recognized that special treatment of the freedmen was necessary, Congress, on assembling in December 1865, was disposed to regard the course of the South in this respect with deep suspicion. Moreover, as the Thirteenth Amendment was now ratified, it was seen that the South, if restored according to the presidential policy, would return to Congress with added representatives for the freed negroes. Only three-fifths of the negro slaves had been counted in apportioning representatives in Congress; though now free they were not allowed to vote. 277. Under the leadership of the Radicals Congress refused, therefore, to receive the representatives of the states which had met the conditions of the president's proclamations. A See also:joint See also:committee of fifteen took the whole subject of Reconstruction under advisement, and a bill was passed continuing the Freedmen's Bureau indefinitely. When this was vetoed by President Johnson (Feb. 19, 1866) Congress retaliated by a con-current See also:resolution (March 2) against admitting any reconstructed state until Congress declared it entitled to recognition, thus asserting for the legislative See also:body the direction of Reconstruction. 278. While the measure was under See also:consideration the president in an intemperate public address stigmatized the leaders of the radicals by name as labouring to destroy the principles of the government and even intimated that the assassination of the president was aimed at. It was hardly possible to close the See also:breach after this, and the See also:schism between the Breach be- President and the leaders of the Union Republican tween en the President party was completed when Congress passed (April and Con- 9, 1866) the Civil Rights Bill over Johnson's veto. gress; the The act declared the freedmen to be citizens of the Civil Rights Bill. United States with the same civil rights as white persons and entitled to the See also:protection of the Federal government. It provided punishment for those who, relying upon state authority, should discriminate against the negroes. 279. To place this measure beyond the danger of overthrow by courts, or by a change of party majority, on the 13th of The June 1866 Congress provided for submitting to the Fourteenth states a Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Amend- This gave constitutional guarantee of citizenship went. and equal civil rights to freedmen, and, in effect, provided that when in any state the right to vote should be denied to any of the male inhabitants twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation in the state should be reduced in the proportion which the number of such citizens See also:bore to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in the state. This section of the amendment, therefore, left the states the See also:option between granting the suffrage to the negro or suffering a proportionate reduction in the number of representatives in Congress. It was a fair compromise which might have saved the South from a long period of See also:misrule and the North from the ultimate breakdown of its policy of revolutionizing Southern political control by enfranchisement of the blacks and disfranchisement of the natural leaders of the whites. But the South especially resented that section of the amendment which disqualified for Federal or state office those who, having previously taken an oath to support the. Constitution of the United States, afterwards engaged in rebellion, which involved the repudiation of their leaders. The amendment further safeguarded the validity of the United States debt and declared null the war debt of the seceding states and the Confederacy and forbade the See also:payment of claims for emancipation. 280. In order to ensure the passage of this amendment the Radical leaders proposed bills which declared that, after its See also:adoption, any of the seceding states which ratified it should be readmitted to representation. But it also provided that the higher classes of officials of the Confederacy should be ineligible to office in the Federal government. These bills were allowed to await the issue of the next election. 281. For further protection of the rights of the negro, Congress succeeded in passing, over President Johnson's veto, an act continuing the Freedmen's Bureau for two years. Tennessee having ratified the Fourteenth Amendment was (July 24, 1866) restored to representation and Congress adjourned, leaving the issue between the president and the legislative body to the people in the Congressional elections. 282. The See also:campaign brought with it some realignment of party. President Johnson having broken with the leaders of the Union Republican party was more and more forced to rely Party Re alignmea ts. upon Democratic support, although his executive appointments were still made from the ranks of the Republicans. The so-called National Union Convention, which met in Philadelphia in midsummer in an effort to abate sectionalism, and to endorse the president's policy, included a large number of War Democrats who had joined the Union party after the secession of the South, many moderate Southerners, a fragment of the Republican party, and a few Whigs, especially from the Border states. They claimed that the southern States had a right to be represented in Congress. Other meetings friendly to the Radicals were called, and under the designation of Union-Republican party they declared for the Congressional policy. While the campaign for elections to Congress was in progress the president made a See also:journey to Chicago, speaking at various cities en route and still further alienating the Republicans by coarse abuse of his opponents. As a result of the autumn elections two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives were opposed to him. Almost contemporaneously every seceding state except Tennessee rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, and thereby paved the way for the entire triumph of the Northern extremists, who favoured negro suffrage on idealistic grounds or as a means for forcing the South to agree to the Republican policy. 283. In the ensuing See also:winter and spring Congress completed the conquest of the president, awed the Supreme Court, and provided a drastic body of legislation to impose negro suffrage on the South. By the See also:Tenure of Office Act (March 2, 1867) Congress forbade the president to remove civil officers without the consent of the Senate, and at the same time by another act required him to issue military orders onl Tenure of ~' y office Act. through the general of the army (Grant), whom the president was forbidden to remove from command or to assign to duty at another place than Washington, unless at the See also:request of the officer or by the prior assent of the Senate. These extraordinary invasions of the presidential authority were deemed necessary to prevent Johnson from securing control of the military See also:arm of the government, and to protect Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, and General Grant. Fearing lest the president might take advantage of the See also:interim during which Congress would not be in session, the Fortieth Congress was required to meet on the 4th of March immediately following the expiration of the thirty-ninth. 