A Little Plain History

For clearness in what has gone before and what follows, I must write a little plain history.

Many who ought to have known Mr. Lincoln’s mind, among these General Sherman, with whom Mr. Lincoln had conversed freely, believed it his purpose to recognise existing State Governments in the South upon their compliance with certain conditions. These governments were given no option; governors calling legislatures for the purpose of expressing submission, were clapped into prison. Thus, these States were without civil State Governments, and under martial law. Some local governments and courts continued in operation subject to military power; military tribunals and Freedmen’s Bureaus were established.

Beginning May 29, 1865, with North Carolina, President Johnson reconstructed the South on the plan Mr. Lincoln had approved, appointing for each State a Provisional Governor empowered to call a convention to make a new State Constitution or remodel the old to meet new conditions. His policy was to appoint a citizen known for anti-Secession or Union sentiments, yet holding the faith and respect of his State, as Perry, of South Carolina; Sharkey, of Mississippi; Hamilton, of Texas. The conventions abolished slavery, annulled the secession ordinance, repudiated the Confederate debt, acknowledged the authority of the United States. An election was held for State officers and members of the legislature, voters qualifying as previous to 1861, and by taking the amnesty oath of May 29. Legislatures reËnacted the convention’s work of annulling secession, abolishing slavery, repudiating debt; and passed civil rights bills giving the negro status as a citizen, but without the franchise, though some leaders advised conferring it in a qualified form; they passed vagrancy laws which the North interpreted as an effort at reËnslavement.

Congress met December, 1865; President Johnson announced that all but two of the Southern States had reorganised their governments under the conditions required. Their representatives were in Washington to take their seats. With bitter, angry, contemptuous words, Congress refused to seat them. April 2, 1866, President Johnson proclaimed that in the South “the laws can be sustained by proper civil authority, State and Federal; the people are well and loyally disposed;” military occupation, martial law, military tribunals and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus “are in time of peace, dangerous to public liberty,” “incompatible with the rights of the citizen,” etc., “and ought not to be sanctioned or allowed; ... people who have revolted and been overcome and subdued, must either be dealt with so as to induce them voluntarily to become friends or else they must be held by the absolute military power and devastated ... which last-named policy is abhorrent to humanity and freedom.”

March 2, 1867, Congress passed an act that “Whereas, no legal State Governments exist ... in the rebel States ... said rebel States shall be divided into five military districts.” Over each a Federal General was appointed; existing local governments were subject to him; he could reverse their decisions, remove their officials and install substitutes; some commanders made radical use of power; others, wiser and kindlier, interfered with existing governments only as their position compelled. Upon the commanders Congress imposed the task of reconstructing these already once reconstructed States. Delegates to another convention to frame another Constitution were to be elected, the negroes voting. Of voters the test-oath was required, a provision practically disfranchising Southern whites and disqualifying them for office. Thaddeus Stevens, leader of the party forcing these measures, said of negro suffrage: “If it be a punishment to rebels, they deserve it.”

AUGUSTA J. EVANS WILSONOCTAVIA WALTON LE VERT

The South’s two most prominent literary women at the close of the war;
one a novelist and the other a writer of translations and books of travel.

Black and Tan Conventions met in long and costly sessions. That of Mississippi sat over a month before beginning the task for which convened, having passed the time in fixing per diems, mileages, proposing a bonus for negroes dismissed by employers, imposing taxes on anything and everything to meet the expenses of the convention; and badgering General Gillem, Commander of the District. The Black and Tan Conventions framed constitutions which, with tickets for State and National officers, were submitted to popular vote, negroes, dominated by a few corrupt whites, determining elections. With these constitutions and officials, “carpet-bag rule” came into full power and States were plundered. The sins of these governments have been specified by Northern and Southern authorities in figures of dollars and cents. At first, Southern Unionists and Northern settlers joined issues with the Republican Party. Oppressive taxation, spoliation, and other evils drove all respectable citizens into coalitions opposing this party; these coalitions broke up Radical rule in the Southern States, the last conquest being in Louisiana and South Carolina in 1876. No words can present any adequate picture of the “mongrel” conventions and legislatures, but in the following chapter I try to give some idea of the absurdities of one, which may be taken as type of all.[18]

THE BLACK AND TAN CONVENTION