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                    Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction


                                  _By_
                          CHARLES H. McCARTHY
                            =Ph.D.= (_Pa._)

[Illustration]

                                New York
                        McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
                                  MCMI




                         _Copyright_, 1901 _by_
                        McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.


                        PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1901

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                CONTENTS


                                                               Page

     =Introduction=                                              xv


                                   I
                               TENNESSEE

     Election and Policy of Lincoln                               1

     East Tennessee                                               3

     Secession                                                    8

     Federal Victories                                           10

     A Military Governor                                         11

     Origin of Military Governors in the United States           12

     Measures of Governor Johnson                                17

     <DW64> Troops                                                20

     Nashville Convention of 1863                                21

     Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction                  23

     Steps to Restoration                                        27

     Nashville Convention of 1865                                30

     Election of William G. Brownlow                             32

     Nomination of Lincoln and Johnson                           32

     Presidential Election in Tennessee                          34


                                   II
                               LOUISIANA

     Popularity of Secession                                     36

     Financial Embarrassment                                     37

     Capture of New Orleans                                      38

     Lincoln’s Advice                                            38

     General Shepley appointed Military Governor                 39

     Election of Representatives to Congress                     45

     Division among Unionists                                    47

     Military Operations                                         49

     Lincoln Urges Reconstruction                                51

     Political Activity among Loyalists                          53

     Title of Louisiana Claimants                                58

     Opposition to General Banks                                 61

     Plan of Reconstruction proposed                             66

     Election of 1864                                            70

     Inauguration of Civil Government                            72

     Lincoln’s Letter on <DW64> Suffrage                          73

     Constitutional Convention                                   75

     Congressional Election                                      76


                                  III
                                ARKANSAS

     Indifference to Secession                                   77

     The Fall of Sumter                                          78

     Seizure of Little Rock                                      79

     Military Matters                                            79

     Threat of Seceding from Secession                           82

     General Phelps appointed Military Governor                  82

     Enthusiasm of Unionists                                     83

     Lincoln’s Interest in Arkansas                              83

     Inaugurating a Loyal Government                             84

     The Election of 1864                                        90


                                   IV
                                VIRGINIA

     Secession                                                   93

     Physical Features and Early Settlements                     94

     Society and Its Basis                                       95

     The Counter-Revolution                                      97

     Convention at Wheeling                                      99

     Organizing a Union Government                              100

     Legislature of Restored Virginia                           103

     The State of Kanawha                                       105

     Attorney-General Bates on Dismemberment                    105

     Making a New State                                         107

     Compensated Emancipation                                   108

     Formation of New State discussed in Congress               110

     Cabinet on Dismemberment                                   120

     Lincoln on Dismemberment                                   124

     Webster’s Prediction                                       126

     Inauguration of New State                                  128

     Reorganizing the Restored State                            129

     Right of Commonwealth to Representation in Congress        131

     Rupture between Civil and Military Authorities             133

     The President Interposes                                   135

     Congress Refuses to Admit a Senator-Elect                  138


                                   V
                        ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION

     Compensated Emancipation in Congress                       142

     Contrabands                                                143

     The Military Power and Fugitive Slaves                     144

     Lincoln on Military Emancipation                           148

     Andrew Jackson and Nullification                           151

     Lincoln on Compensated Emancipation                        152

     Compensated Emancipation in Delaware                       155

     Abandoned Slaves                                           160

     Border Policy Propounded                                   163

     General Hunter and Military Emancipation                   168

     Slavery Prohibited in the Territories                      170

     Attitude of Border States on Slavery                       172

     Lincoln Resolves to Emancipate Slaves by Proclamation      177


                                   VI
                  THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION

     The Presidential Plan                                      190

     Sumner’s Theory of State Suicide                           196

     “Conquered Province” Theory of Stevens                     211

     Theory of Northern Democrats                               217

     Crittenden Resolution                                      220


                                  VII
                     RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN

     Bill to Guarantee a Republican Form of Government          224

     Henry Winter Davis on Reconstruction                       226

     House Debates on Bill of Wade and Davis                    236

     Pendleton’s Speech on Reconstruction                       257

     Provisions of Wade-Davis Bill                              262

     Senate Debate on Bill of Wade and Davis                    264

     President’s Pocket Veto                                    273

     Proclamation concerning Reconstruction                     278

     Manifesto of Wade and Davis                                279


                                  VIII
                        AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE

