RECONSTRUCTION AND THE NATIONAL DEBT.
"By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national authority, the reconstruction of which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner and measure of reconstruction."
A. Lincoln, April 11, 1865. From his last speech before death.
Mr. Lincoln died at 7:22 o'clock a. m. on April 15, 1865; four hours later Vice-President Johnson took the oath of office as President. Before him were two gigantic problems, the solution of which was fraught with the greatest difficulty. In what manner and under what restrictions should the recently rebellious States—eleven in number—be allowed to resume the exercise of their civil functions, and when should their Senators and Representatives be seated in Congress? This was the first problem—Reconstruction. And in what manner should the enormous war debt be handled so that the credit of the Government would be thoroughly re-established and maintained; and how should the enormous paper currency (legal tenders) be managed so that the commercial interests of the country would not be disturbed? These two problems—Reconstruction and the National Debt—were ultimately to be worked out by the party that saved the Union, though now a War Democrat was in charge of the Executive Department, and friction and disagreement was almost certain. It was most unfortunate that no definite plan of Reconstruction had been agreed upon by the Legislative and Executive Departments before Mr. Lincoln's death. Such an understanding would have avoided, probably, the bitter conflict that shortly came on between President Johnson and Congress; and the history of the few years following the Rebellion would have presented a record of greater national progress, a quicker welding of the Union, and a prompter re-establishment of national sentiment between the two sections.
While it is true that Mr. Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction did not meet with the approval of Congress, yet it is almost certain that if he had lived there would have been an agreement of some kind; either the party would have followed Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Lincoln would have followed the party. Ultimate harmony between a Republican President and a Republican Congress was certain, although they might temporarily disagree; but harmony between a Republican Congress and a Democratic President once disturbed would scarcely be restored; neither would ever again completely trust the other.
Mr. Lincoln's work of Reconstruction began in 1863 when the Union army had regained Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. His message to Congress in December, 1863, was accompanied by a Proclamation of Amnesty to those who had taken part in the Rebellion in these States, upon their taking an oath to support the Constitution and all federal laws; and upon so doing there was to be a restoration of property, except slaves. From this pardon were excepted six enumerated classes of persons whose treason had been most offensive. State Governments could be established by those who took the oath, provided their numbers were one-tenth as large as the total number of voters in the State at the presidential election of 1860, and any Government so established would be recognized by the President, but the right of Congress to admit or reject Senators and Representatives was recognized. Louisiana was the first to make preparations to re-enter into the possession of all its State powers under this proclamation, and in the early months of 1864 a State Government was duly completed and an anti-slavery Constitution adopted. Arkansas followed the same course, but when her Senators and Representatives applied to Congress for their seats, they were denied admittance, and it was apparent that there was a distinct disagreement between the President and Congress on the subject of Reconstruction. Congress did not approve of the President's proceeding without asking its advice, and did not approve of his plan, and a Bill was introduced and passed embodying its views on the subject. In this Bill the President was directed to appoint a Provisional Governor for each of the rebellious States, and after military occupation had ceased, the Governor was to enroll the white male citizens who would take an oath to support the Constitution; after a majority had done so an election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention was to follow, and the Constitution was to contain prohibitory clauses on the subject of slavery, the Confederate debt and the right of certain persons to vote. If this Constitution was adopted by a majority of the popular vote, then the President, with the consent of Congress, could recognize the State Government, and it would be permitted to send its Representatives to Congress. This Bill was passed July 2, 1864, on the last day of the session, but it never became a law because the President did not sign it, and did not return it before Congress adjourned. Several days after the adjournment the President issued a Proclamation in which he laid the Congressional plan before the people and declared that he was not in favor of any one scheme of Reconstruction, and that he was also not prepared to set aside the loyal governments which had been formed in Louisiana and Arkansas. By the time Congress met again the President had been re-elected, and it would seem that in some degree there was an endorsement not only of his War Policy but of his plan of Reconstruction. However, the matter was not pressed, and his message to Congress in December, 1864, was silent on the subject. There was no present occasion to bring forward the matter, but the President still adhered to his original plan as far as Louisiana and Arkansas were concerned, and so expressed himself in his last speech before his death.
So the matter of Reconstruction stood when Andrew Johnson became President. There was not much question about the general course he would pursue, because, as War Governor of Tennessee, he had, early in 1865, practically reconstructed that State under Mr. Lincoln's "ten percent" plan. As Congress was not in session, and would not convene until December, the President had the alternative of either calling an extra session of Congress or proceeding in the matter of Reconstruction according to his own ideas and the suggestions of his Cabinet, he having retained the Cabinet left by Mr. Lincoln. The latter course was pursued, and after some delay President Johnson began to act. An Executive Order swept away all laws and decrees of the Confederacy, raised the blockade and opened the southern ports to trade.
