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not to take up arms against the Government of the United

States until properly exchanged and each company or reg-

imental commander sign a like parole for the men of their

command.

The arms, artillery and public property to be parked

and stacked and turned over to the officer appointed by

me to receive them.

This will not embrace the side arms of the officers, nor

their private horses or baggage. This done each officer and

man will be allowed to return to their homes not to be dis-

turbed by United States authority so long as they observe

their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

Very respectfully, U. S. Grant, Lt Gl.

Source:

Eleanor S. Brockenbrough Library. The Museum of the Confed-

eracy. Richmond, Virginia.

Jefferson Davis, Last Message to the

People of the Confederacy, 1865

President Jefferson Davis’s final message to the Confederate

people, delivered on April 4, 1865, under the specter of the

Confederacy’s imminent defeat in the Civil War. The besieged

Confederate government abandoned Richmond, its capital, for

Danville, Virginia, on April 2. The next day the Union army

occupied Richmond. On April 4, Davis, defiantly determined

to continue the war despite the South’s collapsing military and

political situation, appealed to the Confederate people to sum-

mon the resolve, in the face of dispiriting reverses, to continue

fighting. To buoy Southern morale, he suggested Richmond’s

fall actually benefited the Confederacy strategically, contend-

ing that General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia,

freed of responsibility for protecting the capital, would enjoy

greater mobility. He implored his countrymen to show forti-

tude under adversity, lest the North conclude that its occupa-

tion of Richmond signaled the South’s submission.

________________________

_______________________

Danville, Virginia, April 4, 1865.

To the People of the Confederate States of America.

The General in Chief of our Army has found it neces-

sary to make such movements of the troops as to uncover

the capital and thus involve the withdrawal of the Govern-

ment from the city of Richmond.

It would be unwise, even were it possible, to conceal

the great moral as well as material injury to our cause that

must result from the occupation of Richmond by the

enemy. It is equally unwise and unworthy of us, as patriots

engaged in a most sacred cause, to allow our energies to

falter, our spirits to grow faint, or our efforts to become

relaxed under reverses, however calamitous. While it has

been to us a source of national pride that for four years of

unequaled warfare we have been able, in close proximity

to the center of the enemy’s power, to maintain the seat of

our chosen Government free from the pollution of his

presence; while the memories of the heroic dead who have

freely given their lives to its defense must ever remain

enshrined in our hearts; while the preservation of the cap-

ital, which is usually regarded as the evidence to mankind

of separate national existence, was an object very dear to

us, it is also true, and should not be forgotten, that the loss

which we have suffered is not without compensation. For

many months the largest and finest army of the Confeder-

acy, under the command of a leader whose presence

inspires equal confidence in the troops and the people, has

been greatly trammeled by the necessity of keeping con-

stant watch over the approaches to the capital, and has

thus been forced to forego more than one opportunity for

promising enterprise. The hopes and confidence of the

enemy have been constantly excited by the belief that their

possession of Richmond would be the signal for our sub-

mission to their rule, and relieve them from the burden of

war, as their failing resources admonish them it must be

abandoned if not speedily brought to a successful close. It

is for us, my countrymen, to show by our bearing under

reverses how wretched has been the self-deception of

those who have believed us less able to endure misfortune

with fortitude than to encounter danger with courage. We

have now entered upon a new phase of a struggle the

memory of which is to endure for all ages and to shed an

increasing luster upon our country.

Relieved from the necessity of guarding cities and par-

ticular points, important but not vital to our defense, with

an army free to move from point to point and strike in

detail the detachments and garrisons of the enemy, oper-

ating on the interior of our own country, where supplies

are more accessible, and where the foe will be far removed

from his own base and cut off from all succor in case of

reverse, nothing is now needed to render our triumph cer-

tain but the exhibition of our own unquenchable resolve.

Let us but will it, and we are free; and who, in the light of

the past, dare doubt your purpose in the future?

Animated by the confidence in your spirit and forti-

tude, which never yet has failed me, I announce to you, fel-

low-countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your

cause with my whole heart and soul; that I will never con-

sent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any

one of the States of the Confederacy; that Virginia, noble

State, whose ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still

more glorious recent history, whose bosom has been bared

to receive the main shock of this war, whose sons and

902 ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction

daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render

her illustrious in all times to come—that Virginia, with the

help of her people, and by the blessing of Providence, shall

be held and defended, and no peace ever be made with the

infamous invaders of her homes by the sacrifice of any of

her rights or territory. If by stress of numbers we should

ever be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from her

limits, or those of any other border State, again and again

will we return, until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall

abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of mak-

ing slaves of a people resolved to be free.

Let us not, then, despond, my countrymen; but, rely-

ing on the never-failing mercies and protecting care of our

God, let us meet the foe with fresh defiance, with uncon-

quered and unconquerable hearts.

Jeff’n Davis.

