REORGANIZATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

413 the Confederate forces were to be regarded as still holding them, on condition of taking and subscribing the amnesty oath. This clause of the ordinance shows the predominant influence of the old ruling class. It was rendered negative by the condition required, as few of the high officials could run the gauntlet of the fourteen excepted classes of President Johnson's Amnesty proclamation.

It is evident that the President's plan could not have been carried out in South Carolina, as regarded the higher officials, without his co-operation in granting pardons : this was a policy which would have worked far better in North than in South Carolina. It was not resorted to, except as to magistrates and subordinate officers. The governor thought that emancipation would cause the negroes to abandon labor to a considerable extent, and it did for some time. He advised the sale of superfluous lands to immigrants and capitalists. He thought it desirable that members should be elected to Congress immediately, so that they might be present in Washington and have their names enrolled by the clerk. He believed that this course would insure their reception.

The election for members of the legislature, governor, and lieutenantgovernor took place on the 18th of October. James L. Orr, who had for many years held a seat in Congress, in which body he took a leading part, was chosen governor by a small majority over Wade Hampton, who had distinguished himself as a general in the Confederate service. The total vote was only 18,885, which, as representing a population of 250,000 whites and 400,000 blacks, must be regarded as very light. It was less than three per centum of the people. The legislature met in extra session on the 25th, only seven days after the election. The provisional governor addressed a long message to that body. It was characterized by the conservative spirit which marked his career from the beginning. He claimed to have been appointed without solicitation on his part or that of his friends. After stating his reasons for accepting the appointment, and his desire to carry out the generous views of the President, he said: "Though I received my appointment several months after other provisional governors had been commissioned, I have the pleasure of informing you that South Carolina is now as far advanced in her reconstruction as any other Southern state. Instead of wasting time in trying to fill all the civil offices of the state by my personal or political friends and partisans, I determined to restore those who were in office at the suppression of the civil government, and who had been elected by the people or appointed by the legislature, and were familiar with their official duties. I knew too well the character of South Carolina to doubt for a moment that her sons would prove loyal and true, after renewing their oaths of allegiance to the United States. In this way I re-established civil government at once in South Carolina, and greatly expedited her reconstruction."

An obstacle to the legitimate action of this first session of the legislature presented itself in the fact that the governor-elect under the constitution had not been sworn in. The approval of acts by the provisional governor would not be valid, as he was not an executive known to the constitution. The matter was referred to a committee which reported in favor of proceeding with legislation, with the understanding that the enactments were to await the signature of the constitutional governor when he should be sworn in. But the legislature, regarding this course as improper, took a recess from the 10th to the 27th of November. In the meantime the obstruction was removed by the recognition of the governor-elect on the part of the President, and on the 27th of November he was sworn in. President Johnson and Secretary Seward sent repeated dispatches to Governor Perry, urging the importance of the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The governor replied that the objection on the part of members of the legislature was, that the second clause might be construed into an authorization of congressional legislation with regard to the subject. Mr. Seward answered that the objection was "querulous and unreasonable," and that the clause in question was "really restraining in its effects, instead of enlarging the powers of Congress." This persuasive style of argument, from the head of the Cabinet, had its intended effect of inducing favorable action on the amendment.

The President called the attention of Governor Perry to the necessity of repudiating the debt contracted by the state in aid of the rebellion. To this that officer replied that the convention had adjourned, and that the legislature had no authority to repudiate it; that the debt thus contracted was inconsiderable in amount; that it was for the most part due to widows and orphans whose estates had been invested in it for safety; and that it was so blended with the legitimate debt as scarcely to be distinguishable. Mr. Seward, in reply to the governor, said that while the objections which he had urged were serious, nevertheless the President awaited with interest the action of the legislature upon the subject. The tone of the dispatches from the President and the Secretary of State to the provisional governor on this subject was less imperative than that employed in regard to other states. The legislature on October 19th passed an act preliminary to the legislation that would become necessary in consequence of the emancipation of the slaves. A commission was appointed to revise the laws in regard to negroes, and to adapt them to the new order of things. The commission, consisting of two lawyers, made their report to the legislature; but that body failed to act upon it, and it fell to the ground, with the whole fabric of Mr. Johnson's policy. The preliminary act referred to declared that all classes of negroes save those having seven-eighths or more of Caucasian blood, should be deemed persons of color; that the statutes and regulations concerning slaves wer of then inapplicable to persons of color; and that, although such persons w

REORGANIZATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

415

not entitled to social and political equality with white persons, they should have the right to acquire, own, and dispose of property, to make contracts, to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to sue and be sued, and to receive protection under the law in their persons and property. It extended to persons of color, subject to certain modifications, all civil rights and remedies respecting persons and property, and all duties and liabilities under laws, civil and criminal, which applied to white persons.

An act to amend the criminal law was passed on December 19th. It provided that the crimes specified in the first section should be felonies, punishable with death. The law was made particularly applicable to persons of color with respect to some of these crimes. These were willful homicide by a person of color unless in self-defense; any assault by a person of color upon a white woman, with manifest intent to ravish her, and sexual intercourse by a person of color with a white woman by personating her husband. There were other offenses defined in this category, but they seem to have been general in their application. Among them, to steal a horse or mule, or bale of cotton, was set down as a capital felony. Among the offenses also enumerated for persons of color, was the selling by such person of any product of the soil without written authority from the master who employed him. This act declared also that persons of color constituted no part of the militia of the state, and made it a misdemeanor for a colored person to have in possession any fire-arms without a permit from a judge or magistrate. It prohibited a colored person owning, in whole or in part, a distillery, or to be engaged in distilling spirituous liquors. The penalty was by fine, corporal punishment, or hard labor. It was also provided that no person of color should migrate into, or reside in the state, unless within twenty days after his arrival he should enter into bond, with two freeholders as securities, to be approved by a judge or magistrate, in a penalty of one thousand dollars, for his good behavior, and for his support if he should become unable to support himself. Any person might arrest a person of color for a misdemeanor committed in his presence, or for a misdemeanor committed against a white person. Any person might make the complaint to a magistrate, whose duty it became to have the offender arrested. Special courts were to be established, with exclusive jurisdiction, subject to appeal, in cases in which one or both the parties were persons of color; and persons of color were allowed to be witnesses in all such cases.

