Charles E. Chadsey

“ The rebellion having overthrown constitutional State governments in many States, it is yours to mature and enact legislation which, with the concurrence of the Executive, shall establish them anew on such a basis of enduring justice as will guarantee all the necessary safeguards to the people, and afford what our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims is the chief object of government—protection to all men in their inalienable rights. ”

“ We affirm that the loyalists of the South look to Congress with affectionate gratitude and confidence, as the only means to save us from persecution, exile and death itself; and we also declare that there can be no security for us or our children, there can be no safety for the country against the fell spirit of slavery, now organized in the form of serfdom, unless the Government, by national and appropriate legislation, enforced by national authority, shall confer on every citizen in the States we represent the American birthright of impartial suffrage and equality before the law. ”

“ On the particular issue of reconstruction Lincoln and Congress were at variance; but the tragic nature of Lincoln’s death caused this matter to be forgotten in the overwhelming sense of the loss of the man who had safely guided the government through the most trying years of its history. But, for a Congress so extremely Northern and Republican, with antagonisms and prejudices which only fratricidal wars can create, to be compelled to work with a man not only a Southerner, but practically a Democrat, must of necessity bring about a crisis. ”

“ The gradual evolution of popular sentiment, from the belief that the dignity of a State should not be tampered with, to the belief that by an act of secession a State divested itself of all its rights and privileges as a State, and reverted to the condition of a Territory, forms an interesting chapter in the history of the unwritten constitution of the United States. ”

“ The war power, as such, cannot be used to extinguish the States; the Government only seeks to suppress the insurrection, achieving which all the States resume their normal relations. The States now have organized governments, republican in form, and the manner in which they were formed is no concern of Congress. “Congress may admit new States, but a State once admitted ceases to be within its control and can never again be brought within it.” There is nothing in the political condition of these States justifying their exclusion from representation in Congress. ”

“ He wanted no restoration of the Union under the Constitution, which he called a worthless bit of old parchment. The white people of the South ought never again to be trusted with power, for they would inevitably unite with the Northern ‘Copperheads’ and control the government. The only sound policy was to confiscate the lands and divide them among the negroes, to whom, sooner or later, suffrage must be given. Touching the matter in hand, Johnson was a fool to have captured Davis, whom it would have been wiser to assist in escaping. ”

“ When Georgia declared slavery abolished she did so with the proviso that “acquiescence in the action of the Government of the United States is not intended to operate as a relinquishment, or waiver, or estoppel of such claim for compensation of loss sustained by reason of the emancipation of his slaves, as any citizen of Georgia may hereafter make upon the justice and magnanimity of that Government.” ”

“ To his mind it logically followed that because secession was unconstitutional, it was absolutely impossible for a State to secede, and therefore equally impossible for a State to commit treason. Individuals might commit treason and be punished therefor, but States never. However strongly at any time he may have urged the punishment of traitors, he never argued for or believed in the abrogation of any of the State’s privileges. His reputation for belief in severity was based entirely upon severity on individuals. ”

“ Johnson, Rogers and Grider, was an ably prepared document embodying at length the doctrines of the minority in Congress, composed of the Democrats and the few Republicans who still sustained the President. As a matter of course the argument was built upon the premise that the so-called Confederate States were never legally separated from the Union, but were bound by all the obligations and entitled to all the privileges of other States. “In its nature the government is formed of and by States possessing equal rights and powers.” A State cannot be held to have forfeited its rights. ”

“ In the same speech he says: “No rights of the South that were lost by the rebellion were revived or repossessed by traitors on the cessation of hostilities. War destroys all rights but the rights of war.” [79] Mr. Baldwin, of Massachusetts, described the attitude of the Southern States as follows: “It is undeniably the aim of the old pro-slavery spirit to reduce them [the freedmen] to a condition as nearly like that of slavery as circumstances will admit; a condition that would yield all the advantages of slavery without any of its incumbrances. ”

“ While demanding the restoration of the States, they declared Johnson’s policy to be “unjust, oppressive, and intolerable,” and that restoration under his “inadequate conditions” would only magnify “the perils and sorrows of our condition.” They agreed to support Congress and to endeavor to secure the ratification of the 14th Amendment. Congress alone had power to determine the political status of the States and the rights of the people, “to the exclusion of the independent action of any and every other department of the Government.” ”

“ Little attempt was made to qualify or render less offensive the argument that the Southern States must be allowed their representation in Congress, whether or not such action was for the best interest of the Union. Referring to this the address declared that “we have no right, for such reasons, to deny to any portion of the States or people rights expressly conferred upon them by the Constitution of the United States.” We should trust to the ability of our people [Pg 94] “to protect and defend, under all contingencies and by whatever means may be required, its honor and welfare.” ”

“ Public sentiment in Washington was very hostile to the Freedmen’s Bureau, and on February 22 a mass-meeting was held to express popular approval of the action of the President in vetoing the bill. Adjourning to the White House, the crowd congratulated Johnson with tumultuous enthusiasm. A man more cautious would have limited his reply to a temperate expression of his views; but Johnson, ever eager to pose as the leader of the people, was led by the enthusiasm of the moment to abandon himself entirely to his prejudices, aggravated as they were by the circumstances above mentioned. ”

