A History of the Republican Party

by George Washington Platt

CHAPTER XII.

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE NATIONAL DEBT.

"By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national authority, the reconstruction of which has had a large share of thought from the first, is pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great difficulty. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner and measure of reconstruction."

A. Lincoln, April 11, 1865. From his last speech before death.

Mr. Lincoln died at 7:22 o'clock a. m. on April 15, 1865; four hours later Vice-President Johnson took the oath of office as President. Before him were two gigantic problems, the solution of which was fraught with the greatest difficulty. In what manner and under what restrictions should the recently rebellious States—eleven in number—be allowed to resume the exercise of their civil functions, and when should their Senators and Representatives be seated in Congress? This was the first problem—Reconstruction. And in what manner should the enormous war debt be handled so that the credit of the Government would be thoroughly re-established and maintained; and how should the enormous paper currency (legal tenders) be managed so that the commercial interests of the country would not be disturbed? These two problems—Reconstruction and the National Debt—were ultimately to be worked out by the party that saved the Union, though now a War Democrat was in charge of the Executive Department, and friction and disagreement was almost certain. It was most unfortunate that no definite plan of Reconstruction had been agreed upon by the Legislative and Executive Departments before Mr. Lincoln's death. Such an understanding would have avoided, probably, the bitter conflict that shortly came on between President Johnson and Congress; and the history of the few years following the Rebellion would have presented a record of greater national progress, a quicker welding of the Union, and a prompter re-establishment of national sentiment between the two sections.

While it is true that Mr. Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction did not meet with the approval of Congress, yet it is almost certain that if he had lived there would have been an agreement of some kind; either the party would have followed Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Lincoln would have followed the party. Ultimate harmony between a Republican President and a Republican Congress was certain, although they might temporarily disagree; but harmony between a Republican Congress and a Democratic President once disturbed would scarcely be restored; neither would ever again completely trust the other.

Mr. Lincoln's work of Reconstruction began in 1863 when the Union army had regained Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. His message to Congress in December, 1863, was accompanied by a Proclamation of Amnesty to those who had taken part in the Rebellion in these States, upon their taking an oath to support the Constitution and all federal laws; and upon so doing there was to be a restoration of property, except slaves. From this pardon were excepted six enumerated classes of persons whose treason had been most offensive. State Governments could be established by those who took the oath, provided their numbers were one-tenth as large as the total number of voters in the State at the presidential election of 1860, and any Government so established would be recognized by the President, but the right of Congress to admit or reject Senators and Representatives was recognized. Louisiana was the first to make preparations to re-enter into the possession of all its State powers under this proclamation, and in the early months of 1864 a State Government was duly completed and an anti-slavery Constitution adopted. Arkansas followed the same course, but when her Senators and Representatives applied to Congress for their seats, they were denied admittance, and it was apparent that there was a distinct disagreement between the President and Congress on the subject of Reconstruction. Congress did not approve of the President's proceeding without asking its advice, and did not approve of his plan, and a Bill was introduced and passed embodying its views on the subject. In this Bill the President was directed to appoint a Provisional Governor for each of the rebellious States, and after military occupation had ceased, the Governor was to enroll the white male citizens who would take an oath to support the Constitution; after a majority had done so an election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention was to follow, and the Constitution was to contain prohibitory clauses on the subject of slavery, the Confederate debt and the right of certain persons to vote. If this Constitution was adopted by a majority of the popular vote, then the President, with the consent of Congress, could recognize the State Government, and it would be permitted to send its Representatives to Congress. This Bill was passed July 2, 1864, on the last day of the session, but it never became a law because the President did not sign it, and did not return it before Congress adjourned. Several days after the adjournment the President issued a Proclamation in which he laid the Congressional plan before the people and declared that he was not in favor of any one scheme of Reconstruction, and that he was also not prepared to set aside the loyal governments which had been formed in Louisiana and Arkansas. By the time Congress met again the President had been re-elected, and it would seem that in some degree there was an endorsement not only of his War Policy but of his plan of Reconstruction. However, the matter was not pressed, and his message to Congress in December, 1864, was silent on the subject. There was no present occasion to bring forward the matter, but the President still adhered to his original plan as far as Louisiana and Arkansas were concerned, and so expressed himself in his last speech before his death.

So the matter of Reconstruction stood when Andrew Johnson became President. There was not much question about the general course he would pursue, because, as War Governor of Tennessee, he had, early in 1865, practically reconstructed that State under Mr. Lincoln's "ten percent" plan. As Congress was not in session, and would not convene until December, the President had the alternative of either calling an extra session of Congress or proceeding in the matter of Reconstruction according to his own ideas and the suggestions of his Cabinet, he having retained the Cabinet left by Mr. Lincoln. The latter course was pursued, and after some delay President Johnson began to act. An Executive Order swept away all laws and decrees of the Confederacy, raised the blockade and opened the southern ports to trade.

On May 29, 1865, the President issued a Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon to all who had participated in the Rebellion upon their taking a registered oath to support the Constitution and the Union, but the Proclamation excepted a large number of persons of specified classes, whose treason was deemed to be too great to allow them to again participate in the Government. By the middle of July, Provisional Governors had been appointed by the President in North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Florida; the authority of the United States had already been established in Virginia early in May, and Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee had been reconstructed under Mr. Lincoln's plan. The President's policy was that as soon as these Governors took charge, any white person, except the classes specified, could regain his citizenship by an oath to support the Constitution and the Union. The taking of this oath by a sufficient number was followed by Reconstruction Conventions, which were held in the Southern States, and Legislators and Representatives to Congress were chosen. The work of these Reconstruction Conventions and Legislatures, although they repudiated the debts of the Confederacy and recognized the Thirteenth Amendment, was highly displeasing to the Republicans in the North, who were greatly interested in the fate of the negroes, and who now saw them, by various laws passed by the Southern Legislatures, deprived of all civil rights and reduced to a new form of servitude.

The first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress convened on December 4, 1865, with a large majority of Republicans in both House and Senate, and both bodies in a very angry mood over the action of the President in proceeding with the Reconstruction without their advice or consent, and they were more enraged with the extreme and rash policies adopted by the Southern Legislatures. To add to this bitter feeling came the application of the Southern Senators and Representatives, many of whom less than a year before had been engaged in active rebel-loin, to be admitted to their seats. These applicants were refused admission by both branches of Congress. The House and Senate appointed Reconstruction Committees, and the debate immediately began on the great question. It was seen at once that the Republican Party would totally ignore the President's policy and all that had been done under it. The breach widened between the President and Congress, when an Act to enlarge the provisons of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill (passed March 3, 1865) came up. The object of this Bill was to provide for the destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their wives and children. The new Bill was promptly passed, but on February 19, 1866, was vetoed by the President; the Senate failed to pass the Bill over the veto, but later in the year (July, 1866) the measure went through Congress in a slightly altered form, was vetoed by the President and passed over his veto. The Civil Rights Bill, to secure to the freed negroes in the South all of the rights enjoyed by the white man, except suffrage, was also vetoed by the President on March 27, 1866, and on April 9th was passed over his veto.