as they did that of McClellan, Porter and Buell. Stanton and his confederates were the vile marplots of the campaign. The war would have been over in one year but for their scheming and corruption !-Headley vol. 2, pp. 602-3.

They also blamed Sherman for Jeff Davis' escape. The Radical press claiming that he had got off with a fabulous sum of money. They strove to hold Sherman responsible for his escape. Sherman replied, "why did not Stanton order his arrest, instead of publishing to the world, through the newspapers that they wanted him arrested?" Thus giving him an op portunity to escape. Headley vol. 2, p. 603.

May 4, 1865, Dick Taylor surrendered to Gen. Canby: May 26 Kirby Smith surrendered; and on May 31st, Hood surrendered. Thus ended the most stupendous rebellion on record. After Lee's surrender the whole Confederacy came down tumbling. It appeared that all depended on Lee, for after his surrender the whole Confederate army became demoralized, and wanted to surrender, for the majority in the South thought that they would have all the rights they ever had under the constitution, except slavery, which seemed to be abandoned by all, as one of the results of the war. So the Confederates from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, laid down their arms. The people of the South did not dream that their States would be reduced to territories; their representatives turned out of the Halls of Congress; the Southern States put under the control of five military despots! They did not dream that the Congress would try to hurl from office the President of the United States before his term of office expired! That the Congress would try to put the power of the executive, the Supreme Court, and the State legislatures under the control of Congress. If the people of the South were aware of all this, would they have surrendered with out further struggle? The Radicals should have carried out the terms of the surrender in good faith, for this surrender saved the lives of thousands. During the war the Radical party made capital out of the treatment of Union prisoners of war. Yet the rebel commissioner Ould offered to ex change all the Union prisoners under his command. But Stanton would not accept of this offer, for he wanted to make political capital out of the misery and sufferings of poor Union soldiers in Andersonville prison-to make capital out of the "rebel barbarities." The southern generals did not want prisoners of war for they wanted clothing and provisions for their own soldiers. In August 1864 Commissioner Ould offered the Federal Agent General Mulford to deliver to him all the sick and wounded Federal prisoners without insisting upon an exchange of prisoners. He also informed General Mulford of the great mortality among the Federal prisoners, telling him to send transportation to the mouth of the Savannah River for the purpose of taking them away. This offer included the sick and the wounded at Andersonville and other prisons. Stanton and other authorities at Washington failed to attend to this matter, and so thousands of Union soldiers lost their lives, to please the wicked ambition of Stanton. Oh! on his head rests the blood of thousands of Union soldiers.-Lost Cause 627. The same offer was made to General Grant, Feb. 11th, 1865. "To rule is worth ambition even in hell." The Republicans would rule even if it cost the country oceans of blood, mountains of debt, and hills of slain.

CHAPTER XXI.

Immediately after the death of Mr. Lincoln, Andrew Johnson the VicePresident of the United States, was sworn in President, under the forms of the constitution of the United States. The Republicans interviewed him by several committees to find out his "". "policy. He said in reply that his policy was known to the country. That his speech in Congress against Jeff Davis was ample to show his policy and what his principles were. That he would make no change in his cabinet. He retained in office all the Lincoln men from Seward and Stanton, down to the country post-masters. This gave great satisfaction to the Republicans. This was a blunder for he should have removed the traitor Stanton. The Radicals said that Johnson would be more severe on the rebels, especially on Jeff Davis, than Lincoln would have been. Leading Radicals changed the rejoicings to grief and their laudation of Johnson to denunciation "so out of the same mouth cometh blessing and curses."

On the 29th of May, 1865, Johnson had declared by proclamation, that all restrictions on Trade were removed East of the Mississippi.

On May 29, 1865, the President granted a general amnesty to rebels, excepting the following classes of persons.

Foreign agents of the conferacy, those who left judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion; and military officers of the confederate army above the rank of colonel and all naval officers above the rank of Lieutenant, all who resigned seats in the United States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States to join the rebellion. All who were governors of the rebel states and some others were also excluded. It was proclaimed that all persons not thus excepted were entitled to a restoration of all property except slaves and in cases where proceedings have been instituted for the confiscation of the property of persons engaged in the rebellion.

Those claiming the benefit of this amnesty proclamation were required to take and subscribe the following oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm), in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the constitu tion of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder and I will, in like manner abide by, and faithfully support all the laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves, so help me God."

