CHAPTER XX.

GRANT'S ADMINISTRATIONS.

1869-1877.

GRANT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

General Grant was inaugurated March 4, 1869, as the eighteenth President of the United States. He intimated in his address that it would be the policy of his administration to secure as far as possible, prosperity throughout the Union; first, by strict integrity in fulfilling our national obligations; second, by securing protection to the person and property of the citizens in the United States in every portion of our common country without reference to original nationality, color, politics, or religion, demanding of each obedience to the laws and respect for the rights of others; and third, by uniting all the states into an indestructible union, with equal constitutional guarantees.

The selection of cabinet officers created the impression that the administration of the new President would be personal rather than political. If this was his intention his opinion was quickly changed after some political experience.

Congress met March 4, 1869, with a large republican maForty-first Congress,jority in both branches. James G. Extra Session.

speaker of the House.

Blaine, a leading parliamentarian, was

On the admission of Mississippi and Texas a political struggle occurred in Congress. These states had not ratified the fourteenth amendment and were not reconstructed. On the 10th of April a bill was passed which authorized their people to vote on the constitution already prepared by the

state conventions, and to elect state officers and members of Congress. The act required that these states should ratify the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments before readmission to the Union. The republicans in passing the measure were opposed by the democrats. Congress adjourned April 23,

1869.

KU-KLUX KLAN.

At the close of the war thousands of northern men settled in the south. They were denounced as political adventurers by those who prided themselves in being "irreconcilable" and "unreconstructed" and who opposed the fourteenth and and fifteenth amendments, and the freedmen's bureau acts. They regarded the northern settlers with great ill-will and styled them "carpet-baggers." The "irreconcilables" organized themselves into secret societies with a view to afright the ex-slaves from participating in the elections, and to warn the "carpet-baggers" to leave the country. The "Ku-Klux Klan" was known in some places as the "Pale Faces," and in others as the "Knights of White Camelia." The object of the organization broadened with the difficulties which it occasioned. General Forest testified that the order was prevalent in all parts of the confederacy; that it was so secret that its constitution was handed from member to member anonymously; that it was composed of southern citizens as distinguished from carpet-baggers; that it sent out armed men who patrolled communities, intimidating and whipping men and committing murder and other crimes, for which they were never caught or punished; and that the chiefs of the order could not name anyone who had documents that would throw more definite light upon the history of the "klan" than that which he had. General John B. Gordon gave a testimony which accorded with that of General Forest, and stated that negroes and republicans did not belong to the order. So great was the alarm caused by the "Ku-Klux" that

the governor of Tennessee, in 1868, called an extra session of the legislature to provide measures of protection against the order. A committee of the legislature reported that the terror was so great that the best citizens dare not express their opinions; that the officers of the law dared not to enforce its provisions; that no one dared give information as to the perpetrators of outrages because no man could tell but that he might be the next victim, and that for six months, saying nothing of other outrages, the murders alone had averaged not less than one in each twenty-four hours. So violent were the acts of the "Ku-Klux" that the popular vote as claimed by the republicans in the southern states was greatly influenced. A congressional committee reported that in North Carolina the vote had in two years been modified twenty-two thousand; in Texas nearly thirty-six thousand; in Georgia nearly fifty-two thousand; in Louisiana over seventy thousand, and similarly modified in other states. The democratic minority of the committee which made this report, denied this, and asserted that the change in the vote was occasioned by the disgust of the people with the "carpet-bag" governments. The congressional committee elicited the information that in fourteen counties of North Carolina there were eighteen murders and three hundred and fifteen whippings; in twenty-nine counties of Georgia there were seventytwo murders and one hundred and twenty-six whippings; in twenty-six counties of Alabama two hundred and fifteen murders and one hundred and sixteen other outrages; and in Louisiana in 1868 there were more than one thousand murders. The testimony was that the whippings were to convert the victims to a "white man's government," and that the murders were to get rid of those who were regarded an injury to the order.

DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT ON THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS OF CONGRESS.

In 1869 the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Texas vs. White, sustained the constitutionality of the reconstruction acts; held that the ordinances of secession had been absolutely null; that the seceding states having no right to secede had never been out of the Union; that during and after the rebellion they had no governments competent to represent them in their relations with the general government; and that, therefore, the legislative department had the right to re-establish the relations of any confederate state to the Union. This decision strengthened the republicans in their position and aided the President in the work of reconstruction. The assaults of the democrats upon congressional reconstruction were modified, and in time reconstruction ceased to be the pivot around which the minor political issues of their party revolved.

Congress met December 6, 1869. The work of the session Forty-first Congress, was devoted principally to reconstrucFirst Session. tion, four states being readmitted.

READMISSION OF STATES.

Virginia was readmitted January 25, 1870; Mississippi, February 23, 1870; Texas, March 30, 1870, and Georgia, July 15, 1870. Preceding this session, Tennessee was admitted July 24, 1866; Arkansas, June 22, 1868, and North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, in 1868. All of these states were required to ratify the fifteenth amendment.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.

Congress passed a bill, May 30, 1870, to enforce the fifteenth amendment. It authorized the President to use the army to prevent violations of the law and made penal any

interference by fraud or force with the right of full and free manhood suffrage. The bill was opposed by all the democrats, and supported by the republicans.

GUARDING THE BALLOT-BOX.

An act was passed to amend the naturalization laws which made the use of false naturalization papers a penal offense, and authorized the appointment of federal supervisors of elections in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants. To these officers it gave the power of arresting for any offense committed in their view, and allowed alien Africans the right of naturalization. The democrats antagonized the bill urging that it gave extraordinary power to federal supervision, while the republicans claimed that Seymour had carried New York by naturalization frauds in New York City, citing in support of their position the unprecedented vote polled. Horace Greeley said that in one of the city wards more votes had been cast for governor than there were in it, "men, women, children, cats and dogs." Congress adjourned July 15, 1870.

LEGALITY OF GREENBACKS.

Greenback notes, by an act of Congress, in 1862, were made a legal tender, and until 1869 they passed as such. The democrats protested against the act, claiming that the right to issue paper money belonged to the states, and not to Congress. The Supreme Court, at its December term, 1869, decided that the act of Congress was unconstitutional. The court, in its composition, happened to be democratic. To avoid the effects of its decision, the republicans secured an increase of two in the number of Supreme justices, one by filling a vacancy, and the other by creating an additional justiceship. After the political complexion of the court was changed, the constitutionality of the legal tender act was again brought up, and in March, 1870, the court, with Chief