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Title: Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction
Author: Charles H. McCarthy
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Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction
By
CHARLES H. McCARTHY
Ph.D. (Pa.)
New York
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
MCMI
Copyright, 1901 by
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1901
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction
xv
I
TENNESSEE
Election and Policy of Lincoln
1
East Tennessee
3
Secession
8
Federal Victories
10
A Military Governor
11
Origin of Military Governors in the United States
12
Measures of Governor Johnson
17
Negro Troops
20
Nashville Convention of 1863
21
Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction
23
Steps to Restoration
27
Nashville Convention of 1865
30
Election of William G. Brownlow
32
Nomination of Lincoln and Johnson
32
Presidential Election in Tennessee
34
II
LOUISIANA
Popularity of Secession
36
Financial Embarrassment
37
Capture of New Orleans
38
Lincoln’s Advice
38
General Shepley appointed Military Governor
39
v
Election of Representatives to Congress
45
Division among Unionists
47
Military Operations
49
Lincoln Urges Reconstruction
51
Political Activity among Loyalists
53
Title of Louisiana Claimants
58
Opposition to General Banks
61
Plan of Reconstruction proposed
66
Election of 1864
70
Inauguration of Civil Government
72
Lincoln’s Letter on Negro Suffrage
73
Constitutional Convention
75
Congressional Election
76
III
ARKANSAS
Indifference to Secession
77
The Fall of Sumter
78
Seizure of Little Rock
79
Military Matters
79
Threat of Seceding from Secession
82
General Phelps appointed Military Governor
82
Enthusiasm of Unionists
83
Lincoln’s Interest in Arkansas
83
Inaugurating a Loyal Government
84
The Election of 1864
90
IV
vi
VIRGINIA
Secession
93
Physical Features and Early Settlements
94
Society and Its Basis
95
The Counter-Revolution
97
Convention at Wheeling
99
Organizing a Union Government
100
Legislature of Restored Virginia
103
The State of Kanawha
105
Attorney-General Bates on Dismemberment
105
Making a New State
107
Compensated Emancipation
108
Formation of New State discussed in Congress
110
Cabinet on Dismemberment
120
Lincoln on Dismemberment
124
Webster’s Prediction
126
Inauguration of New State
128
Reorganizing the Restored State
129
Right of Commonwealth to Representation in Congress
131
Rupture between Civil and Military Authorities
133
The President Interposes
135
Congress Refuses to Admit a Senator-Elect
138
V
ANTI-SLAVERY LEGISLATION
Compensated Emancipation in Congress
142
Contrabands
143
The Military Power and Fugitive Slaves
144
vii
Lincoln on Military Emancipation
148
Andrew Jackson and Nullification
151
Lincoln on Compensated Emancipation
152
Compensated Emancipation in Delaware
155
Abandoned Slaves
160
Border Policy Propounded
163
General Hunter and Military Emancipation
168
Slavery Prohibited in the Territories
170
Attitude of Border States on Slavery
172
Lincoln Resolves to Emancipate Slaves by Proclamation
177
VI
THEORIES AND PLANS OF RECONSTRUCTION
The Presidential Plan
190
Sumner’s Theory of State Suicide
196
“Conquered Province” Theory of Stevens
211
Theory of Northern Democrats
217
Crittenden Resolution
220
VII
RISE OF THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN
Bill to Guarantee a Republican Form of Government
224
Henry Winter Davis on Reconstruction
226
House Debates on Bill of Wade and Davis
236
Pendleton’s Speech on Reconstruction
257
Provisions of Wade-Davis Bill
262
Senate Debate on Bill of Wade and Davis
264
President’s Pocket Veto
273
Proclamation concerning Reconstruction
278
viii
Manifesto of Wade and Davis
279
VIII
AN ATTEMPT TO COMPROMISE
President ignores Controversy with Congress
286
Summary of Military and Naval Situation
288
Attempt to Revive the Pocketed Bill
289
House Debates on Ashley’s Reconstruction Bill
291
Defeat of Ashley’s Bill
311
IX
THE ELECTORAL VOTE OF LOUISIANA
Resolution excluding Electoral Votes of Rebellious States
314
Amendment of Senator Ten Eyck
315
Senate Debate on Ten Eyck’s Amendment
316
Defeat of the Amendment in favor of Louisiana
334
Senate Passes Joint Resolution
338
Counting the Electoral Vote
339
The President’s Message
339
X
SENATE DEBATE ON LOUISIANA
Congressmen from Louisiana at the National Capital
341
Proposal to Recognize Louisiana
343
Powell’s Speech opposing Recognition
344
Henderson’s Argument for Recognition
348
Howard’s Argument in Opposition
358
Reverdy Johnson’s Speech for Recognition
