(6)
Charles Nordhoff, managing editor of the New York Evening Post
had a meeting with President Andrew
Johnson
about the planned Reconstruction Act. In a letter to his friend,
William Cullen Bryant, he described the president's views on the
act (2nd February, 1867)
The president grew
much excited and expressed the most bitter hatred of the measure
in all its parts, declaring that it was nothing but anarchy and
chaos, that the people of the South, poor, quiet, unoffending,
harmless, were to be trodden under foot "to protect niggers,"
that the States were already in the Union, that in no part of
the country were life and property so safe as in the Southern
States.
He is a pig headed man, with only one idea - a bitter opposition
to universal suffrage and a determination to secure the political
ascendancy of the old Southern leaders, who, he emphasized, must
in the nature of things rule the South.
(7)
Nelson
Miles, Report
on the condition of black people in North Carolina (9th October,
1867)
The great foundation
of all prosperity and perpetuity of our institutions and country
is education. From it, as a standpoint, arises everything that
is great and noble in us. The importance of the educational and
moral improvement of a race heretofore entirely debarred of its
benefits was early considered. The colored people are alive to
their deficiencies, and with an energy and enthusiasm unbounded
have seconded the efforts made, and are rapidly disenthralling
themselves from the chains of ignorance. The gain during the year
was 101 schools, 145 teachers, and 8,527 pupils. Much depends
upon the influence and guidance given to the colored people in
their new condition of life. If they are left to fall into habits
of idleness and prodigality, are wronged and oppressed, their
condition will become deplorable and they will be a curse to themselves
and the community. On the contrary, if they are treated with justice
and humanity, proper example and the advantages of education given
them, the coming years will be as bright and prosperous to the
unfortunate race as the past has been dark and painful.
Twenty-five thousand
are reported in the schools of North Carolina. If not these, their
children, under the influence of increased facilities, will become
so far enlightened as to be enabled to grasp the great object
of progressive Christianity and become the elevators and civilizers
of Africa, and accomplish what generations have failed to achieve,
sending back to the land of their forefathers from whence they
were stolen, "the Word of Life," thus making the "wrath
of man to praise Him." Strange indeed that events and influences
so antagonistic to every principle of justice and humanity
should be made the engine of power in frustrating the designs
of the despoiler and in effecting the final good of the victims
of the slave-ship. The problem that has so long baffled the Christian
world is about to be solved in making her sons the means of her
civilization and salvation.
A Christian people
who have for two hundred years kept a race in bondage, deprived
of the advantages of civilization and religion, owe them a debt
of gratitude which it would seem ungenerous to withhold. The colored
people have contributed so much to the wealth and prosperity of
this country and furnished so many soldiers for its defense in
its hour of danger, that the least we can do is to afford them
every advantage for enlightenment and improvement here in. the
land in which we have placed them, and in the future, should their
attention be turned to their native country, extend to them every
encouragement and support which an independent and powerful nation
can afford.
(8)
First Reconstruction Act (2nd March, 1867)
An act
to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel states.
Whereas no legal state governments or adequate protection for
life in property now exists in the Rebel states of Virginia, North
Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good
order should be enforced in said states until loyal and republican
state governments can be legally established; therefore, be it
enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America ion Congress assembled, that said Rebel states
shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the
military authority of the United States.
(9)
Section 5 of the first Reconstruction Act states that each Rebel
state was entitled to representation in Congress when it fulfilled
certain conditions (2nd March, 1867)
When the people of
any one of said Rebel states shall have formed a constitution
of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United
States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected
by the male citizens of said state, twenty-one years old and upward,
of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been
resident in said state for one year previous to the day of such
election.
(10)
President Andrew
Johnson
explained why he had decided to veto the First Reconstruction
Act in a speech in the House of Representatives (2nd March, 1867)
The excuse given for
the bill in the preamble is admitted by the bill itself not to
be real. The military rule which is establishes is plainly to
be used, not for any purpose of order or for the prevention of
crime but solely as a means of coercing the people into the adoption
of principles and measures to which it is known that they are
opposed and upon which they have an undeniable right to exercise
their own judgment. I submit to Congress whether this measure
is not in its whole character, scope, and object without precedent
and without authority, in palpable conflict with the plainest
provisions of the Constitution, and utterly destructive to those
great principles of liberty and humanity for which our ancestors
on both sides of the Atlantic have shed so much blood and expended
so much treasure.
(11)
Samuel Tilden, speech on the Republican
Party at a meeting of the Democratic
Party in New York (11th March,
1868)
A complete and harmonious
restoration of the revolted states would have been effected if
the Republican Party had not proved to be totally incapable of
acting in the case with any large, wise, or firm statesmanship.
A magnanimous policy would not only have completed the pacification
of the country but would have effected a reconciliation between
the Republican Party and the white race in the South. Every circumstance
favored such a result. The Republican Party possessed all the
powers of the government, and held sway over every motive of gratitude,
fear, or interest. The Southern people had become thoroughly weary
of the contest; more than half of them had been originally opposed
to entering into it, and had done so only when nothing was left
to them but to choose on which side they would fight.
All that was necessary to heal the bleeding wounds of the country
and to allow its languishing industries to revive, was that the
Republican Party - which boasts its great moral ideas and its
philanthropy - should rise to the moral elevation of an ordinary
pugilist and cease to strike its adversary after it was down.
(12)
Andrew
Johnson,
speech to Congress (25th December, 1868)
The
attempt to place the white population under the domination of
persons of color in the South has impaired, if not destroyed,
the friendly relations that had previously existed between them;
and mutual distrust has engendered a feeling of animosity which,
leading in some instances to collision and bloodshed, has prevented
the cooperation between the two races so essential to the success
of industrial enterprise in the Southern States.
(13)
