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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
Жанр Документальная литература
Издательство Bookwire
The reference in this communication to emancipation is explained by the fact that, in deference to the wishes of Andrew Johnson and other Tennessee loyalists, the President in his proclamation of January 1, 1863, had not mentioned that State.[29]
Believing that his commission as military governor did not confer upon him powers adequate to every emergency that might arise in the important work of restoring a loyal government Mr. Johnson, to supply this deficiency, prepared a letter which he submitted for the approval of President Lincoln, who amended or modified it to read as follows:
In addition to the matters contained in the orders and instructions given you by the Secretary of War, you are hereby authorized to exercise such powers as may be necessary and proper to enable the loyal people of Tennessee to present such a republican form of State government as will entitle the State to the guaranty of the United States therefor, and to be protected under such State government by the United States against invasion and domestic violence, all according to the fourth section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States.[30]
This supplemental authority is dated September 19, and the private letter enclosing it informs Governor Johnson why his draft was altered.
It was about this time, while the President was thus urging Governor Johnson, that General Rosecrans, surrounded by a victorious enemy, inquired of Mr. Lincoln whether it would not be well “to offer a general amnesty to all officers and soldiers in the Rebellion?” In his reply next day the President, referring first, as was his wont, to the military situation, added, “I intend doing something like what you suggest whenever the case shall appear ripe enough to have it accepted in the true understanding rather than as a confession of weakness and fear.”[31] The removal soon after of General Rosecrans from his command and the fortunate appearance at Chattanooga of those great soldiers of the first rank, Grant, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, made at Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge the occasion which the President so much desired, and on December 8, 1863, he issued his famous Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, a copy of which was transmitted with his third annual message to Congress. The impression which its candid tone produces on the mind of a student to-day was the impression made at the time of its appearance upon thoughtful and enlightened men everywhere. Nicolay and Hay in an interesting chapter of their valuable history describe the satisfaction, and even enthusiasm, with which it was received by the adherents of all parties in Congress. This proclamation, around which the later controversy raged, was authorized by act of Congress approved July 17, 1862, which, among other provisions, empowered the President “at any time” thereafter “to extend to persons who may have participated in the existing Rebellion in any State or part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at such time and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for the public welfare.” The time for the exercise of this discretion Mr. Lincoln believed had now arrived. Like every measure conceived in his fruitful mind it had been maturely considered and was especially fortunate in being introduced by the concluding paragraphs of the message. The very note of sincerity itself rings in these weighty lines. Perhaps it was the suggestion of unuttered arguments that gave a temporary adherence to the Executive plan, which, we are told, was put forth because “It is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their respective States.” The proclamation informed “all persons who have, directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves, and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have intervened, and upon the condition that every such person shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be registered for permanent preservation.” This oath bound the subscriber thenceforth to “faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union of the States thereunder”; to “abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves” unless repealed, modified or held void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; to support “all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court.”
The classes excepted from the benefits of the amnesty were all persons “who are, or shall have been, civil or diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate Government; all who have left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have been, military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate Government above the rank of colonel in the army or lieutenant in the navy; all who left seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States and afterward aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war, and which persons may have been found in the United States service, as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity.”[32]
The proclamation provided further that whenever, in any of the States in rebellion, “a number of persons, not less than one tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the presidential election” of 1860, “each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall reëstablish a State government which shall be republican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the Constitutional provision which declares that ‘The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.’ ”
Any provision adopted by such State relative to its freed people “which shall recognize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national executive.” In constructing a loyal government in any State, it was thought not improper to suggest that “the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government.”
To avoid every occasion of misunderstanding it was expressly stated that the proclamation “has no reference to States wherein loyal State governments have all the while been maintained.” The President disclaimed any authority to admit members to seats in Congress, each House being “the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members.”[33]
In conclusion it was observed that “while the mode presented is the best the executive can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.”[34]
To get an enrollment of those willing to take the oath prescribed in the amnesty proclamation the President, about the middle of January, 1864, sent an agent to Tennessee, as he had already sent one to Louisiana and to Arkansas. About the same time Governor Johnson himself was considering the subject of reconstruction; and on the 21st, to begin proceedings, called a public meeting at Nashville. It was on this occasion that he said: “Treason must be made odious, traitors must be punished and impoverished;” slavery he pronounced dead and declared that reconstruction must leave it out of view. The meeting, which was largely attended, adopted resolutions recommending a constitutional convention and pledged support of only those candidates who favored immediate and universal emancipation. The Governor, however, was cautious, and, January 26, 1864, issued a call for an election, on the first Saturday of March following, for the choice of only county officers.
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