Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction

by Charles H. McCarthy

On the assembling of the 38th Congress, which commenced its first session December 7, 1863, Joseph E. Segar, Lucius H. Chandler and Benjamin M. Kitchen appeared as Representatives from Virginia. On May 17 succeeding Mr. Dawes from the Committee of Elections reported a resolution to the effect that Joseph E. Segar, from the First District of Virginia, was not entitled to a seat in that Congress. The case of Mr. Chandler, regarded as precisely similar, was considered at the same time.

The district which Mr. Segar claimed to represent was composed of twenty counties; of these, Chairman Dawes asserted, only four participated in the election. Polling places were not opened in any other part of the district, the Confederate authorities being in possession of the remaining counties. As there could be no free exercise of the franchise in this situation Mr. Segar, it was contended, was not properly chosen, and, therefore, was not entitled to a seat. The vote cast, though not accurately ascertained, was estimated at 1,677, of which the claimant received 1,300. Because of his loyalty and the sacrifices he had made, the Committee regretted the necessity of deciding against him.

Mr. Segar, speaking in his own behalf, reminded the House that in a preceding election, when he received 559 out of 1,018 votes polled in three counties, he was admitted after a delay of seven or eight weeks; but when he was sent by a larger constituency and came as the choice of four counties he was informed that he had no right to a seat, and some of his colleagues who favored his admission in 1862 voted to exclude him. The Committee’s report, he asserted, admitted the existence of such a State as Virginia. He asked Chairman Dawes a rather embarrassing question when he inquired how a State could have two Senators and no Representative in Congress. In conclusion he pronounced restored State organization and gradual accretion to be the best method of reconstruction.

Concerning the title of Mr. Chandler, from the Second Congressional District, Chairman Dawes stated that of the 779 votes polled in the election 778 were cast for the claimant. For the same reason as in the case of Mr. Segar only a small part of that District was free to participate in the election, and nearly all the votes were polled in the city of Norfolk. The committee reported against his admission on the same ground taken in Mr. Segar’s case.

Chandler, who was permitted to state his case to the House, cited a resolution introduced by his former school-mate, Owen Lovejoy, the well-known abolitionist, authorizing the names of the three Virginia claimants to be enrolled as Representatives. That resolution, however, was tabled and their credentials referred to the Committee of Elections.

In 1860 the Union vote in his District was only 6,712; of that number 2,900, he said, were in Norfolk and Portsmouth; the latter city had cast more votes against secession than the remainder of his District. Great numbers of loyal men, however, left there at the beginning of the war. Electors being under no obligation to vote may allow an election to go by default when one citizen could return a member to Congress. Territorially restored Virginia was larger than Delaware and possessed twice the area of Rhode Island.

The case of Benjamin M. Kitchen, on which the Committee had previously made an adverse report, differed from those of the other two claimants in that he had received nearly all of his vote in Berkeley County, which possessed a sort of wandering character, for it was somewhat uncertain whether it was under the jurisdiction of the new or the old State. What action was taken on the Committee’s report does not appear, but it may be inferred from a facetious remark of one member who observed that, like Segar and Chandler, Kitchen had been privileged to retire to private life. The two former were refused admission by the decided vote of 94 to 23.

Besides endeavoring to win back the wavering, Governor Pierpont was occupied in taking measures for the relief of the distressed. In the vicinity of Norfolk and Portsmouth there was a large number of destitute persons whose natural supporters were still following the declining fortunes of the Confederacy or had been killed in its service. While it was universally agreed that their necessities should be relieved, the military and civil authorities were in conflict as to the mode of providing for them. The President in his efforts to establish amicable relations between the officers of the army and those of the State invoked the assistance of the Governor. As the restored Commonwealth could not be consistently recognized while its capital was in a state of blockade the President by proclamation, September 24, 1863, declared that the interdiction of trade with the port of Alexandria had ceased.

General Butler with headquarters at Fortress Monroe took command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina November 2, 1863. His predecessors, he asserted, had endeavored to recruit a regiment of Virginians; but after several months of energetic trial their efforts were abandoned. As eastern Virginia claimed to be a loyal and fully organized State, Butler renewed the attempt, whereupon Governor Pierpont protested vigorously. One and a half companies were all the recruits that the Commonwealth would furnish, and these, Butler asserts, were employed to defend lighthouses and protect Union inhabitants from outrages at the hands of their disloyal neighbors.[^[206]] This experience, it may be supposed, did not tend to raise the Alexandria government in the esteem of the Department Commander. We find accordingly that differences soon sprang up between the civil and military authorities. An attempt to regulate the liquor traffic in Norfolk and vicinity was the occasion of an open rupture. Civil officers continued to collect the payments imposed by law on those engaged in the business; the military power, to keep the traffic under better control, undertook to give to a few firms a monopoly of the importation. In this situation many small retailers refused to pay their licenses and were indicted in the local courts. To foil this purpose, General Shepley issued, June 22, 1864, an order providing that “on the day of the ensuing municipal election in the city of Norfolk a poll will be opened at the several places of voting, and separate ballot-boxes will be kept open during the hours of voting, in which voters may deposit their ballots, ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ upon the following question: Those in favor of continuing the present form of municipal government during the existence of military occupation will vote ‘yes.’ Those opposed to it will vote ‘no.’”

Governor Pierpont resented this action and promptly issued a proclamation protesting against it as a revolutionary proceeding in violation of the Federal Constitution, adding, “No loyal citizen, therefore, is expected to vote on the proposed question.” In a vigorous pamphlet discussing the “abuses of military power” he repeated his criticism.