On May 29, 1865, the President issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to all who had participated in the Rebellion upon their taking a registered oath to support the Constitution and the Union, but the Proclamation excepted a large number of persons of specified classes, whose treason was deemed to be too great to allow them to again participate in the Government. By the middle of July, Provisional Governors had been appointed by the President in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida; the authority of the United States had already been established in Virginia early in May, and Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee had been reconstructed under Mr. Lincoln's plan. The President's policy was that as soon as these Governors took charge, any white person, except the classes specified, could regain his citizenship by an oath to support the Constitution and the Union. The taking of this oath by a sufficient number was followed by Reconstruction Conventions, which were held in the Southern States, and Legislators and Representatives to Congress were chosen. The work of these Reconstruction Conventions and Legislatures, although they repudiated the debts of the Confederacy and recognized the Thirteenth Amendment, was highly displeasing to the Republicans in the North, who were greatly interested in the fate of the negroes, and who now saw them, by various laws passed by the Southern Legislatures, deprived of all civil rights and reduced to a new form of servitude.
The first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress convened on December 4, 1865, with a large majority of Republicans in both House and Senate, and both bodies in a very angry mood over the action of the President in proceeding with the Reconstruction without their advice or consent, and they were more enraged with the extreme and rash policies adopted by the Southern Legislatures. To add to this bitter feeling came the application of the Southern Senators and Representatives, many of whom less than a year before had been engaged in active rebel-loin, to be admitted to their seats. These applicants were refused admission by both branches of Congress. The House and Senate appointed Reconstruction Committees, and the debate immediately began on the great question. It was seen at once that the Republican Party would totally ignore the President's policy and all that had been done under it. The breach widened between the President and Congress, when an Act to enlarge the provisons of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill (passed March 3, 1865) came up. The object of this Bill was to provide for the destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children. The new Bill was promptly passed, but on February 19, 1866, was vetoed by the President; the Senate failed to pass the Bill over the veto, but later in the year (July, 1866) the measure went through Congress in a slightly altered form, was vetoed by the President and passed over his veto. The Civil Rights Bill, to secure to the freed negroes in the South all of the rights enjoyed by the white man, except suffrage, was also vetoed by the President on March 27, 1866, and on April 9th was passed over his veto.
[Illustration: Andrew Johnson.]
The Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, had been declared a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865, and the great work of the Emancipation Proclamation was thus completed. The Reconstruction Committee now reported the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, fixing the status of citizens, the basis of representation, etc., and also a Bill declaring that when the Amendment had become part of the Constitution any of the late Confederate States, upon ratifying it, would be allowed representation in Congress, to all of which the President expressed his disapproval. The various presidential vetoes completely broke off any possible chance of harmony between the President and Congress, and in addition to them, the President indulged in a number of rash speeches in which Congress was condemned in no very elegant terms. On February 22, 1866, the President, in a speech at the White House, denounced Congress bitterly for its opposition, and referred in an abusive way to several prominent Republican leaders by name, and he followed this up during the late Summer months by several coarse speeches in Western cities while he was on his way to the dedication of a monument to Stephen A. Douglas at Chicago.
During the autumn of 1866 Congressional elections were to be held, and there was naturally an absorbing interest in the result. These elections were of the greatest importance, for if the President's course was approved by the election of a Democratic Congress, almost the entire result of the Civil War would have been undone, and the strife between the North and South might have been renewed and continued in a more serious form. By this time the South, encouraged by the President's opposition, had rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, and were taking a bold stand to maintain their policy. In October, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania went Republican, and in November were joined by New York, which went overwhelmingly Republican, and the Republicans in the North were everywhere victorious, and they were thus upheld in their Reconstruction policy by the popular sentiment.
The second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress convened on December 3, 1866. The South, during the recess of Congress, had refused to adopt the Fourteenth Amendment, this having been made, as already stated, a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the full privileges of Statehood, and now nothing remained but for Congress to establish a Government over the Southern States until they should see fit to comply with the conditions laid down by Congress. The ten Southern States (Tennessee had been readmitted by joint resolution July 24, 1866) were divided into five Military Districts, under the supervision of Regular Army Officers, who were to have control over all the people in their Districts, for their peace and protection, until the States recognized the Fourteenth Amendment. This Bill was passed March 2, 1867, over the President's veto, and on the same day, over the President's veto, was passed the Bill "To regulate the tenure of Civil offices." The object of the latter Bill was to prevent the President from removing Republicans from office. No person in civil office who had been appointed with the consent of the Senate was to be removed until his successor was appointed in a like manner.