“ So long as armed rebellion existed the question of reconstruction was a minor one, the attention of all being chiefly directed to the problem: “How can this rebellion be crushed out, and the South made thoroughly to realize that resistance is useless?” But when Andrew Johnson took the oath of office the rebellion was virtually a thing of the past, and the giant problem for the nation to solve during his administration was: “How shall we treat these conquered States [Pg 29] lying helpless, awaiting whatever fate may be allotted them?” ”

“ Unfortunately, the humanitarian ideas of the North harmonized too well with the political ideas of Congress. The enactment of the laws against the negro seemed to strike at the one and make possible the success of the other. The radical majority were quick to see their advantage, and did not hesitate to make the most of the opportunity. They assumed that the South deliberately intended to defy Northern sentiment, and ignored the possibility that the legislation in question was sincerely believed to be a necessary act of self-defense. ”

“ The veto message on this bill was much shorter than that on the original reconstruction measure. The President said: “No consideration could induce me to give my approval to such an election law for any purpose, and especially for the great purpose of framing the constitution of a State. If ever the American citizen should be left to the free exercise of his own judgment, it is when he is engaged in the work of forming the fundamental law under which he is to live.” ”

“ I hope to see the property of the subdued enemy pay the damages done to loyal men, North and South, and help to support the helpless, armless, mutilated soldiers who have been made wretched by this unholy war. I do not believe the action of the President is worth a farthing in releasing the property conquered from the enemy, from the appropriation made of it by Congress. ”

“ That Congress would not be justified in admitting such communities to a participation in the government of the country without first providing such constitutional or other guaranties as will tend to secure the civil rights of all citizens of the Republic; a just equality of representation; protection against claims founded in rebellion and crime; a temporary restoration of the right of suffrage to those who have not actively participated in the efforts to destroy the Union and overthrow the government ”

“ But we have seen that even under a man enjoying such universal confidence as did Lincoln, the country viewed with distrust, and Congress openly resented, a policy which seemed to commit to a recently insurrectionary people the whole responsibility for proper reconstruction, requiring from them no surety for sincerity save an oath which all knew would be regarded by the majority as a mere form with little significance. The same policy when adopted by Johnson was naturally looked upon with still more suspicion. ”

“ The hatred which has declared the freedom of these people a calamity conspires diligently to make it so; the government is angrily forbidden to interfere with its operations; and if there be an epithet of contumely and reproach that has not been hurled at those who would allow these people the protection they need, it must be some blackguard epithet not yet invented.” [81]
But the policy of the President was not without its vigorous supporters, although they generally were found among the Democrats. ”

“ Yet to ascribe the adoption of so important a policy, affecting all the fundamental principles upon which strict and loose constructionists are divided, to these influences, appears to be a superficial judgment based upon opinions formed in the heat of the struggle, when extraneous influences are always given undue prominence by the participants. The whole career of Johnson proves the logical exactness with which he followed strict construction dogma in all points excepting the doctrine of secession. ”

“ So early as April 21 he frankly states his position. In [Pg 35] his speech on that day he says: “Provision” (in the Constitution) “is made for the admission of new States; no provision is made for the secession of old ones. * * * The Government is composed of parts, each essential to the whole, and the whole essential to each part.” [46] He emphatically urges that the Constitution provides a panacea for rebellion. “The United States (that is, the great integer) shall guarantee to each State (the integers composing the whole) in this Union a republican form of government. ”

“ Those who feared that Lincoln had lacked sufficient firmness and had been too tender hearted, believed that in Johnson the nation had as its Executive a man with correct convictions and a strength of character which ensured both the proper treatment of the South and the stability of the Union. Johnson had an excellent record as military governor of Tennessee, where his fearlessness and vigorous administration had given him a reputation which brought to him the nomination of vice-president. ”

“ The great debate was opened on December 18 by Mr. Stevens, who reasserted his views, declaring that Congress has the sole power to receive back the States, the Executive concurring. [74] The States as States made war. “The idea that the States could not and did not make war because the Constitution forbids it, and that this must be treated as a war of individuals, is a very injurious fallacy. Individuals cannot make war. They may commit murder, but that is not war. Communities, societies, states, make war.” ”

“ The popular ratification of the amendments to the Constitution distinguished the action of Tennessee from that of the other Southern States, and this fact, united to her uniformly consistent attitude, formed the ground for the recommendation of the Committee on Reconstruction that this State should be restored to her former rights and privileges. ”

“ Fernando Beaman, of Michigan, who also considered that the seceded States had ceased to exist, said in an extended speech favoring the adoption of this bill: [30] “As a people without government or organization are in a state of anarchy, their efforts to establish law and order must be more or less impeded by caprice, by divided counsels, and by the want of forms, regulations, and methods. The passage of this bill is the establishment of incipient civil government, and provides at once rules, regulations and system, with the proper officials to carry them into execution.” ”

“ Rhetorically to assert that all traitors must be punished is one thing—to apply the punishment is another. Then Johnson’s most able advisers approved his attitude and urged even greater moderation. Finally, his firm faith in the success of his provisional governments persuaded him to a still more liberal use of the pardoning power, while the growing opposition of Congress added the element of stubbornness to the complication. ”