Source:

James D. Richardson, ed. Messages and Papers of Jefferson Davis

and the Confederacy: Including Diplomatic Correspon-

dence, 1861–1865. New York: Chelsea House, 2001.

Abraham Lincoln, Victory Speech

from the White House, 1865

Speech delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the White

House on April 11, 1865. Lincoln celebrated the end of the

Civil War and credited General Ulysses Grant and the Union

forces with the victory. He turned quickly to the issue of

Reconstruction and the plan already taking effect in Louisiana.

Lincoln defended the plan, asking the rhetorical question:

“Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation with

the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new state

government?”

It followed, the presidential plan of Reconstruction issued

by Abraham Lincoln on December 8, 1863, which offered to

pardon most Rebels who were willing to take an oath of loy-

alty to the U.S. Constitution and to abide by federal laws and

proclamations concerning slaves. At that time, Lincoln pro-

posed that new state governments could be formed when a

number equal to 10 percent of the state’s voting population in

1860 took the prescribed oath. The program assumed that

Reconstruction was a presidential, not congressional, func-

tion. Even as the war continued, Radical Republicans found

the proposal too moderate; Congress instead passed the

Wade-Davis Bill.

________________________

_______________________

We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of

heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and

the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of

a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression can

not be restrained. In the midst of this, however, He, from

Whom all blessings flow, must not be forgotten. A call for

a national thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly

promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part gives us

the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked. Their honors must

not be parcelled out with others. I myself, was near the

front, and had the high pleasure of transmitting much of

the good news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or

execution, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skillful officers, and

brave men, all belongs. The gallant Navy stood ready, but

was not in reach to take active part.

By these recent successes the re-inauguration of the

national authority—reconstruction—which has had a large

share of thought from the first, is pressed much more

closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great diffi-

culty. Unlike the case of a war between independent

nations, there is no authorized organ for us to treat with.

No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any

other man. We simply must begin with, and mould from,

disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small

additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ

among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and means of

reconstruction.

As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports

of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that

to which I can not properly offer an answer. In spite of this

precaution, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am

much censured for some supposed agency in setting up,

and seeking to sustain, the new State Government of

Louisiana. In this I have done just so much as, and no

more than, the public knows. In the Annual Message of

Dec. 1863 and accompanying Proclamation, I presented a

plan of reconstruction (as the phrase goes) which, I

promised, if adopted by any State, should be acceptable

to, and sustained by, the Executive government of the

nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only plan

which might possibly be acceptable; and I also distinctly

protested that the Executive claimed no right to say when,

or whether members should be admitted to seats in

Congress from such States. This plan was, in advance,

submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved by

every member of it. One of them suggested that I should

then, and in that connection, apply the Emancipation

Proclamation to the theretofore excepted parts of Virginia

and Louisiana; that I should drop the suggestion about

apprenticeship for freed-people, and that I should omit

the protest against my own power, in regard to the admis-

sion of members to Congress; but even he approved every

part and parcel of the plan which has since been

employed or touched by the action of Louisiana. The new

constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the

The Civil War Years 903

whole State, practically applies the Proclamation to the

part previously excepted. It does not adopt apprenticeship

for freed-people; and it is silent, as it could not well be

otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress.

So that, as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the

Cabinet fully approved the plan. The Message went to

Congress, and I received many commendations of the

plan, written and verbal; and not a single objection to it,

from any professed emancipationist, came to my knowl-

edge, until after the news reached Washington that the

people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance

with it. From about July 1862, I has corresponded with

different persons, supposed to be interested, seeking a

reconstruction of a State government for Louisiana. When

the Message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned,

reached New-Orleans, Gen. Banks wrote me that he was

confident the people, with his military co-operation,

would reconstruct, substantially on that plan. I wrote him,

and some of them to try it; they tried it, and the result is

known. Such only has been my agency in getting up the

Louisiana government. As to sustaining it, my promise is

out, as before stated. But, as bad promises are better bro-

ken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and

break it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is

adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so

convinced.

I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to

be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that

my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the ques-

tion whether the seceded States, so called, are in the

Union or out of it. It would perhaps, add astonishment to

his regret, were he to learn that since I have found pro-

fessed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I

have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As

appears to me that question has not been, nor yet is, a

practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while

it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect

other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As

yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is

bad, as the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at

all—a merely pernicious abstraction.

We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are

out of their proper practical relation with the Union; and

that the sole object of the government, civil and military,

in regard to those States is to again get them into that

proper practical relation. I believe it is not only possible,

but in fact, easier, to do this, without deciding, or even

considering, whether these states have even been out of

the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at

home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had

ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts neces-

sary to restoring the proper practical relations between

these states and the Union; and each forever after, inno-

cently indulge his own opinion whether, in doing the acts,

he brought the States from without, into the Union, or

only gave them proper assistance, they never having been

out of it.

