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Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. Charles H. McCarthy
Читать онлайн.Название Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction
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isbn 4064066123789
Автор произведения Charles H. McCarthy
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Издательство Bookwire
Let me assure you that this course will be far more acceptable to the citizens of Louisiana than the submission of the question of slavery to the chances of an election. Their self-respect, their amour propre will be appeased if they are not required to vote for or against it. Offer them a government without slavery and they will gladly accept it as a necessity resulting from the war. On all other points, sufficient guarantees of right results can be secured; but the great question, that of immediate emancipation, will be covered ab initio, by a conceded and absolute prohibition of slavery.
Upon this plan a government can be established whenever you wish—in thirty or sixty days; a government that will be satisfactory to the South and the North; to the South, because it relieves them from any action in regard to an institution which cannot be restored, and which they cannot condemn; and to the North, because it places the interests of liberty beyond all possible accident or chance of failure. The result is certain.[93]
Upon receiving this communication the President, who cherished no plan of restoration to which exact conformity was indispensable, expressed, January 13, 1864, in a letter to General Banks his gratitude for the zeal and confidence manifested by him on the question of reinaugurating a free State government in Louisiana. He hoped, because of the authority contained in the letter of December 24, that the Department Commander had already commenced work. “Whether you shall have done so or not,” continues the letter, “please, on receiving this, proceed with all possible despatch, using your own absolute discretion in all matters which may not carry you away from the conditions stated in your letters to me, nor from those of the message and proclamation of December 8. Frame orders, and fix times and places for this and that, according to your own judgment.”[94]
This letter repeats the idea of subordination to General Banks of all officials in his department holding authority from the President, and stated that the bearer of the communication, Collector Dennison, of New Orleans, understood the views of the commander and was willing to assist in carrying them out. Before Mr. Dennison arrived in New Orleans, however, General Banks had already, in his proclamation of January 11, 1864, fixed a date for the election. This action was determined, said the Department Commander, upon ample assurance “that more than a tenth of the population desire the earliest possible restoration of Louisiana to the Union”; hence he invited “the loyal citizens of the State qualified to vote in public affairs … to assemble in the election precincts designated by law, … on the 22d of February, 1864, to cast their votes for the election of State officers herein named, viz. Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Attorney-General, Superintendent of Public Instruction and Auditor of Public Accounts—who shall, when elected, for the time being, and until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute the civil government of the State, under the constitution and laws of Louisiana, except so much of said constitution and laws as recognize, regulate or relate to slavery, which being inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, and plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended, and they are therefore and hereby declared to be inoperative and void. This proceeding is not intended to ignore the right of property existing prior to the rebellion, nor to preclude the claim for compensation of loyal citizens for losses sustained by enlistment or other authorized acts of Government.”[95]
The qualifications of voters in this election were to be determined by the oath of allegiance prescribed by the President’s proclamation together with the condition annexed to the elective franchise by the constitution of Louisiana. Officers elected were to be duly installed on the 4th of March.
So much of the registration effected under direction of Governor Shepley and the several Union Associations as was not inconsistent with the proclamation and other orders of the President was approved. The proclamation further announced that arrangements would be made for the early election of members of Congress for the State, and, that the organic law might be made to conform to the will of the people and harmonize with the spirit of the age, an election of delegates to a convention for the revision of the constitution would be held on the first Monday of April following.
This proclamation declared, among other things, that
The fundamental law of the State is martial law. … The Government is subject to the law of necessity, and must consult the condition of things, rather than the preferences of men, and if so be that its purposes are just and its measures wise, it has the right to demand that questions of personal interest and opinion shall be subordinate to the public good. When the national existence is at stake, and the liberties of the people in peril, faction is treason.
The methods herein proposed submit the whole question of government directly to the people—first, by the election of executive officers, faithful to the Union, to be followed by a loyal representation in both Houses of Congress; and then by a convention which will confirm the action of the people, and recognize the principles of freedom in the organic law. This is the wish of the President.[96]
On February 13, nine days before the election, General Banks issued an order relative to the qualifications of electors. It provided, in addition to the declarations on that subject in his proclamation, that Union voters expelled from their homes by the public enemy might cast their ballots for State officers in the precincts where they temporarily resided and that qualified electors enlisted in the army or navy could vote in those precincts in which they might be found on election day. If without the State, then commissioners would be appointed to receive their ballots wherever stationed, returns to be made to General Shepley.[97]
For governor three candidates were nominated—B. F. Flanders, a representative of the Free State Committee; Michael Hahn, the choice of those who approved the measures of General Banks, and J. Q. A. Fellows, a pro-slavery conservative who favored “the Constitution and the Union with the preservation of the rights of all inviolate.” The friends of Hahn would deny to persons of African descent the privileges of citizenship, whereas the supporters of Flanders generally would extend to them such rights and immunities.[98]
On Washington’s birthday, as announced in the proclamation of General Banks, an election was held in seventeen parishes, Hahn receiving 6,183, Fellows 2,996 and Flanders 2,232 votes, a total of 11,411, of which 107 were cast by Louisiana soldiers stationed at Pensacola, Florida.[99]
Writing February 25 to the President General Banks says:
The election of the 22d of February was conducted with great spirit and propriety. No complaint is heard from any quarter, so far as I know, of unfairness or undue influence on the part of the officers of the Government. At some of the strictly military posts the entire vote of the Louisiana men was for Mr. Flanders, at others for Mr. Hahn, according to the inclination of the voters. Every voter accepted the oath prescribed by your proclamation of the 8th of December. … The ordinary vote of the State has been less than forty thousand. The proportion given on the 22d of February is nearly equal to the territory covered by our arms.[100]
The friends of the Free State General Committee in a protest pronounced the result of the election “the registration of a military edict,” and “worthy of no respect from the representatives and Executive of the nation.” To the question whether this election had in the meaning of the President reëstablished a State government they promptly answered in the negative, for the commanding general recognized the Louisiana constitution of 1852 and ordered an election under it in which the votes of the people had nothing to do with reëstablishing government; his proclamation, by recognizing the existence of the old constitution, made the reëstablishment beforehand for them. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, together