A Just and Lasting Peace: A Documentary History of Reconstruction

In 1862, as Union and Confederate soldiers continued to wage war, plans for the future of the country had already begun, set down in competing proclamations, essays and manifestos. After the South's surrender, throughout the harrowing and chaotic process of Reconstruction, Americans voiced their hopes and grievances in private diaries and from public pulpits; brought court cases and launched bold new experiments in governance; hatched vicious plots to undermine order. It remains the most controversial and least understood period in American history. Through a selection of primary documents,
A Just and Lasting Peace
portrays the full scope of attitudes and conflicts that drove, threatened, and eventually won the modern union.

John David Smith
is the Charles H. Stone Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and received the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America. He currently serves as contributing editor for the
Journal of American History
and on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. Among the books he has authored or edited are
Black Voices from Reconstruction; Slavery, Race and American History
; and
Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and “The American Negro,”
which won the Mayflower Society Award for Nonfiction. He has appeared on the History Channel, as an authority on the U.S. Colored Troops, and on Voice of America, as an authority on conservative racial thought during the Age of Jim Crow.

A

JUST AND

LASTING PEACE

A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF RECONSTRUCTION

EDITED
AND
WITH
AN
INTRODUCTION
BY

J
OHN
D
AVID
S
MITH

SIGNET CLASSICS

Published by the Penguin Group

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Copyright © John David Smith, 2013

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REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

ISBN 978-1-101-61746-5

To Peter Coveney—friend and editor extraordinaire

I wish to acknowledge the support and research assistance of several persons who helped me in various ways in preparing
A Just and Lasting Peace
: David Blight, Ann Davis, Mary Dougherty, James J. Harris, Kathleen Johnson, Jane Knetzger, Charles McShane, Leigh Robbins, Sylvia A. Smith, Lois Stickell, Stephen Wrinn, and Andrew Zimmerman. Tracy Bernstein kindly asked me to undertake this project. Through the years, I have enjoyed working with a number of people at Penguin, including Charleen Davis, Michael Millman, Stephanie Smith, and Naomi Weinstein.

 

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Chronology of Reconstruction

Introduction

 

PART I

“AN ACT FOR THE RELEASE OF CERTAIN PERSONS HELD TO SERVICE OR LABOR IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “PRELIMINARY EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION”

“PROCLAMATION OF AMNESTY AND RECONSTRUCTION”

THE WADE-DAVIS BILL

LINCOLN'S RESPONSE TO THE WADE-DAVIS BILL

THE WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET, “LET THE MONSTER PERISH”

“AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A BUREAU FOR THE RELIEF OF FREEDMEN AND REFUGEES”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, “SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS”

PART II

CHARLES SUMNER, “RIGHT AND DUTY OF COLORED FELLOW-CITIZENS IN THE ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT”

ANDREW JOHNSON, “PROCLAMATION ESTABLISHING GOVERNMENT FOR NORTH CAROLINA”

ANDREW JOHNSON, “AMNESTY PROCLAMATION”

EMILY WATERS TO HER HUSBAND

THADDEUS STEVENS, “RECONSTRUCTION”

“A FREEDMEN'S BUREAU OFFICER REPORTS ON CONDITIONS IN MISSISSIPPI”

“FROM EDISTO ISLAND FREEDMEN TO ANDREW JOHNSON”

ANDREW JOHNSON, “MESSAGE TO CONGRESS”

AMENDMENT 13

“REPORT OF CARL SCHURZ ON THE STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, AND LOUISIANA”

LAWS OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

JOSEPH S. FULLERTON TO ANDREW JOHNSON

JOHN RICHARD DENNETT, “VICKSBURG, MISS.”

