A Just and Lasting Peace: A Documentary History of Reconstruction (12 page)

It is far easier and more beneficial to exile 70,000 proud, bloated and defiant rebels, than to expatriate four millions of laborers, native to the soil and loyal to the Government. This latter scheme was a favorite plan of the Blairs, with which they had for awhile inoculated our late sainted President. But, a single experiment made him discard it and its advisers. Since I have mentioned the Blairs, I may say a word more of these persistent apologists of the South. For, when the virus of Slavery has once entered the veins of the slaveholder, no subsequent effort seems capable of wholly eradicating it. They are a family of considerable power, some merit, of admirable audacity and execrable selfishness. With impetuous alacrity they seize the White House, and hold possession of it, as in the late Administration, until shaken off by the overpowering force of public indignation. Their pernicious counsel had well nigh defeated the reelection of Abraham Lincoln; and if it should prevail with the present administration, pure and patriotic as President Johnson is admitted to be, it will render him the most unpopular Executive—save one—that ever occupied the Presidential chair. But there is no fear of that. He will soon say, as Mr. Lincoln did: “YOUR TIME HAS COME!”

This remodeling the institutions, and reforming the rooted habits of a proud aristocracy, is undoubtedly a formidable task, requiring the broad mind of enlarged statesmanship, and the firm nerve of the hero. But will not this mighty occasion produce—will not the God of Liberty and order give us—such men? Will not a Romulus, a Lycurgus, a Charlemagne, a Washington arise, whose expansive views will found a free empire, to endure till time shall be no more?

This doctrine of Restoration shocks me. We have a duty to perform which our fathers were incapable of, which will be required at our hands by God and our Country. When our ancestors found a “more perfect Union” necessary, they found it impossible to agree upon a Constitution without tolerating, nay, guaranteeing, Slavery. They were obliged to acquiesce, trusting to time to work a speedy cure, in which they were disappointed.
They
had some excuse, some justification. But we can have none if we do not thoroughly eradicate Slavery and render it forever impossible in this republic. The Slave power made war upon the nation. They declared the “more perfect Union” dissolved—solemnly declared themselves a foreign nation, alien to this republic; for four years were in fact what they claimed to be. We accepted the war which they tendered and treated them as a government capable of making war. We have conquered them, and as a conquered enemy we can give them laws; can abolish all their municipal institutions and form new ones. If we do not make those institutions fit to last through generations of freemen, a heavy curse will be on us. Our glorious, but tainted republic has been born to new life through bloody, agonizing pains. But this frightful “Restoration” has thrown it into “cold obstruction, and to death.” If the rebel States have never been out of the Union, any attempt to reform their State institutions, either by Congress or the President, is rank usurpation.

Is then all lost? Is this great conquest to be in vain? That will depend upon the virtue and intelligence of the next Congress. To Congress alone belongs the power of Reconstruction—of giving law to the vanquished. This is expressly declared by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dorr case, 7th Howard, 42. The Court say, “Under this article of the Constitution (the 4th) it rests with Congress to decide what government is the established one in a State, for the United States guarantees to each a republican form of government,” et cetera. But we know how difficult it will be for a majority of Congress to overcome preconceived opinions. Besides, before Congress meets, things will be so inaugurated—precipitated—it will be still more difficult to correct. If a majority of Congress can be found wise and firm enough to declare the Confederate States a conquered enemy, Reconstruction will be easy and legitimate; and the friends of freedom will long rule in the Councils of the Nation. If Restoration prevails the prospect is gloomy, and new “lords will make new laws.” The Union party will be overwhelmed. The Copperhead party has become extinct with Secession. But with Secession it will revive. Under “Restoration” every rebel State will send rebels to Congress; and they, with their allies in the North, will control Congress, and occupy the White House. Then restoration of laws and ancient Constitutions will be sure to follow, our public debt will be repudiated, or the rebel National debt will be added to ours, and the people be crushed beneath heavy burdens.

