364 JOHNSON PRESIDENT; NORTH DESIRES VENGEANCE. Lincoln's plan, a breach seemed imminent between the executive and the legislative. Lincoln signed the bill on February 8, 1865, however, though with some reluctance, and his untimely death soon afterward prevented the opening of a quarrel with Congress, although this probably would not have happened because of his great tact.* * Beside the works already mentioned giving Lincoln's plans and acts in connection with these events see the lives by O. J. Victor, L. P. Brockett, H. J. Raymond, Carl Schurz, Alonzo Roths. child, Ida M. Tarbell, J. T. Morse, J. G. Holland, N. Brooks, W. O. Stoddard, W. E. Curtis, N. Hapgood and I. N. Arnold. CHAPTER II. 1865-1866. PRESIDENT JOHNSON AND THE RECONSTRUCTION. Provisional gov. President Johnson's vindictive utterances - Commercial and amnesty proclamations ernors appointed-Their authority - Johnson becomes conservative State conventions - Congress refuses admission to representatives elected - Joint Committee on Reconstruction appointed — President's message Reports of Grant and Schurz submitted to Congress Their contents The "Black Code " Freedman's Bureau bill vetoed and passed over veto - Purposes of Bureau - Results of work different from object - Civil Right's law passed-Johnson's speech on Washington's Birthday Report and recommendations of Reconstruction Committee-Fourteenth Amendment Tennessee admitted - Congressional elections Cabinet officials resign. jority of the Northerners cried for vengeance, denouncing the assassination as a "rebel plot" and demanding that the "leaders of the rebellion" be After the assassination of Lincoln, as we have already seen, Vice-President Johnson acceded to the presidency and many people feared that he would pursue a vindictive policy hanged. Even the pulpit joined in toward the South.* The great ma * William Salter, Life of James W. Grimes, p. 278 (D. Appleton & Co.) the hue and cry and condoned the fact that Lincoln had been shot in a thea JOHNSON HARSH TOWARD CONFEDERATES. tre.* It was later declared that VicePresident Johnson was privy to the assassination.† President Johnson's first utterances regarding the Confederate leaders were so vehemently condemnatory that wise and moderate men were apprehensive lest President Lincoln's judicious measures would not be adopted, and that excessive harshness toward the people of the South would widen the breach. To a New Hampshire delegation, who waited upon him after his inauguration, the President said: "Treason is a crime, and must be punished as a crime. It must not be regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. It must not be * See footnote in Rhodes, vol. v., p. 154. The Southern view is stated on pp. 159-160 but see also the authorities cited in footnotes and Avary's Dixie After the War, pp. 82-85 and chap. viii. for result. In Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln occurs the following statement: "Among the extreme radicals in Congress Mr. Lincoln's determined clemency and liberality towards the Southern people had made an impression so unfavorable that, though they were shocked at his murder, they did not, among themselves, conceal their gratification that he was no longer in the way. In a political caucus held a few hours after the President's death the thought was nearly universal,' to quote the language of one of their most representative members, that the accession of Johnson to the Presidency would prove a Godsend to the country.'" This evidently was George W. Julian, as the same words are used in his Political Recollections, p. 255. Julian utters practically the same sentiments, for in referring to Lincoln's second nomination he says: "Of the more earnest and thorough-going Republicans in both Houses of Congress, probably not one in ten really favored it. It was not only very distasteful to a large majority of Congress but to many of the most prominent men of the party throughout the country." pp. 243-244 (A C. McClurg & Co.) †D. M. DeWitt, Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson, pp. 135-148 (The Macmillan Co.). 365 excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked and forgiven. It is a crime before which all other crimes sink into insignificance." Harsher language than this was used by Mr. Johnson toward the Confederates, and this attitude greatly pleased the radicals who did not favor the plans of the more moderate Lincoln, Benjamin Wade saying "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the Gods, there will be no trouble now in running the Government."'* The preliminary step toward reorganization was taken by the President April 29, 1865, when he issued a proclamation declaring that all restrictions upon commercial intercourse were removed in such parts of the Confederate States east of the Mississippi as were within the Union military lines.† Proclamations of May 22, June 13 and June 24 removed the restrictions, except on contraband of war, in the territory east of the Mississippi and in the trans-Mississippi region; and by proclamations of June 23 and July 1 the blockade of Southern ports was raised and trade was not restricted thereafter except in contraband of war, upon which the * Blaine, vol. ii., pp. 8-14. On the speeches see Chadsey, President Johnson and Reconstruction, pp. 28-35 and footnotes; Henry Wilson, Rise and Fall of Slave Power in America, vol. iii., pp. 591597; Julian, Political Recollections, p. 257; Edward McPherson, Political History of the United States during the Period of Reconstruction, p. 44 et seq. Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. vi., p. 333; McPherson, Handbook of Politics, 1868, p. 7. AMNESTY PROCLAMATIONS; PROVISIONAL GOVERNORS APPOINTED. restriction was not removed until August 29.* On May 29 the President issued two proclamations, in the first prescribing the methods by which North Carolina would be reconstructed, and in the second defining the terms by which the people of the disorganized States, with certain exceptions, might receive full amnesty and pardon, and be reinvested with the rights of citizenship. Among the excepted persons were those who possessed $20,000 worth of property or more; those who had voluntarily resigned seats in Congress and enlisted in the Confederate service; civil or diplomatic officers of the Confederacy; military officers above the rank of colonel; naval officers above the rank of lieutenant; and all who had been governors of Confederate States. These excepted classes were allowed. to petition the President for clemency, which was promised in so far as the facts in the case and the dignity of the government would allow.‡ These proclamations were followed by the appointment of provisional governors for seven of the disorganized States, namely: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Flor * McPherson, Handbook of Politics, 1868, pp. 9, 13, 14. This proclamation had been adopted by Lincoln shortly before his death and was followed as the policy of the new administration. Hugh McCulloch, Men and Measures of Half a Century, p. 378. For text see McPherson's Handbook of Politics, 1868, p. 9 et seq.; Chadsey, President Johnson and Reconstruction, p. 36 et seq. Blaine, vol. ii., pp. 70-76; Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. vi., pp. 310-314; Cox, Three Decades, pp. 346-349. ida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas. The governments of Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee, created under Lincoln's administration, were assumed to be legitimate, and therefore the governors of these States Murphy, Wells, and Brownlow, respectively were not disturbed in the performance of their functions, but were encouraged and upheld in the extension of their authority. Lincoln had always believed that Virginia did not secede, and that the shadowy loyal government, with its capital at Alexandria, had maintained the status of Virginia in the Union. Johnson believed that the authority of the existing loyal government in Virginia simply needed extension and he therefore issued an order on May 9th "putting the laws of the United States in operation in Virginia, and guaranteeing the support of the United States to Governor Francis H. Pierpont in all lawful measures for the extension and administration of the 'State' govern |