     President ignores Controversy with Congress                286

     Summary of Military and Naval Situation                    288

     Attempt to Revive the Pocketed Bill                        289

     House Debates on Ashley’s Reconstruction Bill              291

     Defeat of Ashley’s Bill                                    311


                                   IX
                    THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA

     Resolution excluding Electoral Votes of Rebellious States  314

     Amendment of Senator Ten Eyck                              315

     Senate Debate on Ten Eyck’s Amendment                      316

     Defeat of the Amendment in favor of Louisiana              334

     Senate Passes Joint Resolution                             338

     Counting the Electoral Vote                                339

     The President’s Message                                    339


                                   X
                       SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA

     Congressmen from Louisiana at the National Capital         341

     Proposal to Recognize Louisiana                            343

     Powell’s Speech opposing Recognition                       344

     Henderson’s Argument for Recognition                       348

     Howard’s Argument in Opposition                            358

     Reverdy Johnson’s Speech for Recognition                   370

     General Discussion on Louisiana                            374


                                   XI
                      INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION

     The Thirteenth Amendment                                   384

     The Freedmen’s Bureau                                      385

     Volunteer Diplomats                                        389

     The Hampton Roads Conference                               395

     Lincoln’s Letter to General Hurlbut                        401

     Lincoln’s Letter to General Canby                          402

     Lincoln’s Last Words on Reconstruction                     403


                                  XII
                  CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN

     Lincoln and the South                                      407

     Inauguration of Andrew Johnson                             408

     Arkansas after the War                                     409

     Condition of Tennessee                                     412

     Louisiana                                                  417

     Reorganization of Virginia                                 425

     The Wreck of the Confederacy                               431

     Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction in 1864                   438

     Johnson’s Speeches after Accession to the Presidency       440

     Raising the Blockade                                       444

     The Executive Department Recognizes Virginia               445

     Restoration of North Carolina                              448

     The President Hesitates                                    458

     Executive Policy in Mississippi                            460

     Restoration of Georgia                                     465

     Texas                                                      466

     The Reconstruction Conventions                             468

     Temper of the South                                        472

     Mississippi Legislation relative to Freedmen               475

     Southern Reaction                                          482

     The President’s Change of Opinion                          487

     Examination of Lincoln’s Plan                              491


                               APPENDIX A

     =Thirty-Seventh Congress=                                  499


                               APPENDIX B

     =Thirty-Eighth Congress=                                   502




                                Preface


_Much of the material included in this volume was collected several
years ago while the author was a graduate student at the University of
Pennsylvania. The researches then commenced probably first suggested to
him the lack in our political literature of an ample and interesting
account of the return of the States. Students, librarians, and even
professors of history knew no adequate treatise on the era of
reconstruction, and their testimony was confirmed by the authority of
Mr. Bryce, who happily describes the succession of events in those
crowded times as forming one of the most intricate chapters of American
history. No apology is offered, therefore, for considering in this essay
so important and so long-neglected a theme as the rise of the political
revolution that occurred before reunion was finally accomplished._

_On the general subject several excellent monographs have recently
appeared; these, however, are nearly all employed in discussing the
second stage in the process of restoration, and, except incidentally,
anticipate scarcely anything of value in the present work, which, so far
at least as concerns any logical exposition, conducts the reader over
untraveled ground. As the introduction indicates with sufficient
accuracy both the scope and method of this study, nothing is required
here beyond a concise statement of the author’s obligations._

