CHAPTER XXVIII.

RECONSTRUCTION ACTS IN THE SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT.

NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA-GENERAL SICKLES ASSIGNED TO COMMAND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS APPLIED - REMOVALS OF LOCAL OFFICERS - OBJECTIONS FROM THE PRESIDENT-STATE “STAY LAWS" ENFORCED BY GENERAL SICKLES -THE UNITED STATES MARSHAL OF NORTH CAROLINA DISREGARDS THE "STAY LAW"-HE IS SUSTAINED BY THE PRESIDENT – GENERAL SICKLES RESIGNS THE COMMAND-GENERAL CANBY SUCCEEDS HIM-HE APPROVES OF SICKLES' COURSE-THE REGISTRATION OF VOTERS IN THE TWO STATES-THE WHITE AND COLORED VOTES-THE CONVENTIONS-THE NEW CONSTITUTIONS-THE LEGISLATURES AND THE LEGISLATION- THE STATE OFFICERS - THE METHODS OF THE "CARPET-BAGGERS" AND THEIR NATIVE ASSOCIATES-NOT MAKING BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW-THE ISSUE OF FRAUDULENT BONDS - THE TAXATION AND THE DEBTS - THE PLUNDERERS DISPERSED—A JUSTIFIABLE REVOLUTION CONGRESSIONAL CONDITIONS OF REHABILITATION — THEIR ACCEPTANCE-THE LONG PROBATION — 1865 TO 1877.

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ENERAL Daniel E. Sickles assumed the command of the Second military district, composed of North and South Carolina, with headquarters at Charleston, on the 21st of March, 1867. On the same day he issued an order announcing his assumption of authority, and the principles by which he would be governed. The latter were those of the Reconstruction acts of Congress. For the protection of the inhabitants in their persons and property, and the suppression of insurrection and disorder, the local civil tribunals were permitted to take jurisdiction of and try causes, excepting only such as might, by order of the commanding general, be referred to a commission or other military tribunal for trial. The order stated that the civil government then existing in North Carolina and South Carolina was provisional only. It was subject to the paramount authority of the United States. It might at any time be abolished, modified, or superseded. Local laws and municipal regulations, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States or the proclamations

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of the President, or with such regulations as might be prescribed in the orders of the commanding general, were declared to be in force. In conformity with these principles, the civil officers were authorized to continue the exercise of their proper functions. Every case of neglect or refusal on the part of the civil authorities to perform the duties required of them by law was to be promptly reported to headquarters by the post commanders. These officers were required to make arrests for crimes and offenses against the laws, whenever the civil officers neglected or failed to act. The commanding general appealed to the civil officers and to all good citizens to aid him in the delicate duties imposed upon him for preservation of order. A special order was issued on the 10th of April, in regard to affairs at Wilmington, North Carolina. By this order, two policemen of that town were removed, on the charge that they had "shown a want of discretion and judgment in the discharge of their duties, and had exhibited unwarranted violence in making arrests." This, and similar acts on the part of other district commanders, led to an elaborate opinion from the Attorney-General on the powers conferred upon the district commanders by the Reconstruction acts. opinion was to the effect that no authority had been given them to remove the civil officers of the states, or to appoint others in their places. This is the same opinion to which reference is made on page 378, ante. On the 14th of June, General Sickles sent a telegram to the Attorney-General, which read as follows: "In the present condition of these states, it is not practicable to afford adequate security to persons and property, unless the commanding general of the district is authorized to remove civil officers who fail to perform their duties."

The

General Sickles regarded the opinion of the Attorney-General as an impeachment of his administration. Other district commanders had construed their powers in favor of removals, and had acted accordingly. He tendered his resignation in a dispatch dated June 19. It was not acepted, however. An order issued by him on the 11th of April forbade sheriffs to execute civil process for the sale of property. This was in the nature of a stay law. It conformed to the act of the state legislature. It led to his removal from command of the district. The administrative officers of the two states obeyed the order. The marshal of South Carolina did likewise; but the marshal of North Carolina disregarded it. He attempted to sell the property of parties in Wilmington, under executions issued by order of Chief Justice Chase, presiding in the Circuit Court at Raleigh, in June of that year. General Sickles' subordinate, Colonel Frank, stopped the deputy in the execution of his duty. The deputy was instructed by the marshal to suspend the sale until General Sickles could be heard from. The latter officer sustained Colonel Frank. The marshal reported the facts to the Attorney-General, who laid the matter before the President. The course of the marshal was fully sustained. Chief Justice Chase had said on the 6th of June, when ad

dressing the Raleigh bar at the opening of his circuit in reference to the military government under the act of March 2, 1867: "This military authority does not extend in any respect to the courts of the United States." This was, no doubt, the first judicial interpretation of the act, and probably General Sickles had no information of it. He had too much regard for lawful, judicial authority ever to attempt to resist it. General Sickles was relieved, August 26, from the command of the district. He was directed to repair to

New-York on leave.

Prior to his being relieved, General Sickles issued a general order announcing that a registration of voters under the Reconstruction acts would commence on the third Monday in July. Instructions for this purpose were embraced in the order. On the 6th of July, however, he proposed, in a letter to the Adjutant-General, that the work should be postponed until the rights of certain classes to registration should be determined by Congress, or otherwise. General Canby superseded General Sickles on Sept. 5, 1867. Among his first important acts as commander of the district was a regulation for the selection of juries. He ordered that personal fitness, and not color, should be the rule. In his annual report of Aug. 31, 1868, General Canby expressed his approval of General Sickles' order for the arrest of the execution of civil process. The order continued to be enforced against process out of the state courts, because, as stated, the legislature had passed a stay law, on which the order was based. It is true that stay laws are unconstitutional, but martial rule is avowedly above constitutional restraints. This action of Generals Sickles and Canby evinced a strong disposition on their part to respect and enforce the state laws.

