Similar laws were enacted in the other States, varying slightly in severity of punishment. The labor contract act of Louisiana, passed in December, is of especial interest as an evidence of the systematic way in which the Southern legislators hoped to mould the unwieldy mass of freedmen into a docile set of serfs. All agricultural laborers were required by this act to make their contract for the ensuing year before the tenth day of January; said contract to embrace the labor of the whole family. After the contract had been agreed to, no laborer was to be allowed to “leave his place of employment until the fulfillment of his contract, unless by consent of his employer, or on account of harsh treatment, or breach of contract on the part of employer,” under penalty of forfeiture of all wages to the time of leaving. “Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, and leaving home without permission, will be deemed disobedience; impudence, swearing, or indecent language to or in the presence of the employer, his family or agent, or quarreling or fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience. For any disobedience a fine of one dollar shall be imposed upon the offender. For all lost time from work hours, unless in case of sickness, the laborer shall be fined twenty-five cents per hour. For all absence from home without leave the laborer will be fined at the rate of two dollars per day.”[60]
The cruelty and injustice possible in the administration of these acts is even greater than their casual perusal would indicate. Many of these acts, nominally applying to both races with equal severity, were in reality intended to apply solely to the negro. The vagrants always proved to be colored. The acts purporting to secure the protection of the freedmen were cunningly hedged in by limitations which made them worthless. The employer was made the sole judge of the acts of his employees—a privilege which could not but be flagrantly abused. Laws that made it almost impossible for the freedman to secure the just return for his labor, were followed by laws punishing him for his poverty. The fines for his so-called offences were excessively severe, and the punishments were almost always such as to reduce him to slavery for limited terms. The whole system, taken advantage of as it could not fail to be where the dominant classes were almost unanimously desirous to retain the negro in subjection, resulted in his practical slavery during those seasons of the year in which his labor was most needed, and in utter neglect and lack of support when his labor was not in demand.
9. Although the enactment of these stringent laws at this time was a political mistake, and was fraught with most serious consequences for the South, it is proper to notice what was said in their justification. Many of them did not differ materially from similar statutes in the Northern States. Even some of the harshest laws, those which were received with wide-spread indignation throughout the North, could almost be duplicated by laws at that time in force in such States as Rhode Island and Connecticut. Even the phraseology, the using of the words master, mistress and servant, which was deemed objectionable and suggestive by Northern Republicans, could be found in Northern statutes.
The South felt confident that the negro was unable actively to assume the duties of citizenship. The Southern people feared, and with reason, that the immense mass of undeveloped humanity was liable to become turbulent and unmanageable, unless stringent laws could be framed which would hold it in check.[61] They were sincere in their statements that they believed that the interests of property, peace and good order demanded these laws. 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.
10. To Stevens and his followers the South had proved its impenitent condition, and had justified the most stringent measures of reconstruction. They declared that Johnson’s policy had been fairly tested and that the results of the experiment were apparent. They argued that the South, emboldened by the conciliatory conduct of the President, was permitting the old rebel leaders to continue to wield the chief influence in affairs of state. The exclusion of these leaders from participation in the preliminary work of the reconstruction conventions was no check upon their influence in the State, and with the completion of reconstruction there was nothing to prevent them from occupying the chief state offices. What the President in the previous April had feared, was coming to pass, through his failure to do that which he had then said must be done—to make treason and traitors odious. In proof of the ascendency of the old elements, the highly questionable legislation of the South was cited, and the conviction of the Republican party that sterner measures were necessary was strengthened. As a natural result the doctrine of Thaddeus Stevens that the South should be regarded and governed as a conquered territory became practically the doctrine of the majority of Republicans, and Stevens became the leader of the House of Representatives. The year 1865 had made plain the necessities of the hour, the condition of the South, the attitude of the President, and in short had prepared the people for the great struggle which was to follow in the 39th and 40th Congresses.[62]
CHAPTER III.
THE ATTITUDE OF CONGRESS TOWARDS THE EXPERIMENT:
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONGRESSIONAL THEORY.
1. The Thirty-ninth Congress began its labors on December 4, 1865, well aware that the President had separated himself from the Republican party so far that it was improbable that the executive and legislative departments would be able to work in harmony. The Democrats were beginning to commend the administration, and had even gone so far in some instances as to indicate, in resolutions passed in their state conventions, their approval of Johnson’s plan of reconstruction. Republicans, on the other hand, were becoming quite reserved in their expressions of approval, and began to show a decided sentiment in favor of manhood suffrage as involving less danger and more benefit to the Republic than any plan which even partially excluded the negro from the franchise. The legislation of the Southern States had convinced many that without the negro vote there would be no way to keep the old insurrectionary element from completely monopolizing their state governments.[63]