The Struggle Between President Johnson And Congress Over Reconstruction Part 8

[62] The report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, June 18th (_House Reports_, No. 30, 1st Session, 39th Congress; McPherson, 84-93), gives a spirited summary of the action of the Southern States since the appointment of the provisional governors. See also Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 84-107.

[63] Lalor, iii, 546.

[64] Senate: Republicans, 40; Democrats, 11; House: Republicans, 145; Democrats, 40. The work before Congress was well expressed by Schuyler Colfax in his speech made upon taking the Speaker's chair. Speaking of Congress he said: "Representing, in its two branches, the States and the people, its first and highest obligation is to guarantee to every State a republican form of government. The rebellion having overthrown const.i.tutional State governments in many States, it is yours to mature and enact legislation which, with the concurrence of the Executive, shall establish them anew on such a basis of enduring justice as will guarantee all the necessary safeguards to the people, and afford what our Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims is the chief object of government--protection to all men in their inalienable rights. * * * *

Then we may hope to see the vacant and once abandoned seats around us gradually filling up, until this hall shall contain representatives from every State and district; their hearts devoted to the Union for which they are to legislate, jealous of its honor, proud of its glory, watchful of its rights, and hostile to its enemies." _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 5. See Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 111, 112.

[65] Among the Senators elected were Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, and H. V. Johnson, a Senator in the rebel Congress, both from Georgia; from North Carolina, W. A. Graham, Senator in the rebel Congress; from South Carolina, B. F. Perry, a Confederate States judge, and J. I. Manning, volunteer aid to General Beauregard at Fort Sumter and Mana.s.sas (McPherson, 106-7). Among the Representatives chosen were: from Alabama, Cullen A. Battle, a Confederate general, and T. J. Foster, a Representative in the rebel Congress; from Georgia, Philip Cook and W. T.

Wofford, generals in the Confederate army; from Mississippi, A. E.

Reynolds and R. A. Pinson, rebel colonels, and J. T. Harrison, in rebel provisional Congress; from North Carolina, Josiah Turner was a rebel colonel, and a member of the rebel Congress, and T. C. Fuller a rebel Congressman; from South Carolina, J. D. Kennedy was a colonel, and Samuel McGowan a general in the rebel army, and James Farrow, a rebel Congressman.

[66] By Mr. Brooks, of New York. _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 3, 4.

[67] _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress, p. 2; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 113-115.

[68] Wilson, _History of Reconstruction_, 16 ff.

[69] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 24-30.

[70] Senator Lane committed suicide on July 11, 1866. Mortification caused by abuse, as the result of his action, is supposed to have unbalanced him mentally. _Cf._, Blaine, ii, 185.

[71] The resolution as adopted by the House on the 4th contained in addition: "and until such report shall have been made, and finally acted upon by Congress, no member shall be received into either House from any of the so-called Confederate States, and all papers relating to the representation of the said States shall be referred to the said committee without debate." The Senate, however, considered such provisions to affect powers granted to each House separately, and which should not be entrusted to a joint committee. Therefore they were struck out, but on December 14 the House of Representatives pa.s.sed resolutions binding itself to be governed by similar principles.

[72] The other members of the committee were: on the part of the Senate, Howard of Michigan, Grimes of Iowa, Harris of New York, Williams of Oregon, and Johnson of Maryland; on the part of the House, Washburne of Illinois, Morrill of Vermont, Grider of Kentucky, Bingham of Ohio, Conkling of New York, Boutwell of Ma.s.sachusetts, Blow of Missouri, and Rogers of New Jersey.

[73] Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 115.

[74] Wilson, _History of the Reconstruction Measures_, 42-105, contains a summary of the debates on reconstruction; see also Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 128 ff.

[75] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 72-5.

[76] _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress, p. 1019.

[77] _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress, p. 1309. These strong statements of the advisability of confiscation alarmed the Southern States greatly, and caused them to hate and fear Thaddeus Stevens. See Lalor, iii, 546 ff. The following extract from General Taylor's _Destruction and Reconstruction_ (pp. 243-4), is characteristic of the Southern estimate of the man. General Taylor had occasion to call upon Stevens while endeavoring to get permission to visit Jefferson Davis, then in confinement at Fortress Monroe. He goes on to say: "Thaddeus Stevens received me with as much civility as he was capable of. Deformed in body and temper like Caliban, this was the Lord Hategood of the fair; but he was frankness itself. He wanted no restoration of the Union under the Const.i.tution, which he called a worthless bit of old parchment. The white people of the South ought never again to be trusted with power, for they would inevitably unite with the Northern 'Copperheads' and control the government. The only sound policy was to confiscate the lands and divide them among the negroes, to whom, sooner or later, suffrage must be given.

