“Sec. 10. That section four of said last-named act shall be construed to authorize the commanding general named therein, whenever he shall deem it needful, to remove any member of a board of registration, and to appoint another in his stead, and to fill any vacancy in such board.
“Sec. 11. That all the provisions of this act, and of the acts to which this is supplementary, shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out.”
A bill was also passed appropriating $1,675,000 to carry out the Reconstruction Acts, which was vetoed, and passed over the veto; in the Senate by 32 to 4, and in the House by 100 to 24. The Senate passed a bill, 25 to 5, providing that in the District of Columbia no person should be disqualified for holding office on account of race or color. The President sent in a communication, stating that the annual cost of maintaining State Governments in the ten States was $14,000,000, and if the General Government undertook to manage them it would be greater; also that if it abolished the present State Governments, it would be liable for their debts, amounting to at least $100,000,000. The House passed a resolution, 100 to 18, declaring this communication “at war with the principles of international law, a deliberate stab at the national credit, abhorrent to every sentiment of loyalty, and well pleasing only to the vanquished traitors by whose agency alone the governments of said States were overthrown and destroyed.”
Such was the legislation on the subject of reconstruction during the year 1867. We shall see in our next chapter what was done by the military authorities and the people of the desolated States, during the year, to carry out these measures.
With a glance at the condition of these States early in the year, we close our present chapter. The winter of 1866–67 was one of great and widely extended suffering. The crops had been short, and of inferior quality, and for want of help many of them had not been fully gathered. In some sections there was actual starvation. Over $500,000 had been raised in the Northern States and distributed mostly in breadstuffs to those who were most in need. Congress, in March, authorized the distribution of aid to a limited extent through the Freedmen’s Bureau. In April, 65,000 persons received rations daily through the Freedmen’s Bureau, in Alabama alone, and 20,000 more were on the verge of distress. There was also prevalent a deplorable state of lawlessness. Bands of armed men, ruffians, mostly bushwhackers, formerly connected with the Rebel army, roamed through many districts, plundering and burning property, and destroying the lives of loyal men, white and black, often under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. Some parts of the South, and especially Kentucky, Middle and Western Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas, seemed given over to anarchy.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
THE WORK OF RESTORATION.
Votes on the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment.—The New States and Reconstructed States likely to vote for it.—Action of the Commanders of the Military Districts.—The Fifth District.—Measures adopted by General Sheridan.—His Reasons for them.—Further Action of General Sheridan.—Governor Wells removed, and Governor Flanders appointed.—Incidents in Charleston: The Railroad Cars; The Flag at the Charleston Fire Parade.—General Sickles’ Order No. 10: Its Provisions.—Attorney-General Stanbery’s Objections to it.—Other Orders of General Sickles.—He asks to be relieved of his Command.—Troubles in General Pope’s District.—Insubordination of Governor Jenkins: General Pope asks that he be removed; General Grant’s Indorsement.—Riot in Mobile.—In Richmond.—Registration, and Powers of Military Commanders.—The Interference of the Attorney-General.—His Written Opinions.—General Grant decides that they are not Mandatory.—General Sheridan’s Opinion of them.—Removal of Throckmorton.—Sheridan’s Complaint of Rousseau.—The Removal of Secretary Stanton determined upon, and of General Sheridan also.—The President’s Letter to Stanton.—Stanton’s Reply.—General Grant’s Private Letter to the President.—Stanton suspended, and Grant appointed Secretary of War ad interim.—The Order for Sheridan’s Removal.—General Grant’s Protest.—The President’s Reply.—Thomas appointed to the Fifth District, but declines on account of his Health.—Hancock appointed.—General Griffin’s Death.—General Sickles’ Removal.—Generals Canby and Mower’s Orders.—The President’s two Proclamations.—Who are to be amnestied.—The President’s Pardons.—General Hancock’s Special Order.—The President’s delight with it.—He proposes that Congress shall make a Public Recognition of the General’s Patriotism.—Congress “don’t see it.”—Measures of General Hancock.—General Grant revokes his Orders.—Hancock asks to be relieved, and is appointed by the President to the Command of the New Department of Washington.—The New Constitutions.—Alabama: The Measures of the Rebels to prevent the adoption of the Constitution.—The Constitutions of the other States adopted.—Vote on Convention and Constitution.
Before proceeding to give an account of the progress of reconstruction under the Congressional acts, in the Desolated States, we subjoin the following table of the votes of the Legislatures of the several States on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was submitted to them for ratification on the 13th June, 1866:—