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the

new Louisiana government rests, would be more satisfac-

tory to all, if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty thou-

sand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it does. It

is also unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is

not given to the colored man. I would myself prefer that it

were now conferred on the very intelligent, and on those

who serve our cause as soldiers. Still the question is not

whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, is quite all

that is desirable. The question is “Will it be wiser to take it

as it is, and help to improve it; or to reject, and disperse

it?” “Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical rela-

tion with the Union sooner by sustaining, or by discarding

her new State Government?”

Some twelve thousand voters in the heretofore slave-

state of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union,

assumed to be the rightful political power of the State,

held elections, organized a State government, adopted a

free-state constitution, giving the benefit of public schools

equally to black and white, and empowering the Legisla-

ture to confer the elective franchise upon the colored

man. Their Legislature has already voted to ratify the con-

stitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, abol-

ishing slavery throughout the nation. These twelve

thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Union,

and to perpetual freedom in the state—committed to the

very things, and nearly all the things the nation wants—

and they ask the nations recognition, and it’s assistance to

make good their committal. Now, if we reject, and spurn

them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse them.

We in effect say to the white men “You are worthless, or

worse—we will neither help you, nor be helped by you.”

To the blacks we say “This cup of liberty which these, your

old masters, hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and

leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scat-

tered contents in some vague and undefined when, where,

and how.” If this course, discouraging and paralyzing both

white and black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into

proper practical relations with the Union, I have, so far,

been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recog-

nize, and sustain the new government of Louisiana the

converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts,

and nerve the arms of the twelve thousand to adhere to

their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight

for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete

success. The colored man too, in seeing all united for him,

is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the

904 ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction

same end. Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will

he not attain it sooner by saving the already advanced

steps toward it, than by running backward over them?

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to

what it should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner

have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it?

Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in

favor of the proposed amendment to the national consti-

tution. To meet this proposition, it has been argued that

no more than three fourths of those States which have not

attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the

amendment. I do not commit myself against this, further

than to say that such a ratification would be questionable,

and sure to be persistently questioned; while a ratification

by three fourths of all the States would be unquestioned

and unquestionable.

I repeat the question. “Can Louisiana be brought into

proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustain-

ing or by discarding her new State Government?”

What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to

other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each

state; and such important and sudden changes occur in the

same state; and, withal, so new and unprecedented is the

whole case, that no exclusive, and inflexible plan can safely

be prescribed as to details and colatterals. Such exclusive,

and inflexible plan, would surely become a new entangle-

ment. Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.

In the present “situation” as the phrase goes, it may be

my duty to make some new announcement to the people

of the South. I am considering, and shall not fail to act,

when satisfied that action will be proper.

See also

WADE

DAVIS BILL

, 1864.

Source:

Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings,

1859–65, New York: Library of America, 1989, pp.

697–701.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction Amendments,

1865, 1868, 1870

The purpose of these amendments to the U.S. Constitution was

to take a step toward the ideal that all men are created equal.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth

Amendment defined citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amend-

ment extended the federal vote to all American males over 21.

However, interpretation of those amendments at times limited

them and at times extended their reach.

Congress adopted the Thirteenth Amendment as the Civil

War was drawing to a close in early 1865; it was ratified by a

sufficient number of states in 1865. Lincoln’s Emancipation

Proclamation in 1863 did not actually free any slaves because

it applied only to parts of the Confederacy not under Union

control. This article represented the first major reform amend-

ment as opposed to one correcting a technical defect that

aimed at state matters. It not only freed the slaves; it estab-

lished federal protection against peonage (involuntary servi-

tude for such reasons as debt or threat of exposure for illegal

aliens). By holding that the Confederate states had never left

the Union, Congress required 27 states to ratify the Amend-

ment. Two slaveholding border states, Maryland and Dela-

ware, had remained in the Union and refused to ratify. How-

ever, eight Reconstruction governments among the 11 former

Confederate states also ratified the amendment, and it went

into effect December 18, 1865. A short time later, Congress

refused to recognize these provisional governments. However,

their ratification was allowed to stand. Although slavery itself

was outlawed, Southern governments instituted black codes

that in effect could re-enslave African Americans. In 1867,

Congress sought to overcome the black codes with the Peon-

age Act, which declared that holding any person to service or

labor under the peonage system is unlawful and forever pro-

hibited. It defined peonage as the “voluntary or involuntary

service or labor of any persons . . . in liquidation of any debt

or obligation.”

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted

in 1868, overcame the Dred Scott decision by clarifying that

former slaves were citizens of both the United States and the

individual states. By adopting it, Congress intended to make

sure that federal civil rights laws would be constitutional. In

addition, the amendment required the states to extend due

process of law and equal protection of the laws to all persons.