PART III

CHARLES SUMNER TO THE DUCHESS OF ARGYLL

THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1866

BENJAMIN C. TRUMAN, “RELATIVE TO THE CONDITION OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE AND THE STATES IN WHICH THE REBELLION EXISTED”

CARL SCHURZ, “THE LOGICAL RESULTS OF THE WAR”

STATEMENT OF RHODA ANN CHILDS

GEORGE FITZHUGH, “CAMP LEE AND THE FREEDMAN'S [SIC] BUREAU”

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “RECONSTRUCTION”

“PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S MESSAGE”

EXCERPTS FROM CLAUDE AUGUST CROMMELIN, A YOUNG DUTCHMAN VIEWS POST–CIVIL WAR AMERICA

HENRY LATHAM, BLACK AND WHITE: A JOURNAL OF A THREE MONTHS' TOUR IN THE UNITED STATES

“AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR MORE EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT OF THE REBEL STATES”

EDITORIAL IN THE CHARLOTTESVILLE CHRONICLE ON RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

“THE PROSPECT OF RECONSTRUCTION”

“IMPEACHMENT FROM A LEGAL POINT OF VIEW”

“CONGRESS AND THE CONSTITUTION”

“THE PROSPECT AT THE SOUTH”

“LAND FOR THE LANDLESS”

THE RECONSTRUCTION ACT: PRO AND CON

“THE FREEDMEN”

THADDEUS STEVENS, “RECONSTRUCTION”

“THE NEGRO'S CLAIM TO OFFICE”

“SAMSON AGONISTES AT WASHINGTON”

GEORGE FITZHUGH, “CUI BONO?—THE NEGRO VOTE”

“THE VIRGINIA ELECTION”

“WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE INDIANS?”

ANDREW JOHNSON, “THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE”

J. T. TROWBRIDGE, A PICTURE OF THE DESOLATED STATES; AND THE WORK OF RESTORATION, 1865–1868 (1868)

CORNELIA HANCOCK TO PHILADELPHIA FRIENDS ASSOCIATION FOR THE AID AND ELEVATION OF THE FREEDMEN

FRANCIS L. CARDOZO, “BREAK UP THE PLANTATION SYSTEM”

“THE IMPEACHMENT,” NEW YORK TIMES

S. A. ATKINSON, “THE SUPREME HOUR HAS COME”

“KARINUS,” LETTER TO THE EDITOR—“EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN MICHIGAN”

“THIS LITTLE BOY WOULD PERSIST IN HANDLING BOOKS ABOVE HIS CAPACITY”

THADDEUS STEVENS, “SPEECH ON IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF ANDREW JOHNSON”

“THE RESULT OF THE TRIAL”

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PLATFORM OF 1868

CAREY STYLES, “NOT OUR ‘BROTHER' ”

AMENDMENT 14

HENRY MCNEAL TURNER, “I CLAIM THE RIGHTS OF A MAN”

“REMARKS OF WILLIAM E. MAT[T]HEWS”

ULYSSES S. GRANT, “INAUGURAL ADDRESS”

LYDIA MARIA CHILD, “HOMESTEADS”

AMENDMENT 15

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “AT LAST, AT LAST, THE BLACK MAN HAS A FUTURE”

CARL SCHURZ, “ENFORCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT”

“AN ACT TO ENFORCE THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES TO VOTE IN THE SEVERAL STATES OF THIS UNION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”

PROCEEDINGS OF THE KU KLUX TRIALS AT COLUMBIA, S.C., IN THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, NOVEMBER TERM, 1871

HIRAM R. REVELS, “ABOLISH SEPARATE SCHOOLS”

ROBERT BROWN ELLIOTT, “THE AMNESTY BILL”

“AN ACT TO ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”

PART IV

CHARLES STEARNS, THE BLACK MAN OF THE SOUTH, AND THE REBELS; OR, THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FORMER, AND THE RECENT OUTRAGES OF THE LATTER

THOMAS NAST, “THE MAN WITH THE (CARPET) BAGS”

JAMES S. PIKE, THE PROSTRATE STATE

ROBERT BROWN ELLIOTT, “THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL”

JOHN MERCER LANGSTON, “EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW”

JAMES T. RAPIER, “CIVIL RIGHTS”

“AN ACT TO PROTECT ALL CITIZENS IN THEIR CIVIL AND LEGAL RIGHTS”

“THE NEGRO SPIRIT”

CARL SCHURZ, “HAYES VERSUS TILDEN”

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, “SOME WAR SCENES REVISITED”

D. H. CHAMBERLAIN, “RECONSTRUCTION AND THE NEGRO”

THE CIVIL RIGHTS CASES AND JUSTICE HARLAN'S DISSENT

WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE CLAYTON, OLDEN TIMES REVISITED

EXTRACTS FROM LAY MY BURDEN DOWN: A FOLK HISTORY OF SLAVERY

 

Sources of the Texts

Endnotes