370
General Discussion on Louisiana
374
XI
ix
INCIDENTS OF RECONSTRUCTION
The Thirteenth Amendment
384
The Freedmen’s Bureau
385
Volunteer Diplomats
389
The Hampton Roads Conference
395
Lincoln’s Letter to General Hurlbut
401
Lincoln’s Letter to General Canby
402
Lincoln’s Last Words on Reconstruction
403
XII
CULMINATION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL PLAN
Lincoln and the South
407
Inauguration of Andrew Johnson
408
Arkansas after the War
409
Condition of Tennessee
412
Louisiana
417
Reorganization of Virginia
425
The Wreck of the Confederacy
431
Andrew Johnson on Reconstruction in 1864
438
Johnson’s Speeches after Accession to the Presidency
440
Raising the Blockade
444
The Executive Department Recognizes Virginia
445
Restoration of North Carolina
448
The President Hesitates
458
Executive Policy in Mississippi
460
Restoration of Georgia
465
Texas
466
The Reconstruction Conventions
468
x
Temper of the South
472
Mississippi Legislation relative to Freedmen
475
Southern Reaction
482
The President’s Change of Opinion
487
Examination of Lincoln’s Plan
491
APPENDIX A
Thirty-Seventh Congress
499
APPENDIX B
Thirty-Eighth Congress
502
M
Preface
uch of the material included in this volume was collected several years ago while the author was a graduate
student at the University of Pennsylvania. The researches then commenced probably first suggested to him
the lack in our political literature of an ample and interesting account of the return of the States. Students,
librarians, and even professors of history knew no adequate treatise on the era of reconstruction, and their
testimony was confirmed by the authority of Mr. Bryce, who happily describes the succession of events in those
crowded times as forming one of the most intricate chapters of American history. No apology is offered, therefore,
for considering in this essay so important and so long-neglected a theme as the rise of the political revolution that
occurred before reunion was finally accomplished.
On the general subject several excellent monographs have recently appeared; these, however, are nearly all
employed in discussing the second stage in the process of restoration, and, except incidentally, anticipate scarcely
anything of value in the present work, which, so far at least as concerns any logical exposition, conducts the
reader over untraveled ground. As the introduction indicates with sufficient accuracy both the scope and method
of this study, nothing is required here beyond a concise statement of the author’s obligations.
Like many other students of American institutions, the writer cheerfully acknowledges his indebtedness to the
works of Brownson, Hurd and Jameson, and, by transferring some of their opinions to his book, has shown a
practical appreciation of their researches. In addition to these obligations, in which the author is not singular, he
profited for four years by the lectures of Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, his professor in constitutional history. Except in a
very few instances, where the name of an author was forgotten, credit for both suggestions and material is
uniformly given in the references and footnotes.
For the selection, arrangement, and treatment of topics the author alone is responsible; he desires, however, to
take this opportunity of acknowledging generous assistance received from three intimate friends: his colleague,
Dr. Charles P. Henry, found time in the midst of arduous literary engagements to read the whole of the
manuscript and to make many valuable suggestions, especially in matters of style and diction; the book is not less
fortunate in having been critically read by Thomas J. Meagher, Esq., whose extensive and accurate knowledge of
public as well as private law contributed to a more clear and scientific statement of many of the constitutional
questions discussed; the technical skill and the superior intelligence of Mr. George M. Schell were of considerable
assistance to the author in correcting the proofs of the entire book. Nor must he omit to record his appreciation of
the courtesy of Mr. L. E. Hewitt, the efficient librarian of the Philadelphia Law Association. Finally the writer
gratefully acknowledges his chief obligation to the scholarship of his former teacher, Dr. John Bach McMaster,
who kindly interrupted the progress of his great historical work long enough to read a considerable portion of this
essay. Indeed, it was the encouragement of that eminent author which first suggested the publication of these
pages.
