John Randolph Neal

“ CHAPTER IV THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT While Tennessee escaped both executive and congressional reconstruction, it did not follow in the restoration of its civil government the plan laid down by President Lincoln. The most distinctive feature of Lincoln’s reconstruction policy lay in the fact that it made the old political people in each of the Southern States self-acting nuclei, which were to bring order out of chaos. According to this theory, neither the President nor Congress had the power to reconstruct a State government. ”

“ After the intense excitement created by the bridge-burning had somewhat subsided, the Confederate and State authorities again manifested a desire to win over, or at least conciliate, the Union element. The commander at Knoxville issued a proclamation to the “Disaffected People of East Tennessee,” and assured “all those interested who have fled to the enemy’s lines, and who are actually in their army, that he will welcome their return to their homes and their friends; they are offered amnesty and protection, if they come to lay down their arms, and act as loyal citizens.” ”

“ And we beg leave respectfully to submit to your consideration that prompt and efficient action on the part of the proper authorities, for the removal of the political disabilities resting upon so many of our people, would heal all the wounds of our State, and make us once more a prosperous, contented, and united people. ”

“ The speediest method of accomplishing this will be the perfecting of an ordinance by the Legislature formally declaring the independence of the State of Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority, and resuming each and every function belonging to a separate sovereignty; and said ordinance when perfected should be submitted to a vote of the people to be by them adopted or rejected. Under existing circumstances I can see no propriety in encumbering the people of the State with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our power to enable them to do directly for themselves. ”

“ An oath of past loyalty was made the test of political capacity. In short, the restored civil government in Tennessee was based solely on that portion of its inhabitants that had remained loyal to the Union. These Union men, or Radicals as they chose to call themselves, composed about one third of the population of the State, and represented about one fifth of the taxpayers. It will be the object of this chapter to trace the steps by which this small minority seized the reins of government and exercised for three years absolute control of the State. ”

“ It will be idle to speak of ourselves any longer as members of the Federal Union; and it is believed by many whose opinions are entitled to the highest respect, that, by reason of the subversion of the Constitution by the authorities in power, inaugurating a revolution between the States thereof, each and every individual is already released from his obligations to that government ”

“ When the State was admitted into the Union, in 1796, her population was homogeneous. The institution of slavery existed in all sections of the State.
In West and Middle Tennessee, where the soil and climate were suitable for raising cotton, slave labor was very profitable. In East Tennessee, the poor upland farms scarcely yielded a return to white labor. As the result of this difference in natural conditions, slavery flourished in West and Middle Tennessee, but in East Tennessee, by 1860, it had become almost extinct, except upon the rich plantations that bordered the Tennessee River. ”

“ In this calamitous state of affairs, when the liberties of the people are so imperilled and their most valued rights endangered, it behooves them, in their primary meetings and in all their other accustomed modes, to assemble, consult calmly as to their safety, and with firmness to give expressions to their opinions and convictions of right. ”

“ These Ku-Klux outrages followed closely upon the passage of the Arnell Franchise Law. This bill, as we have pointed out, made the political disabilities of the ex-Confederate absolute and perpetual. It destroyed the last hope of regaining political control of the State, through legal and constitutional means. As a natural result, public opinion commenced to tolerate acts of violence which till then had been strongly condemned. The best men of the communities, while they did not take active part in the Ku-Klux movement, gave it their approval by a policy of acquiescence. ”

“ Governor Harris had entered public life just after the rupture between Andrew Jackson and Hugh Lawson White, which had resulted in the formation, in Tennessee, of the Whig party. For thirty years the Whigs and Democrats contended for the control of the State. They were so equally matched that victory often turned upon the individual strength of the candidate. This resulted in the development of a class of public men who possessed, in a high degree, the usually divergent abilities of public speakers and party leaders. ”

“ Somewhat antedating the Ku-Klux Klan, and almost equally rapid in growth, were the Union secret societies. They also bore various names, the most popular being “The Loyal League” and “The Union League of America.” They were devoid of any fantastic features, and did not, as a rule, resort to violent measures, but their object was the same as the rival organization, namely, to secure political control of the negro. ”

“ Edward McPherson, the clerk of the House, omitted the name of Tennessee along with the other Southern States from the preliminary roll-call, Mr. Horace Maynard created a dramatic scene by waving aloft his certificate of election, and demanding recognition. In the discussion which followed the roll-call, the cause of Mr. Maynard was championed by Mr. Brooks, the leader of the Democratic minority. “If Mr. Maynard,” he said, “is not a loyal man, and is not from a State in this Union, what man, then, is loyal? ”

“ Stokes thus defined his position: “When the killing of Union men ceases, the hellish organization of Ku-Klux is abandoned, and the laws are observed, then I am willing to entertain a proposition to amend the State constitution so far as to allow the disfranchised to come in gradually, by providing that the Legislature may by a two thirds vote remove the disabilities for those who petition, and come well recommended by their loyal neighbors.” ”

