stitution in any department or officer of the Government. This abolition of slavery was, however, a restriction on the "States." It laid a new limitation upon their powers, and hence it was thought that Section 8 of Article I. might not apply in the execution of such a provision against the "States." But if we regard the provision from the point of view of the rights of an individual to his freedom against any "State" law to the contrary, then we must see that the amendment does invest the United States courts with the power to impose the restriction in behalf of the individual seeking deliverance from the attempt of a "State" to enslave him or to continue his enslavement. And once the power vested in the courts to do this the general provision of Article I., Section 8, will certainly apply. The resolution offered by the Judiciary Committee passed the Senate by the requisite majority on the 8th of April, 1864. draft. During this same period, Mr. William Windom, of Minnesota, offered in the House of Representatives a resolution upon the subject in the identical words of the The House Senate's resolution. It was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the House, February 15, 1864. While it lay in the room of the Committee, Mr. Stevens offered a substitute for it, which read: "Slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, is forever prohibited in the United States and all its Territories." This is another bit of evidence for the proposition that what was meant by the words "or any place subject to their jurisdiction in Mr. Trumbull's resolution was all parts of the country not enjoying "State" government in local matters. The Senate resolution was sent into the House on the Rejection of the Senate's House. 31st of May, and was there lost on June 15th, having received a large majority, indeed, in its favor, but not a two-thirds majority. draft in the Foreseeing the failure of the resolution at that juncture, Mr. J. M. Ashley, of Ohio, voted against the measure, although a stanch friend of it. His purpose was of course to be able to move, at some future and more propitious time, a reconsideration of the subject. He did not, however, feel that that time had arrived. until after the election and the military victories of the autumn of 1864 had manifested the temper of the voters on the question of abolition and demonstrated the power of the Union to carry such a measure into execution. On the 31st of January, 1865, Mr. Ashley moved a reconsideration of the Senate resolution lost in the House on the 15th of the preced- Reconsidering June. Reconsideration was immediately voted, and the Senate resolution was then carried by the requisite two-thirds majority. ation of the Senate's meas- in the The proposed amendment was then sent to the President, who signed it, February 1st, 1865. Whereupon the Senate immediately passed another resolution, declaring that it was through an inadvertency that the measure had been sent to the President for his signature, that asking the President of the United States to sign a proposed constitutional amendment was an error, was without precedent in the practice of the Government, and that the President's approval should not be communicated to the House. A concurrent resolution was then passed by the two Houses authorizing the President to submit the proposed article of amendment to the "States" for ratification. The Secretary of State immediately sent it to the legislatures of all the "States" which could be reached by him, and during the summer and autumn to the legislatures of all the "States; and the new legislature of Tennessee ratified it on the 5th of April, 1865, that is, more than a week before Lincoln's death. Such was the condition of things when the assassin's bullet ended the life of the great and good President and brought the Vice-President, Mr. Johnson, into the office. CHAPTER III PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HIS PROCEEDINGS IN REALIZATION OF IT The Character of Mr. Johnson-The Radical Nature of Johnson's First Views on Reconstruction-The Retention of Lincoln's Cabinet by Mr. Johnson and the Modification of Johnson's Views by Mr. Seward's Arguments-Johnson's Amnesty Proclamation of May 29th, 1865-The Excepted Classes-The Effect of these Exceptions-The President's Plan-The Realization of it-The Administering of the Oath-Reconstruction in North Carolina-The Identity of Johnson's Plan with that of Lincoln —Reconstruction in Mississippi-Reconstruction in Georgia— Reconstruction in Alabama, South Carolina and Florida-Reconstruction in Virginia-Reconstruction in Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee-The Constitutional Conventions of 1865The Form of the Work Done in these Conventions, and its Substance-The Erection of "State" Governments and the Election of Members of Congress-The Orders of the President Putting the Civil Government of the United States into Operation Everywhere-The President's First Annual Message. MR. JOHNSON was a man who rose from very low estate through his own efforts. He was a man of considerable intellectual power and of great will power. The charac Johnson. He was somewhat vain of his success and ter of Mr. somewhat piqued by the social neglect which he had suffered at the hands of the "old families." He was intensely loyal to the Union, and could regard secession and rebellion only as treason. Having suffered so much for his loyalty, he was somewhat moved by considerations of revenge. He was profoundly stirred by the assassination of Lincoln, and apparently believed it to have been planned by those high in authority in the Confederacy; and he was possessed with an intense desire to re-establish the Union on an enduring foundation. nature of Reconstruc tion. The retention of Lin With such a history behind him, and such a disposition impelling him, it is not to be wondered at that his policy The radical in regard to Reconstruction should have been Johnson's more stringent than that of Mr. Lincoln. In first views on fact it was feared, even by the more radical Republicans, such, for instance, as Mr. Wade, that he would be bloody minded in the treatment of the rebel chiefs. He had, before his accession to the Presidency, declared so often, and so vehemently, that traitors should be arrested, tried, convicted and hanged," that most men were expecting the strict application of the criminal law to the Confederate leaders. Mr. Johnson retained Lincoln's Cabinet, and among them the conciliatory and persuasive Seward, who, in about six weeks from the night of the ascoln's Cabinet sassination, at which time he himself was by Mr. Johnson, and the seriously wounded, returned to his work in modification the State Department. There is no doubt views by Mr. that it was the influence of Seward which Seward's arguments. modified the views and purposes of Mr. Johnson. The compliant spirit manifested at this time by the Confederate chiefs helped strongly in the same direction. By the 1st of June, Seward had won Johnson completely for his plan of a rapid and forgiving reconstruction by the Executive. Congress was not in session, and the President was not inclined to call an extra session. The late rebel chieftains were pressing for the political rehabilitation of their section, and the President now fully believed that he had the power to proceed with the problem of Reconstruction, and was inclined to do so. of Johnson's |