Let us forget all parties, and build on the broad platform of “reconstructing” the government out of the conquered territory converted into new and free States, and admitted into the Union by the sovereign power of Congress, with another plank—“THE PROPERTY OF THE REBELS SHALL PAY OUR NATIONAL DEBT,
and indemnify freed-men and loyal sufferers
—and that under no circumstances will we suffer the National debt to be repudiated, or the interest scaled below the contract rates; nor permit any part of the rebel debt to be assumed by the nation.”

Let all who approve of these principles rally with us. Let all others go with Copperheads and rebels. Those will be the opposing parties. Young men, this duty devolves on you. Would to God, if only for that, that I were still in the prime of life, that I might aid you to fight through this last and greatest battle of freedom!

(September 1865)

In March 1865, Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (popularly known as the Freedmen's Bureau), a large-scale federal agency authorized to supervise and manage the substantial amount of war-torn abandoned territory and to assist refugees and freedpeople during the transition from war to peace and from slavery to freedom. Freedmen's Bureau agents in each state distributed food, helped establish schools, adjudicated legal cases, and assisted former slaves in negotiating labor contracts with their former masters, now their employers. In September 1865, this Freedmen's Bureau officer, stationed in Vicksburg, emphasized the unwillingness of whites to accept emancipation and their determination to keep the blacks as close to slaves as possible.

In the immediate vicinity of our Military Posts; and in locations that can readily be reached by the officers of this Bureau, the citizens are wary of abusing the blacks; they are so because this Bureau has arrested and punished people committing such offences, and the manner in which such cases have been dealt with, has shown people that abuse and imposition will not be tolerated; and that each offence are sure to be punished . . .

But in remote localities those that cannot well be reached by officers of the Bureau the blacks are as badly treated as ever. Colored people often report themselves to the Sub. Commissioners with bruised heads and lacerated backs and ask for redress.

In portions of the northern part of this Dist[rict] the colored people are kept in slavery still.

The white people tell them that they were free during the war but the war is now over and they must go to work again as before.

As to protection from the civil authorities there is no such thing outside of this city. There is not a justice of the peace or any other civil officer in the District, 8 counties of which I have charge that will listen to a complaint from a Negro.

And in the city since the adjudication of these cases has been turned over [to] the mayor the abuse of and impositions upon Negroes are increasing very visibly for the reason that very little if any attention is paid to any complaint of a negro against a white person. Negro testimony is admitted but judging from some of the decisions it would seem it carries very little weight.

In several cases black witnesses have been refused on the grounds that the testimony on the opposite side—white—could not be contravened and it was useless to bring in black witnesses against it . . .

(October 28, 1865)

In September 1865, President Johnson announced his policy of restoring land to pardoned former Confederates, overturning a previous policy of leasing forty-acre coastal plots to freedpeople. The following month, a three-man committee wrote on behalf of freedmen on Edisto Island, South Carolina, urging the president to reverse his policy. Freedmen's Bureau commissioner General O. O. Howard was forced to implement the president's policy.

 

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THESE UNITED STATES

 

We the freedmen of Edisto Island South Carolina have learned from you through Major General O O Howard commissioner of the Freedmans Bureau, with deep sorrow and painful hearts of the possibility of government restoring these lands to the former owners. We are well aware of the many perplexing and trying questions that burden your mind and do therefore pray to god (the preserver of all and who has through our Late and beloved President (Lincoln) proclamation and the war made us A free people) that he may guide you in making your decisions and give you that wisdom that cometh from above to settle these great and Important questions for the best interests of the country and the Colored race. Here is where secession was born and nurtured. Here is w[h]ere we have toiled nearly all our lives as slaves and were treated like dumb Driven cattle. This is our home, we have made these lands what they are. We were the only true and Loyal people that were found in possession of these lands. We have been always ready to strike for liberty and humanity yea to fight if needs be to preserve this glorious union. Shall not we who are freedman and have been always true to this Union have the same rights as are enjoyed by others? Have we broken any Law of these United States? Have we forfeited our rights of property in Land? If not then! are not our rights as A free people and good citizens of these United States to be considered before the rights of those who were found in rebellion against this good and just Government (and now being conquered) come (as they seem) with penitent hearts and beg forgiveness for past offences and also ask if their lands cannot be restored to them? Are these rebellious spirits to be reinstated in their
possessions
and we who have been abused and oppressed for many long years not to be allowed the privilege of purchasing land But be subject to the will of these large Land owners? God forbid. Land monopoly is unjurious to the advancement of the course of freedom, and if Government does not make some provision by which we as freedmen can obtain A Homestead, we have not bettered our condition.