“ That while the country is now upon the very threshold of a most ruinous and desolating Civil War, it may with truth be said, and we protest before God, that the people, so far as we can see, have done nothing to produce it. That the people of Tennessee, when the question was submitted to them in February last, decided by an overwhelming majority that the relations of the State towards the Federal Government should not be changed ”

“ That in view of a so decided expression of the will of the people, in whom all power is inherent and on whose authority all free governments are founded, and in the honest conviction that nothing has transpired since that time which should change that deliberate judgment of the people, we have contemplated with peculiar emotions the pertinacity with which those in authority have labored to over-ride the judgment of the people and to bring about the very result which the people themselves had so overwhelmingly condemned. ”

“ The disunion sentiment began to grow very rapidly as a result of events which were transpiring outside the State. Amid the intense excitement which followed the taking of Fort Sumter, Governor Harris issued a call for a second extra session of the Legislature. On the 18th of April he had replied to President Lincoln’s call for troops: “Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those of our Southern brothers.” ”

“ It was further promised, “that whenever a number of persons in any of the rebel States, equal to not less than one tenth of the votes cast in such State in the presidential election of the year 1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall establish a State government which shall be republican in form, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State.” ”

“ There has been a large amount of evidence taken, a part of it conducing to show that at some localities occasionally there have been some irregularities and disaffection, yet the main direction and weight of the testimony are ample and conclusive to show that a great body of the people in said State are not only loyal and willing, but anxious to have and maintain amicable, sincere, and patriotic relations with the General Government. ”

“ We hold that the inferiority of the negro to the white man, in race, color, and capacity for permanent, well-ordered government has been fixed by Him who ‘doeth all things well,’ and whose natural or revealed law has never been violated by any human government without disaster and confusion.”
In the abstract, the above statement undoubtedly represented the view of a majority of the delegates. But the conservative men of the Convention recognized that the rejection of negro suffrage would strengthen the Radicals in their efforts to obtain Federal intervention. ”

“ All the candidates were Union men, but one set represented the conservative element which opposed disfranchisement and tests oaths. The Radicals felt perfectly confident of defeating the Conservatives, if the provisions of the new law were carried out. But it soon became evident that the Radicals had much to fear both from open violation of the law, and secret intimidation of the voter. Governor Brownlow, on the 10th of July, issued a proclamation declaring “that all who had banded together to defeat the franchise law would be dealt with as rebels.”
The election passed off without violence. ”

“ In the spring of 1867, the Radical newspapers of Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis commenced to be filled with reports of outrages committed upon negroes and Union men. Upon investigation, these reports oftentimes turned out to be either wholly untrue or greatly exaggerated, but they served to throw the Radical party into a state of intense excitement. Their leaders believed, or professed to believe, that another general insurrection was threatened. ”

“ The leaders of the Union men in the State, the majority of whom were never in sympathy with Johnson, began to grow restive under his military dictatorship.
In May, 1864, occurred Johnson’s nomination for the Vice-Presidency. He naturally desired to obtain the electoral vote of his own State. A Convention was therefore called to meet in Nashville for the purpose of nominating an electoral ticket. The Union leaders seized the opportunity which the Convention presented for perfecting an organization of the Union party. ”

“ Provide that these amendments shall never be changed except by consent of all the slave States.
With these amendments to the Constitution, Governor Harris said that he could feel that the rights of the Southern States were reasonably secure, not only in theory, but in fact, and should indulge the hope of living in the Union in peace. “If the non-slaveholding States refuse to comply with a demand so just and reasonable; refuse to abandon at once and forever their unjust war upon us, our institutions, and our rights ”

“ Governor Senter being governor or acting-governor had the appointment of the registrars of the election. He put in such men as he thought would do his bidding. They at once opened the flood-gates and let everybody in, the disfranchising clauses of the Constitution were trodden under foot and entirely disregarded, certificates of qualification as voters were issued to disfranchised rebels, and even boys of sixteen and seventeen were allowed to vote. Besides this there was a course of intimidation pursued under the instruction of Senter which prevented hundreds of Republicans from voting. ”

“ On the 10th of September, the Legislature passed a bill “to preserve the public peace.” This bill imposes “a fine of not less than five hundred dollars, and imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years, and renders infamous any person who shall unite with, associate with, promote or encourage any organization of persons who shall prowl through the counties and towns of this State, by day or night, for the purpose of disturbing the peace or alarming the peaceful citizens of any part of the State. ”

“ Stokes declared their intentions to “fight it to a finish at the polls.” They began at Nashville, January 5th, a joint canvass of the State. A direct issue was soon made between them on the franchise question. Governor Senter declared “that the time has come, and is now, when the limitations and disabilities which have found their way into our statute-books, as the result of the war, should be abolished and removed, and the privilege of the elective franchise be restored, and extended so far as to embrace the mass of the adult population of the State.” ”