CHAPTER XVI.

MOVEMENTS TOWARDS RECONSTRUCTION.

STATE GOVERNMENTS IN LOUISIANA AND ARKANSAS.--DIFFERENCE OF VIEWS between the President and CoNGRESS. THE Rebellion and Labor.— THE PRESIDENT ON BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATIONS.-ADVANCING ACTION CONCERING THE NEGRO RACE.-FREE STATE CONSTITUTIONS.

THE proclamation which accompanied the Annual Message of the President for 1864 embodied the first suggestions of the Administration on the important subject of reconstructing the Governments of those States which had joined in the secession movement. The matter had been canvassed somewhat extensively by the public press, and by prominent politicians, in anticipation of the overthrow of the rebellion, and the view taken of the subject had been determined, to a very considerable extent, by the sentiments and opinions of the different parties as to the object and purpose of the war. The supporters of the Administration did not all hold precisely the same ground on this subject. As has already been seen, in the debates of the Congress of 1862-3, a considerable number of the friends of the Government, in both houses, maintained that, by the act of secession, the revolted States had put themselves outside the pale of the Constitution, and were henceforth to be regarded and treated, not as members of the Union, but as alien enemies: *-that their State organ

* President Lincoln's view of this position is stated in the following note addressed by him to the publishers of the North American Review, which contained an article upon his policy of administration:

"MESSES. CROSBY & NICHOLS:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 16, 1864

"GENTLEMEN :-The number for this month and year of the North American Reviero was daly received, and for which please accept my thanks. Of course I am not the most impartial Judge: yet, with due allowance for this, I venture to hope that the article entitled 'The Presi

izations and State boundaries had been expunged by then own act; and that they were to be readmitted to the jurisdiction of the Constitution, and to the privileges of the Union, only upon such terms and conditions as the Federal Government of the loyal States might prescribe. On the other hand, it was held that the acts of secession, passed by the several State Governments, were absolutely null and void, and that while the persons who passed them, and those who aided in giving them effect, by taking up arms against the United States, had rendered themselves liable individually to the penalties of treason, they had not, in any respect, changed the relations of their States, as such, to the Federal Government. The governments of those States had been for a time subverted; but they might at any time be re-established upon a republican basis, under the authority and protection of the United States. The proclamation proceeded, in the main, upon the latter theory. The President had the power, under the Constitution, and by specific legislation of Congress, to grant pardons upon such conditions as he might deem expedient. In the exercise of this power, President Lincoln released from legal penalties and restored to the rights of citizenship all, in each State, with

dent's Policy' wi. be of value to the country. I fear I am not worthy of all which is therein kindly said of me personally.

"The sentence of twelve lines, commencing at the top of page 252, I could wish to be not exactly what it is. In what is there expressed, the writer has not correctly understood me. I have never had a theory that secession could absolve States or people from their obligations. Precisely the contrary is asserted in the inaugural address; and it was because of my belief in the continuation of those obligations that I was puzzled, for a time, as to denying the legal rights of those citizens who remained individually innocent of treason or rebellion. But I mean no more now than to merely call attention to this point.

"Yours respectfully,

The sentence referred to by Mr. Lincoln is as follows:

"A. LINCOLN."

"Even so long ago as when Mr. Lincoln, not yet convinced of the danger and magnitude of the crisis, was endeavoring to persuade himself of Union majorities at the South, and carry on a war that was half peace, in the hope of a peace that would have been all war, while he was still enforcing the Fugitive Slave law, under some theory that secession, however it might ab solve States from their obligations, could not escheat them of their claims under the Constitution, and that slaveholders in rebellion had alone, among mortals, the privilege of having their cake ad cating it at the same time,-the enemies of free government were striving to persuade the people that the war was an abolition crusade. To rebel without reason was proclaimed as ne of the rights of man, while it was carefully kept out of sight that to suppress rebellion is the first duty of government."

certain specified exceptions, who should take and abide by a prescribed oath; and then he proclaimed his pur pose to recognize them as the citizens of such State, and as alone competent to organize and carry on the local government; and he pledged the power of the General Government to protect such republican State Governments as they might establish, "against invasion, and against aomestic violence." By way of precaution against a usurpation of power by strangers, he insisted on the same qualifications for voting as had been required by the constitution and laws of the State previous to secession :and to provide against usurpation of power by an insignificant minority, he also required that the new government should be elected by at least one-tenth as many voters as had voted in the State at the Presidential election of 1860. In the oath which he imposed as essential to citizenship, the President required a pledge to sustain the Constitution of the United States, the laws of Congress, and the Executive proclamations and acts on the subject of slavery, so long and so far as the same should not be declared invalid and of no binding obligation by the Supreme Court of the United States. These were the foundations of the broad and substantial basis laid by the President for the restoration of the Union, and the re-establishment of loyal republican governments in the sev eral seceded States.

