Copyright, 1901 by

McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1901

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction[xv]
I
TENNESSEE
Election and Policy of Lincoln[1]
East Tennessee[3]
Secession[8]
Federal Victories[10]
A Military Governor[11]
Origin of Military Governors in the United States[12]
Measures of Governor Johnson[17]
Negro Troops[20]
Nashville Convention of 1863[21]
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction[23]
Steps to Restoration[27]
Nashville Convention of 1865[30]
Election of William G. Brownlow[32]
Nomination of Lincoln and Johnson[32]
Presidential Election in Tennessee[34]
II
LOUISIANA
Popularity of Secession[36]
Financial Embarrassment[37]
Capture of New Orleans[38]
Lincoln’s Advice[38]
General Shepley appointed Military Governor[39]
Election of Representatives to Congress[45]
Division among Unionists[47]
Military Operations[49]
Lincoln Urges Reconstruction[51]
Political Activity among Loyalists[53]
Title of Louisiana Claimants[58]
Opposition to General Banks[61]
Plan of Reconstruction proposed[66]
Election of 1864[70]
Inauguration of Civil Government[72]
Lincoln’s Letter on Negro Suffrage[73]
Constitutional Convention[75]
Congressional Election[76]
III
ARKANSAS
Indifference to Secession[77]
The Fall of Sumter[78]
Seizure of Little Rock[79]
Military Matters[79]
Threat of Seceding from Secession[82]
General Phelps appointed Military Governor[82]
Enthusiasm of Unionists[83]
Lincoln’s Interest in Arkansas[83]
Inaugurating a Loyal Government[84]
The Election of 1864[90]
IV
VIRGINIA
Secession[93]
Physical Features and Early Settlements[94]
Society and Its Basis[95]
The Counter-Revolution[97]
Convention at Wheeling[99]
Organizing a Union Government[100]
Legislature of Restored Virginia[103]
The State of Kanawha[105]
Attorney-General Bates on Dismemberment[105]
Making a New State[107]
Compensated Emancipation[108]
Formation of New State discussed in Congress[110]
Cabinet on Dismemberment[120]
Lincoln on Dismemberment[124]
Webster’s Prediction[126]
Inauguration of New State[128]
Reorganizing the Restored State[129]
Right of Commonwealth to Representation in Congress[131]
Rupture between Civil and Military Authorities[133]
The President Interposes[135]
Congress Refuses to Admit a Senator-Elect[138]
V
ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION
Compensated Emancipation in Congress[142]
Contrabands[143]
The Military Power and Fugitive Slaves[144]
Lincoln on Military Emancipation[148]
Andrew Jackson and Nullification[151]
Lincoln on Compensated Emancipation[152]
Compensated Emancipation in Delaware[155]
Abandoned Slaves[160]
Border Policy Propounded[163]
General Hunter and Military Emancipation[168]
Slavery Prohibited in the Territories[170]
Attitude of Border States on Slavery[172]
Lincoln Resolves to Emancipate Slaves by Proclamation[177]
VI
THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION
The Presidential Plan[190]
Sumner’s Theory of State Suicide[196]
“Conquered Province” Theory of Stevens[211]
Theory of Northern Democrats[217]
Crittenden Resolution[220]
VII
RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN
Bill to Guarantee a Republican Form of Government[224]
Henry Winter Davis on Reconstruction[226]
House Debates on Bill of Wade and Davis[236]
Pendleton’s Speech on Reconstruction[257]
Provisions of Wade-Davis Bill[262]
Senate Debate on Bill of Wade and Davis[264]
President’s Pocket Veto[273]
Proclamation concerning Reconstruction[278]
Manifesto of Wade and Davis[279]
VIII
AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE
President ignores Controversy with Congress[286]
Summary of Military and Naval Situation[288]
Attempt to Revive the Pocketed Bill[289]
House Debates on Ashley’s Reconstruction Bill[291]
Defeat of Ashley’s Bill[311]
IX
THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA
Resolution excluding Electoral Votes of Rebellious States[314]
Amendment of Senator Ten Eyck[315]
Senate Debate on Ten Eyck’s Amendment[316]
Defeat of the Amendment in favor of Louisiana[334]
Senate Passes Joint Resolution[338]
Counting the Electoral Vote[339]
The President’s Message[339]
X
SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA
Congressmen from Louisiana at the National Capital[341]
Proposal to Recognize Louisiana[343]
Powell’s Speech opposing Recognition[344]
Henderson’s Argument for Recognition[348]
Howard’s Argument in Opposition[358]
Reverdy Johnson’s Speech for Recognition[370]
General Discussion on Louisiana[374]
XI
INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION
The Thirteenth Amendment[384]
The Freedmen’s Bureau[385]
Volunteer Diplomats[389]
The Hampton Roads Conference[395]
Lincoln’s Letter to General Hurlbut[401]
Lincoln’s Letter to General Canby[402]
Lincoln’s Last Words on Reconstruction[403]
XII
CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN
Lincoln and the South[407]
Inauguration of Andrew Johnson[408]
Arkansas after the War[409]
Condition of Tennessee[412]
Louisiana[417]
Reorganization of Virginia[425]
The Wreck of the Confederacy[431]
Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction in 1864[438]
Johnson’s Speeches after Accession to the Presidency[440]
Raising the Blockade[444]
The Executive Department Recognizes Virginia[445]
Restoration of North Carolina[448]
The President Hesitates[458]
Executive Policy in Mississippi[460]
Restoration of Georgia[465]
Texas[466]
The Reconstruction Conventions[468]
Temper of the South[472]
Mississippi Legislation relative to Freedmen[475]
Southern Reaction[482]
The President’s Change of Opinion[487]
Examination of Lincoln’s Plan[491]
APPENDIX A
Thirty-Seventh Congress[499]
APPENDIX B
Thirty-Eighth Congress[502]

Preface

Much of the material included in this volume was collected several years ago while the author was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. The researches then commenced probably first suggested to him the lack in our political literature of an ample and interesting account of the return of the States. Students, librarians, and even professors of history knew no adequate treatise on the era of reconstruction, and their testimony was confirmed by the authority of Mr. Bryce, who happily describes the succession of events in those crowded times as forming one of the most intricate chapters of American history. No apology is offered, therefore, for considering in this essay so important and so long-neglected a theme as the rise of the political revolution that occurred before reunion was finally accomplished.

On the general subject several excellent monographs have recently appeared; these, however, are nearly all employed in discussing the second stage in the process of restoration, and, except incidentally, anticipate scarcely anything of value in the present work, which, so far at least as concerns any logical exposition, conducts the reader over untraveled ground. As the introduction indicates with sufficient accuracy both the scope and method of this study, nothing is required here beyond a concise statement of the author’s obligations.

Like many other students of American institutions, the writer cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness to the works of Brownson, Hurd and Jameson, and, by transferring some of their opinions to his book, has shown a practical appreciation of their researches. In addition to these obligations, in which the author is not singular, he profited for four years by the lectures of Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, his professor in constitutional history. Except in a very few instances, where the name of an author was forgotten, credit for both suggestions and material is uniformly given in the references and footnotes.