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territory? 2. Did the power to restore or reconstruct rest with the President or with Congress? 3. What action should be taken respecting the negro? Should he be made a citizen and a voter or simply left free? If the ballot was put in his hands he might swamp the white vote in the South by force of numbers; if simply left free, his presence would increase the basis of representation and so increase the power of the South in Congress. On the other hand, if he could not protect himself he might be virtually reënslaved.

President Lincoln, in accordance with his inaugural address (§ 448), took the position that the Union and the States were alike indestructible and that secession had simply thrown certain States temporarily out of gear with the rest. He believed that it was his work to set them right again. His plan was essentially that of restoration. Toward the last of 1863 he issued a proclamation of amnesty. By it he granted "a full pardon" to "all persons," except the leaders of secession, who had been engaged in the "existing rebellion," provided they should take an oath to support the Constitution and all acts of Congress to date. He furthermore declared that whenever one-tenth or more of the loyal voters of 1860 in the seceded States should reëstablish a State Government in accordance with the Constitution and the oath of allegiance, he would recognize it as "the true government of the State."

President Lincoln added, however, that the admission of such reconstructed States to representation did not rest with him but with Congress.1266 In this plan no provision was made for negro suffrage.

The radical Republicans in Congress denounced President Lincoln's policy as dangerous to the welfare of the nation, and the next spring (1864) Henry Winter Davis introduced a reconstruction bill which put the whole control of the late Confederate States in the hands of Congress; but like the President's method, it was silent in regard to negro suffrage. President Lincoln killed the bill by a "pocket veto" (§ 365),

mainly on the ground that it was too rigid in its character.1267 The angry radicals, under the leadership of Senators Davis and Wade, issued an address "to the supporters of the Government," in which they charged Lincoln with deliberately striking "a blow at the friends of the administration, at the rights of humanity, and at the principles of Republican Government." 1268

The President did not lose his temper; but in the last words which he spoke in public (April 11, 1865) declared his adherence to his own plan of restoration or reconstruction. He earnestly advocated a policy of conciliation toward the seceded States, saying: "We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it." 1289

512. President Johnson's plan of reconstruction vs. Congress. Johnson declared that he held the view of reconstruction which Lincoln had defended. His idea of liberty for the negro was that it gave him the right to work for himself, but did not include the right to vote. He believed that this is a "white man's Government" and must remain such. He insisted that the question of negro suffrage rested solely with the people of the Southern States."

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Congress was divided; a few members held with Senator Sumner that the Southern States had committed political suicide, and that the Government should proceed to deal with them as conquered territory. Thaddeus Stevens went further still and proposed to confiscate the "estates of rebels" worth more than $10,000, to give forty acres of land to each "freedman," and to use the remainder in paying off the national war debt.1271 But the great majority of Congress held that the States still existed as States, and that the Constitution, though suspended, was still in force in that section. They insisted, however, that Congress, and Congress only, should decide on the readmission of the seceded States to their political rights. This view was confirmed later (1868) by a decision of the Supreme Court (Texas vs. White),172

Johnson had none of Lincoln's tact; he stood up stubbornly in defence of his theory. Congress was equally determined; the result was a prolonged battle between the Executive and Legislative power. In that battle Secretary Seward stood

firmly by the President.

at once.

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513. The grand review; disbanding the army; the war debt; condition of the South. The struggle between the Executive and Congress over reconstruction did not begin The close of the war called for a grand military review at Washington. The parade of even a part of the Union armies occupied two entire days (May 23, 24, 1865). On the first day the "Army of the Potomac," with General Meade at the head, marched from the national capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the "White House." The following day General Sherman at the head of the "Army of the West" passed over the same ground. These men were no "holiday troops," but a great body of war-worn veterans, "who had not slept under a roof for years." They bore the shot-torn banners which they had carried on a hundred hard-fought fields. On those fields they had left dead comrades, far more numerous than the throngs who now joined with them in celebrating the final victory of peace.

