Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction

by Charles H. McCarthy

I wish that you really knew the President, and had heard the artless expression of his convictions on these questions which concern you so deeply. You might, perhaps, wish that he were less cautious, but you would be grateful that he is so true to all that you have at heart. Believe me, therefore, you are wrong, and I regret it the more because of my desire to see all our friends stand firmly together.[^[263]]

The President requested and obtained, July 12, 1862, an interview with the border State delegations. The near adjournment of Congress would deprive him of an opportunity of seeing them for several months. He believed they held more power for good than any other equal number of members, and felt that the duty of making an appeal to them could not be waived. This he did by reading a carefully prepared paper.

The Confederate States, he said, would cling to the hope of an ultimate union with the border States as long as they perpetuated the institution of slavery. If the members had supported his plan of gradual emancipation in the preceding March the rebellion would now, 1862, be substantially ended.

Looking to the stern facts in the case he inquired whether they could do better for their States than to follow the course which he urged. If the war continued long, the institution “will be extinguished by mere friction and abrasion,”—by the incidents of war much of its value was already gone. He did not speak of immediate emancipation, “but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually.” Room for colonization could be procured in South America ample and cheap enough. When their numbers increased sufficiently to be company for one another the freed people would not be so reluctant to go. His repudiation of General Hunter’s proclamation had given offence to some whose support the Government could not afford to lose. The pressure from such persons was still upon him and the Congressmen from the border slave States could relieve him and the country. He begged them to reexamine his message of March 6, and commend it to the consideration of their constituents. The peril of their common country demanded the loftiest views and the boldest action if they desired to perpetuate popular government.[^[264]]

It was represented to him, in a conversation which followed this appeal, that the resolution of Congress, being no more than an expression of sentiment, could not be regarded by them as a basis for substantial action. Mr. Lincoln admitted that, as a condition of taking into consideration a proposition so nearly affecting their social system, the border slave States were entitled to expect a substantial pledge of pecuniary aid.

It was further represented at this conference that the people of the border States were interested in knowing the great importance which Mr. Lincoln attached to the policy in question, while it was equally due to the country, to the President and to themselves that they should publicly announce the motives under which they were called to act, and the considerations of public policy urged upon them and their constituents. With a view to such a statement of their position the members met in council to deliberate on the reply they should make, and two days later the majority sent the following paper to the President:

“The undersigned ... have listened to your address with the profound sensibility naturally inspired by the high source from which it emanates, the earnestness which marked its delivery, and the overwhelming importance of the subject of which it treats. We have given it our most respectful consideration, and now lay before you our response....

“... Repudiating the dangerous heresies of the secessionists, we believed, with you, that the war on their part is aggressive and wicked, and the objects for which it was to be prosecuted on ours, defined by your message at the opening of the present Congress, to be such as all good men should approve. We have not hesitated to vote all supplies necessary to carry it on vigorously....”

This support, continues the response, was yielded “in the face of measures most distasteful to us and injurious to the interests we represent, and in the hearing of doctrines, avowed by those who claim to be your friends, [which] must be abhorrent to us and our constituents.”

The greater number of them did not, however, vote for the measure recommended in his message of March 6, and they proceeded to state the principal reasons which influenced their action. First, it proposed a radical change in their social system; it was hurried through both Houses with undue haste; and was passed without any opportunity whatever for consultation with their constituents, whose interests it deeply involved. “It seemed,” said the majority, “like an interference by this Government with a question which peculiarly and exclusively belonged to our respective States, on which they had not sought advice or solicited aid. Many of us doubted the constitutional power of this Government to make appropriations of money for the object designated, and all of us thought our finances were in no condition to bear the immense outlay which its adoption and faithful execution would impose upon the national Treasury. If we pause but a moment to think of the debt its acceptance would have entailed, we are appalled by its magnitude. The proposition was addressed to all the States and embraced the whole number of slaves.”