The intelligent reader need not be reminded how inopportune, as well as unjust, were these enactments for the government of the freedmen. The hatred of slavery had then risen to fever heat in all the Northern states, and there was a rapidly growing sentiment - which this sort of legislation fructified-in favor of giving unqualified and universal suffrage to the emancipated blacks. It was little short of madness, therefore, for Southern men to think of substituting a system of serfdom, in place of slavery. The immediate

effect of this new colored code was to call from the commander of the district, Maj.-Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, a general order which completely nullified, or quashed, the whole fabric of the legislative labor.

This general order consisted of twenty-three sections. It declared, among other things, that all laws should be applicable alike to all inhabitants; that no person should be held incompetent to sue, make complaint, or testify, because of color or caste. The order declared that the employment of husbandry, or the useful arts, and all lawful trades or callings, might be followed by all persons, irrespective of color or caste; and that no freedman should be obliged to pay any tax or any fee for a license, or be amenable to any municipal or parish ordinance, not imposed upon all other persons. The general order then proceeded seriatim to annul the enactments of the legislature which discriminated against colored persons. The restraints imposed upon colored men who desired to pursue mechanical and other occupations, which were not menial nor agricultural, and the prohibition to travel from place to place were abolished. Any attempt to enforce these obnoxious legislative acts was made a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. And so with all other legislative discriminations against colored people. No penalties or punishments were to be inflicted on freedmen different from those to which white men were liable; and corporal punishment was prohibited, except in the case of minors, and then only by parents, guardians, or persons to whom the minors were lawfully bound. Injuries to the person or property of a freedman were to be punished in the manner provided by the laws of South Carolina for like injuries to white persons and their property.

It must be admitted that this order of Major-General Sickles was conceived in a spirit of wisdom and justice; and that in this regard it contrasts favorably with the legislative enactments of South Carolina which it annulled and superseded. This is not the first instance in history in which the will of one man invested with despotic authority has vindicated the rights of the masses against the tyranny of an oligarchy. — The Romans created their Tribunes, and gave them the veto on the Senate with that express object. The leaders of the dominant party in Congress eagerly took advantage of this sort of legislation to protract reconstruction, in the furtherance of their policy to deny the Southern States a republican form of government, until they should be transformed into partisan allies.

CHAPTER XXIII.

FLORIDA

TEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS OF STATES.- CONTINUED.

DEPENDENT ON OTHER STATES-THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNOR, JOHN MILTON - HIS SUCCESSOR, GOVERNOR WALKER - FLORIDA ADOPTS THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT - LEGISLATION AS TO NEGROES, FIREARMS, MARRIAGE, CONTRACTS, AND VAGRANCY – VIRGINIA ATTEMPTS TO RECONSTRUCT GENERAL BUTLER'S ACTION GENERAL WEITZEL AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN AT RICHMOND – PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S ORDER - PIERPONT'S GOVERNMENT — ATTEMPTED REPEAL OF WEST VIRGINIA SECESSION - CONGRESS INDIFFERENT-INDORSEMENT OF JOHNSON'S POLICY —) - LOUISΙΑΝΑ GENERAL BUTLER AND THE COLORED PEOPLE HIS VERSATILE AND VALUABLE QUALITIES — ATTEMPTS TO ORGANIZE COURTS – REGISTRY, VOTERS, AND GOVERNMENT – GENERAL BANKS AND HIS EFFORTS GOVERNOR HAHN AND HIS PELICANS GOVERNOR WARMOUTH AND HIS RADICALS ONE-TENTH VOTING POLICY. -PRESIDENT JOHNSON INTERVENES BLOODY RIOTS OF 1864 · WARMOUTH GOVERNOR - NEW CONSTITUTION IN 1868-WARMOUTH'S LETTER -ITS STATEMENTS DENIED-OTHER RIOTS UNTIL 1868-LOUISIANA RECLAIMED - CONFISCATION AND RASCALITY. -WINTER DAVIS' BILL-ARKANSAS-HER EARLY MOVEMENTS - RADICALS IN CHARGE — LEGISLATIVE CRUDITIES - CONVENTION OF 1866-LABOR QUESTIONS - SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS BOTH TYRANNICAL — THE POLAND COMMITTEE — GARLAND SAVES THE STATE-SKETCH OF GOVERNOR, SENATOR, AND

ATTORNEY-GENERAL GARLAND.

F

LORIDA was an out-lying state, of small population and wealth. She had escaped the ravages of war. No strategic advantage was to be gained by contesting the possession of any of her extensive territory, except Pensacola. It was well understood that her fate would follow that of the adjoining states, and that their submission to the arms of the Republic would compel her compliance.

The governor was John Milton. Although not conspicuous for his energy, he was as representative a man as any of the five who are pictured in the preceding chapter. His life is worth a study in its relation to the great events of which it formed a part. He served during the whole war, as