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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
An election held April 3, 1862, gave, including the soldiers’ vote, 28,321 for and 572 against the constitution, no returns being received from ten counties.[177] The vote for gradual emancipation, where an expression was had, was almost equal to that given for the constitution, both being nearly unanimous. The former received 6,052 for and 610 against it. How far this informal expression of opinion influenced Congress will presently be noticed.
At an extra session of the Legislature, convoked by Governor Pierpont, an act, in almost the identical language of that assenting to the formation of Kentucky, was passed, May 13, 1862, giving consent to the erection within the jurisdiction of Virginia of a new State to include forty-eight named counties; the second section of this act provided that Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederic counties could be annexed whenever a majority of their votes, at an election to be held for that purpose, should ratify the constitution. The act, together with a certified original of the constitution, was to be transmitted to their Senators and Representatives in Washington, who were requested to use their endeavors to obtain the consent of Congress to the admission of West Virginia into the Union.
On June 23, 1862, Mr. Wade, from the Committee on Territories, reported to the United States Senate a bill for the admission of West Virginia into the Union, and three days later requested its consideration. It stipulated, among other things, that “the convention thereinafter provided for shall, in the constitution to be framed by it, make provision that from and after the fourth day of July, 1863, the children of all slaves born within the limits of the State shall be free”; it also allotted to the new Commonwealth as many Representatives in Congress as her population would justify under the apportionment then existing.
Charles Sumner observed that the former was the imposition of a condition which proposed to recognize the existence of slavery during that generation. “Short as life may be,” he declared, “it is too long for slavery.” By the admission of West Virginia a new slave State would be added; he moved, therefore, to substitute for this requirement the Jeffersonian interdict that “within the limits of said State there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in punishment of crime whereof the party shall be duly convicted.”
Mr. Hale justly remarked that after consenting to the admission of so many States with pro-slavery constitutions it would be a singular fact if the first that ever applied with a provision for prospective emancipation should be rejected.
Senator Collamer believed that if West Virginia was to enter on a footing of perfect equality with other members of the Union she should, like them, have the right to regulate domestic questions, including slavery, in her own way. The condition imposed by the bill denied her that right.
Mr. Wade disliked the proposition as it stood, because it was very objectionable to him “to say that a man born on the 4th day of July, 1863, shall be free, and one born the day before shall be forever a slave.” “I should much prefer,” he added, “to have it graduated so that all born after the adoption of this constitution shall be free, and that all between certain ages shall be free at a certain period.” At this point Sumner’s amendment was lost by a vote of 24 to 11.
Mr. Carlile, of Virginia, who was foremost in organizing resistance to secession, had from the beginning assumed the appearance of a friend, but, after giving direction to the movement for separation, acted as an adversary to the new State; he opposed all conditions on its admission and expressed a preference that it be permitted to enter on the constitution submitted by its people. He would never “consent to have the organic law of a State framed for its people by the Congress of the United States.” There were 47,000 voters in the counties to be embraced within the proposed State; of that number only about 19,000 had voted on the constitution. At the last moment he delivered with his usual eloquence a strong argument against admission. An amendment which he submitted would have the effect certainly to postpone, perhaps altogether to defeat, the measure in the Senate. Failing to secure its adoption, he urged a postponement till December following; this motion, however, was voted down.
So surprised were his associates at this unexpected opposition that they inquired pointedly why these belated arguments had not been presented to the Committee on Territories when the measure was before them. Mr. Wade, its chairman, was especially severe in his condemnation of Carlile’s extraordinary course, for it was the reasoning of the Virginia Senator that had won their support; he had searched the precedents and submitted cheerfully to all the labors imposed by the Committee. Now by his opposition he brought everything to a stand-still.
His colleague, Mr. Willey, who had been converted in a rather advanced stage of the movement, declared that it was not the desire to be free from that part of the Commonwealth in rebellion that was responsible for the present attitude of western Virginia; the insurrection only precipitated the attempt to settle a controversy which was older than he. To enforce his remarks he added that great numbers of her citizens had determined to fix their abodes elsewhere unless West Virginia became an independent State. During this discussion the Senate had before it the constitution framed by the convention which met November 26, 1861, in the city of Wheeling.
After a vigorous address by Benjamin F. Wade, who had recently investigated the subject, and whose ardor had been aroused by a deputation of West Virginians then in Washington, the bill by a vote of 23 to 17 passed the Senate, July 14, 1862.[178]
By Mr. Brown, of Virginia, a similar measure had already been introduced into the House on June 25. It was read twice and referred to the Committee on Territories.[179] When called up on July 16 succeeding it was agreed to postpone consideration of the bill until the regular session in December,[180] and on the 9th of that month, when Representative Bingham asked that it be put on its passage, discussion of the subject was resumed.
Representative Conway said that if the application of West Virginia came in the proper manner he would be happy to vote for its admission; he regretted, however, that at the beginning of the rebellion a territorial government had not been organized there; Congress could then have passed an enabling act, and the State could be received in a manner to admit of no dispute. The question turned, he declared, on whether the State of Virginia, of which a Mr. Pierpont was Governor, was the lawful State. This he denied. A number of persons without authority met at Wheeling and organized a government. This establishment the President had recognized; one branch of Congress by admitting its Senators had also conceded its legality. These precedents, however, should not be binding on the House. Neither mobs nor mass-meetings, he asserted, make laws under our system, and such bodies had no authority to appoint Mr. Pierpont.
The President intended, Mr. Conway believed, to form similar organizations in all the seceded States. “A policy seems about to be inaugurated,” he added, “looking to an assumption of State powers by a few individuals, wherever a military or other encampment can be effected in any of the rebellious districts. The utter and flagrant unconstitutionality of this scheme—I may say, its radically revolutionary character—ought to expose it to the reprobation of every loyal citizen and every member of this House. It aims at an utter subversion of our constitutional system. Its effect would be to consolidate all the powers of the Government in the hands of the Executive. With the admission of this new State, the President will have substantially created four Senators—two for Virginia and two for West Virginia.” In referring to an extension of this system he declared that the President and a few friends could exercise Federal authority in all those States. “The true policy of this Government, therefore, with regard to the seceded States, is to hold them as common territory wherever and whenever our arms are extended over them. This obviates the terrible dangers which I have alluded to, and is in harmony with the highest considerations of public utility, as well as with sound legal principles.”[181]
Mr. Conway directed his criticisms against the President because he believed the Executive was first to recognize the new government. The action of the Senate was based upon this precedent, it being assumed that recognition was an Executive function.
Mr. Brown, who introduced