LITMIR.BIZ

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the progress reported that he believed the best his subordinate could do “would be to help them on their own plan”; of this, however, General Steele, who was on the ground, was to be the judge. To Governor Murphy he telegraphed, February 6, that his order concerning an election was made in ignorance of any action which the convention might take; also that his subsequent communication to General Steele directed that officer to assist, not to hinder, the delegates.^[145] General Thayer also was informed that the apparent conflict between the President and the convention was altogether accidental.^[146] On February 17, Mr. Lincoln explained the situation more fully to William M. Fishback:

      When I fixed a plan for an election in Arkansas I did it in ignorance that your convention was doing the same work. Since I learned the latter fact I have been constantly trying to yield my plan to them. I have sent two letters to General Steele, and three or four despatches to you and others, saying that he, General Steele, must be master, but that it will probably be best for him to merely help the convention on its own plan. Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything, and General Steele, commanding the military and being on the ground, is the best man to be that master. Even now citizens are telegraphing me to postpone the election to a later day than either that fixed by the convention or by me. This discord must be silenced.^[147]

      The President evidently had learned something from his recent experience with his friends and subordinates in Louisiana. General Steele from his headquarters at Little Rock issued on February 29 the following address to the people of Arkansas:

      The convention of your citizens, held at Little Rock during the last month [says this proclamation], has adopted a constitution and submitted it to you for your approval or rejection. That constitution is based upon the principles of freedom, and it is for you now to say, by your voluntary and unbiased action, whether it shall be your fundamental law. While it may have defects, in the main it is in accordance with the views of that portion of the people who have been resisting the fratricidal attempts which have been made during the last three years. The convention has fixed the 14th day of March next on which to decide this great question, and the General commanding is only following the instructions of the Government when he says to you that every facility will be offered for the expression of your sentiments, uninfluenced by any considerations save those which affect your own interests and those of your posterity. … The election will be held and the return be made in accordance with the schedule adopted by the convention, and no interference from any quarter will be allowed to prevent the free expression of the loyal men of the State on that day.^[148]

      The election pursuant to this notice began March 14, 1864, the polls remaining open for three days. For the constitution 12,177, and against it 226, votes were cast.^[149] Isaac Murphy, against whom there was no opposing candidate, was chosen Governor by 12,430 votes cast by the citizens of more than forty counties. As early as March 18 the President appears to have received from the Governor-elect some favorable tidings,^[150] and on April 27, when more complete returns had reached him from the same source, he expressed in a telegram his gratification at the large vote, more than double that required by the Louisiana Plan, and also at the intelligence that the State government, including the Legislature, was organized and in working order.^[151]

      Besides a Governor five other officers of the executive and several members of the judicial branch of government together with many county officials were chosen.^[152] At the same time three Representatives in Congress, T. M. Jacks, A. A. C. Rogers and J. M. Johnson, were elected from the First, Second and Third Districts respectively. The Legislature, composed of twenty-three Senators and fifty-nine members of Assembly, met on the 11th of April, and during the session, which ended June 1 succeeding, appointed William Fishback and Elisha Baxter United States Senators to fill vacancies caused by the secession of the late incumbents, R. W. Johnson and William K. Sebastian. After investigation by a committee of Congress, however, they were declared not entitled to seats; but as each possessed such a title to membership as to justify inquiry they were paid mileage. This consideration they were denied when, without new action, they subsequently presented themselves at a special session of the Senate; on that occasion they were accompanied by William D. Snow, who had been chosen to succeed Fishback. It was agreed, March 9, 1865, to postpone till the next session of Congress consideration of the credentials of Mr. Snow. The House, without admitting as Representatives the three claimants for seats, had consented to allow them mileage. Arkansas, unlike Louisiana and Tennessee, did not participate in the Presidential election of 1864, because of a feeling that its electoral vote would not be received even if offered. This course appears to have been adopted on the suggestion of their representatives, who returned with such a conviction from a sojourn in Washington.^[153]

      A succeeding chapter, in tracing the origin and progress of the controversy between the Executive and Legislative branches of Government, will describe more fully the attitude of Congress toward Mr. Lincoln’s efforts at reconstruction and afford an opportunity for discussing both the nature of the conventions by which civil government had been restored in Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas, and the constitutionality of the various Executive acts by which this reëstablishment was assisted.

IV

       VIRGINIA

       Table of Contents

      The Federal Government, as already observed, was constrained at an early stage of the Civil War to define its attitude toward loyal citizens of the seceding States. The earliest indications of the policy adopted may be discerned in the case of Virginia, which presents the only instance of a people in any of the insurrectionary States organizing open resistance to revolution. All departments of government in that Commonwealth having gone over to rebellion, the loyal minority were left without any organization for the conduct of domestic affairs. In these circumstances they called a convention which by an original act of sovereignty reconstituted the government. The progress of the conflict was attended in that State by consequences not elsewhere observed, and it is chiefly because of this fact that a slight departure from exact chronological order is believed to be justified. The principles which guided the Administration will be easily comprehended by considering their application to the novel and somewhat embarrassing questions that arose before rebellion was finally crushed within the borders of that once glorious Commonwealth.

      “The Convention of Virginia” which, by authority of the Legislature, assembled at Richmond, February 13, 1861, passed on April 17 following an ordinance of secession from the United States.^[154] Though the injunction of secrecy was never removed from this proceeding, the tally, discovered soon after among the private papers of a member, shows that 88 delegates favored and 55 opposed the measure; one was excused from voting, eight were either absent or silent.^[155] This strong opposition is explained in part by the physical characteristics of the State.

      The principal chain of the Alleghanies formed in the western portion of the Old Dominion a lofty range which parts the streams finding their way into the Ohio and the Potomac from those that reach the lower waters of Chesapeake Bay or the sounds of North Carolina. The country southeast of this ridge, including the Shenandoah Valley, the Piedmont district, the middle division and the tide-water region, contained about three fourths of the white inhabitants, and something less than three fourths of the area, of Virginia. In this section were found many large tobacco plantations cultivated almost exclusively by negroes. Indeed, it was in the light soil of the tide-water counties of Virginia that English settlers in America first attempted, nearly two and one half centuries before, the memorable experiment of African slave labor. Soon after 1808, when their importation was prohibited by act of Congress, slaves were bred in Virginia to supply the demand of Southern markets, and by 1860 the bondmen in that Commonwealth had become almost two thirds as numerous as the master race.^[156] It is sufficiently accurate to say that the triangular district bounded on the north by the winding course of the Potomac, by the parallel of 36° 31′ on the south and stretching from the Atlantic to the crest of the Alleghany mountains, comprised all that part of “the good old commonwealth” which was then either historically important or interesting. This prolific soil was the birthplace of many of America’s most illustrious sons; its inhabitants

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