Efforts to impeach the President were first begun in the House on January 7, 1867, and the Judiciary Committee, to which the matter was referred, reported in March that it was unable to conclude its investigations, and it recommended a continuance of the proceedings. President Johnson now took the step that ultimately brought about his impeachment. In August, 1867, he suspended Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War; the suspension was not approved by the Senate in January, 1868, but the President, holding that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional, removed (February 21, 1868) Mr. Stanton from office and appointed Adjutant-general Lorenzo Thomas. This act was declared illegal by the Senate and a second impeachment was immediately reported in the House and adopted February 24, 1868. The House selected John A. Bingham, Geo. S. Boutwell, James F. Wilson, Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas Williams, John A. Logan and Thaddeus Stevens, all Republicans, as managers of the impeachment proceedings. The counsel for the President were no less eminent: Henry Stanbery, Benjamin R. Curtis, William M. Evarts and William S. Groesbeck. On May 11, 1868, the Senate voted thirty-five "guilty" to nineteen "not guilty," and the impeachment failed by one vote. Had the President been impeached, Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, would have become President. The result was deeply disappointing to the Republicans, and for many years there was considerable feeling against the seven Republicans who voted with the twelve Democrats against the impeachment, but lapse of time has brought about a view that the interests of the country were best served by the failure of the impeachment, not that President Johnson's policy and the action of the South under it are to be adopted, but because it is believed that the issues caused by the war were more speedily settled by the failure to impeach.
So bitter was the feeling of Congress against the President, and so great was the distrust of him, that when the Thirty-ninth Congress adjourned on March 4, 1867, the Fortieth Congress convened on the same day, and a series of adjourned meetings were held during the months until December, so that the President would not have undisputed sway during the recess which usually came between March and December.
The question of the National Debt, while not arousing the bitter antagonism that marked the attempt to settle the Reconstruction question, was nevertheless of equal, if not greater importance, because it affected the prosperity and business of the entire country. The total debt of the United States on October 31, 1865, was $2,808,549,437.55, of which debt $454,218,038.00 was in United States notes (legal tenders or greenbacks, as they were called) and fractional currency, in active circulation with the National Bank currency. When the Thirty-ninth Congress convened for the first session it had to consider the disposition of this enormous debt, most of which had been incurred at a high war rate of interest; and to decide what, if anything, should be done with this vast volume of fiat currency, and to consider the matter of reducing the Internal Revenue. The greenbacks were, of course, not on a par with coin, as the action of the Government in declaring these notes legal tender had destroyed our credit abroad and had driven all coin out of circulation, and the value of these notes fluctuated almost daily with the market value of coin. The plan of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. McCulloch, was to contract the currency so as to lead to a resumption of specie payment and again establish our credit abroad. The situation was without precedent in financial history and there was some excuse for what has since been deemed a wrong step in the beginning. After considerable debate, in which some opposition was shown to the policy of Contraction—this opposition being led by John Sherman, who was, in fact, almost alone in his contention—a Bill was passed (April 12, 1866) allowing the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem a certain amount of legal tenders with Bonds, a course which naturally increased the bonded interest-bearing indebtedness and reduced the volume of circulating medium. The people of the country speedily complained of the contraction of the currency, and attributed the failure of business enterprises and the lack of money to it. This sentiment resulted later in the formation of a new but ephemeral political party, the Greenback Party, which went so far as to advocate the unlimited issue of legal tenders and the payment of all the indebtedness of the United States in United States notes. The public disapproval of contraction showed itself strongly, and this led to a Bill, passed on February 4, 1868, suspending the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to reduce the currency. The total amount of greenbacks had by this time been reduced to $356,000,000. This practically settled the question of Currency Contraction, although the Greenback Party, created by this agitation, was in existence until the resumption of specie payments in 1879.
As the requirements of the Treasury gradually became less, Congress rapidly amended the Internal Revenue laws, and the Federal taxes on the people, as a result of the war, gradually became less burdensome, and notwithstanding the enormous reduction in the revenue of the Government, the National Debt was reduced nearly three hundred million dollars in the four years following the war. To add to the brightness of this financial history, large sums were paid out toward the construction of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads, and on July 27, 1868, Alaska was purchased from the Russian Government for $7,200,000.
The entire course of this financial history cannot be claimed to be entirely satisfactory, yet the achievements of the Republican Party during this period, acting in many instances without precedent, were indeed remarkable.
While the exciting scenes connected with the impeachment of the President were going on during the early months of 1868, the South was ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment, and by June, 1868, the long struggle over the Reconstruction question was practically closed by the admission of the Southern States, and in July the Fourteenth Amendment was declared a part of the Constitution. Throughout this long contest the Democrats, North and South, joined in vigorous support of the President because the course of the Republicans was absolutely fatal to their political prospects. The great contest had retarded the progress of the South, and was unfortunate in continuing the bitterness between the two sections of the country. Both sides hailed its conclusion with thanksgiving, and the Republicans now looked forward to the presidential election in the Fall of 1868, which would replace, probably with a Republican, a President whose person and course were so obnoxious to the party.