A History of the United States

by Charles Kendall Adams; William P. Trent

570. The Elections of 1866.—The future of reconstruction seemed to turn on the result of the elections in the fall of 1866. The Republicans won a large majority of seats, and the Republican members of the outgoing Congress elected in 1864, who had a two-thirds majority, secured through representation of the border states and denial of representation to the seceded states, saw at once that for the next two years they would be able to control legislation by passing measures over the President’s veto. Emboldened by this fact, they now proceeded to adopt their own plan of reconstruction without waiting for the next Congress.

Thaddeus Stevens.

571. Congressional Plan of Reconstruction.—Many theories were held with regard to the status of the commonwealths that had seceded. Some persons held that they were conquered provinces; others that they had lost their statehood and become territories. Others held that the Southern states had committed suicide, as it were, and that the Federal Constitution and laws did not apply to them, and would not until Congress declared them once more in force. This theory prevailed in the Congressional plan of reconstruction, which was pushed forward by Thaddeus Stevens,[^[264]] of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Reconstruction Committee and of the Committee on Ways and Means, and was adopted in the spring of 1867. It provided that the negroes should vote, and that the Confederate leaders should not vote. To insure the permanent effects of these results, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted by Congress, and was ratified July 28, 1868, by the necessary majority of three-fourths of the states.

572. The Fourteenth Amendment.—While the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution forever prohibited slavery within the United States and its dependencies, the Fourteenth Amendment excluded from Congress and from all civil or military offices in the United States all persons who, after having taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, should “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof,” until Congress, by a two-thirds vote of each House, should remove such disability. The Fourteenth Amendment thus had the stupendous effect of disqualifying from holding office all the most prominent Southern leaders. It also guaranteed civil and political rights to the negroes, under national and state governments, and declared invalid all debts and obligations incurred by the states that had seceded.

573. Methods of Reconstruction.—On the basis of these general purposes the work of reconstruction was carried on in the years 1867 and 1868. Provision was made for civil governments in each of the states of the former Confederacy, and for the establishment of live military departments, whose special duty it was to see that the requirements of Congress in the reconstruction of the state governments were carried out.

EFFECTS OF RECONSTRUCTION.

574. Irritation in the South.—This plan of government was naturally very offensive to the South, for it made the negroes practically rulers over their former owners. In June, 1868, the representatives of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina were elected under the new conditions and readmitted to Congress. Those of Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia were not admitted before 1870. During the first period of reconstruction the freedmen in the South were generally in control; but the former slaves were ignorant of political affairs, and had always been in the habit of acting as they were directed. At first they were under the influence of the military governments and of the “Carpet Baggers,” and voted solidly against the whites; but gradually they yielded to the persuasions of the people who employed them.

575. “Carpet Baggers” and “Scalawags.”—The Northerners who moved into the South after the war for the purpose of securing office through negro votes were popularly known as “Carpet Baggers”; and the Southern whites who voted with the negroes were given the name of “Scalawags.” Between the “Carpet Baggers” and “Scalawags” on the one hand, and the old inhabitants on the other, there was bitter warfare, resulting in murders on both sides. The condition of the South during this administration and the one following showed how nearly impossible it is, even under military rule, to enforce any laws in a community where such laws are earnestly opposed by a majority or even by a large portion of the intelligent citizens. The whites were, for the most part, determined not to let the government fall into the hands of negroes; and when the blacks abstained from taking part in the government they were generally not interfered with. In many localities they were aided and encouraged in their efforts for improvement; but society in the Southern states found it hard to adapt itself to the new conditions. The determination that negroes should not rule was so deep-seated that the purposes of the government were frustrated in many ways.

576. The “Ku-Klux-Klan.”—A secret society, known as the “Ku-Klux-Klan,” was organized, the object of which was to counteract the influence of “Carpet Baggers,” and to make it impossible for Northern men to get control of local affairs. Many Northern men were secretly seized, and some even put to death, and, for a considerable time, in many parts of the South, something like a reign of terror prevailed. Gradually, however, a better feeling was developed; but this was not until both whites and blacks came to see that the welfare of the negroes would be better served by industrial and educational than by political methods. This belief was slow in coming; and it was not until the administration of President Hayes, about ten years later, that order and some measure of prosperity were established.