A School History of the United States

by John Bach McMaster

SUMMARY

1. When the war opened, and the army and navy were called into the field, Congress proceeded to raise money by three methods: A. Increasing taxation. B. Issuing bonds. C. Issuing paper money.

2. Taxation was in three forms: A. Direct tax. B. Tariff duties. C. Internal revenue, which included a vast number of taxes.

3. Paper money consisted of treasury notes, United States notes (greenbacks), fractional currency.

4. Besides the cost to the nation, there was the cost to the states, counties, cities, and towns for bounties, and in aid of the war in general; and the cost to individuals.

6. There is again the cost produced by the war and still being paid as pensions, care of national cemeteries, etc., and interest on the public debt.

6. The cost in human life was great to both North and South; there was also a destruction of property and business, the money value of which cannot be estimated.

"THE INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION OF INDESTRUCTIBLE STATES."

CHAPTER XXX

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH

%477. The Reëlection of Lincoln%.—While the war was still raging, the time came, in 1864, for the nomination of candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. The situation was serious. On the one hand was the Democratic party, denouncing Mr. Lincoln, insisting that the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr. Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a convention, and dropping the name "Republicans" for the time being, took that of "National Union party," and renominated Lincoln. For Vice President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat from Tennessee.

The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated John C. Frémont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war measures; and the destruction of slavery forever.

The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation of hostilities with a view to a convention of the states," and described the sacrifice of lives and treasure in behalf of Union as "four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance, repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then peace. "No peace can be permanent without union." The platform said the war was a failure. McClellan said, "I could not look in the faces of my gallant comrades of the army and navy … and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain."

The result was never in doubt. By September Frémont and Cochrane both withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March 4, 1865, were sworn into office.

%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.—By that time the Confederacy was doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the fort which he had so gallantly defended, and in the presence of the army and navy raised the tattered flag he pulled down in 1861.

That night Lincoln went to Ford's Theater in Washington, and while he was sitting quietly in his box, an actor named John Wilkes Booth came in and shot him through the head, causing a wound from which the President died early next morning. His deed done, the assassin leaped from the box to the stage, and shouting, "Sic semper tyrannis" (So be it always to tyrants), the motto of Virginia, made his escape in the confusion of the moment, and mounting a horse, rode away.

The act of Booth was one result of a conspiracy, the details of which were soon discovered and the criminals punished. Booth was hunted by soldiers and shot in a barn in Virginia. His accomplices were either hanged or imprisoned for life.[1]

[Footnote 1: The best account of the murder of Lincoln is given in "Four
Lincoln Conspiracies" in the Century Magazine for April, 1896.]

%479. Andrew Johnson, President.%—Lincoln had not been many hours dead when Andrew Johnson, as the Constitution provides, took the oath of office and became President of the United States. Before him lay the most gigantic task ever given to any President.

%480. Reconstruction.%—To dispose of the Confederate soldiers and politicians was an easy matter; but to decide what to do with the Confederate states proved most difficult. Lincoln had always held that they could not secede. If they could not secede, they had never been out of the Union, and if they had never been out of the Union, they were entitled, as of old, to send senators and representatives to Congress.

[Illustration: Andrew Johnson]

But whether the states had or had not seceded, the old state governments of 1861, and the relations these governments once held with the Union, were destroyed by the so-called secession, and it was necessary to define some way by which they might be reëstablished, or, as it was called, "reconstructed."

Toward the end of 1863, accordingly, when the Union army had acquired possession of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana, Lincoln issued his "Amnesty Proclamation" and began the work of reconstruction. He promised, in the first place, that, with certain exceptions, which he mentioned, he would pardon[1] every man who should lay down his arms and swear to support and obey the Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation. He promised, in the second place, that whenever, in any state that had attempted secession, voters equal in number to one tenth of those who in 1860 voted for presidential electors, should take this oath and organize a state government, he would recognize it; that is, he would consider the state "reconstructed," loyal, and entitled to representation in Congress.

[Footnote 1: The Constitution gives the President power to pardon all offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.]

Following out this plan, the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, and
Louisiana made reconstructed state governments which Lincoln recognized.
But here Congress stepped in, refused to seat the senators from these
states, and made a plan of its own, which Lincoln vetoed.

%481. Johnson's "My Policy" Plan of Reconstruction.%—So the matter stood when Lee and Johnston surrendered, when Davis was captured, and the Confederacy fell to pieces. All the laws enacted by the Confederate Congress at once became null and void. Taxes were no longer collected; letters were no longer delivered; Confederate money had no longer any value. Even the state governments ceased to have any authority. Bands of Union cavalry scoured the country, capturing such governors, political leaders, and prominent men as could be found, and striking terror into others who fled to places of safety. In the midst of this confusion all civil government ended. To reestablish it under the Constitution and laws of the United States was, therefore, the first duty of the President, and he began to do so at once. First he raised the blockade, and opened the ports of the South to trade; then he ordered the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of the Interior, the Postmaster-general, the Attorney-general, to see that the taxes were collected, that letters were delivered, that the courts of the United States were opened, and the laws enforced in all the Southern States; finally, he placed over each of the unreconstructed states a temporary or provisional governor. These governors called conventions of delegates elected by such white men as were allowed to vote, and these conventions did four things: 1. They declared the ordinances of secession null and void. 2. They repudiated every debt incurred in supporting the Confederacy, and promised never to pay one of them. 3. They abolished slavery within their own bounds. 4. They ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery forever in the United States.

