It is almost idle, after the above, to state that Johnson was absolutely devoid of the kindly tact and vulgar humor, which had so endeared Lincoln, the supplest politician of his time, to the coarse mass of the electorate, as he had voiced for it, its thoughts in a tongue it could understand and appreciate.
When we reflect, that Johnson, a Southern man, the Vice President coming from the conquered South, was handed the reins at the moment when the victorious North, flushed with conquest, saw its great leader, identified with the West, hurled from his high position to bloody death, at the hands of a murderer, who proclaimed his sympathy with the vanquished South, the immensity of the difficulties about to confront him begins to appear. In addition, he, himself, before being steadied by the responsibilities of the office, had “breathed threatenings and slaughter.”
In a proclamation, claiming that Jefferson Davis and others had incited, concocted and procured the atrocious murder of President Abraham Lincoln and the attempted assassination of William H. Seward, ex-President Jefferson Davis had been held up to obloquy and, upon his capture, imprisoned and chained; but what was infinitely more horrible, Wirz, the Confederate officer in charge of Andersonville, was made a human sacrifice, under circumstances which have left an ineffaceable blot upon all in any way responsible for making him the scapegoat for the very effective military policy which refused the Confederate offer to exchange prisoners. If it took the magnanimity and fortitude of Seward to point out the method by which the Union might be saved from the fate in which the Congressional conspirators meant to involve it, for their own immediate ends, and if, in this hacked victim of the assassins, Johnson found the anchor by which he rode out the storm which burst upon him; yet it should be remembered that nothing but the sturdiest integrity and most indomitable courage could have nerved Johnson to even attempt the struggle, he fought out to the end. Conditions in the South were appalling. Bled to a whiteness, which not even France experienced in the Great War; with her labor system hopelessly disorganized by the Freedman’s Bureau; not only by its methods but by the openly announced suggestions of its head, General Howard, that the landholders should be compelled by the Federal Government to furnish their former slaves with land,[183] industry stood still. With Negro troops quartered in every direction under “the deliberate purpose to emphasize the completeness of the catastrophe which the war had brought upon the South,”[184] collisions between them and the whites were of almost daily occurrence. But these could not, in the bulk of cases, be attributed to the truculence of Southern slave holders from the fact that instances were not few, in which Northern troops, acting in the line of duty, were assailed by colored men. A Federal soldier, acting as guard and on his post at a house in Abbeville, was shot by colored soldiers,[185] incensed against the inmates. Sergeant Terry and four members of the 127th New York Volunteers, acting as a guard on the Battery at Charleston, were set upon by Negroes abetted by members of the 35th United States Colored Troops and two of the guard wounded, before the arrival of additional white troops scattered the assailants with five casualties and some arrests.[186] Later, Lieutenant A. S. Bodine, of the same regiment, for clearing a meeting of whites of uninvited Negroes, among whom appeared Negro soldiers with sidearms, was courtmartialed by order of General Hatch in command at Charleston, the court finding him guilty, on the flimsiest evidence, of “unwarrantable exercise of arbitrary power” and sentencing him to reprimand by his superior officer, which reprimand was immediately ordered to be withdrawn by the general in command of the department.[187]
With such conditions in towns and cities it is scarcely surprising to read the account of the execution a little later of James Grippen and Ben Redding of Co. F, 104th United States Colored Troops, on charges of rape, arson and burglary, they with others, not apprehended, having broken into a house near McPhersonville, South Carolina, and there ravished four white women, named.[188] With such facts leaking out from time to time, in spite of the pressure from outside of his cabinet to induce him to leave South Carolina for a couple of years under military rule, President Johnson determined to appoint a provisional governor and, for this purpose, issued a proclamation which was in part as follows:
“Whereas the 4th section of the 4th article of the Constitution of the United States declares that the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion and domestic violence; and whereas the President of the United States is by the Constitution made Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy as well as chief civil executive officer of the United States, and is bound by solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed; and whereas the rebellion which has been waged by a portion of the people of the United States against the properly constituted authorities of the Government thereof in the most violent and revolting form, but whose organized and armed forces have been almost entirely overcome, has in its revolutionary progress, deprived the people of the State of South Carolina of all civil government; and whereas it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and enforce the obligations of the United States to the people of South Carolina in securing them in the enjoyment of a republican form of government. Now therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties imposed upon me by the Constitution of the United States, and for the purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State to organize a State Government, whereby justice may be established, domestic tranquillity insured and loyal citizens protected in all their rights of life, liberty and property, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States do hereby appoint Benjamin F. Perry of South Carolina, Provisional Governor of the State of South Carolina, whose duty it shall be at the earliest practicable time to prescribe such regulations as may be necessary and proper for convening a Convention composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of the people of said State who are loyal to the United States and no others, for the purpose of altering or amending the Constitution thereof and with authority to exercise within the limits of said State all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the State of South Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional relation to the Federal Government and to present such a republican form of State Government as will entitle the State to the guarantee therefor and its people to the protection of the United States against invasion, insurrection and domestic violence; provided that in any election that may hereafter be held for choosing delegates to any State Convention as aforesaid, no person shall be qualified as an elector or shall be eligible as a member of such convention unless he shall have previously taken and subscribed the oath of amnesty as set forth in the President’s proclamation, May 29th, 1865 and is a voter as prescribed by the Constitution or laws of the State of South Carolina in force immediately before the date of the so called Ordinance of Secession. And the said convention which convenes, or the Legislature that may thereafter be assembled will prescribe the qualifications of electors and the eligibility of persons to hold office under the Constitution and laws of the State, as or may the people of the several States composing the Federal Union have rightfully exercised from the origin of the Government to the present time. And I do hereby direct, etc.”