Before concluding his remarks the writer wishes to disclaim any sympathy with the progressive school of historical
criticism, which derides the Constitution as a thing of the past and learnedly characterizes all veneration for its
authority as the worship of a fetich. This book will have attained one of its principal purposes if, in the language
of a distinguished surviving statesman of the war period, it will teach “the constant and ever-important lesson
that the Constitution is always a more reliable guide for the legislator than those fierce passions which war never
fails to excite.”
Philadelphia, September 14, 1901.
xi
xii
xiii
S
INTRODUCTION
o closely blended with the essential principles of our federal system of government were the causes of the Civil War
that a clear understanding of its results appears to require some account of the origin, the independence and the
permanent union of these States. Upon the eventful years between the Treaty of Paris and the Declaration of
Independence, crowded as they are with work of note, one could linger with pleasure; this epoch, however, has already
engaged the pens of so many writers, eminent as well as obscure, that a re-study of the blunders of England’s ministers and
the revolt of her distant colonies might justly be regarded as a piece of presumption.
Nor does it seem necessary to recite the familiar achievements of the succeeding period; for, perhaps, the portion of
American history most attractive to the general reader is included between the 4th of July, 1776, and the 4th of March,
1789. To these years belong the most conspicuous services of that giant race of leaders whose swords relieved a gallant
people from oppression and whose wisdom established a form of government not, indeed, in universal harmony with
popular prejudice, but admirably designed for the popular welfare.
It was at the outset of what may properly be styled the national era that there appeared the remarkable group of statesmen
who guided the infant Republic on its dim and perilous way. On their broad experience gleamed a vision of the future
touching all their work with elements of immortality. By them was skillfully established a system of revenue and of finance
adequate to all the exigencies of the time, and a foreign policy inaugurated which for generations together preserved
unbroken harmony with the world outside. They doubled by wise and peaceful acquisition the area of that Union whose
independence had been wrested from George the Third, and with no less wisdom prescribed the procedure and defined
the jurisdiction of Federal courts.
The forty years following March 4, 1789, form an epoch with characteristics of its own. This was the period of Virginian
ascendency, the Adamses alone breaking the line of illustrious Presidents furnished by the Old Dominion. Introduced by an
experiment in government which aroused the slumbering energies of the nation, its conclusion was marked by the
disappearance from political life of the splendid ideals and rich traditions of the Fathers.
The election of General Jackson coincides with the beginning of a new phase in American political and industrial
development. It was not that the fame of a splendid military record had raised its possessor to an office for which long
experience in governmental affairs had hitherto been thought indispensable, or that the selection of Presidents had passed
from an intellectual few to the control of a much more numerous class who were willing to bestow on politics the attention
and energy requisite for success in trade; but it was about this time that the imperious power of slavery entered upon its
career of aggression. Philosophic statesmen of a previous epoch had ardently hoped that the institution would be permitted
quietly to disappear; indeed, the greatest among them, though divided upon a multitude of political and economic
questions, agreed in encouraging every movement designed for its extinction. These humane efforts, however, were not
destined to win immediate success, and even with the coöperation of the General Government served only to demonstrate
the difficulty of such an undertaking.
After 1820 all the dangers which menaced the integrity of the Union were, with one notable exception, traceable to this
cause. When Mr. Lincoln in his discussions with Senator Douglas declared that it was the sole cause of all the troubles
which had disturbed the nation, he meant, probably, to assert no more than that in his own time it had been the most
conspicuous one.
Long before slavery became a subject of embittered controversy the doctrine of State Rights had agitated the country. As
early as the summer of 1793 it had found in Justice Iredell an able advocate on the bench of the United States Supreme
Court. For party purposes it was adopted five years later by Madison and Jefferson in the celebrated Virginia and
Kentucky Resolutions, and during the second war with Great Britain these statesmen were startled to find New England
Federalism vindicating its unpatriotic, if not treacherous, conduct in the exact language which they had invented to
embarrass a former administration. With this instrument, too, Calhoun in 1832 shook the foundations of the Union. Both
Northern and Southern statesmen of that generation, however, pushed the principle of State sovereignty as far only as their
immediate object seemed to require.