Touching the matter in hand, Johnson was a fool to have captured Davis, whom it would have been wiser to a.s.sist in escaping. Nothing would be done with him, as the Executive had only pluck enough to hang poor devils, such as Wirz and Mrs. Surratt. Had the leading traitors been promptly strung up, well; but the time for that had pa.s.sed. (Here, I thought, he looked lovingly at my neck, as Pet.i.t Andre was wont to do at those of his merry-go-rounds.)"

[78] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1476.

[79] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1616.

[80] _Ibid._, p. 1617.

[81] _Ibid._, p. 1828.

[82] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 155.

[83] _Ibid._, p. 150.

[84] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1169.

[85] _Ibid._, p. 2256.

[86] Gillet's _Democracy in the United States_, pp. 309-13, discusses the Freedmen's Bureau from the Northern Democratic standpoint.

[87] The first bill creating a Freedmen's Bureau was introduced in the House during the 37th Congress by Mr. Eliot, of Ma.s.sachusetts, who during the 39th Congress was chairman of the Select Committee on Freedmen. It was not reported, but the same bill was presented in the first session of the 38th Congress, and pa.s.sed the House by a vote of 69 to 67. It was returned from the Senate on June 30, 1864, amended so as to attach the Bureau to the Treasury Department. A committee of conference agreed upon a new bill creating a department of freedmen's affairs, reporting to the President.

This pa.s.sed the House, but failed in the Senate. The next attempt succeeded. _Congressional Globe_, 2d Session, 38th Congress, p. 1307. See c.o.x's _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_ for an account of the Freedmen's Bureau; also Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, iii, 472-485; Wilson (Woodrow), _Division and Reunion_, 263.

[88] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 1299. Mr.

Doolittle on the 19th of December, 1865, had introduced a bill relative to the Bureau of Freedmen, but when reported from the Committee on Military Affairs, to which it had been referred, it was indefinitely postponed.

[89] This committee had been established by a resolution introduced by Mr.

Eliot, of Ma.s.sachusetts, on December 6, 1865. So much of the President's message as related to freedmen, and all papers relating to the same subject, were to be referred to it. The following were appointed members of the committee: T. D. Eliot of Ma.s.sachusetts, W. D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, G. S. Orth of Indiana, J. A. Bingham of Ohio, Nelson Taylor of New York, B. F. Loan of Missouri, J. B. Grinnell of Iowa, H. E. Paine of Wisconsin, and S. S. Marshall of Illinois.

[90] c.o.x confuses this act with the act pa.s.sed over the veto on July 16, declaring that it was pa.s.sed over the veto on February 21. _Three Decades of Federal Legislation_, p. 444.

[91] See Wilson (Henry), _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, iii, 490-97; Wilson, _History of Reconstruction_, 148-184; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 164-170; Wilson (Woodrow), _Division and Reunion_, 264.

[92] _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress. McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 73-4.

[93] The veto messages of the Presidents of the United States, from Was.h.i.+ngton to Cleveland, inclusive, have been compiled by Ben: Perley Poore by order of the Senate.

[94] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 915-917; McPherson, _History of Reconstruction_, pp. 68-72.

[95] See Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, iii, 497-99; Wilson, _History of the Reconstruction_, 184-195; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 171-2.

[96] The votes were: House, 104 to 33; Senate, 33 to 12. For the text of the bill, see _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress; McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 149-50. Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 172, states that the bill was far less popular than the measure vetoed on February 19. "It required potent persuasion, re-enforced by the severest exercise of party discipline, to prevent a serious break in both Houses against the bill."

[97] McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, 52-56.

[98] _House journal_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 300, 315. The resolution was carried particularly to silence the Tennessee claimants for recognition. The somewhat anomalous position of that State gave grounds for the argument that it should be cla.s.sed in the same category with the other Southern States. Thus Mr. Stevens was able to get the power for the joint committee which he had originally claimed.

[99] McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 58-63.

[100] See Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, iii, 684-692; _History of Reconstruction_, 117-149; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 172-79.

[101] _Congressional Globe_, 1st Session, 39th Congress, pp. 39, 40.

[102] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session; McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 75-8.

[103] _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 1679-81; McPherson, _History of Reconstruction_, pp. 75-8.

[104] _Senate Journal_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 431-2; McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 82-3; Blaine, _Twenty Years of Congress_, ii, 275-80.

[105] McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, 81-2; _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 2609.

[106] McPherson, 160-164.

[107] McPherson, _History of the Reconstruction_, pp. 164-6; _Congressional Globe_, 39th Congress, 1st Session.

[108] Hurd, in his _Theory of our National Existence_, p. 42, says that this report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction "as being the most authoritative declaration of principles supposed to have been afterwards carried out in political action, is a doc.u.ment which, either for good or evil, will probably be regarded as one of the most important in the history of this country."