Reconstruction 905

This amendment epitomized a shift in authority from the

states to the national government. Nevertheless, beginning

with the Slaughterhouse Cases in 1873, the Supreme Court

rejected until well into the 20th century the notion that this

amendment made the Bill of Rights apply to the states as well

as to the federal government. The decade following saw a fur-

ther shift in the use of this amendment: to protect private

property from state regulation. In the mid-20th century, the

amendment was used to invalidate racial segregation and dis-

crimination against women. However, the Rehnquist Court

has once again elevated state power, and the debate over the

“real” meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment continues into

the 21st century.

This amendment also provided for apportionment of

members of the U.S. House of Representative on the basis of

the total population—without regard for race—within a state,

wiping out the constitutional clause establishing that five

slaves would count as three persons in apportioning represen-

tatives. The second part of the Fourteenth Amendment, reduc-

ing representation to states that denied the vote to adult male

citizens, was never applied. Sections three and four referred to

re-enfranchising former Confederates and the public debt—

affirming Union debts while invalidating Confederate claims,

including those for emancipated slaves.

The Fourteenth Amendment also barred more than

150,000 Rebels from holding civil or military office unless

Congress, by a vote, removed their disabilities. Congress pro-

ceeded to pass individual amnesty acts, especially for those

willing to join the Radical Republicans, but public demand

grew for broader action, and general amnesty became an issue

in the presidential campaign of 1872. Congress passed a gen-

eral amnesty on May 22, 1872, re-enfranchising most sup-

porters of the Confederacy. Only some 500 to 750

Confederate officials were excepted from the 1872 act, and all

disabilities were removed by 1898.

However, the Fourteenth Amendment did not guarantee

suffrage for African Americans. When it became clear in

1869 that another amendment was required, the issue of

including women was raised. The argument prevailed that it

was more important for black males to vote than to tie one

controversial franchise to another, and women were

excluded. Until the passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment

in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Southern whites

continued to deny blacks the vote through various means,

including poll taxes, literacy and property tests, or residence

and registration “requirements.” Previously, the Supreme

Court outlawed some tactics like the “grandfather clause,”

which exempted from various requirements anyone whose

ancestor had the right to vote before 1867 (declared uncon-

stitutional in 1915), and white primaries (declared unconsti-

tutional in 1944).

________________________

_______________________

Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,

1865

MENDMENT

LAVERY

BOLISHED

(1865)

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall

have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United

States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,

1868

MENDMENT

IGHTS OF

ITIZENS

(1868)

Section 1. Citizenship Defined All persons born or nat-

uralized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdic-

tion thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the

state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce

any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of

citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive

any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process

of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the

equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Apportioning Representatives Repre-

sentatives shall be apportioned among the several states

according to their respective numbers, counting the whole

number of persons in each state [excluding Indians not

taxed]. But when the right to vote at any election for the

choice of electors for President and Vice President of the

United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive

and judicial officer of a state, or the members of the legis-

lature thereof, is denied to any of the [male] inhabitants of

such state, [being twenty-one years of age] and citizens of

the United States, or in any way abridged, except for par-

ticipation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of repre-

sentation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which

the number of such [male] citizens shall bear to the whole

number of male citizens [twenty-one years of age] in such

state.

Section 3. Disability for Insurrection No person

shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elec-

tor of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil

or military, under the United States, or under any state,

who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of

Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a

member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judi-

cial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the

United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebel-

lion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the ene-

mies thereof. But Congress may by vote of two thirds of

each house, remove such disability.

906 ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction

Section 4. Public Debt The validity of the public

debt of the United States, authorized by law, including

debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for

services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not

be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state

shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of

insurrection or rebellion against the United States [or any

claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave]; but all such

debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. Enforcement The Congress shall have

power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions

of this article.

Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,

1870

MENDMENT

IGHT OF

UFFRAGE

(1870)

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to

vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States

or by any state on account of race, color, or previous con-

dition of servitude.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce

this article by appropriate legislation.

Source:

Lewis Paul Todd and Merle Curti, eds. Triumph of the American

Nation. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.

Freedmen’s Bureau Act of 1865

Legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress on March 3, 1865,

to establish a “bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned

lands” to aid some 4 million destitute, newly freed slaves. In

1866 Congress, overriding the veto of President Andrew

Johnson, who thought the bureau was unconstitutional and

unnecessary, extended its life and scope. Organized under

the War Department and headed by General O. O. Howard,

the bureau provided relief for the needy—both black and

white—assigned homesteads on public lands, supervised

labor contracts to protect illiterate former slaves, established

hospitals and schools, and protected civil rights for freed-

men. By the time the bureau ceased operations in 1872,

most of its duties had been abolished or adopted by other

agencies.

