incumbent, and injured the prospects of the Administration party in the campaign.

The President had on the 20th day of August, a week before setting out upon his tour, finally proclaimed the insurrection and Civil War at

The President's final proclamati on

declaring the

Civil War

an end in every part of the country. He had, on the 2d day of April preceding, declared the insurrection at an end everywhere ended. except in Texas, and the proclamation of August 20th gave official witness to its cessation in Texas. It is certainly a prerogative of the President to proclaim the cessation of opposition to his execution of the laws of the Union, and then to execute the same thereafter through civil, instead of military, officers. If the President had meant no more than this by his proclamations of the termination of the insurrection, the position would have been unassailable. But he evidently intended his proclamations as furnishing a basis for his Reconstruction work, or at any rate as furnishing a great reason for the general recognition of the validity of that work. This we can easily gather from the speeches he made as he" swung around the circle " in the campaign of 1866. He felt that he had solid ground under his feet, and did not appreciate the fact that he was resting one of his doctrines upon another, the latter being no more selfevident than the former. He felt quite sure of victory, until what were called the "October States," at that time, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, held their elections. The two "Sep- elections. tember States," Vermont and Maine, had largely increased their Republican majorities, which the President had probably expected and allowed for, but when the four "October States gave only twelve seats in the House of Representatives to the Democrats and nearly fifty to the Republicans, it was pretty clearly revealed

The October

that the Administration was on the eve of a terrible defeat. It was as overwhelming as these figures indiThe Repubcated. The final results showed that the Relican triumph in the elec publicans had elected one hundred and fortytions of 1866. three of their candidates to seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats had succeeded in securing only forty-nine seats. With the exception of Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky, all the "States" represented in Congress had given the Republican party strong majorities. The strength of the Democratic party was again in the South, where the Democratic candidates for any kind of office had almost universally succeeded. In the Senate the Republicans constituted more than a two-thirds majority of the members, and with their almost three-fourths majority in the House, there could be no question that, in a contest between the President and Congress, the former would be obliged to yield.

The Presi

dent's Mescember 3d,

8age of De1866.

Notwithstanding all this, however, the President, in his Message to Congress of December 3d, returned to the contest. He reargued his case from every point of view, and with both moderation and great force. He restated what had been done toward Reconstruction, declaring that peace had been restored everywhere, that all the laws of the United States and all the machinery of the United States Government were in unimpeded operation everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the land, and that loyal "State" governments had been restored everywhere, and lacked but one thing of completion, viz., the admission of Representatives and Senators from ten of the eleven "States" in which secession ordinances had been passed to seats in Congress. He contended that all the departments of the United States Government had proceeded upon the view that the "States" were indestructible—the Congress, in the dec

laration, at the outset, that the war was not to be waged in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of the "States " which were the scene of rebellion, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired, and in many other acts and resolutions; the Judiciary, in all proceedings affecting the reconstruction communities. as "States"; and the Executive, in the entire plan of Reconstruction created by Mr. Lincoln and followed out by himself. He further contended that in recognizing these "States " as restored to their former relations, Congress was not running any risk of having disloyal men thrust into the legislative chambers of the nation, because each House of Congress could reject memberselect on account of disloyalty, and could continue to reject until the constituencies should send up such persons as the House could approve, and could expel any member whose conduct should reveal disloyalty. He therefore urged Congress to acknowledge the Reconstruction of the "States" lately in rebellion, in principle, and to apply the powers of the two Houses in regard to the elections, returns and qualifications of their respective members to the individual persons elected to seats.

President's

The President's argument fell, however, upon deaf ears. This was, it is true, the second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and was not, there- In effectivefore, composed of the persons just elected; ness of the but the influence of the recent elections argument. over its members had been to cow the conservatives, strengthen the radicals, and cause the wavering to incline to the side of the extremists. They took the ver

Amendment

dict of the people to be that Congress should ignore the President's work in Reconstruction, develop a plan of its own, put it into operation, and base it upon a newly constructed electorate in the South, in which the lately emancipated should participate. The attitude of the legislatures of the President's reconstructed "States in regard to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment also strengthened them greatly in this view and purpose. Rejection of Before the first day of January, 1867, all of the proposed these except three had rejected it by overby the legis- Whelming votes, and these three followed the same course a little later. It was said and ed "States." believed in Washington that they had rejected the proposed Amendment contemptuously, and under the advice of the President of the United States. It was the angry rejection of the proposed Amendment The effect which did more than anything and everytemper of the thing else to convince the people of the North that Reconstruction must be now undertaken by Congress, and must proceed upon the basis of a new electorate at the South which Congress should

latures of the

Reconstruct

of this on the

North.

create.

CHAPTER VII

THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN (Completed)

Negro Suffrage in the District of Columbia-The First Attempts at Impeachment-Stories of Outrages at the South-The Reconstruction Bill-Passage of the Bill by the House-The Bill as Finally Agreed upon-The Condition that the Fourteenth Amendment must be Ratified by a Sufficient Number of States to make it a Part of the Constitution-The Tenure-of-Office Bill-The Supplementary Reconstruction Bill-The Assignment of the Commanding Generals to the Military Districts Created by the Reconstruction Acts-The Re-establishment of Martial Law in the South-The President's Instructions to the Generals in Interpretation of the Reconstruction Acts-The Congressional Interpretation of the Reconstruction Acts-The President's Veto of the Bill Interpreting the Reconstruction Acts-The Veto Overridden-The Suspension of Stanton from Office.

District of Co

THE Congress had but just put itself in working order, when a bill was introduced and passed extending the suffrage to negroes in the District of Colum- Negro sufbia. The Republicans reasoned that they frage in the could not with good grace force negro suf- lumbia. frage on the South before establishing it in the District, and that the District was the best place in the country to try the experiment first. The bill went to the President on the 26th of December, six days after the adjournment of Congress for the Christmas vacation, although it had passed the Houses on the 13th and 14th. The President held it until January 5th, 1867, and then returned it to the Senate with his veto.