It is a popular mistake to suppose that beyond the limits of the South this erroneous doctrine found little favor in the minds
of men; for on the eve of the War of 1812 a Governor of conservative Pennsylvania had armed her citizen-soldiers against
Federal power.
The illustrious Marshall could relate how, before the highest tribunal in the land, its champions with unwearied zeal renewed
the battle for a hopeless cause. The eloquent voice of Webster hushed for a time the fretful agitation of South Carolina
statesmen, and his genius fixed in imperishable literary form that interpretation of the Constitution which called forth the
abundant resources of both the Nation and the States. In his conquering words lived those elevated thoughts that in future
years sustained the defenders of the Republic.
President Jackson, for the energy and promptness by which he defeated the projects of the Nullifiers, has been justly
eulogized; but, when the excitement of the hour had passed away, the calmer judgment of even his admirers perceived that
victory inclined rather to the side of Calhoun.
Discussion of the abstract question of State sovereignty might, probably, have long continued without endangering the
Union had the principle not been invoked to defend the institution of human servitude; yoked to that powerful interest it
was inevitable that both should go down together in undistinguishable ruin.
xv
xvi
xvii
xviii
From the Protean fount of slavery flowed an hundred various streams coloring almost every important question in the tide
of events. In the generation between the election of General Jackson and the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln its defeats were
few, its triumphs numerous and important. Prosperity revealed its weaknesses and encouraged its experiments. The fruits
of its greatest victory, the dismemberment of Mexico, revived those stormy scenes which thirty years before had for the
first time been witnessed in an American legislative hall. Dissolution of the Union was once more threatened, and again
averted by the genius and patriotism of the venerable triumvirate, who scarce outlived their noble work; but the
compromise from which Clay, Calhoun and Webster expected a restoration of former tranquillity contained within itself the
very seed-plot of even graver troubles.
After 1850 the attachment of Southern men to their industrial system was played upon by ambitious politicians more and
more, until the final overthrow of themselves and the government which they sought to establish for its preservation. It
could be shown how before that time one war was prolonged for the protection, and another undertaken chiefly for the
extension, of that aggressive institution; how its existence was supposed to require Federal interference with the mails and
an abridgment of even the ancient right of petition. Every power of the national Government and all the resources of the
cotton States had been employed for its advantage.
The United States Supreme Court was the last agent within the Union by which its advocates sought to dignify and
perpetuate human servitude, and so successful were their efforts that an enlightened and humane Chief Justice was but little
misrepresented in language or in sentiment when political opponents ascribed to him the doctrine that “the negro has no
rights which the white man is bound to respect.”
The moral progress of the United States during the last forty years finds, probably, in no single event a better illustration
than the change in public opinion upon the interesting question of human rights. When the majority opinion was delivered in
the Dred Scott case it excited among members of the dominant political party but little surprise. The shock which a judicial
utterance of such sentiments would give in our time to the ethical notions of the American people affords at once both a
measure of the advance that has been made in the interval and an undoubted proof that progress has not been, as is
commonly supposed, exclusively or even mainly along material lines. It is singular, too, that the first serious attempt of the
Federal Supreme Court to set at rest a dangerous political question should have been followed by effects of so alarming a
tendency.
It is not intended to relate in these pages the origin or the fate of those compromises designed to avoid the inevitable
conflict already in the closing months of President Buchanan’s administration casting ominous shadows in the pathway of
the nation, nor to describe the uncertain policy of the General Government or attempt to determine the measure of its
responsibility for the fearful rebellion which that hesitation encouraged.
The skill and industry of a multitude of laborers have gathered from the field of conflict a harvest as bountiful as the result
was satisfactory. We have general histories and bird’s-eye views, military accounts and naval accounts of the Civil War;
memoirs and diaries, by actors more or less prominent in the events which they describe, and narratives of battles and of
sieges. In this varied and ample field even a belated worker might hope to glean something of value; but this study,
whatever it may discuss incidentally, will be chiefly concerned with the subject of Reconstruction, a phase of our political
and constitutional development which, though beginning during the progress, lies mainly beyond the close of the Rebellion.