________________________

_______________________

An Act

To establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedman and

Refugees.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-

tives of the United States of America in Congress assem-

bled, That there is here by established in the War Depart-

ment, to continue during the present war of rebellion, and

for one year thereafter, a bureau of refugees, freedmen,

and abandoned lands, to which shall be committed, as

hereinafter provided, the supervision and management of

all abandoned lands, and the control of all subjects relat-

ing to refugees and freedmen from rebel states, or from

any district of country within the territory embraced in

the operations of the army, under such rules and regula-

tions as may be prescribed by the head of the bureau and

approved by the President. The said bureau shall be

under the management and control of a commissioner to

be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the Senate, whose compensation shall be three

thousand dollars per annum, and such number of clerks as

may be assigned to him by the Secretary of War, no

exceeding one chief clerk, two of the fourth class, two of

the third class, and five of the first class. And the Com-

missioner and all persons appointed under this act, shall,

before entering upon their duties, take the oath of office

prescribed in an act entitled “An act to prescribe an oath

of office, and for other purposes,” approved July second,

eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the commissioner

and the chief clerk shall, before entering upon their

duties, give bonds to the treasurer of the United States,

the former in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, and the

latter in the sum of ten thousand dollars, conditioned for

the faithful discharge of their duties respectively, with

securities to be approved as sufficient by the Attorney-

General, which bonds shall be filed in the office of the

first comptroller of the treasury, to be by him put in suit

for the benefit of any injured party upon any breach of the

conditions thereof.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of

War may direct such issues of provisions, clothing, and

fuel, as he may deem needful for the immediate and tem-

porary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering

refugees and freedmen and their wives and children,

under such rules and regulations as he may direct.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the President

may, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,

appoint an assistant commissioner for each of the states

declared to be in insurrection, not exceeding ten in num-

ber, who shall, under the direction of the commissioner,

aid in the execution of the provisions of this act; and he

shall give a bond to the Treasurer of the United States, in

the sum of twenty thousand dollars, in the form and man-

ner prescribed in the first section of this act. Each of said

commissioners shall receive an annual salary of two thou-

sand five hundred dollars in full compensation for all his

services. And any military officer may be detailed and

assigned to duty under this act without increase of pay or

Reconstruction 907

allowances. The commissioner shall, before the com-

mencement of each regular session of congress, make full

report of his proceedings with exhibits of the state of his

accounts to the President, who shall communicate the

same to congress, and shall also make special reports

whenever required to do so by the President or either

house of congress; and the assistant commissioners shall

make quarterly reports of their proceedings to the com-

missioner, and also such other special reports as from time

to time may be required.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the commis-

sioner, under the direction of the President, shall have

authority to set apart, for the use of loyal refugees and

freedmen, such tracts of land within the insurrectionary

states as shall have been abandoned, or to which the

United States shall have acquired title by confiscation or

sale, or otherwise, and to every male citizen, whether

refugee or freedman, as aforesaid, there shall be assigned

not more than forty acres of such land, and the person to

whom it was so assigned shall be protected in the use and

enjoyment of the land for the term of three years at an

annual rent not exceeding six per centum upon the value

of such land, as it was appraised by the state authorities in

the year eighteen hundred and sixty, for the purpose of

taxation, and in case no such appraisal can be found, then

the rental shall be based upon the estimated value of the

land in said year, to be ascertained in such manner as the

commissioner may by regulation prescribe. At the end of

said term, or at any time during said term, the occupants

of any parcels so assigned may purchase the land and

receive such title thereto as the United States can convey,

upon paying therefor the value of the land, as ascertained

and fixed for the purpose of determining the annual rent

aforesaid.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That all acts and

parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are

hereby repealed.

Source:

Statutes at Large, Vol. 13, pp. 507–509.

Three Views on Reconstruction,

1865, 1866

The historic 39th Congress convened in December 1865 to

confront the issue of reuniting the divided nation following

the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson favored a lenient

policy aimed at hasty restoration of the South to the Union,

arguing that a Draconian approach would postpone national

healing by perpetuating enmities and envenoming the

defeated Confederate states. The Radical Republicans, led by

Pennsylvania representative Thaddeus Stevens, bitterly

opposed Johnson’s conciliatory plan. They asserted a clear

congressional prerogative to determine the method of recon-

struction. On December 18, 1865, Stevens gave a speech

before the U.S. House of Representatives urging a harsh pol-

icy of Reconstruction toward the defeated Confederacy. In his

speech Stevens advocated treating the Southern states as con-

quered provinces. He disparaged the constitutional theory

that the Confederate states, though insurrectionist, had never

technically left the Union. To deny the North’s right to treat

the traitorous states as conquered belligerents, he contended,

was mockery. He urged a policy of military rule in the South,

advocated enfranchising emancipated blacks, demanded

severe punishment of Confederate leaders, and asserted

Congress’s supremacy in deciding how the South should be

restored to the Union.