We have been encouraged by Government to take up these lands in small tracts, receiving certificates of the same. We have thus far taken sixteen thousand (16000) acres of Land here on this Island. We are ready to pay for this land when Government calls for it and now after what has been done will the good and just government take from us all this right and make us subject to the will of those who have cheated and oppressed us for many years? God Forbid!

We the freedmen of this Island and of the State of South Carolina—Do therefore petition to you as the President of these United States, that some provisions be made by which every colored man can purchase land, and hold it as his own. We wish to have A home if it be but A few acres. Without some provision is made our future is sad to look upon. Yes our situation is dangerous. We therefore look to you in this trying hour as A true friend of the poor and neglected race, for protection and Equal Rights, with the privilege of purchasing A Homestead—A Homestead right here in the heart of South Carolina.

We pray that God will direct your heart in making such provision for us as freedmen which will tend to unite these states together stronger than ever before. May God bless you in the administration of your duties as the President of these United States is the humble prayer of us all.

(December 4, 1865)

In his first State of the Union message, President Johnson remarked that the Civil War's conclusion had confirmed that secession was null and void and affirmed that his goal was to assist the Southern states in returning to their normal position in the Union as quickly as possible. Johnson reported that he had appointed provisional governors in the former insurgent states and that the courts and postal system now functioned in the former Confederate states. The president noted that Southerners had elected representatives and senators and that it was Congress' prerogative to seat them. Regarding black suffrage, Johnson stated forthrightly that the U.S. Constitution mandated that the states, not the Executive or Legislative branches, determined voting qualifications.

 

FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

To express gratitude to God, in the name of the People, for the preservation of the United States, is my first duty in addressing you. Our thoughts next revert to the death of the late President by an act of parricidal treason. The grief of the nation is still fresh; it finds some solace in the consideration that he lived to enjoy the highest proof of its confidence by entering on the renewed term of the Chief Magistracy, to which he had been elected; that he brought the civil war substantially to a close; that his loss was deplored in all parts of the Union; and that foreign nations have rendered justice to his memory. His removal cast upon me a heavier weight of cares than ever devolved upon any one of his predecessors. To fulfill my trust I need the support and confidence of all who are associated with me in the various departments of Government, and the support and confidence of the people. There is but one way in which I can hope to gain their necessary aid; it is, to state with frankness the principles which guide my conduct, and their application to the present state of affairs, well aware that the efficiency of my labors will, in a great measure, depend on your and their undivided approbation.

The Union of the United States of America was intended by its authors to last as long as the States themselves shall last. “T
HE
U
NION SHALL BE PERPETUAL
” are the words of the Confederation. “T
O FORM A MORE PERFECT
U
NION
,” by an ordinance of the people of the United States, is the declared purpose of the Constitution. The hand of Divine Providence was never more plainly visible in the affairs of men than in the framing and the adopting of that instrument. It is, beyond comparison, the greatest event in American history; and indeed is it not, of all events in modern times, the most pregnant with consequences for every people of the earth? The members of the Convention which prepared it, brought to their work the experience of the Confederation, of their several States, and of other Republican Governments, old and new; but they needed and they obtained a wisdom superior to experience. And when for its validity it required the approval of a people that occupied a large part of a continent and acted separately in many distinct conventions, what is more wonderful than that, after earnest contention and long discussion, all feelings and all opinions were ultimately drawn in one way to its support?