In the proclamation appeared the command that the military authorities should in no way obstruct, hinder or interfere with the above.[189] Just previously to Governor Perry’s proclamation calling such convention, a letter appeared contributing greatly to the success of the President’s plan in South Carolina. The writer of the letter was Wade Hampton, late Lieutenant General, C.S.A. The letter reveals the despairing condition of many, in its attempt to assuage such. It was widely reproduced and ran thus:
“To the editor of the Columbia Phoenix, Sir:
Numerous communications having been addressed to me, proposing to form a colony to emigrate, I take this method of answering them, not only on account of their number but because of the want of all mail facilities. The desire to leave a country which has been reduced to such a deplorable condition as ours and whose future has so little of hope is doubtless as widespread as it is natural. But I doubt the propriety of this expatriation of so many of our best men. The very fact that our State is passing through so terrible an ordeal as the present should cause her sons to cling the more closely to her. My advice to all of my fellow citizens is that they should devote their whole energies to the restoration of law and order, the reestablishment of agriculture and commerce, the promotion of education and the rebuilding of our cities and dwellings which have been laid in ashes. To accomplish these objects, the highest that patriotism can conceive, I recommend that all, who can do so should take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government, so that they may participate in the restoration of Civil Government to our State. War, after four years of heroic but unsuccessful struggle has failed to secure to us the rights for which we engaged in it. To save any of our rights—to rescue anything more from the general ruin—will require all the statesmanship and all the patriotism of our citizens. If the best men of our country—those who for years past have risked their lives in her defence—refuse to take the oath, they will be excluded from the councils of the State, and its destiny will be committed of necessity to those who forsook her in her hour of need or to those who would gladly pull her down to irretrievable ruin. To guard against such a calamity, let all true patriots devote themselves with zeal and honesty of purpose to the restoration of law, the blessings of peace and the rescue of whatever liberty may be saved from the general wreck. If, after an honest effort to effect that object, we fail we can then seek a home in another country. A distinguished citizen of our State—an honest man and true patriot—has been appointed Governor. He will soon call a Convention of the people which will be charged with the most vital interests of our State. Choose for this Convention your best and truest men; not those who have skulked in the hour of danger—nor those who have worshipped Mammon, while their country was bleeding at every pore—nor the politicians, who after urging war dared not encounter its hardships, but those who laid their all upon the altar of their country. Select such men and make them serve as your representatives. You will then be sure that your rights will not be wantonly sacrificed, nor your liberty bartered for a mess of pottage. My intention is to pursue this course. I recommend it to others. Besides the obligations I owe to my State, there are others of a personal character, which will not permit me to leave the country at present. I shall devote myself earnestly, if allowed to do so, to the discharge of these obligations, public and private. In the meantime I shall obtain all information which would be desirable in the establishment of a colony, in case we should be ultimately forced to leave the country. I invoke my fellow citizens, especially those who have shared with me the perils and the glories of the last four years, to stand by our State manfully and truly. The Roman Senate voted thanks to one of their generals, because in the darkest hour of the Republic, he did not despair. Let us emulate the example of the Romans and thus entitle ourselves to the gratitude of our country.
Respectfully,
Wade Hampton.[190]
July 27, 1865.