Union Republican Henry Raymond of New York followed

with a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives on

December 21, 1865, advocating a moderate Reconstruction

policy toward the defeated Confederacy. Raymond, who

entered national politics from his editorship of the

New York

Times,

delivered the moderates’ response to congressional

Radical Republicans. He endorsed President Andrew John-

son’s lenient plan for national restoration following the Civil

War and rejected Stevens’s “conquered province” theory on

grounds that the Confederate states had never actually sepa-

rated from the Union because the Constitution granted no

legal right of secession. In an emotional plea for national heal-

ing and reconciliation, Raymond appealed for an end to the

hatreds engendered by the war, urging reunion on the basis of

a common commitment to freedom and prosperity in the

United States.

On January 6, 1866, Republican representative Samuel

Shellabarger delivered a speech to the House of Representa-

tives outlining the moderate Republicans’ position for read-

mitting Southern states to the Union. The plan cut a middle

road between the proposals of the Radical Republicans and

President Andrew Johnson. Shellabarger agreed with the Rad-

icals that the South had disavowed their rights under the U.S.

Constitution, as they had repudiated the document by re-

belling against the Union. While demanding that only

Congress could allow readmission to the Union, he did not

call on Johnson to dissolve his reorganization plan.

Shellabarger did insist, however, that the new constitutions of

the Southern states must include “irreversible guarantees for

the rights of freedmen.”

These speeches were interrupted at times by questions

and challenges. These have not been excerpted. The full

text of these speeches including the remarks of others is

Landmark Documents in American History

, www.facts

onfile.com.

________________________

_______________________

908 ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction

Thaddeus Stevens, Speech on Reconstruction, 1865

Fellow Citizens: In compliance with your request I have

come to give my views of the present condition of the rebel

States; of the proper mode of reorganizing the Govern-

ment, and the future prospects of the Republic. During

the whole progress of the war . . . I knew that the loyal

North would conquer the rebel despots who sought to

destroy freedom. But since that traitorous confederation

has been subdued, and we have entered upon the work of

“reconstruction” or “restoration,” I cannot deny that my

heart has become sad at the gloomy prospects before us.

Four years of bloody and expensive war waged against

the United States by eleven States, under a government

called the “Confederate States of America” to which they

acknowledged allegiance, have overthrown all govern-

ments within those States, which could be acknowledged

as legitimate by the Union. The armies of the Confederate

States having been conquered and subdued, and their ter-

ritories possessed by the United States, it becomes neces-

sary to establish governments therein, which shall be

republican in “form and principles, and form a more per-

fect union” with the parent government. It is desirable that

such a course should be pursued as to exclude from those

governments every vestige of human bondage and render

the same forever impossible in this nation, and to take care

that no principles of self-destruction shall be incorporated

therein. . . . We hold it to be the duty of the Government

to inflict condign punishment on the rebel belligerents,

and so weaken their hands that they can never again

endanger the Union; and so reform their municipal insti-

tutions as to make them republican in spirit as well as in

name.

We especially insist that the property of the chief

rebels should be seized and appropriated to the payment

of the national debt, caused by the unjust and wicked war

which they instigated. . . .

How can such punishments be inflicted and such for-

feitures produced without doing violence to established

principles?

Two positions have been suggested.

1st To treat those States as never having been out of

the Union, because the Constitution forbids secession,

and, therefore, a fact forbidden by law could not exist.

2nd To accept the position in which they placed them-

selves as severed from the Union; an independent govern-

ment de facto, and an alien enemy to be dealt with

according to the laws of war.

* * *

. . .That Government raised large armies, and by its

formidable power, compelled the nations of the civilized

world as well as our Government, to acknowledge them as

an independent belligerent, entitled by the law of nations

to be considered as engaged in a public war, and not

merely in an insurrection. It is idle to deny that we treated

them as a belligerent entitled to all the rights and subject

to all the liabilities of an alien enemy. We blockaded their

ports, which is an undoubted belligerent right; the extent

of coast blockaded, marked the acknowledged extent of

their territory—the territory criminally acquired but de

facto theirs. We acknowledged their sea-rovers as priva-

teers and not as pirates, by ordering their captive crews to

be treated as prisoners of war. . . . The Confederate States

were for four years what they claimed to be—an alien

enemy in all their rights and liabilities. To say that they

were states under the protection of that Constitution

which they were rending, and within the Union which they

were assaulting with bloody defeats, simply because they

became belligerents through crime, is making theory over-

rule fact to an absurd degree. . . . The United States, if not

obliged so to do, has a right to treat them as an alien enemy

now conquered, and subject to all the liabilities of a van-

quished foe.

. . . Let us inquire which position is best for the United

States. . . .

In reconstruction, therefore, no reform can be ef-

fected in the Southern States if they have never left the

Union. But reformation must be effected; the foundation

of their institutions, both political, municipal, and social

must be broken up and relaid, or all our blood and treasure

have been spent in vain. This can only be done by treating

and holding them as a conquered people. Then all things

which we can desire to do follow with logical and legiti-

mate authority. . . .