December 7th, 1863, Lincoln issued an amnesty proclamation offering, a free pardon to rebels on taking an oath to support the constitution of the United States, and also "to abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the existing Rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified by decision of the supreme court." Exceptions were made of all who resigned seats in Congress. Federal judges or commissioned officers who resigned to take part in the rebellion, all officers of the rebel government; and all officers of the rebel army above the rank of colonel and all who treated Black soldiers and their officers" otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war.-Greeley, Am. Conf. vol. 2, p. 529.

At the second secession of the thirty-eighth Congress, Feb. 1, 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the constitution was proposed in Congress :-That "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United Stated, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legisla tion. The secretary of state December 18, 1865, by public notice, declared that this amendment was adopted by the constitutional number of states. Although the Republicans held that slavery was abolished by Lincoln's proclamation of January 1, 1863. Yet, they now found that it could be abolished only by the constitution of the United States! The President by proclamation of May 29, 1865, provided for the reorganization of a constitutional government for North Carolina, and appointed Wm. H. Holden provisional governor of the state. He provided that no person should be an elector or eligible as a member of the state convention unless he took the oath prescribed in the amnesty proclamation of May 29, 1865, and unless he was a voter under the constitution and laws of South Carolina, before May 20, 1861, the date of the ordinance of secession. The military commander of the department was authorized to aid the provisional governor in enforcing said proclamation, and the Secretaries of the departments were empowered to enforce the laws of the United States within the jurisdiction of North Carolina. In June 13, 1865, it was provided by proclamation for the reorganization of a constitutional government in Mississippi and William L. Sharkey was appointed provisional governor. June 17, 1865, a provisional government was appointed for Georgia, and James Johnson was appointed provisional governor; on the same day Andrew J. Hamilton was appointed provisional governor of Texas. June 21, 1865, Lewis E. Parsons was appointed provisional governor of Alabama. June 30, 1865, Benjamim T. Perry was appointed governor of South Carolina. June 13, 1865, William Marvin was appointed governor of Florida. All other seceded states were organized precisely on the same footing as North Carolina. October 12, 1865, the President by proclamation removed martial law. December 1, 1865, he restored the Writ of Habeas Corpus, and on September 1, 1865, all restrictions on trade were removed. Thus we find that the war was now over, slavery was abolished by an amendment to the constitution and it was supposed that the union was restored on the fundamental principles of the constitution. The south had given up slavery as one of the things of the past; and all conservatives, men North and South thought that the Radicals would accept of Johnson's policy for reorganizing the seceded states by giving them all their rights except slavery which was now abolished.

The Republican State Conventions from Maine to California, in 1865, indorsed President Johnson's policy, Massachusetts and other States declared for Negro suffrage and the payment of the public debt. Some of the other States were silent on the subject as they feared it would defeat the party in the coming election. The States lately in rebellion held elections under President Johnson's proclamation; and elected members of Congress, State Legislature, and State officers.

President Johnson sent the following message to Congress December 4th, 1865.

"The relations of the general government toward the four millions of inhabitants whom the war has called into freedom, have engaged my most serious consideration. On the propriety of attempting to make the freedmen electors by the proclamation of the Executive, I took, for my counsel, the Constitution itself, the interpretation of that instrument by its authors and their cotemporaries and recent legislature by Congress, when, at the first movement toward independence, the Congress of the United States instructed the several States to institute governments of their own, they left each state to decide for itself the conditions for the enjoyment of the elective franchise.