Various indications in the Southern States had satisfied the President that the time had come when the work of reconstruction might safely and wisely be thus commenced. In Tennessee, where the rebels had never maintained any permanent foothold, but where the Government at Washington had found it necessary to commit the local authority to Andrew Johnson, as Provisional Governor, there had been a very strong party in favor of restoring the State to its former position as a member of the Federal Union. But in Louisiana the movements in the same direction had been earlier and more decided than in any other Southern State. The occupation of New Orleans by the National forces, and the advent of General Butler

as commander of that Military Department, on the 1st of May, 1862, speedily satisfied a very considerable portion of the inhabitants, who had property at stake in the city and State, that the rebel authority could never be restored. There were, however, even among professed Unionists, many who devoted their time and energy rather to carping at the measures which the Government felt itself called upon to pursue, and to the promotion and adoption of their individual views, than to cordial co-operation with the President in his efforts to re-establish the forms of civil government upon a proper basis. It was in answer to such a complaint that the President wrote the following letter:

CUTHBERT BULLITT, Esq., New Orleans, La. :

WASHINGTON, D. C., July 28, 1962.

SIR-The copy of a letter addressed to yourself by Mr. Thomas J. Durant has been shown to me. The writer appears to be an able, a dispassionate, and an entirely sincere man. The first part of the letter is devoted to an effort to show that the secession ordinance of Louisiana was adopted against the will of the majority of the people. This is probably true, and in that fact may be found some instruction. Why did they allow the ordinance to go into effect? Why did they not exert themselves? Why stand passive and allow themselves to be trodden down by a minority? Why did they not hold popular meetings, and have a convention of their own to express and enforce the true sentiments of the State? If pre-organization was against them, then why not do this now that the United States army is present to protect them? The paralyzer-the dead palsy -of the Government in the whole struggle is, that this class of men will do nothing for the Government-nothing for themselves, except demanding that the Government shall not strike its enemies, lest they be struck by accident.

Mr. Durant complains that, in various ways, the relation of master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our army; and he considers it particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional guarantees are superseded on the plea of military necessity. The truth is, that what is done and omitted about slaves is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military neces sity to have men and money; and we cannot get either, in sufficient numbers or amounts, if we keep from or drive from our lines slaves coming to them.

Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this direction, nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds, till he, and such as he, shall have time to help themselves.

I am not posted to speak understandingly on the public regulations of which Mr. Durant complains. If experience shows any of them to be wrong, let them be set right. I think I can perceive in the freedom of trade which Mr. Durant urges, that he would relieve both friends and enemies from the pressure of the blockade. By this he would serve the enemy more effectively than the enemy is able to serve himself.

I do not say or believe that to serve the enemy is the purpose of Mr. Durant, or that he is conscious of any purposes other than national and patriotic ones. Still, if there were a class of men who, having no choice of sides in the contest, were anxious only to have quiet and comfort for themselves while it rages, and to fall in with the victorious side at the end of it, without loss to themselves, their advice as to the mode of conducting the contest would be precisely such as his.

He speaks of no duty, apparently thinks of none, resting upon Union men. He even thinks it injurious to the Union cause that they should be restrained in trade and passage, without taking sides. They are to touch neither a sail nor a pump-live merely passengers (" dead-heads" at that) -to be carried snug and dry throughout the storm and safely landed right side up. Nay, more-even a mutineer is to go untouched, lest these sacred passengers receive an accidental wound.

Of course, the rebellion will never be suppressed in Louisiana, if the professed Union men there will neither help to do it, nor permit the Government to do it without their help.

Now, I think the true remedy is very different from what is suggested by Mr. Durant. It does not lie in rounding the rough angles of the war, but in removing the necessity for the war. The people of Louisiana, who wish protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national au thority and set up a State Government conforming thereto under the Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon as such Government can dispense with its presence, and the people of the State can then, upon the old terms, govern themselves to their own liking. This is very simple and easy.

If they will not do this, if they prefer to hazard all for the sake of destroying the Government, it is for them to consider whether it is probable I will surrender the Government to save them from losing all. If they decline what I suggest, you will scarcely need to ask what I will do.

What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is, or would you prosecute it in future with elder-stalk squirts, charged with rose-water? Would you deal lighter blows rather than heavier ones? Would you give up the contest leaving every available means unapplied?

I ain in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, but I shall do all I can to save the Government, which is my sworn duty as well as