The Constitution to which life was thus imparted contains within itself ample resources for its own preservation. It has power to enforce the laws, punish treason, and ensure domestic tranquillity. In case of the usurpation of the Government of a State by one man, or an oligarchy, it becomes a duty of the United States to make good the guarantee to that State of a republican form of government, and so to maintain the homogeneousness of all. Does the lapse of time reveal defects? A simple mode of amendment is provided in the Constitution itself, so that its conditions can always be made to conform to the requirements of advancing civilization. No room is allowed even for the thought of a possibility of its coming to an end. And these powers of self-preservation have always been asserted in their complete integrity by every patriotic Chief Magistrate—by Jefferson and Jackson, not less than by Washington and Madison. The parting advice of the Father of his Country, while yet President, to the people of the United States, was, that “the free Constitution, which was the work of their hands, might be sacredly maintained;” and the inaugural words of President Jefferson held up “the preservation of the General Government, in its constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad.” The Constitution is the work of “the People of the United States,” and it should be as indestructible as the people.

It is not strange that the framers of the Constitution, which had no model in the past, should not have fully comprehended the excellence of their own work. Fresh from a struggle against arbitrary power, many patriots suffered from harassing fears of an absorption of the State Governments by the General Government, and many from a dread that the States would break away from their orbits. But the very greatness of our country should allay the apprehension of encroachments by the General Government. The subjects that come unquestionably within its jurisdiction are so numerous, that it must ever naturally refuse to be embarrassed by questions that lie beyond it. Were it otherwise, the Executive would sink beneath the burden; the channels of justice would be choked; legislation would be obstructed by excess; so that there is a greater temptation to exercise some of the functions of the General Government through the States than to trespass on their rightful sphere. “The absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority” was, at the beginning of the century, enforced by Jefferson “as the vital principle of republics,” and the events of the last four years have established, we will hope forever, that there lies no appeal to force.

The maintenance of the Union brings with it “the support of the State Governments in all their rights;” but it is not one of the rights of any State Government to renounce its own place in the Union, or to nullify the laws of the Union. The largest liberty is to be maintained in the discussion of the acts of the Federal Government; but there is no appeal from its laws, except to the various branches of that Government itself, or to the people, who grant to the members of the Legislative and of the Executive Departments no tenure but a limited one, and in that manner always retain the powers of redress.

“The sovereignty of the States” is the language of the Confederacy, and not the language of the Constitution. The latter contains the emphatic words: “The Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”

Certainly the Government of the United States is a limited government; and so is every State government a limited government. With us, this idea of limitation spreads through every form of administration, general, State, and municipal, and rests on the great distinguishing principle of the recognition of the rights of man. The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the State, prescribed his religion, and controlled his activity. The American system rests on the assertion of the equal right of every man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; to freedom of conscience, to the culture and exercise of all his faculties. As a consequence, the State Government is limited, as to the General Government in the interest of Union, as to the individual citizen in the interest of freedom.

States with proper limitations of power, are essential to the existence of the Constitution of the United States. At the very commencement, when we assumed a place among the Powers of the earth, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by States; so also were the Articles of Confederation; and when “the People of the United States” ordained and established the Constitution, it was the assent of the States, one by one, which gave it vitality. In the event, too, of any amendment to the Constitution, the proposition of Congress needs the confirmation of States. Without States, one great branch of the legislative government would be wanting. And, if we look beyond the letter of the Constitution to the character of our country, its capacity for comprehending within its jurisdiction a vast continental empire is due to the system of States. The best security for the perpetual existence of the States is the “supreme authority” of the Constitution of the United States. The perpetuity of the Constitution brings with it the perpetuity of the States; their mutual relation makes us what we are, and in our political system their connexion is indissoluble. The whole cannot exist without the parts, nor the parts without the whole. So long as the Constitution of the United States endures, the States will endure; the destruction of the one is the destruction of the other; the preservation of the one is the preservation of the other. . . .