The muster-out of the Union forces — more than a million in number — had already begun. It continued at the rate of about 250,000 a month, until all but a comparatively small force of regular troops had been disbanded. At the same time the Government began to pay off the war debt, and before all the soldiers had been discharged the debt had been reduced $30,000,000. The European press predicted that men who had so long been accustomed to the use of arms would not return peacefully to their homes; but they went back as quietly as they came. The Confederates did the same; they, like the Union forces, had that American sense of self-respect which forbade disorder.

But the "men in blue" and the "men in gray" returned to widely different fields. The devastating hand of war had

hardly touched the North in a material sense. No invading armies had ravaged the loyal States. In that section, throughout the terrible contest, trade, commerce, agriculture, and manufacturing flourished, and thousands prospered and grew rich.

At the South everything was different. The followers of Lee and Johnston, "ragged, half-starved, heavy-hearted," went back to find practically everything gone. Their money was worthless, their States bankrupt, their railroads and manufactories destroyed, their houses in ruins, their barns empty, their plantations stripped, their slaves set free.

But though the people of the South had little left but the land and their hands with which to work it, yet they did not despair. Alexander H. Stephens spoke for multitudes when he said: "We should accept the issues of the war and abide by them in good faith." "The whole United States is now our country, to be cherished and defended as such by all our hearts and all our arms." The speaker claimed "full protection" for the negroes, so that they should "stand equal before the law in the provision and enjoyment of all rights of person, liberty, and property." 1273

Lee exhibited the same loyal purpose. He applied to the Government for pardon in order to encourage others to do likewise. When Johnston bade farewell to his men he urged them to devote all their energies "to discharge the duties of good and peaceful citizens." 1274 Out of this spirit and the life and labor it has inspired a "new South" has arisen, progressive, prosperous, patriotic.

514. Proclamations respecting the South; ratification of the XIIIth Amendment. Before Congress met, the President issued a proclamation (1865) opening the Southern ports east of the Mississippi, and removing all restrictions on trade and intercourse. He next offered free and full pardon to all save the leaders in the "late rebellion," on the same general conditions as those offered by Lincoln (§ 511). President Johnson soon afterward declared the insurrection over in Ten

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nessee. The following spring (1866) he made the same declaration respecting all the Southern States except Texas. few months later he proclaimed that peace and civil authority existed "throughout the whole of the United States of America.'

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When Congress met (1865) it omitted the names of the late Confederate States from its roll-call, and appointed a committee to inquire into their condition. The announcement was made by the Secretary of State that the XIIIth Amendment (§ 476)

the first constitutional amendment which had been adopted for sixty years had been duly ratified (Appendix, p. xvii). It clinched and extended the Emancipation Proclamation so that it covered all the States (§ 476) and made the reëstablishment of slavery impossible.

515. Veto of the second Freedmen's Bureau Bill and of the Civil Rights Bill; the XIVth Amendment. The original Freedmen's Bureau Act was about to expire by limitation (§ 511). Congress therefore (February 6, 1866) passed a bill renewing that act. It extended the powers of the commissioner and provided military protection for the "freedmen." President Johnson vetoed it. His grounds were: (1) that the bill was a war measure which was uncalled for in time of peace; (2) that it took land from former owners without due process of law, and gave it to the destitute "freedmen" and "refugees"; (3) finally, he objected that the bill was unconstitutional, because it had been passed by a Congress from which "all the people of eleven States were excluded.1276 The veto killed the proposed act, but later (July 16, 1866) Congress passed a similar bill over a second veto.

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Meanwhile the President bitterly denounced Congress in a public speech, and declared that two prominent members, whom he called by name, were laboring to destroy the Government. 1277 Congress retaliated by passing the Civil Rights Bill. This bill

*The Southern Union white men who took refuge with the Union armies were called "refugees"; many of them had lost everything.

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