The whites began to close ranks, to leave no room in their midst for the white man of the North, the ruler and ally of the black. Social and business ostracism was declared against all who should take office under the Reconstruction Acts. They were turned away from respectable hotels.[1527]

The Independent Monitor, now the head and front of opposition to Reconstruction, gave the following advice to the white people, who, however, did not need it: “We reiterate the advice hitherto offered to those of our southern people who are not ashamed to honor the service of the ‘lost cause’ and the memory of their kith and kin whose lives were nobly laid down to save the survivors from a subjection incomparably more tolerable in contemplation than in realization. That advice is not to touch a loyal leaguer’s hand; taste not of a loyal leaguer’s hospitality; handle not a loyal leaguer’s goods. Oust him socially; break him pecuniarily; ignore him politically; kick him contagiously; hang him legally; or lynch him clandestinely—provided he becomes a nuisance as Claus or Wilson.”[1528]

The Conservative Executive Committee addressed a memorial to Congress against the proposed measures. In conclusion the address stated: “We are beset by secret oath-bound political societies, our character and conduct are systematically misrepresented to you and in the newspapers of the North; the intelligent and impartial administration of just laws is obstructed; industry and enterprise are paralyzed by the fears of the white men and the expectation of the black that Alabama will soon be delivered over to the rule of the latter; and many of our people are, for these reasons, leaving the homes they love for other and stranger lands. Continue over us, if you will, your own rule by the sword. Send down among us honorable and upright men of your own people, of the race to which you and we belong, and, ungracious, contrary to wise policy and the institutions of the country, and tyrannous as it will be, no hand will be raised among us to resist by force their authority. But do not, we implore you, abdicate your rule over us, by transferring us to the blighting brutality and unnatural dominion of an alien and inferior race.”[1529]

Alabama Readmitted to the Union

The proposition to establish a Radical provisional government for Alabama was forgotten in the Senate during the progress of the impeachment trial, and on May 11 Stevens introduced a bill providing for the admission of Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and Alabama.[1530] A motion by Woodbridge of Vermont to strike Alabama from the bill was lost by a vote of 60 to 74. Farnsworth said it was nonsense to make any distinction between Alabama and the other states. The bill passed the House on May 14, by a vote of 109 to 35, and went to the Senate. On June 5 Trumbull from the Judiciary Committee reported the bill with Alabama struck out because the constitution had not been ratified according to law. Wilson of Massachusetts moved to insert Alabama in the bill. Alabama, he said, was the strongest of all the states for the policy of Congress, and it would be unjust to leave her out. Sherman repeated the old charges of fraud in the elections, which had been contradicted by General Meade, from whose report Sherman quoted garbled extracts. It was absolutely necessary, he said, to admit Alabama in order to settle the Fourteenth Amendment before the presidential election. Hendricks of Indiana objected because of proscriptive clauses in the constitution, which would disfranchise from 25,000 to 30,000 men. Pomeroy of Kansas said it would be “a cruel thing” to admit the other states and leave out Alabama. Morton of Indiana was of the opinion that the bill with Alabama in it would pass over the President’s veto as well as without it, and said that Congress must waive the condition and admit Alabama.[1531] The Radicals of Alabama kept the wires hot sending telegrams to their agents in Washington and to Wilson and Sumner, urging the inclusion of Alabama in the bill. On June 9 the Senate in Committee of the Whole amended the bill as reported from the Committee on the Judiciary by inserting Alabama. On this the vote stood 22 to 21. The next day Senator Trumbull moved to strike out Alabama, but the motion was lost by a vote of 24 to 16. So the report of the Judiciary Committee was revised by the insertion of Alabama, and the bill passed by a vote of 31 to 5, 18 not voting.[1532] The House Committee on Reconstruction recommended concurrence in certain amendments that the Senate had made, which was done by a vote of 111 to 28, 50 not voting. The bill was then signed by the Speaker and the President pro tem. of the Senate and sent to the President.[1533] The President returned the bill with his veto on June 25. “In the case of Alabama,” he said, “it violates the plighted faith of Congress by forcing upon that state a constitution which was rejected by the people, according to the express terms of an act of Congress requiring that a majority of the registered electors should vote upon the question of its ratification.”[1534] The bill was at once passed by both houses over the President’s veto, in the Senate by a vote of 35 to 8, 13 not voting, and in the House by a vote of 108 to 31, 53 not voting.[1535]

The bill as passed declared that Alabama with the other southern states had adopted by large majorities the constitutions recently framed, and that as soon as each state by its legislature should ratify the Fourteenth Amendment it should be admitted to representation upon the fundamental condition “that the constitution of neither of said states shall ever be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said state who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized” except as a punishment for crime.[1536] As soon as the new legislature should meet and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, the officers of the state were to be inaugurated. No one was to hold office who was disqualified by the proposed Fourteenth Amendment.[1537]

June 29, Grant wrote to Meade that to avoid question he should remove the present provisional governor and install the governor and lieutenant-governor elect, this to take effect at the date of convening the legislature. So in July, by general order, Governor Patton was removed and Smith and Applegate installed. After the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by the legislature, Meade directed all provisional officials to yield to their duly elected successors. The military commanders transferred state property, papers, and prisoners to the state authorities.[1538] And for six years the carpet-bagger, scalawag, and negro, with the aid of the army, misruled the state.

The members of Congress returned from their migrations[1539] and presented themselves with their credentials to Congress.[1540] Brooks of New York objected to the admission of these men on the ground that they were there in violation of the act of Congress in force at the time of the election. But on July 21 all were admitted by a vote of 125 to 33, 52 not voting. After taking the iron-clad test oath, they took their seats among the nation’s lawmakers. Spencer and Warner were admitted to the Senate on July 25, and also took the iron-clad oath.[1541]

SOME RADICAL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.

Senator George E. Spencer. Senator Willard Warner.
C. W. Buckley. John B. Callis.
J. T. Rapier. Charles Hays.