I found the States suffering from the effects of a civil war. Resistance to the General Government appeared to have exhausted itself. The United States had recovered possession of their forts and arsenals; and their armies were in the occupation of every State which had attempted to secede. Whether the territory within the limits of those States should be held as conquered territory, under military authority emanating from the President as the head of the army, was the first question that presented itself for decision.

Now, military governments, established for an indefinite period, would have offered no security for the early suppression of discontent; would have divided the people into the vanquishers and the vanquished; and would have envenomed hatred, rather than have restored affection. Once established, no precise limit to their continuance was conceivable. They would have occasioned an incalculable and exhausting expense. Peaceful emigration to and from that portion of the country is one of the best means that can be thought of for the restoration of harmony; and that emigration would have been prevented; for what emigrant from abroad, what industrious citizen at home, would place himself willingly under military rule? The chief persons who would have followed in the train of the army would have been dependents on the General Government, or men who expected profit from the miseries of their erring fellow-citizens. The powers of patronage and rule which would have been exercised, under the President, over a vast, and populous, and naturally wealthy region, are greater than, unless under extreme necessity, I should be willing to entrust to any one man; they are such as, for myself, I could never, unless on occasions of great emergency, consent to exercise. The wilful use of such powers, if continued through a period of years, would have endangered the purity of the general administration and the liberties of the States which remained loyal.

Besides, the policy of military rule over a conquered territory would have implied that the States whose inhabitants may have taken part in the rebellion had, by the act of those inhabitants, ceased to exist. But the true theory is, that all pretended acts of secession were, from the beginning, null and void. The States cannot commit treason, nor screen the individual citizens who may have committed treason, any more than they can make valid treaties or engage in lawful commerce with any foreign Power. The States attempting to secede placed themselves in a condition where their vitality was impaired, but not extinguished—their functions suspended, but not destroyed.

But if any State neglects or refuses to perform its offices, there is the more need that the General Government should maintain all its authority, and, as soon as practicable, resume the exercise of all its functions. On this principle I have acted, and have gradually and quietly, and by almost imperceptible steps, sought to restore the rightful energy of the General Government and of the States. To that end, Provisional Governors have been appointed for the States, Conventions called, Governors elected, Legislatures assembled, and Senators and Representatives chosen to the Congress of the United States. At the same time, the Courts of the United States, as far as could be done, have been reopened, so that the laws of the United States may be enforced through their agency. The blockade has been removed and the custom-houses re-established in ports of entry, so that the revenue of the United States may be collected. The Post Office Department renews its ceaseless activity, and the General Government is thereby enabled to communicate promptly with its officers and agents. The courts bring security to persons and property; the opening of the ports invites the restoration of industry and commerce; the post office renews the facilities of social intercourse and of business. And is it not happy for us all, that the restoration of each one of these functions of the General Government brings with it a blessing to the States over which they are extended? Is it not a sure promise of harmony and renewed attachment to the Union that, after all that has happened, the return of the General Government is known only as a beneficence?

I know very well that this policy is attended with some risk; that for its success it requires at least the acquiescence of the States which it concerns; that it implies an invitation to those States, by renewing their allegiance to the United States, to resume their functions as States of the Union. But it is a risk that must be taken; in the choice of difficulties, it is the smallest risk; and to diminish, and, if possible, to remove all danger, I have felt it incumbent on me to assert one other power of the General Government—the power of pardon. As no State can throw a defence over the crime of treason, the power of pardon is exclusively vested in the Executive Government of the United States. In exercising that power, I have taken every precaution to connect it with the clearest recognition of the binding force of the laws of the United States, and an unqualified acknowledgment of the great social change of condition in regard to slavery which has grown out of the war.