_Like many other students of American institutions, the writer
cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness to the works of Brownson, Hurd
and Jameson, and, by transferring some of their opinions to his book,
has shown a practical appreciation of their researches. In addition to
these obligations, in which the author is not singular, he profited for
four years by the lectures of Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, his professor in
constitutional history. Except in a very few instances, where the name
of an author was forgotten, credit for both suggestions and material is
uniformly given in the references and footnotes._

_For the selection, arrangement, and treatment of topics the author
alone is responsible; he desires, however, to take this opportunity of
acknowledging generous assistance received from three intimate friends:
his colleague, Dr. Charles P. Henry, found time in the midst of arduous
literary engagements to read the whole of the manuscript and to make
many valuable suggestions, especially in matters of style and diction;
the book is not less fortunate in having been critically read by Thomas
J. Meagher, Esq., whose extensive and accurate knowledge of public as
well as private law contributed to a more clear and scientific statement
of many of the constitutional questions discussed; the technical skill
and the superior intelligence of Mr. George M. Schell were of
considerable assistance to the author in correcting the proofs of the
entire book. Nor must he omit to record his appreciation of the courtesy
of Mr. L. E. Hewitt, the efficient librarian of the Philadelphia Law
Association. Finally the writer gratefully acknowledges his chief
obligation to the scholarship of his former teacher, Dr. John Bach
McMaster, who kindly interrupted the progress of his great historical
work long enough to read a considerable portion of this essay. Indeed,
it was the encouragement of that eminent author which first suggested
the publication of these pages._

_Before concluding his remarks the writer wishes to disclaim any
sympathy with the progressive school of historical criticism, which
derides the Constitution as a thing of the past and learnedly
characterizes all veneration for its authority as the worship of a
fetich. This book will have attained one of its principal purposes if,
in the language of a distinguished surviving statesman of the war
period, it will teach “the constant and ever-important lesson that the
Constitution is always a more reliable guide for the legislator than
those fierce passions which war never fails to excite.”_

 =Philadelphia=, September 14, 1901.




                              INTRODUCTION


So closely blended with the essential principles of our federal system
of government were the causes of the Civil War that a clear
understanding of its results appears to require some account of the
origin, the independence and the permanent union of these States. Upon
the eventful years between the Treaty of Paris and the Declaration of
Independence, crowded as they are with work of note, one could linger
with pleasure; this epoch, however, has already engaged the pens of so
many writers, eminent as well as obscure, that a re-study of the
blunders of England’s ministers and the revolt of her distant colonies
might justly be regarded as a piece of presumption.

Nor does it seem necessary to recite the familiar achievements of the
succeeding period; for, perhaps, the portion of American history most
attractive to the general reader is included between the 4th of July,
1776, and the 4th of March, 1789. To these years belong the most
conspicuous services of that giant race of leaders whose swords relieved
a gallant people from oppression and whose wisdom established a form of
government not, indeed, in universal harmony with popular prejudice, but
admirably designed for the popular welfare.

It was at the outset of what may properly be styled the national era
that there appeared the remarkable group of statesmen who guided the
infant Republic on its dim and perilous way. On their broad experience
gleamed a vision of the future touching all their work with elements of
immortality. By them was skillfully established a system of revenue and
of finance adequate to all the exigencies of the time, and a foreign
policy inaugurated which for generations together preserved unbroken
harmony with the world outside. They doubled by wise and peaceful
acquisition the area of that Union whose independence had been wrested
from George the Third, and with no less wisdom prescribed the procedure
and defined the jurisdiction of Federal courts.

The forty years following March 4, 1789, form an epoch with
characteristics of its own. This was the period of Virginian ascendency,
the Adamses alone breaking the line of illustrious Presidents furnished
by the Old Dominion. Introduced by an experiment in government which
aroused the slumbering energies of the nation, its conclusion was marked
by the disappearance from political life of the splendid ideals and rich
traditions of the Fathers.

