A Just and Lasting Peace: A Documentary History of Reconstruction

by John David Smith

  As slavery has been “constitutionally” abolished the old State slave codes are now null and void, and the military force of the Government in the South, if necessary, can prevent their execution. Congress also has power under the Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery, to enforce said amendment by appropriate legislation. Would it not be better then for Congress to pass an Act declaring all slave codes, or state laws that abridge the personal liberty of the freedmen, inoperative, and give the Agents of the government power to enforce such Act, rather than to set up an immense civil or semi-military government, within a civil government, to be placed in the hands of, in many cases, inexperienced or bad men—strangers to the people—for the protection of a certain class in the South?

  The effect of establishing the Bureau upon the basis contemplated by this Act will be, I believe, to prevent the freedman, in a great measure, from acquiring that independence and self-reliance so necessary for his advancement. The Bureau as at present organized has been in existence for nearly ten months. During this time some damage and much good has been done by its agents. By some the freedman has been told that it is necessary for him, though free, to labor and work out his own salvation; by all he has been told that he is free. He knows now that he is free and with the tuition he has received he is now much better able to take care of himself, if let alone, than is generally supposed by his friends.

  The bureau in its operations almost necessarily takes the place of a master. To it many of the freedmen look entirely for support, instruction and assistance. Even in those States where all civil rights have been conferred upon the freedman he does not go to the State Courts for a remedy, but to the bureau, for the process of civil law is too slow and the proceedings are not sufficiently convenient. The agents of the bureau decide for whom he shall work, for how much and when, and approve or disapprove all of his Contracts for labor. They have control in many places of his churches and schools, and some of them are endeavoring to control his finances. Special tribunals are to be organized in certain states for the trial of all cases where freedmen are concerned. Any system of Courts or Laws that look to the protection of a particular class must be objectionable and will be damaging in the end to such persons. It keeps them from endeavoring to gain admission to the state courts where they can obtain justice on the same footing as others. If we can judge from the past these courts will discriminate more against the white man than the State Courts can against the black. Some of these now in existence have been presided over by men inexperienced in law and evidence; men of strong prejudices in favor of the black men, who decide cases without reference to law, but the “right” as the right appears to them. Of course such justice is a farce, that pleases the black and exasperates the white. It is a bad plan by which to compell the people of the south to make just laws for the blacks: wholesome laws cannot be made under force. The longer these Courts remain in existence the harder it will be to give them up, and when given up the freedman, I fear, will be left in a worse condition than if they had not been established. The longer the offices of the bureau extend personal assistance to the freedman the less will he be prepared to take care of himself. Habitual dependence will prevent any class of people from making exertions for themselves. . . .

  The freedmen can be better cared for, so far as the government should extend assistance, by the Military Authorities than in any other way: and this at a very small expense additional to the expense of supporting the troops in the south. If the head of the bureau, as at present, is in the War Department and issues orders and instructions from there, and then the officers and subalterns of the army are made ex-officio members of the bureau—or better, if it’s made part of their military duty to have general supervision of the freedmen, as they have of other persons where civil law is inoperative, the system would be much simplified, a large expense would be saved, and great good could be done. These military agents would be obliged to carry out the orders of the head of the bureau, and they would have the power to do so. They would have no political, selfish, or pecuniary designs to carry out. They would have no desire to promote strife between the whites and blacks, and both of these classes having confidence in them would advance in their interests and become reconciled to the situation. They will have no object to desire the continuance of the bureau longer than its existence is actually demanded in order that they may receive a support, for their offices would still continue.

  The objection that some will offer to this proposition will be that the armies are being mustered out & there will not be material enough left for Agents of the bureau. But the Act in providing for a large number of Agents also provides, in Section 2., that the “President of the United States, through the War Department and the Commissioner, shall extend military jurisdiction and protection over all employees, agents and offices of this bureau in the exercise of the duties imposed or authorized by this act, or the act to which this is additional.”

  If there are enough officers & men in the Military service to extend such protection to the employees &c, surely there are enough to attend, as agents, to the requirements of the Bureau.

  J. S. Fullerton Bv. Brig. Genl. Vols.

  JOHN RICHARD DENNETT, “VICKSBURG, MISS.”

  (March 8, 1866)

  Journalist John Richard Dennett’s (1838–1874) eyewitness account of political and racial attitudes in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1866 suggests how “unreconstructed” many Southerners remained and how national questions—such as Johnson’s veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill—preoccupied them. Dennett, a Harvard graduate and special correspondent for a newly launched magazine, The Nation, covered much the same landscape as Schurz and reached much the same discouraging conclusions. The recently defeated Confederates considered the North their “wanton oppressor.”

