In the presidential election of 1860 the vote of the State was 145,000. Johnson therefore held that Tennessee had fulfilled the 10 per cent. requirement of Lincoln’s amnesty proclamation. He issued a final proclamation in which he attempted to set the stamp of legality upon the newly elected Governor and Legislature.
The energies of the new State government were immediately directed toward securing the continued ascendancy of the Union party. This was at first an easy matter, as one of the new amendments to the Constitution had given the Legislature the power of determining the suffrage qualifications.
The Legislature convened on the 2d of April. On the 7th Brownlow was inaugurated. His message contained the following brief reference to the all-important question of the franchise: “While I would not recommend you to give way to the impulse of vengeance any more than to the appeals of sympathy and pity, I would urge you to guard the ballot-box faithfully and effectually against the approach of treason, no matter in what character it may come.”[10]
Most of the Union leaders in the Legislature desired the absolute disfranchisement of the “rebels,” but it was feared so extreme a measure would arouse hostility in Congress to seating the Representatives from Tennessee. A compromise bill, known as the Arnell Bill,[11] was finally passed. By its provisions the right to vote was restricted to the following persons: “White men over twenty-one years old, who were publicly known to have entertained unconditional Union sentiment from the outbreak of the Rebellion, or who arrived at age since March 4, 1866, and who had not been engaged in armed rebellion against the United States Government, also those who had served in the Federal army, and been honorably discharged, those who had been conscripted by force in the Confederate army, and were known to be Union men, and all those who had voted at the election in March and February, 1865.” All other persons were disfranchised. For all persons who had held civil or diplomatic office under the Confederate Government, or who had held military offices above the ranks of captain in the Confederate army, or lieutenant in the Confederate navy, also for those who had resigned from the Congress of the United States, or the army or navy of the United States, the term of disfranchisement was for fifteen years. For all other persons from whom the suffrage was withheld the disfranchisement was to last only four years.
The first election to occur after the passage of the Arnell Franchise Law, was the congressional election of August 3, 1865. All the candidates were Union men, but one set represented the conservative element which opposed disfranchisement and tests oaths. The Radicals felt perfectly confident of defeating the Conservatives, if the provisions of the new law were carried out. But it soon became evident that the Radicals had much to fear both from open violation of the law, and secret intimidation of the voter. Governor Brownlow, on the 10th of July, issued a proclamation declaring “that all who had banded together to defeat the franchise law would be dealt with as rebels.”
The election passed off without violence. On the 10th of August, before all the returns were in, Governor Brownlow requested the clerks and sheriffs to give him information as to illegal voting. On the information thus received, he cast out the vote of twenty-five counties. Notwithstanding this action of the Governor, four of the Conservatives were elected.
The August election demonstrated to the Union party the necessity of enacting a more efficient machinery for executing the election laws. On January 19, 1866, a new franchise bill was introduced in the Legislature.[12] It made the disfranchisement of the ex-Confederates perpetual. It also established the office of the Commissioner of Registration in each county, and required that certificates of registration issued by these commissioners should be presented by every voter in all elections, municipal, county, and State. The power of appointing and removing these commissioners was given to the Governor. He was also authorized to cast out any registration he considered illegal. This made him absolute judge of elections. The bill was passed May 3, 1866. It was amended in November so as to give the suffrage to the negro. The ascendancy of the Union party in Tennessee was now secured, so far as State statute could accomplish this result.
[9] Laws of Tennessee, 1865, Introductory Documents, p. 3.
[10] Laws of Tennessee, 1865, 1-15.
[11] Ibid., p. 32.