The organization into a separate government of the late Confederate States, with their resolute struggle for independence,
is the chief event in the extraordinary career of this favored nation. The story of their submission to Federal power and the
return to their former places in the Union is not inferior either in interest or instruction to any political event recorded in
history. This return is what is commonly known as Reconstruction. Though the term on its introduction into political
discussion was frequently objected to as inaccurate, it has been generally adopted in the writings of publicists as well as in
popular speech. The word “restoration,” which was at first preferred, was soon found to be inexact; for while former
relations were resumed by the erring States, they came back, one with diminished territorial extent and all with domestic
rights greatly abridged. They had, in fact, been reconstructed. It is true that even the loyal States did not emerge
unscathed from this political revolution. In the South, however, the established industrial system had been swept completely
away.
The theme falls naturally under two heads, Presidential Reconstruction and Congressional Reconstruction. An account of
the former, which extended from the summer of 1861 to the autumn of 1865, occupies the whole of this volume. Any
adequate treatment of the latter, including as it does the eventful period from the meeting of Congress in December, 1865,
to the withdrawal of Federal forces from the South in 1877, will require a narrative somewhat more ample.
The conspicuous landmarks of Reconstruction require no extraordinary talent to recognize and locate. It is the unfamiliar
region between that is difficult accurately to map out. The failure hitherto to present in a single view the striking features of
these neglected parts is chiefly responsible for the fact that Reconstruction remains one of the most obscure parts of our
history. A candid and comprehensive account of the political events of the time appears to divest the subject of much of
the difficulty commonly supposed to attend its investigation. From a sufficient body of essential facts the step to an
understanding and exposition of every principle of moment is comparatively easy.
Though the general design of this volume will be suggested to the student of American history by an inspection of its
principal subdivisions, it may not be unnecessary for the benefit of the general reader to add a brief outline of the plan that
has been adopted.
Chapter I. relates the most important political events in the history of Tennessee from its attempted secession to the
restoration, in March, 1865, of a civil government loyal to the United States. Military movements in that Commonwealth
xix
xx
xxi
xxii
have been noticed only so far as to render intelligible the successive steps by which that reorganization was accomplished.
Chapters II. and III. bring the affairs of Louisiana and Arkansas, respectively, down to about the same time. Events in
those States have been treated, so far as conditions permitted, in the same manner as in the case of Tennessee.
Chapter IV. is concerned with the secession, restoration and dismemberment of Virginia. The formation out of a portion of
that Commonwealth of the new State of West Virginia, both because of the grave constitutional question which arose on a
division of the parent State and the intrinsic interest of the subject, has been considered with some degree of minuteness.
In Chapter V., which discusses anti-slavery legislation, it will appear how Mr. Lincoln, though never an Abolitionist or even
a radical Republican, became by pressure of military necessity an instrument in the hands of God to destroy an institution
opposed by a long line of American statesmen and condemned by the light of the nineteenth century.
The succeeding chapter considers the various theories and plans of restoration presented during the progress of the war.
The rise of the Congressional plan, which ultimately prevailed, is treated separately in Chapter VII. Only the first stage of
its development, however, falls within the limits of this inquiry, which ends with the meeting of the Thirty-ninth Congress in
December, 1865.
Chapters VIII., IX. and X. trace the progress of the controversy between the Legislative and the Executive branches of
Government. The culmination of this difference, however, in the impeachment and trial of President Johnson is a phase of
Congressional Reconstruction.
The topics treated in the eleventh chapter, having frequently employed the pens of able and popular writers on the
Rebellion, are considered in this study merely for the purpose of making it complete in itself; hence that section is little more
than an epitome of what has already been said on those subjects.
The twelfth and last chapter brings every part of the narrative up to December 4, 1865. To clearly comprehend the
arduous task that confronted President Johnson this section includes a rapid survey of the wreck of the Confederate
States. The principal part, however, is reserved for an account of the conventions assembled under his authority, the
method of instituting loyal governments and the spirit and tendency of Southern legislation relative to freedmen. An
examination of the Presidential plan of Reconstruction completes the volume.
xxiii
xxiv
Lincoln’s Plan of Reconstruction