I do not touch on the question of Negro suffrage. If

in the Union, the States have long ago regulated that, and

for the Central Government to interfere with it would be

mischievous impertinence. If they are to be admitted as

new States they must form their own Constitutions; and

no enabling act could dictate its terms. . . . Whether those

who have fought our battles shall all be allowed to vote,

or only those of a paler hue, I leave to be discussed in

the future when Congress can take legitimate cognizance

of it.

* * *

. . . We propose to confiscate all the estate of every rebel

belligerent whose estate was worth $10,000, or whose land

exceeded two hundred acres in quantity. Policy if not jus-

tice would require that the poor, the ignorant, and the

coerced should be forgiven. They followed the example

and teachings of their wealthy and intelligent neighbors..

The rebellion would never have originated with them. For-

tunately those who would thus escape form a large major-

Reconstruction 909

ity of the people, though possessing but a small portion of

the wealth. The proportion of those exempt compared

with the punished would be I believe about nine-tenths.

There are about six millions of freemen in the South.

The number of acres of land is 465,000,000. Of this those

who own above two hundred acres each, number about

70,000 persons, holding in the aggregate (together with

the States) about 394,000,000 acres, leaving for all the oth-

ers below 200 each about 71,000,000 of acres. By thus for-

feiting the estates of the leading rebels, the Government

would have 394,000,000 of acres beside their town prop-

erty, and yet nine-tenths of the people would remain

untouched. Divide this land into convenient farms. Give if

you please forty acres to each adult male freedman. Sup-

pose there are one million of them. That would require

40,000,000 of acres, which deducted from 394,000,000

leaves three hundred and fifty-four millions of acres for

sale. Divide it into suitable farms and sell it to the highest

bidders. I think it, including town property, would average

at least ten dollars per acre. That would produce

$3,540,000,000—Three billions, five hundred and forty

millions of dollars.

Let that be applied as follows to wit: 1. Invest

$300,000,000 in six percent government bonds, and add

the interest semi-annually to the pensions of those who

have become entitled by this villainous war. 2. Appropriate

$200,000,000 to pay the damages done to loyal men North

and South by the rebellion. 3. Pay the residue being

$3,040,000,000 towards the payment of the National debt.

* * *

The only argument of the Restorationists is, that the States

could not and did not go out of the Union because the

Constitution forbids it. By the same reasoning you could

prove that no crime ever existed. No man ever committed

murder for the law forbids it. He is a shallow reasoner who

could make theory overrule fact!

* * *

I assert that upon that theory not a Slave has been liber-

ated; not a Slave law has been abrogated; but on the

“Restoration” the whole Slave code is in legal force. Slav-

ery was protected by our Constitution in every State in

the Union where it existed. While they remained under

that protection no power in the Federal Government

could abolish Slavery. . . . The laws of war enabled us to

declare every bondman free, so long as we held them in

military possession. And the conqueror, through

Congress, may declare them forever emancipated. But if

the States are “States in the Union,” then when war

ceases they resume their positions with all their privileges

untouched. . . .

The President says to the rebel States “before you can

participate in the government you must abolish Slavery

and reform your election laws.” That is the command of a

Conqueror. That is Reconstruction not Restoration—

Reconstruction too by assuming the powers of Congress.

This theory will lead to melancholy results. Nor can the

constitutional amendment abolishing Slavery ever be rati-

fied by three-fourths of the States, if they are States to be

counted. Bogus Conventions of those States may vote for

it. But no Convention honestly and fairly elected will ever

do it. The frauds will not permanently avail. The cause of

Liberty must rest on a firmer basis. Counterfeit govern-

ments like the Virginia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi,

and Arkansas pretenses, will be disregarded by the sober

sense of the people, by future law, and by the courts.

“Restoration” is replanting the seeds of rebellion, which

within the next quarter of a century will germinate and

produce the same bloody strife which has just ended.

. . . This plan would, no doubt, work a radical reorga-

nization in southern institutions, habits, and manners. It is

intended to revolutionize their principles and feelings.

This may startle feeble minds and shake weak nerves. So

do all great improvements in the political and moral world.

It requires a heavy impetus to drive forward a sluggish

people. When it was first proposed to free the slaves, and

arm the blacks, did not half the nation tremble? The prim

conservatives, the snobs, and the male waiting-maids in

Congress were in hysterics.

The whole fabric of southern society must be changed,

and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. With-

out this, this Government can never be, as it never has

been, a true republic. . . .

If the South is ever to be a safe republic let her lands

be cultivated by the toil of the owners or the free labor of

intelligent citizens. This must be done even though it drive

her nobility into exile. If they go, all the better.

