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do this than the commanders, and the President knew this well enough, but he gave no instructions to Meade, and so the commander permitted the voting for "State" officers and legislators at the same election that the vote was taken upon the question of the ratification of the constitution and by the same electors. But the registered voters refrained from voting upon the question of ratification in sufficient numbers to reduce the vote to several thousand less than half the registration. The proposed constitution was thus rejected under the provision of the Reconstruction Acts which required a vote exceeding the half of the registration, as well as a majority of that vote, for ratification. The "State" government chosen at this same election was thus in the air.

The statute of Congress

changing the proportion of votes to registration in the

ratification of

a constitution.

The Senate now passed the House bill providing that the approval of a majority of those voting, no matter what the proportion of the vote to the registration might be, should be regarded as a sufficient ratification of the proposed "State" constitutions for the communities suffering reconstruction; and although this Act was passed more than a month after the vote on the constitution was taken in Alabama, and although, furthermore, General Meade reported that a majority of the registered voters had not voted on the question of ratification, and that he interpreted this to mean that a majority of the registered voters did not want the constitution, yet Congress, as we shall see later, applied this new law of March 11th to the Alabama election which had taken place in the first days of the preceding February.

In the original requirement that the vote to be effective must exceed half of the registration, Congress was still upon the ground of correct principle. When it left this ground it virtually accepted the principle that republican "State" governments may be legiti

this statute.

mately created by a minority of the lawful voters against the will of a majority of the lawful voters, and that, too, Criticism of not by allowing that minority to demonstrate its political superiority to the majority by greater intelligence, or shrewder management, or even by brute force, but by the aid of power coming from without. Now this is not, in correct political science, "State" government in a federal system, autonomous local government, at all. It is provincial government in local affairs, more or less complete as the necessity for the outside aid is more or less continuous. The Republicans had denounced the Johnson "State" governments upon the ground, among other grounds, that they were minority governments, minority governments in the vague and uncertain sense that not a majority of the adult males had been enfranchised, and not in the clear and distinct and unmistakable sense that a minority of the enfranchised, supported by the military power of the United States, might impose its will upon a majority of the enfranchised. There was nothing disloyal in the registered voters of Alabama giving Congress to understand that a majority of them preferred the continuance of the military régime, or the creation of a Territorial government for them by Congress, to the "State" constitution offered them. But it was utter self-stultification for Congress to take the ground that the Johnson "State" governments were unrepublican because they did not enfranchise all adult males of whatever race, color, or condition of mind or estate and overthrow them on that ground, and then proceed to create new "State" governments in their places upon the basis of a minority of the already duly qualified and registered voters. No impartial student, at this day, can view this terrible inconsistency in any other light than that of a high political crime,

While the Senate was proceeding with the bill, another of the Southern communities was rapidly approaching the date fixed for voting upon the Ratification proposed "State" constitution, viz., Ar- in Arkansas. kansas. The bill was passed by Congress the day before the voting began in Arkansas, but it was not known in Arkansas that it had been passed until near the close of the second day of the election. It could, however, be claimed that it was applicable to the case, and it certainly made all figures unnecessary except in regard to the actual voting. The "State" officers and legislators under the constitution to be adopted were chosen at the same time, by the Congressional electorate in Arkansas, and not by the "State" electorate, created by the new constitution.

Ratification

in North CaroCarolina, Georgia, Flor

lina, South

In the course of the next two months, April and May, voting upon the question of ratifying the new "State" constitutions took place in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana. As the Congressional Act of March 11th was in full force at this time, the result was affirmative in all cases.

ida and Louisi

ana.

tion.

During the Reconstruction proceedings in Georgia Governor Jenkins had refused to issue an order to the "State Treasurer to pay a sum of forty Second atthousand dollars, on the ground that the tempt in Georgia to obstruct "State" legislature (Johnson government) Reconstruchad not made any such appropriation. For this refusal Meade removed him and the "State" Treasurer and Controller General, and appointed military men in their places. These new officers seized the "State" buildings, but Jenkins succeeded in getting away with the money in the treasury. He went to Washington and undertook to institute a proceeding in the Supreme Court of the United States against Generals Grant and

Meade to restrain the officers appointed by Meade from levying taxes upon the people of Georgia, and from collecting the same and the other income of the " State," as well as from exercising other functions. The Court gave its permission to the filing of the bill, but put off the hearing of the argument until the next term, and before this arrived, the new constitution had been ratified, and new "State" officers elected along with the ratification. In the other communities mentioned no opposition to the reconstruction process was offered.

the Constitu

On the other hand, the opponents of the proposed "State" constitution in Mississippi went into a most earRejection of nest and energetic campaign against its ratifition in Missis- cation and succeeded, at the election on June sippi. 22d, in rejecting the same by between seven and eight thousand majority. Many of the better class of negroes voted with their old masters, that is with such of these as were allowed by the Congressional acts to register and vote, against ratification. Those in favor of ratification claimed that fraud was practised by their opponents, in the face of the fact that they had the elections in their own hands, and they petitioned the military authorities to put the proposed constitution, notwithstanding its rejection at the polls, into operation. This these authorities refused to do.

CHAPTER IX

THE ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT

Grant in the War Office-The President's Message of December 3d, 1867-The President's Special Message Concerning the Suspension of Stanton-The Senate Resolution in Regard to the Suspension of Stanton-Grant's Disobedience toward the President-The Unbearable Situation in which the President now Found Himself- The Dismissal of Stanton from OfficeGeneral Thomas Appointed Secretary of War ad interim-Stanton's Resistance-Thomas and the President-The Attitude of the Senate toward the Dismissal of Stanton-The Movements in the House of Representatives-The Arrest of General Thomas-Thomas's Second Attempt to Take Possession of the War Office-The House Resolution to Impeach the President -The Withdrawal of Stanton's Complaint against Thomas -The Fear of the Republicans to Test the Tenure-of-Office Act before the Courts-The Managers of Impeachment-The Charges against the President-The President's Answer to the Complaint-The Withdrawal of Mr. Black from the President's Counsel-The Contents of the President's Answer-The Replication of the House to the President's Answer-The TrialConduct of the Managers-The Evidence in the Case-The Argument-The Law in the Case-Mr. Stanton's Violations of Law-The Nomination of General Schofield to be Secretary of War-The Vote upon Impeachment-The Truth of the Matter-The Abdication of Stanton-Schofield's Confirmation as Secretary of War, and His Acceptance of the Office.

DURING this same period, another act in the drama of Reconstruction was being played, a fit companion piece to what was occurring in the unhappy communities of the South. It was the attempt to dispose of the President, and the presidency, by the impeachment of the President.

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