The number of persons registered under the acts of Congress, and authorized to vote for delegates to the state convention of 1867, as well as on the question whether a convention should be held, was 178,665. Of these, 93,006 voted for a convention, 32,962 voted against a convention, and 52,697 refrained from voting. A large majority of the delegates chosen were Republicans, in name at least, though most of them were ignorant of the real import of the term. The constitution framed by this convention enfranchised the whole male population of voting age,- twenty-one years,without regard to race or color. In other words, the class which had been excluded from the polls in electing delegates to the convention, and in the ratification of the constitution, was enfranchised. They were given equal privileges to those conferred on their former slaves by the Reconstruction

The revised registration, which was made on April 1, 1868, only six months after the first, showed the voting population of the state to be 198,873, or 20,208 more than the original registration under the Reconstruction acts. These additional voters, who were mostly white, did not vote, however, at the first election for governor, state officers, legislature, and congressmen. This was owing to an amendatory act of Congress, passed on March 11,

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1868, only six weeks before the state election under the new constitution. It provided: "That the constitutional convention of any of the states mentioned in the acts to which this is amendatory may provide that at the time of voting upon the ratification of the constitution, the registered voters may vote also for members of the House of Representatives of the United States, and for all elective officers provided for by the said constitution; and at the same election, the officers who shall make the return of the votes cast on the ratification or rejection of the constitution, shall enumerate and certify the votes cast for members of Congress." It is obvious that this act of Congress, by which ten or twelve thousand of the most intelligent people of the state were deprived of the right to vote at that election, was a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States, as well as of the spirit of the new constitution which was to be put in force. Under that new constitution, persons disfranchised by the Reconstruction acts were to be made qualified voters.

According to the report of the chief of the bureau of civil affairs, the original registration showed the white electors to be 106,721 in number, and the blacks to be 72,932; total, 179,653. The vote in 1868 on the ratification of the constitution was—white, 117,431, and colored, 79,445; for ratification, 93,118; against it, 74,009. From these figures, and in view of the fact that nearly every colored man voted, and voted one way, it would follow that of the 93,006 votes cast for the convention, and the 93,118 votes cast for the ratification of the constitution, not more than twenty-one or twenty-two thousand were white votes. It is singular that the six thousand five hundred and odd colored votes which were added by the revised registration failed to increase the Republican vote for ratification above that cast for the convention. Upon this view of the case the white vote for rejection of the constitution was considerably more than double the number cast against holding the convention. The Republicans elected large majorities to both branches of the legislature, thirty-eight to twelve in the senate, and eighty-two to thirty-eight in the house of representatives. They also elected five of the seven Representatives to Congress, among them John T. Deweese, a Northern man. Holden's majority for governor over Thomas S. Ashe, Democrat, was 18,641. The elections in 1870 and 1872, when the vote was universal, as the new constitution provided, reversed these majorities.

A history of reconstruction in North Carolina would be incomplete if it failed to give some account of the wholesale bribery and peculation that were practiced by majorities in the constitutional convention of 1867-'68, and in the legislature and by state officials in 1868-'69.

The Democrats came into power, or into the control of the legislature, in 1870. They appointed investigating committees. The details of the sworn testimony fill volumes. Want of space confines the author to a brief statement of a few of the cases.

George W. Swepson, a citizen of the state, a banker of Raleigh, president of the western division of the Western North Carolina Railroad, and a principal actor in these transactions, was brought before one of these committees. He stated on oath, in reply to a question as to the methods used to secure appropriations in aid of his and other roads, that he was told by "Littlefield and Deweese, lobby lawyers," that he could get no bills through the legislature in aid of his railroad unless he entered into the same arrangements that other railroad presidents had made. He was to pay them ten per centum in kind, of the amount of the appropriations. Littlefield passed for an ex-Union general, was a man of imposing presence, and possessed great influence with the unsophisticated native Republicans, white and colored. Deweese was also an ex-Union officer, whose character will be understood when it is stated that he bought his nomination to Congress from a colored rival, and resigned within three months after taking his seat, in order to avoid expulsion for selling a cadetship in the Annapolis naval school. Swepson, who had no repugnance to such methods, admitted that he accepted the terms of Littlefield and Deweese, and paid to them, or their order, $241,000, and some odd hundred dollars in money and bonds, for their services in procuring the passage of acts making appropriations for his railroad. He stated that he paid the amount in various ways—sometimes upon Littlefield's order, sometimes by taking up his notes and those of other parties at his request, sometimes in money, and sometimes in bonds. Swepson referred the committee of investigation to his clerk, G. Rosenthal, who gave a list of the parties to whom the money was paid. This list embraced nearly every leading Northern member of the convention and legislature, and not a few natives, "without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Among the persons named as recipients of large sums were Gen. Joseph C. Abbott, who went from New Hampshire, and who was elected a United States Senator; George Z. French, a prominent member of the convention and legislature; and Colonel Estes, a delegate to the convention, who was appointed collector of internal revenue. Mr. A. W. Tourgee, who was a leading member of the convention, and a number of others were said to have received smaller sums. Littlefield and Deweese, of course, drew their dividends, amounting to a large sum. The parties accused were allowed to go before the committee and give explanations of their connection with this fund. In some instances comparatively small amounts appear to have been paid out for legitimate objects, and under circumstances which show no complicity in the unlawful conspiracy against the treasury of the state. But this cannot be said of the transactions of the leading men in the convention and legislature with the managers of this corruption fund. Mr. Tourgee had been a captain or lieutenant in one of the Union regiments. After the war he remained in North Carolina. At the time he located there he was far