284. The Reconstruction Act of the 2nd of March 1867 provided for the military government of the Southern states while the drastic policy of Congress was being carried Reconstrucout. It was passed over the veto of the president See also:don Act of and declared that no legal governments or adequate march 2, protection for life or property existed in the 1867. seceding states, except Tennessee. These states it divided into five military districts, each to be placed under the command of a general of the army, whose duty it was to preserve law and order, using at discretion either local civil tribunals or military commissions. But the existing civil governments were declared provisional only and subject to the See also:paramount authority of the United States to abolish, modify, control, or supersede them. The act further provided that a constitutional convention might be elected by the adult male citizens of the state, of whatever race, colour or previous condition, See also:resident in the state for a year, except such as might be disfranchised for rebellion or See also:felony. No persons excluded from holding office under the Fourteenth Amendment were eligible for election to the convention or entitled to vote for its members. 285. When the convention, thus chosen under negro suffrage, and with the exclusion of Confederate leaders, should have framed a state constitution conforming to the Federal Constitution and allowing the See also:franchise to those entitled to vote for the members of the convention, the constitution was to be submitted for the approval of Congress. If this were obtained and if the state adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, and this amendment became a part of the Federal Constitution, then the state should be entitled to representation in Congress; but the senators and representatives sent to Congress were required to takethe " iron-clad oath," which excluded those who had fought in the Con-federate service, or held office under any government hostile to the United States, or given support to any such authority. 286. By the pressure of military control Congress thus aimed at forcing the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as the See also:acceptance of negro suffrage in the state con- supptestitutions of the South. A supplementary act of the See also:mental), 23rd of March 1867 and an act of interpretation Ads. passed on the 29th of July completed this policy of "thorough." In the See also:registration of voters the district commanders were required to administer an oath which excluded those disfranchised for rebellion and those who after holding state or Federal office had given aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States. 287. Against this use of military power to govern states in time of peace the Supreme Court interposed no effective obstacle. Like the executive it was subordinated to Congress. supreme It is true that in the case ex parte Milligan, court decided in December 1866, the court held military Decisions• commissions unlawful where the ordinary civil tribunals were open. In the case of Cummings v. Missouri (See also:Jan. 14, 1867) it decided also that a state test oath excluding Confederate sympathizers from professions was a violation of the See also:prohibition of ex See also:post facto laws; and the court (ex parte See also:Garland) applied the same rule to the Federal test oath so far as the right of attorneys to practise in Federal courts was concerned. 288. But threats were made by the radicals in Congress to take away the appellate jurisdiction of the court, and even to abolish the tribunal by constitutional amendment. The See also:judges had been closely divided in these cases and, when the real test came, the court refused to set itself in opposition to Congress. When Mississippi attempted to secure an See also:injunction to prevent the president from carrying out the Reconstruction acts, and when Georgia asked the court to enjoin the military officers from enforcing these acts in that state, the Supreme Court refused (April and May 1867), See also:pleading want of jurisdiction. Chief See also:Justice See also:Salmon P. See also:Chase argued that if the president refused to obey the court could not enforce its See also:decree, while if he complied with the order of the court, and if the House of Representatives impeached him for refusing to enforce the law, the Supreme Court would be forced to the vain attempt to enjoin the Senate from sitting as a court of See also:impeachment. 289. In one instance it seemed inevitable that the court would clash with Congress; the McCardle case involved an editor's See also:arrest by military authority for criticizing that authority and the Reconstruction policy. But Congress, apprehending that the majority of the court would declare the Reconstruction acts unconstitutional, promptly repealed that portion of the act which gave the court jurisdiction in the case, and thus enabled the judges to dismiss the appeal. Afterwards, when the Reconstruction policy had been accomplished, the court, in the case of Texas v. White (1869), held that the Constitution looked to " an indestructible Union composed of indestructible states "; and that although the secession acts were null, and the Federal obligations of the seceding states remained unimpaired, yet their rights were Texas v, suspended during the war. It also held that in White. re-establishing the broken relations of the state with the Union, Congress, under the authority to guarantee to every state a republican form of government, was obliged to regard the freedmen as part of the people of the state, and was entitled to decide what government was the established one. This decision, though it did not involve the direct question of the constitutionality of theReconstruction acts, harmonized with the general doctrines of the Congressional majority. 290. The powerful, leaders of the Republicans in Congress had been awaiting their opportunity to rid themselves of Impeach- President Johnson by impeachment. After various ment of failures to convince a majority of the House that President articles should be preferred against him, an oppor- Johnson. tunity seemed to See also:present itself when Johnson, in the summer See also:recess of 186i1 suspended Secretary Stanton and made General Grant the acting .secretary of war. The Senate, on reassembling, refused to consent to the suspension, and General Grant yielded his office to Stanton, thus spoiling the president's plan to force Stanton to appeal to the courts to obtain his office and so test the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act. This proved to be a turning-point in Grant's political career, for by his break with Johnson he gained new support among the masses of the Republican party. To Johnson's foes it seemed that the president had delivered himself into their hands when he next defied Congress by taking the decisive step of removing Stanton in See also:defiance of the Tenure of Office Act, and the House announced to the Senate (Feb. 25, 1868) its decision to bring articles of impeachment againstthe president. But careful See also:reading of the law showed that it could not be relied on as conclusive ground for impeachment, for it provided that cabinet officers should hold office during the See also:term of the president by whom they were appointed and for one month thereafter, subject to removal with the consent of the Senate. As Stanton had been appointed by President Lincoln and had merely continued under Johnson, a doubtful question was raised. The leaders, therefore, incorporated additional charges in the articles of impeachment which they pushed through the House of Representatives. By these the president was accused of attempting to bring the legislative branch into disgrace by his public utterances and of stigmatizing it as a Congress of only part of the states. This raised the question whether it was necessary to show a legal, technical crime or See also:misdemeanour as the necessary ground of impeachment. Had the theory of the leaders that this was not the case been successful, the executive would have been reduced to an obvious dependence upon Congress. In the spring of 1868, however, the trial by the Acquittaiby Senate resulted in a See also:verdict of acquittal. (See the Senate. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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