Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction

by Charles H. McCarthy

In reply to Sumner, Senator Henderson said he favored the idea that the loyal men should govern a State, and he added, if that be the government of the few it results from the voluntary disloyalty of the many. They, of their own will, had relinquished the right to govern themselves under the Constitution, and as they had no right to govern themselves otherwise they could not govern at all. As to the oligarchy of skin, to which Sumner had referred, Henderson believed that the regulation of the suffrage was a question for the consideration of the States; if they conferred the franchise on the negro, he did not object.

As to the Louisiana constitution the question was whether it embodied the will of those legally entitled to exercise the functions of the State government. If the casting of illegal votes vitiated elections, but few elections, he asserted, would be valid.

If those States were admitted, they could immediately settle all questions of suffrage, and Congress would be relieved of the difficulty in future. He put clearly the difference of opinion prevailing among Senators on this subject when he stated that Mr. Powell objected to the new constitution of Louisiana because negro soldiers were permitted to vote, while Mr. Sumner opposed it because negroes at home did not vote. Concluding this part of his speech, he declared that the Federal Government by recognizing the old organization in Rhode Island against Dorr expressed its preference for a constitution of restricted suffrage.

Without naming his authority Henderson then read from a private letter the opinion of a gentleman whom he regarded as one of the ablest jurists in the United States.[^[406]] The correspondent said in part:

It must be observed that the civil society, and the political society so to speak, of a State need not necessarily do [be] the same. In other words the basis of representation may be the whole population, but the basis of suffrage be property, adult years, &c. The power to choose rulers is lodged in the voters, and they may not exceed one tenth of the population.... That portion of the population in which political power is lodged, determines who shall fill the respective offices, make laws, etc. Although the members of that society may have possessed every requisite therefor, yet the moment they ceased to be citizens of the United States they ceased to belong thereto.

That rule holds good with respect to every member, and the political society may, by death, disqualification of members, &c., be reduced to a very few persons. To state an extreme case, for illustration of the principle, Massachusetts formerly had a property qualification, and although her population entitled her to, say, thirteen Representatives in the United States House, her voters may not have exceeded fifty thousand. Suppose while that qualification remained, by some financial or other disaster, only one thousand or one hundred citizens retained the necessary income or property, would not the persons chosen to Congress by the few and only remaining voters be duly elected? So with regard to any other element of suffrage, as United States citizenship, if by its loss the voters are reduced to very few in number, do not those few constitute the political or voting power? As to the policy or impolicy of restricted suffrage, we are not now concerned, but are endeavoring to reach a constitutional and legal analysis of our governmental system.

But here is encountered the startling and practical difficulty, “Shall a few persons be permitted to govern a State, despite the wishes of its inhabitants, and without giving them all a voice? Is that republican?”

But it must be remembered that the few voters, say one seventh, or one tenth of the whole population, have always been intrusted with that power. Wisdom has fixed the basis of suffrage, without regard to relative numbers; that is, it has endeavored, under our popular system, to give the right or privilege to as many citizens as were supposed competent to exercise it intelligently. The rules prescribed as to age, sex, citizenship, &c., were deemed essential, right, and proper. Whether many or few come within the rules does not affect their validity.... If persons heretofore entitled to a vote chose to commit a felony, and incur thereby, as a penalty, the deprivation of their former right of suffrage, it is not supposed that the loss of such votes is anti-republican. If, then, a majority choose to perpetrate treason, or to expatriate themselves, or in any other way become disqualified, how does that action vitiate the rule? If they, after becoming disqualified, remain in the State, are they not bound to submit to its rulers and laws? If their rulers are chosen without their voice, is it not in consequence of their own voluntary action? Indeed, it often happens that the persons elected to office receive only a meager minority of the votes which could have been lawfully polled, yet that fact has no influence upon the legal result. So a person is often chosen by a minority of the votes actually cast, and is not the majority bound to submit?

The author of this letter appears to have been more familiar with the Constitution, as it was understood by its framers, than almost any member of either House, notwithstanding the presence in Congress of many distinguished statesmen. In the following eight propositions Mr. Henderson then gave a masterly summary of the Presidential plan of reconstruction:

1. I hold that the seceded States are still in the Union and cannot get out of it except through amendment of the Constitution permitting it.