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of any citizen. The federal courts were to be open to all citizens. Thus the colored man would be a citizen of the United States, and could appeal to the national courts against such laws as those passed by the reconstructed states. The amendment did not compel the states to grant the privilege of voting. That the state could grant or refuse, but if refused, the representation of the state in congress was to be reduced in proportion to the number of those who could not vote. The third section of the amendment made it impossible for those confederate officers who had been in the service of the United States or of a state before the war to vote or to hold office. This restricted the president's pardoning power, and would also throw government in the southern states into the hands of union men and the freedmen. The fourth section guaranteed the debt of the United States, and at the same time made all debts of the confederacy null and void. These provisions were the same as those which had been put in the Civil Rights Bill. The fourteenth amendment was declared in force July 28, 1868.

600. The Congressional Election of 1866.-The election of representatives to congress in 1866 was looked forward to as decisive as to the will of the northern people in regard to the fourteenth amendment and of the struggle between president and congress. If the people sided with the president they would elect representatives favorable to his plan; if not, they would elect representatives favorable to the congressional plan. The campaign was very warm, and the president made most undignified and violent speeches against his opponents, abusing congress, asserting that certain congressmen were trying to destroy the constitution, and more than hinting that the same individuals wished to have him assassinated. Such unwise expressions increased Johnson's unpopularity, and helped materially to ruin the cause which he championed. As a consequence, the new congress was to be more bitterly opposed to the president than the old one.

601. Congress Limits Johnson's Powers. While the elec

tions were taking place, all the southern states, excepting only Tennessee, had contemptuously rejected the fourteenth amendment, which could not become part of the constitution without their assent. Congress at once admitted Tennessee to the union, and decreed that the other ten seceded states could not come back until they had ratified the amendment. The Republicans then carried out a program which put them in complete control. In the first place, the congress just elected was authorized to meet on the 4th of March, 1867, instead of in December. This would give the president no chance whatever to carry out measures which congress opposed. The Republicans next passed the Tenure of Office Act, by which the president was forbidden to dismiss any government official without the consent of the senate; they then enacted a third measure which made General Grant supreme as head of the army, so that the president's control over the troops was taken away.

602. The Completed Reconstruction Measures.-The congress elected in 1866 met on the 4th of March, 1867, and at once completed the reconstruction measures. The ten southern states still outside the union were divided into five military districts, over each of which a general was placed to carry out by military force the policy of congress. The measures of reconstruction were then formulated. The state governments recognized by the president were set aside; all citizens of the southern states, white or colored, not excluded by the fourteenth amendment, were to elect delegates to state conventions. The conventions would draw up new constitutions. These constitutions, however, must allow the freedmen to vote. The constitution was next to be ratified by the same voters who had elected the delegates to the convention. The state was then ready to enter the union, but before it came in, it must adopt the fourteenth amendment. Until that was done the military officers would remain in control.

603. Reconstruction Carried Out.-This plan put the power in the southern states into the hands of southern union men

and the freedmen. The result was that the conventions in Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida accepted the conditions of congress, approved the fourteenth amendment, and were recognized as being states with full state powers. The work was completed in June, 1868. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas refused to accept the fourteenth amendment; Georgia, after accepting it, passed laws against the colored man, and was refused admission. These four states, therefore, remained subject to military rule.

604. Military Rule in the South.-The military governments set up by congress had absolute power in the southern states until reconstruction was complete. The generals in command made regulations; dismissed and appointed civil officers at pleasure; set aside the laws and institutions of the various states, and put military courts in the place of the civil courts. The colored people were protected in their rights and encouraged to vote and hold office.

605. The New Governments.-Where reconstruction was completed, the new governments usually fell into the hands of the most incapable and least competent classes of the population. Not infrequently white men, contemptuously called "scalawags," men without property or character, and without experience of political life, controlled the colored vote to enable them to secure the offices and plunder the country. They were joined by a number of northern men of much more ability and political experience, but most of whom came to the south to make fortunes. These people were called "carpet-baggers," because in many cases they brought all their worldly possessions with them in a carpet-bag. Some of them were honest and desired to help the south, but many were neither honest nor helpful. Legislatures made up of these classes voted vast sums of money to themselves and their friends. In South Carolina a mixed legislature furnished the statehouse in magnificent style: clocks cost $480 each; mirrors, $750, and each member was voted a china

cuspidor worth $8. At the end of each session all this magnificent furniture mysteriously disappeared, and the legislative halls had to be refurnished at equal expense. Many of the legislators, and even many of the judges, could neither read nor write. Some of these legislatures often voted money lavishly-even recklessly. In four years and a half the debt of Louisiana was increased by $106,000,000. Taxes became so oppressive that many impoverished southern planters could not pay them and had to part with the old plantations.

606. The Impeachment of President Johnson.-President Johnson, left in an office without power, and, on account of the Tenure of Office Act, denied the privilege of getting rid of officials who were obnoxious to him, struggled vainly against the will of the majority in congress. Finally, he resolved to dismiss Secretary Stanton, in spite of the Tenure Act, which forbade his dismissing any official without the consent of the senate. Hereupon Stanton appealed to the house of representatives, which, on February 24, 1868, impeached the president. The impeachment was brought before the senate, with the chief justice, for this purpose, its presiding officer. On May 16 a vote was reached on the article charging Johnson with having broken the Tenure of Office Act. It was then found that two-thirds of the senate would not declare the president guilty, the vote being 35 for conviction to 19 against. Hereupon the impeachment failed. This trial produced the greatest excitement both in congress and throughout the country, and provoked much bitterness of party spirit.

607. The State of Nebraska.-On March 1, 1867, Nebraska was admitted as the thirty-seventh state. The constitution of the new state not only granted freedom to all men, but the franchise to the colored man.

608. Mexico and the Monroe Doctrine.-During the civil war France had picked a quarrel with the republic of Mexico, and Napoleon III. had sent an expedition to that

country in 1862. Once there, he refused to withdraw his army, and finally set up the luckless Archduke Maximilian of Austria as emperor of Mexico. The United States protested at once, but could do nothing. When the war was over, however, Secretary Seward hinted to the French minister that the Monroe Doctrine was being violated by the constant presence of French troops in Mexico. Matters now wore a different face, and Napoleon recognized the situation and withdrew. The Emperor Maximilian, however, decided to remain. Thereupon the Mexicans took him captive, and on the 19th of June, 1867, executed him as a traitor.

609. The Purchase of Alaska.-In 1867 the United States added Alaska to its territory by purchase from Russia. The credit of the annexation is Secretary Seward's. At the time there was much ridicule of the proceeding, and people were inclined to be indignant at the expenditure of $7,200,000 for a barren expanse of territory. Time, however, seems to have proved Seward's wisdom, since the mineral resources of the territory are of immense value.

610. Election of 1868.-The Republicans were now through with Johnson for good or ill. In 1868 they nominated General Grant for president. Horatio Seymour of New York was the Democratic candidate. Grant was easily elected, receiving 214 electoral votes to Seymour's 80.

GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION

REPUBLICAN: 1869-1877

611. Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth president of the United States, was the son of an Ohio farmer. In 1839 he was appointed a West Point cadet. On his graduation he was made a second lieutenant, and was soon engaged in the Mexican war with credit to himself. In 1854, after attaining the rank of captain, he retired and went into business in St. Louis until August, 1860, when he removed to Galena, Illinois, where he acted as clerk in his father's store. At the beginning of the war he was appointed colonel of volun

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