  The headquarters of the Freedmen’s Bureau for Mississippi is at Vicksburg. It is chiefly busied with a general supervision of the affairs of the colored people, and occupies itself with details only when its interference is necessary. The examination and approval of contracts is not a part of its work, and the relations between employer and employed are controlled, in the first instance at least, by the civil authorities. Through its subordinate officials, its influence is extended to every part of the State, and, as might be expected, it is not a popular institution. Every sub-assistant commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner informs me, needs military force within call to sustain him. The freedmen are working very well, and are receiving good treatment; their labor being in great demand, it commands very good prices, and the planter finds it to his interest to use his laborers well. It is not from the oppressive acts of individuals, therefore, that the Negroes suffer most injustice, but from the spirit in which the civil authorities enforce the laws. Under the provisions of the vagrant law, for example, a white man as well as a Negro might be arrested; but in practice it is found that while honest and industrious Negroes are often arrested and punished, there is no arrest of notoriously idle and worthless white men. For this state of things the spirit of public opinion is responsible; and because this state of things exists the Bureau is a necessity. The hostility to schools for the Negroes is very general, and often very bitter and dangerous. In the middle of February a Dr. Lacy, an old man who had started a school in Okolona, was four times shot at as he walked in the street for no other reason than that he was a teacher of Negroes.

  Such cases, whenever they occur, are reported by the officers of the Bureau to the military commander, General T. J. Woods. The case of Dr. Lacy has been reported. As yet nothing has been done in reference to it. In the town of Fayette the people will not permit schools to be maintained, and in Grenada they will not permit them to be opened.

  In the face of such opposition, 5,240 children have been gathered into schools, and are receiving instruction from about 70 teachers, who are paid in small part by their pupils, but mainly by the Northern charitable associations. In the monthly reports returned by these teach
ers they are required, I notice, to give the number of pupils in their charge whose blood is mixed, and the number of those whose blood is purely African. Taking the returns of twelve schools which happened to be first set down in the consolidated report, I find it stated that, in the opinion of the teachers, the children of African blood number 287, and those of mixed blood number 777. A majority of the scholars live in the towns and cities.

  In the office of the Assistant Commissioner, Colonel Thomas, I met several gentlemen attached to the Bureau, and resident in different parts of the State. They spoke of the condition of the Negroes as being generally prosperous, but there is much hostility, they say, on the part of the native white population to Northern men. The large landowners are anxious for immigration, but it is not so with the mass of the people. It is for their property rather than for their lives that the new-comers fear; but in respect to their lives they are by no means at ease. It would be easy to multiply instances, one gentleman told me; he would give me two. Not long since Colonel S–––, of Hinds County, a Southerner, and a gentleman from the North were in treaty about going into cotton-planting together, and probably would have done so. But Colonel S––—, after a little while, saw with regret that it would be necessary to break off the arrangements. He informed his prospective partner that he had reliable intelligence that more than a hundred men in the neighboring county of Holmes had bound themselves to prevent the settlement of Northern men among them, and had also determined that no discharged Negro soldier should be suffered to find employment in that section of country. My informant said it was beyond a doubt that Colonel S—–– acted in perfect good faith.

  Another case was that of Mr. A—––, of Boston. He moved into Mississippi after the war, with the intention of becoming a planter, and at first was very much pleased with his prospects—so much pleased that when a little while ago he made a visit to Massachusetts, he wrote a letter to the Boston Post and praised his new neighbors highly. Soon he came back, and it was not long before he began to think himself mistaken. By-and-bye he became convinced that the people were too much opposed to Northern men for him to stay among them with safety. So he paid a considerable sum of money to the owner of the lands which he had intended to cultivate, was released from his bargain, and has left Mississippi.

  On the last night of my stay in a Southern city I attended a political meeting, which had been called to endorse the President’s recent veto message. It was held in the court-house, and was composed of about two hundred persons, who were by no means enthusiastic. Resolutions were passed, and many speeches were made, in all of which the President was lavishly praised, and the Senate and House of Representatives spoken of with great disrespect. “The war being over,” said one speaker, “we were looking for peace, but it seems that the rebellion has only changed hands; that treason has reached the halls of the Congress of the United States. But there is a man at the head who is able to cope with it. President Johnson has put down the rebellion at the South, and he is now prepared to put down the rebellion at the North.”

  Another speaker warned the Southern people to remember that there was a party at the North, the Radical party, who would never be content till the last silver spoon was taken from them and their lands divided; but there was also in the North a Democratic party which needed the active cooperation of the Southern people, and only needed that to hurl the Radicals from power.