The election of General Jackson coincides with the beginning of a new
phase in American political and industrial development. It was not that
the fame of a splendid military record had raised its possessor to an
office for which long experience in governmental affairs had hitherto
been thought indispensable, or that the selection of Presidents had
passed from an intellectual few to the control of a much more numerous
class who were willing to bestow on politics the attention and energy
requisite for success in trade; but it was about this time that the
imperious power of slavery entered upon its career of aggression.
Philosophic statesmen of a previous epoch had ardently hoped that the
institution would be permitted quietly to disappear; indeed, the
greatest among them, though divided upon a multitude of political and
economic questions, agreed in encouraging every movement designed for
its extinction. These humane efforts, however, were not destined to win
immediate success, and even with the coöperation of the General
Government served only to demonstrate the difficulty of such an
undertaking.

After 1820 all the dangers which menaced the integrity of the Union
were, with one notable exception, traceable to this cause. When Mr.
Lincoln in his discussions with Senator Douglas declared that it was the
sole cause of all the troubles which had disturbed the nation, he meant,
probably, to assert no more than that in his own time it had been the
most conspicuous one.

Long before slavery became a subject of embittered controversy the
doctrine of State Rights had agitated the country. As early as the
summer of 1793 it had found in Justice Iredell an able advocate on the
bench of the United States Supreme Court. For party purposes it was
adopted five years later by Madison and Jefferson in the celebrated
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, and during the second war with Great
Britain these statesmen were startled to find New England Federalism
vindicating its unpatriotic, if not treacherous, conduct in the exact
language which they had invented to embarrass a former administration.
With this instrument, too, Calhoun in 1832 shook the foundations of the
Union. Both Northern and Southern statesmen of that generation, however,
pushed the principle of State sovereignty as far only as their immediate
object seemed to require.

It is a popular mistake to suppose that beyond the limits of the South
this erroneous doctrine found little favor in the minds of men; for on
the eve of the War of 1812 a Governor of conservative Pennsylvania had
armed her citizen-soldiers against Federal power.

The illustrious Marshall could relate how, before the highest tribunal
in the land, its champions with unwearied zeal renewed the battle for a
hopeless cause. The eloquent voice of Webster hushed for a time the
fretful agitation of South Carolina statesmen, and his genius fixed in
imperishable literary form that interpretation of the Constitution which
called forth the abundant resources of both the Nation and the States.
In his conquering words lived those elevated thoughts that in future
years sustained the defenders of the Republic.

President Jackson, for the energy and promptness by which he defeated
the projects of the Nullifiers, has been justly eulogized; but, when the
excitement of the hour had passed away, the calmer judgment of even his
admirers perceived that victory inclined rather to the side of Calhoun.

Discussion of the abstract question of State sovereignty might,
probably, have long continued without endangering the Union had the
principle not been invoked to defend the institution of human servitude;
yoked to that powerful interest it was inevitable that both should go
down together in undistinguishable ruin.

From the Protean fount of slavery flowed an hundred various streams
coloring almost every important question in the tide of events. In the
generation between the election of General Jackson and the inauguration
of Mr. Lincoln its defeats were few, its triumphs numerous and
important. Prosperity revealed its weaknesses and encouraged its
experiments. The fruits of its greatest victory, the dismemberment of
Mexico, revived those stormy scenes which thirty years before had for
the first time been witnessed in an American legislative hall.
Dissolution of the Union was once more threatened, and again averted by
the genius and patriotism of the venerable triumvirate, who scarce
outlived their noble work; but the compromise from which Clay, Calhoun
and Webster expected a restoration of former tranquillity contained
within itself the very seed-plot of even graver troubles.

After 1850 the attachment of Southern men to their industrial system was
played upon by ambitious politicians more and more, until the final