During the period of the confederacy, there continued to exist a very great diversity in the qualifications of electors in the several states; and even within a state a distinction of qualifications prevailed with regard to the officers who were to be chosen. The constitution of the United States recognizes these diversities when it enjoins that, in the choice of members of the House representatives of the United States, 'the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for the electors of the most numerous branch of the state Legislature.' After the formation of the constitution, it remained, as before, the uniform usage for each state to enlarge the body of its electors according to its own judgment; and under this system, one state after another has proceeded to increase the number of its electors, until now universal suffrage, or something very near it, is the general rule. So fixed was this reservation of the power in the habits of the people, and so unquestioned has been the interpretation of the constitution, that, during the civil war, the late President never harbored the purpose-certainly never avowed the purpose of disregarding it: and in the acts of Congress during that period nothing can be found which, during the continuance of hostilities, much less after the close, would have sanctioned any departure by the executive from a policy which has so uniformly obtained. Moreover, a concession of the elective franchise to the freedmen, by act of the President of the United States, must have been extended to all colored men wherever found, and so must have established a change of suffrage in the Northern, Middle, and Western States, not less than in the southern and south-western. Such an act would have created a new class of voters, and would have been an assumption of power by the President which nothing in the constitution or the laws of the United States would have warranted. On the other hand, every danger of complaint is avoided when the ettlement of the question is referred to the several states. They can, each for itself decide on the measure and whether it is to be adopted at once and absolutely, or introduced gradually and with conditions. In my judgment the freedmen, if they show patience and manly virtues, will sooner obtain a participation in the elective franchise through the states than through the general government, even if it had the power to intervene. When the tumult of emotions that have been raised by the suddenness of the social change shall have subsided, it may prove that they will receive the kindliest usage from some of those on whom they have heretofore most closely depended. But while I have no doubt that now, after the close of the war, it is not competent for the general government to extend the elective franchise in the several states, it is equally clear that good faith requires the security of the freedmen in their liberties and their properties, their right to labor and their right to claim the just return of their labor. I cannot too strongly urge a dispassionate treatment of this subject, which should be carefully kept aloof from all party strife. We must equally avoid hasty assumptions of any natural impossibility for the two races to live side by side, in a state of mutual benefit and good will. The experiment involves us in no inconsistency; let us, then, go and make that experiment in good faith, and not be too easily disheartened. The country is in need of labor, and freedmen are in need of employment, culture, and protection, while their right of voluntary migration and expatriation is not to be questioned, I would not advise their forced removal and colonization; let us rather encourage them to honorable and useful industry, where it may be beneficial to themselves and to the country; and, instead of hasty anticipations of the certainty of failure, let there be nothing wanting to the fair trial of the experiment. The change in their condition is the substitution of labor by contract for the state of slavery. The freedman cannot fairly be accused

of unwillingness to work, so long as a doubt remains about his freedom of choice in his pursuits, and the certainty of his receiving his stipulated wages. In this the interests of the employer and the employed coincide. The employer desires in his workmen spirit and alacrity, aud these can be permanently secured in no other way, than if one ought to be able to enforce the contract, so ought the other.

The public interest will be best promoted if the several states will provide adequate protection and remedies for the freedmen. Until this is in some way accomplished, there is no chance for the advantageous use of their labor; and the blame of ill-success will not rest on them.

I know that sincere philanthropy is earnest for the immediate realization of its remotest aims; but time is always an element in reform. It is one of the greatest acts on record to have brought four millions of people to freedom. The career of free industry must be fairly opened to them; and then their future prosperity and condition must, after all, rest mainly on themselves. If they fall and so perish away, let us be careful that the failure shall not be attributable to any denial of justice. In all that relates to the destiny of the freedmen, we need not be too anxious to read the future; many incidents which, from a speculative point of view, might raise alarm will quietly settle themselves.

We give the President's message to show how far he differed with the party that elected him, in 1864. The majority of that party were in favor of what they called impartial suffrage, though only the most Radical proclaimed this before the Session of Congress of 1865-6; as they feared it would injure the party at the elections during the war. Now or never, they were determined to accomplish their long-cherished-aims. The reader will also bear in mind the opinions expressed by the President, in this message, as it will serve as a guide to the development of his policy.

Very little party spirit was displayed in the southern elections in 1865. Politics were indefinite. The South elected Representatives and senators to Congress, who applied for seats, at the session of Congress 1865-6, but they would not be admitted by the Republicans for they wanted to hold the two-thirds vote, in Congress, so as to be able to control the president and the Supreme Court. They wanted to retain the power of passing their favorite measures over the president's veto! For about this time they feared a collision with the president, for it was evident that he intended to make the Constitution his guide. They would sooner see the South out of the Union than to see the country governed by the constitution as it was!

The Republicans, having two-thirds of both Houses of Congress, were determined to carry out their long-cherished aims. They had now openly declared that Congress was Supreme. That the executive should be subservient to their dictation.

On Feb. 2, 1866, the senate passed the so called civil right's bill, by a vote of 38 Republicans against 9 Democrats. On March 13, 1866, the bill passed the House by a vote of 111 Republicans for, and 38 against it.

On the 27 March, 1866, the President sent the following veto message to the Senate:

"I regret that the bill which has passed both Houses of Congress, entitled, An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and furnishes the means of their vindication," contains provisions which I cannot approve consistently with my sense of duty to the whole people, and my obligations to the constitution of the United States. I am therefore constrained to return it to the Senate, the house in which it originated, with my objections to its becoming a law.