In the language of indignation he entered into a criticism of that policy which proposed to levy on the houseless and homeless wanderers in the South, even then only saved from starvation by the charity of the North, precisely the same amount of taxes raised in 1860 when, by comparison, the people were in a princely state. “Sir,” he declared, “there is not an army, great as our army is, that has power enough to accomplish that one single feat provided for in this bill, for the very plain reason that there is not money enough left in any one of these States outside the Government with which to pay that round sum for one single year.... This wise, efficacious policy is resorted to in this bill to hasten on, I suppose, that other day mentioned in it, when a majority of these people, molded by this process, won by its benignity ‘shall voluntarily take the oath of allegiance.’”
He asserted, as Eliot had done, that the committee were calling upon Congress to sanction all the black codes of those States, save only that part which held men in bondage, and that was allowed to enforce itself.
The omissions, he asserted, were not less remarkable than the provisions of the bill. The state of things established by it was of indefinite duration. There was no provision for the peculiar conditions existing there. “There is no attempt at any adaptation of these laws to the new state of things consequent upon the rebellion, and consequent upon our constitutional action here. Not only is there no provision for the new wants and necessities of this wasted and wretched people who have been involved in the rebellion, but for that other people who have now passed into freedom by our legislation, and by the military consequences of this rebellion, who are now without food, without subsistence, without knowledge, and without opportunity to support and maintain themselves; yes, sir, without homes, literally without where to lay their heads.” There were 3,000,000 of these people, he added, whose very existence was ignored by the bill; there was no provision for schools; no provision for even a poorhouse; no provision to teach them the arts of civilization, no provision for kindling in them hope, for holding up before them incentives to industry or securing to them its reward. Under the operations of the bill they were the objects of free plunder; they were to go forth to be hunted, despoiled and persecuted: outcasts in the land.
By the bill it was left in the discretion of the provisional governor, he asserted, to terminate the system set over them. He, as well as the army of officeholders under him, would be interested in prolonging the period until the people had sufficiently returned to their obedience. Before the initiatory steps could be taken, even if the provisional governor were willing, a majority of the people in each State must of their own choice signify their loyalty by taking the oath of allegiance. This made the matter dependent not upon the wish of the loyal, but of the disloyal persons who constituted the majority in those States.
The plan, he further stated, ignored the principle that the American people have the right to shape and alter for themselves the rules by which they are to be governed. If the matter was left in the hands of the disloyal, the time would be far distant when Union governments would be instituted in those States. The only wise policy was to establish a government among the loyal; even though it might be weak and inefficient at first, it would finally win back those who desired to be reconciled. The other numerous class, those who deserved to be hanged, were not provided for in the bill. He was opposed to the provision which would turn over to insurgents the loyal minorities in those States, and was not less opposed to prescribing a fixed iron rule by conformity to which alone out of chaos and anarchy might be made a loyal government.
Further, the bill proceeded upon the assumption that there was no power in these people, except what was conferred on them by Federal legislation, to establish State governments. This he denied, and the authors of the proposed measure, by offering to recognize the establishments otherwise organized in Arkansas and Louisiana had conceded as much. In the people, he said, and in them alone, existed the authority to form an organic law subject to the constitutional provision that the government should be republican in form. He favored a recognition of the Louisiana government not because it was formed under the guidance of General Banks, but because it was made by the loyal people of that State, was acquiesced in by them, and because under it they were building up a loyal government.
Governors Hahn and Murphy and the officials chosen in Louisiana and Arkansas who had been exercising their functions for a year would be dispossessed by foreigners sent amongst them by the President, who was empowered to do so by the bill; bickerings, heartburnings and discontent would follow any attempt to enforce this policy. Sooner or later the people of those States must be allowed to form governments for themselves, protected by the parental care of the central authority.[[356]]
Fernando Wood declared that he had listened with interest and pleasure to words of conciliation for the South; little but subjugation, devastation and annihilation had thus far been heard from the party, the Administration and the people represented by Mr. Dawes.
The seceding States, Mr. Wood contended, had republican forms of government which the treason of individuals did not affect. Nor did individual crimes destroy the rights of the people to regulate their domestic institutions. The forms of government were the same as those that existed in the rebellious States six years before. Even admitting that they had not such governments in existence among them, the bill did not provide a republican form of government for those States.[[357]]
He was followed in opposition to the proposed enactment by Mr. LeBlond, of Ohio, who discussed both the status of the rebellious States and their form of government. His speech on the former question added nothing of value to what Representative Pendleton had said at the preceding session, nor did he enter upon so able an examination of the clause guaranteeing a republican form of government as did Senator Carlile on that occasion.