* * *

Let us forget all parties, and build on the broad platform

of “reconstructing” the Government out of the conquered

territory, converted into new and free States, and admitted

into the Union by the sovereign power of Congress, with

another plank—“The Property of the Rebels shall Pay Our

National Debt, and indemnify freedmen and loyal suffer-

ers” and that under no circumstances will we suffer the

National debt to be repudiated, or the interest scaled

below the contract rates; or permit any part of the rebel

debt to be assumed by the nation.

Let all who approve of these principles rally with us.

Let all others go with Copperheads and rebels. Those will

be the opposing parties. Young men, this duty devolves on

you. Would to God, if only for that, that I were still in the

910 ERA 5: Civil War and Reconstruction

prime of life, that I might aid you to fight through this last

and greatest battle of freedom.

Henry J. Raymond,

Speech on Reconstruction, 1865

* * *

. . . I am glad to assume and to believe that there is not a

member of this House, nor a man in this country, who does

not wish, from the bottom of his heart, to see the day

speedily come when we shall have this nation—the great

American Republic—again united, more harmonious in its

action than it has ever been, and forever one and indivisi-

ble. We in this Congress are to devise the means to restore

its union and its harmony, to perfect its institutions, and to

make it in all its parts and in all its action, through all time

to come, too strong, too wise, and too free ever to invite or

ever to permit the hand of rebellion again to be raised

against it.

* * *

I cannot believe that these States have ever been out of the

Union, or that they are now out of the Union. I cannot

believe that they ever have been, or are now, in any sense

a separate Power. If they were, sir, how and when did they

become so? . . . by what specific act, and at what precise

time, any one of these States took itself out of the Ameri-

can Union. Was it by the ordinance of secession? I think

we all agree that an ordinance of secession passed by any

State of this Union is simply a nullity, because it encoun-

ters in its practical operation the Constitution of the

United States, which is the supreme law of the land. It

could have no legal, actual force or validity. It could not

operate to effect any actual change in the relations of the

State adopting it to the national Government, still less to

accomplish the removal of that State from the sovereign

jurisdiction of the Constitution of the United States.

Well, sir, did the resolutions of these States, the dec-

larations of their officials, the speeches of members of

their Legislatures, or the utterances of their press accom-

plish the result? Certainly not. They could not possibly

work any change whatever in the relations of these States

to the General Government. All their ordinances and all

their resolutions were simply declarations of a purpose to

secede. . . . After declaring that intention, they proceeded

to carry it into effect. How? By war. By sustaining their

purpose by arms against the force which the United States

brought to bear against it. Did they sustain it? Were their

arms victorious? If they were, then their secession was an

accomplished fact. If not, it was nothing more than an

abortive attempt—a purpose unfulfilled. This, then, is

simply a question of fact, and we all know what the fact is.

They did not succeed. They failed to maintain their

ground by force of arms—in other words, they failed to

secede.

. . . I think I need not argue any further the position

that the rebel States have never for one moment, by any

ordinances of secession, or by any successful war, carried

themselves beyond the rightful jurisdiction of the Consti-

tution of the United States. They have interrupted for a

time the practical enforcement and exercise of that juris-

diction; they rendered it impossible for a time for this Gov-

ernment to enforce obedience to its laws; but there has

never been an hour when this Government, or this

Congress, or this House, or the gentleman from Pennsyl-

vania [Thaddeus Stevens] himself, ever conceded that

those States were beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitu-

tion and laws of the United States.

. . . What the States did was to endeavor to interpose

their State authority between the individuals in rebellion

and the Government of the United States, which assumed,

and which would carry out the assumption, to declare

those individuals traitors for their acts. The individuals in

the States who were in rebellion, it seems to me, were the

only parties who under the Constitution and laws of the

United States could incur the penalties of treason. I know

of no law, I know of nothing in the Constitution of the

United States, I know of nothing in any recognized or

established code of international law, which can punish a

State as a State for any act it may perform. It is certain that

our Constitution assumes nothing of the kind. It does not

deal with States, except in one or two instances, such as

elections of members of Congress, and the election of

electors of President and Vice President.

Indeed, the main feature which distinguishes the

Union under the Constitution from the old Confederation

is this, that whereas the old Confederation did deal with

States directly, making requisitions upon them for supplies

and relying upon them for the execution of its laws, the

Constitution of the United States, in order to form a more

perfect Union, made its laws binding on the individual cit-

izens of the several States, whether living in one State or in

another. . . .

. . . Let me next cite some of the consequences which,

it seems to me, must follow the acceptance of his position.

If, as he asserts, we have been waging war with an inde-

pendent Power, with a separate nation, I cannot see

how we can talk of treason in connection with our recent

conflict. . . .

* * *

. . . If that confederacy was an independent Power, a sepa-

rate nation, it had the right to contract debts; and we, hav-

ing overthrown and conquered that independent Power,

Reconstruction 911