%482. The Thirteenth Amendment%.—This amendment was sent out to the states by Congress in February, 1865, and was necessary to complete the work begun by the Emancipation Proclamation. That proclamation merely set free the slaves in certain parts of the country, and left the right to buy more untouched. Again, certain slave states (Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri) had not seceded, and in them slavery still existed. In order, therefore, to abolish the institution of slavery in every state in the Union, an amendment to the Constitution was necessary, as many of the states could not be relied on to abolish it within their bounds by their own act. The amendment was formally proclaimed a part of the Constitution on December 18, 1865.[1]

[Footnote 1: Before an amendment proposed by Congress can become a part of the Constitution, it must be accepted or ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of all the states. In 1865 there were thirty-six states in the Union, and of these, sixteen free, and eleven slave states ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and so made it part of the Constitution. When an amendment has been ratified by the necessary number of states, the President states the fact in a proclamation.]

%483. Treatment of the Freedmen in the South%.—Had the Southern legislatures stopped here, all would have been well. But they went on, and passed a series of laws concerning vagrants, apprentices, and paupers, which kept the negroes in a state of involuntary servitude, if not in actual slavery.

To the men of the South, who feared that the ignorant negroes would refuse to work, these laws seemed to be necessary. But by the men of the North they were regarded as signs of a determination on the part of Southern men not to accept the abolition of slavery. When, therefore, Congress met in December, 1865, the members were very angry because the President had reconstructed the late Confederate states in his own way without consulting Congress, and because these states had made such severe laws against the negroes.

%484. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction%.—As soon as the two houses were organized, the President and his work were ignored, the senators and representatives from the eleven states that had seceded were refused seats in Congress, and a series of acts were passed to protect the freedmen.

One of these, enacted in March, 1866, was the "Civil Rights" Bill, which gave negroes all the rights of citizenship and permitted them to sue for any of these rights (when deprived of them) in the United States courts. This was vetoed; but Congress passed the bill over the veto. Now, a law enacted by one Congress can, of course, be repealed by another, and lest this should be done, and the freedmen be deprived of their civil rights, Congress (June, 1866) passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and made the ratification of it by the Southern States a condition of readmittance to Congress.

Finally, a Freedmen's Bureau Bill, ordering the sale of government land to negroes on easy terms, and giving them military protection for their rights, was passed over the President's veto, just before Congress adjourned.

%485. The President abuses Congress%.—During the summer, Johnson made speeches at Western cities, in which, in very coarse language, he abused Congress, calling it a Congress of only part of the states; "a factious, domineering, tyrannical Congress," "a Congress violent in breaking up the Union." These attacks, coupled with the fact that some of the Southern States, encouraged by the President's conduct, rejected the Fourteenth Amendment, made Congress, when it met in December, 1866, more determined than ever. By one act it gave negroes the right to vote in the territories and in the District of Columbia. By another it compelled the President to issue his orders to the army through General Grant, for Congress feared that he would recall the troops stationed in the South to protect the freedmen. But the two important acts were the "Tenure of Office Act" and "Reconstruction Act" (March 2, 1867).

%486. The Reconstruction Act%.—The Reconstruction Act marked out the ten unreconstructed states (Tennessee had been admitted to Congress in March, 1866) into five districts, with an army officer in command of each, and required the people of each state to make a new constitution giving negroes the right to vote, and send the constitution to Congress. If Congress accepted it, and if the legislature assembled under it ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, they might send senators and representatives to Congress, and not before.

To these terms six states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas) submitted, and in June, 1868, they were readmitted to Congress. Their ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment made it a part of the Constitution, and in July, 1868, it was declared in force.

%487. "Tenure of Office Act"; Johnson impeached%—By this time the quarrel between the President and Congress had reached such a crisis that the Republican, leaders feared he would obstruct the execution of the reconstruction law by removing important officials chiefly responsible for its administration, and putting in their places men who would not enforce it. To prevent this, Congress, in 1867, passed the "Tenure of Office Act." Hitherto a President could remove almost any Federal office holder at pleasure. Henceforth he could only suspend while the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the man was removed; if it disapproved, the man was reinstated. Johnson denied the right of Congress to make such a law, and very soon disobeyed it.

In August, 1867, he asked Secretary of War Stanton to resign, and when the Secretary refused, suspended him and made General Grant temporary Secretary. All this was legal, but when Congress met, and the Senate disapproved of the suspension, General Grant gave the office back again to Stanton. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War, and ordered him to seize the office. For this, and for his abusive speeches about Congress, the House of Representatives impeached him, and the Senate tried him "for high crimes and misdemeanors," but failed by one vote to find him guilty. Stanton then resigned his office.