  The evening was not very far advanced when Colonel Joseph E. Davis, a brother of Jefferson Davis, was seen upon the floor and a committee was appointed to lead him to the platform. A speech from him was demanded, and he complied, speaking three or four minutes, when, as I think, at the suggestion of the chairman of the meeting he brought his remarks to an abrupt conclusion. The Vicksburg Journal says:

  He fully endorsed the action of President Johnson in vetoing that accursed measure to enlarge the powers of the Freedmen’s Bureau. The bill, if passed, would have caused a revolution equal to, if not more dreadful than, the one through which we have just passed. We have a branch of the Freedmen’s Bureau in our midst headed by officers of the most infamous character; who hold the offices for a given purpose; who gladly record the abuses and murders of Negroes, and forward such information, rather than assist our people without homes and means in obtaining the necessaries of life. You have these officers among you. I charge you to look out for them. Mr. Davis’s feeble health would not admit of any extended remarks.

  I might give many passages from the various speakers, but they would be wearisome. I give but one.

  Mr. McKee, formerly a general in the Federal army, stepped forward and said that he approved of the veto message of the President and endorsed it fully. “But in that hall on that night he had heard language used by some of the speakers that made his blood run cold.”

  Though it seemed to me not very successful as a political gathering, the meeting revealed very plainly the feeling which prevails in all the Southern country. The speakers represented the South as being cruelly injured, insulted, and oppressed, and the North as her wanton oppressor.

  PART III

  RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION

  Under the leadership of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, in 1866 Congress asserted itself, taking control of Reconstruction by passing a series of acts designed to protect the freedpeople and to establish federal authority in the former Confederate states. In February 1866, Congress attempted to extend the existence of the Freedmen’s Bureau (initially limited to one year after the conclusion of hostilities) indefinitely and to expand the agency’s jurisdiction over cases tried in the former Confederate states that denied equal protection of the laws to African-Americans. Though Johnson vetoed the bill, a similar piece of legislation passed despite the president’s veto in July.

  In another bill, aimed directly at the Black Codes passed by the Southern states, Congress sought to enforce the equal rights of the freedpeople by federal legislation, defining as citizens all persons (with the exception of Indians not taxed) born in the United States and empowering the federal courts to protect citizens when any state or territory violated their civil rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 passed on April 9 over Johnson’s veto. The president believed that the bill violated the prerogatives of the states, privileged blacks over whites, and undermined what he considered executive authority generally and his restoration program in particular. According to historian Hans L. Trefousse, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 “was the first major legislation ever to be passed over an executive veto, and it exacerbated the growing rift between the President and Congress.”30

  The 1866 Civil Rights Act raised essential constitutional questions, concerns that led the Joint Committee on Reconstruction to draft what became the landmark Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866 (but not ratified until July 9, 1868). Its intent was to protect the basic rights of black Southerners. This amendment defined national citizenship and guaranteed certain civil rights to all citizens, including the right to due process and equal protection under the law. In a clear and powerful assertion of Congressional authority, the amendment empowered the legislative branch to enforce federal civil rights legislation by reducing congressional representation of states that abridged the suffrage of male voters. The amendment also disfranchised certain former Confederates and outlawed Confederate debt. Passing this amendment signified a bold move by Congress, one that President Johnson, as well as his Southern and conservative supporters, strongly rejected. These objections had little consequence when, after the fall 1866 elections, Radicals gained control of the Thirty-ninth Congress.

  Radical supremacy in Congress set the scene for new, more stringent measures to regulate the former Rebel states. Thereafter ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment would become a prerequisite for the ex–Confederate states to reenter the Union. The legislation that the Radical-controlled Congress passed over President Johnson’s repeated vetoes confirmed the suprem
acy of Congress over the executive branch and revolutionized the South. Led by old hard-line abolitionist politician-reformers Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, and Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, Congressional Radicals privileged slavery’s overthrow and the protection of black civil rights over other political questions of the day. According to Eric Foner, these men and their supporters believed “the Civil War constituted a ‘golden moment,’ an opportunity for far-reaching change,” and that the postwar United States would become a nation “whose citizens enjoyed equality of civil and political rights, secured by a powerful and beneficial national state.”31 Free labor backed by a strong national state became the Radicals’ new economic ideal. They hoped that the South would come to share the North’s competitive capitalism. The Radicals envisioned the freedpeople sharing the same opportunities for economic success as white Southerners.

  During Presidential Reconstruction, moderate Republicans had focused on reunifying the nation and thus initially supported President Johnson. They hoped to amend the process to ensure greater Southern “loyalty” and guarantee a modicum of civil rights to the freedmen without infringing on states’ rights. However, Johnson’s intransigence, his antagonism toward blacks, his sympathy toward white Southerners, plus his vetoes of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the 1866 Civil Rights Act, drove moderates into the Radical camp. The Republicans had gained confidence and power in their landslide victories in the fall 1866 elections. In January 1867, Congress passed a bill enfranchising Washington, D.C., blacks, again over Johnson’s veto, and Congress considered even more decisive political measures, including disfranchisement and martial law in the South and even Johnson’s impeachment.32