To get an enrollment of those willing to take the oath prescribed in the amnesty proclamation the President, about the middle of January, 1864, sent an agent to Tennessee, as he had already sent one to Louisiana and to Arkansas. About the same time Governor Johnson himself was considering the subject of reconstruction; and on the 21st, to begin proceedings, called a public meeting at Nashville. It was on this occasion that he said: “Treason must be made odious, traitors must be punished and impoverished;” slavery he pronounced dead and declared that reconstruction must leave it out of view. The meeting, which was largely attended, adopted resolutions recommending a constitutional convention and pledged support of only those candidates who favored immediate and universal emancipation. The Governor, however, was cautious, and, January 26, 1864, issued a call for an election, on the first Saturday of March following, for the choice of only county officers.
The ex-Confederate and the loyalist having been placed by the amnesty proclamation on an equal footing, some dissatisfaction was aroused among unconditional Union men. To retain the confidence of this class and to set at rest the hostile feeling thus excited in the State, Governor Johnson framed the oath of allegiance more stringently than Mr. Lincoln had done. This variance occasioned discussion and delay and brought inquiries and protests to the President, who, to prevent confusion, telegraphed, February 20, 1864, Warren Jordan, of Nashville, as follows:
In county elections you had better stand by Governor Johnson’s plan; otherwise you will have conflict and confusion. I have seen his plan.[[35]]
A week later he assured the Hon. E. H. East, Secretary of State for Tennessee, that
There is no conflict between the oath of amnesty in my proclamation of eighth December, 1863, and that prescribed by Governor Johnson in his proclamation of the twenty-sixth ultimo.[[36]]
While it is perfectly true that no discrepancy existed between the proclamation of the President and that of the military governor, the latter required an additional test. This the communication to Mr. East does not discuss.
To avoid, however, any possible mischief from this source Mr. Lincoln, March 26, issued a supplemental proclamation which explained that the amnesty applied only to “persons who being yet at large and free from any arrest, confinement, or duress, shall voluntarily come forward and take the said oath, with the purpose of restoring peace and establishing the national authority.”[[37]] Prisoners excluded from the amnesty offered in the proclamation of December 8, like all other offenders, might apply to the executive for clemency and have their applications receive due consideration. This oath, it was made known, could be taken before any commissioned officer of the United States, civil, military or naval, or before any officer authorized to administer oaths, in a State or Territory not in insurrection. Such officers were empowered to give certificates thereon to persons by whom the oath was taken and subscribed. The original records, after transmission to the Department of State, were to be there deposited and to remain in the Government archives. The Secretary of State was required to keep a register of such oaths and upon application to issue certificates in proper cases in the customary form.
Meanwhile an election, the returns of which are extremely meagre, had been held on March 5 for the choice of county officers. Though the event was not without influence in confirming the faith of Unionists, it was chiefly of value in attracting the attention of the disloyal to the chances afforded by the proclamation of rehabilitating themselves in their former political rights. The result, however, was not so favorable as was expected by Governor Johnson or the President, and reconstruction in Tennessee once more sank to rest. From this condition it was again revived by the irrepressible Union men of the State. The East Tennessee convention of 1861, by appointing a permanent committee, had kept its organization alive. In April or May, 1864, this body called a convention at Knoxville to discuss reconstruction. Of this gathering one element favored the Crittenden Resolutions; the other, immediate emancipation. Probably it was this antagonism that prevented further action. The next we hear is that Brownlow and others signed a call for a second convention, which was held at Nashville on September 5. In this body forty or fifty counties were represented, some of them irregularly; that is, by volunteer delegates. This assembly recommended the election of a constitutional convention, the abolition of slavery in the State, and provided for taking part in the approaching Presidential election. The programme, however, was only partially carried out. On September 30, Governor Johnson issued a proclamation for holding the election, at which Union voters, so far as the unsettled condition of military operations permitted, cast their ballots for electors of President and Vice-President. It does not appear that in this election any attempt was made to choose a governor, a legislature or a constitutional convention; but that which met in July, 1863, constituted an executive committee, composed of five members from each division of the State, which after the Presidential election issued calls for a State convention at Nashville, December 19, 1864. “The people meet,” said the call, “to take such steps as wisdom may direct to restore the State of Tennessee to its once honored status in the great national Union.
“If you cannot meet in your counties, come upon your own personal responsibility. It is the assembling of Union men for the restoration of their own commonwealth to life and a career of success.”[[38]]