Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction

by Charles H. McCarthy

That being his opinion, whenever these States, by the aid of the General Government, or by the efforts of their own people, or by the act of both combined, reëstablished themselves, or set their State governments in action anew, and had commenced again to revolve in their old orbits, he should feel it his duty, so far as he was concerned, to extend to them all the privileges and all the rights to which the loyal people of a loyal State were entitled at the hands of their sister States, whether upon the floor of the Senate or anywhere else. It was to exclude Louisiana from the operation of the resolution that he made his motion. As to those States manifestly in the condition described in the preamble there was propriety in passing the resolution.

In reply to an observation of the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that the majority desired to avoid a committal on this subject, Mr. Ten Eyck suggested that it would not, perhaps, be amiss to insist that a committal should not be had against the interest of the State any more than in its favor, and if his amendment involved the question whether Louisiana was in a condition to perform all the functions of a State government and to appoint State officers and Senators and members of the national House of Representatives, the same question was involved in the resolution and it would be determined against her if the joint resolution passed as it stood; for that would decide that Louisiana was in a state of rebellion such as to deprive her of all the powers, rights and privileges of a member of the Union. He was not prepared to go to that extent.

From various memorials, papers and documents that had come into possession of the Senate, he continued, and were published by its order, as well as from information derived from other sources, it appeared that nearly, if not quite, a year before an election for State officers was held in Louisiana and a very large number of votes cast, about two thirds or approximating two thirds of the largest number that had been cast at any former election for State officers. Trumbull interrupted to remark that no such statements had been received by the committee. In those localities which voted, perhaps two thirds of the former vote had been cast, but not two thirds of that cast in the entire State. Ten Eyck replied that the vote was 11,414; it was alleged that a large number of former voters had entered the rebel army and a great many had been killed. He might be in error concerning the whole vote of the State. All these elections were free and uninterrupted and without the interference of any military power whatever. A person on the ground had declared that “no effort whatever was made on the part of the military authorities to influence the citizens of the State, either in the selection of candidates or in the election of officers, and that the direct influence of the Government of the United States was less in Louisiana than in the elections probably of any State of the Union; that the officers representing the Government, both civil and military, were divided, so far as they entertained or expressed opinions, on the question of candidates and upon the policy pursued in the organization of the government.” If any military interference was exerted it was in aid of the loyal people, and the civil authority was not at all in subordination to the military.

In view of the invitation that had been held out by the Government to all the loyal people of those States to come back and to endeavor to organize themselves anew and, when they had gained sufficient strength, to present themselves civilly and quietly at the ballot-box to choose their own State officers and to choose delegates to form a new State constitution, and when they claim the rights of other States, are they to be met by the plea that upon certain out-bounds of the State there may still be heard the tread of rebel feet? It appeared by all the testimony that the population, the business and the property of Louisiana were confined to the cities and regions of country immediately bordering upon the river, and that the residue of the State was very sparsely settled indeed. That portion not submerged was used for planting purposes. The wealth and population of the State were confined within a small space and this contracted area was chiefly under control of the United States. The Presidential electors were chosen by the State Legislature, and he did not think that method legal. That is why the vote cast in the election did not appear in the testimony submitted to the Committee on the Judiciary.

As to the withdrawal by the President of his proclamation declaring the inhabitants of Louisiana in a state of insurrection, if that were the test either the present incumbent or his successor could keep the loyal people of those States from returning to the Union during the remainder of his administration, and, if reëlected, for the following term. This even if every soul within the State were loyal and anxious to return.[^[369]]

Mr. Howe announced his intention of voting for the amendment of Ten Eyck, though for reasons very different from those which influenced the New Jersey Senator. His support would not be controlled by the number of citizens who participated in the choice of electors. “I am governed,” said he, “by the single fact that a statute of your own, existing at the time of that election, declared that the people of that State had the right to choose electors, and that certain of them did participate in making that choice. The Senator from Illinois [Trumbull] says but a small portion of the people of the State participated in that choice. Your statute said that all might. Does the refusal of a large portion or a small portion of the people of a State to participate in an election deprive the minority, if you please, no matter how small, of their right under your statute?” Besides Louisiana he understood that two other States had made choice of electors. He would vote for an amendment to strike them out of the resolution also.[^[370]]

Trumbull argued that a mere refusal to count the electoral vote of Louisiana did not settle the question against the existing organization. Wisconsin had a right to vote in 1856, and nobody supposed otherwise; but many opposed the counting of that vote. The State organization may be perfect and yet its electoral vote rejected. If the Senate had refused to count Wisconsin’s vote, it would not therefore have decided that there was no such State. Ten Eyck promptly indicated the weakness of this reasoning by pointing out that the preamble of the pending resolution declared Louisiana in such a condition of rebellion that no election could be had. Senator Trumbull then put the case of a foreign enemy having such possession of Louisiana that no election could be held throughout the State, and asked whether the Senator from New Jersey would count the electoral vote of Louisiana when not twenty men could have assembled in the State and voted for President and Vice-President. If the Senate refused to count her vote under such circumstances, would it decide that the organization of the State of Louisiana was not to be recognized, and was repudiated? Whether the organization established in Louisiana was a valid one was a question which would come before the Senate when they inquired into the right to seats of those gentlemen who had presented themselves as Senators.

Replying to an assertion of Senator Howe, who was not in his seat, Mr. Trumbull said he would like to see the statute which gave Louisiana a right to vote in the Presidential election of 1864. If any such existed it would be repealed by the act of Congress which empowered the President to declare the people of certain commonwealths in a state of insurrection.

In referring to the objection of Mr. Ten Eyck that the President, if he desired, could keep a State out during his entire administration, Senator Trumbull observed that it was only necessary for Congress to repeal the act upon which the proclamation was based and then the proclamation itself would fall.

The refusal of a State to vote when she had an opportunity to do so, said Mr. Trumbull, would be no reason for excluding her electoral vote; but the people of Louisiana did not have an opportunity unawed by hostile armies and unrestrained by military authority to vote for President and Vice-President. This, he said, was not the real point at issue; the question for the Senate to consider and determine was whether the Legislature of Louisiana was a lawful assembly, for it was by that body that electors of President and Vice-President were chosen in the election of 1864.