white man shall afford "equal" protection to the black man. Whatever means of redress is afforded to one shall be afforded to all. Whatever law allows the white man to testify in court shall allow the man of color to do the same. These are great advantages over their present codes. Now different degrees of punishment are inflicted, not on account of the magnitude of the crime, but according to the color of the skin. Now color disqualifies a man from testifying in courts, or being tried in the same way as white men. I need not enumerate these partial and oppressive laws. Unless the Constitution should restrain them those States will all, I fear, keep up this discrimination, and crush to death the hated freedmen. Some answer, "Your civil rights bill secures the same things." That is partly true, but a law is repealable by a majority. And I need hardly say that the first time that the South with their copperhead allies obtain the command of Congress it will be repealed. The veto of the President and their votes on the bill are conclusive evidence of that. And yet I am amazed and alarmed at the impatience of certain well-meaning Republicans at the exclusion of the rebel States until the Constitution shall be so amended as to restrain their despotic desires. This amendinent once adopted cannot be annulled without two thirds of Congress. That they will hardly get. And yet certain of our distinguished friends propose to admit State after State before this becomes a part of the Constitution. What madness! Is their judgment misled by their kindness; or are they unconsciously drifting into the haven of power at the other end of the avenue? I do not suspect it, but others will.

The second section I consider the most important in the article. It fixes the basis of representation in Congress. If any State shall exclude any of her adult male citizens from the elective franchise, or abridge that right, she shall forfeit her right to representation in the same proportion. The effect of this provision will be either to compel the States to grant universal suffrage or so to shear them of their power as to keep them forever in a hopeless minority in the national Government, both legislative and executive. If they do not enfranchise the freedmen, it would give to the rebel States but thirty-seven Representatives. Thus shorn of their power, they would soon become restive. Southern pride would not long brook a hopeless minority. True it will take two, three, possibly five years before they conquer their prejudices sufficiently to allow their late slaves to become their equals at the polls. That short delay would not be injurious. In the mean time the freedmen would become more

enlightened, and more fit to discharge the high duties of their new condition. In that time, too, the loyal Congress could mature their laws and so amend the Constitution as to secure the rights of every human being, and render disunion impossible. Heaven forbid that the southern States, or any one of them, should be represented on this floor until such muniments of freedom are built high and firm. Against our will they have been absent for four bloody years; against our will they must not come back until we are ready to receive them. Do not tell me that there are loyal representatives waiting for admission until their States are loyal they can have no standing here. They would merely misrepresent their constituents.

I admit that this article is not as good as the one we sent to death in the Senate. In my judgment, we shall not approach the measure of justice until we have given every adult freedman a homestead on the land where he was born and toiled and suffered. Forty acres of land and a hut would be more valuable to him than the immediate right to vote. Unless we give them this we shall receive the censure of mankind and the curse of Heaven. That article referred to provided that if one of the injured race was excluded the State should forfeit the right to have any of them represented. That would have hastened their full enfranchisement. This section allows the States to discriminate among the same class, and receive proportionate credit in representation. This I dislike. But it is a short step forward. The large stride which we in vain proposed is dead; the murderers must answer to the suffering race. I would not have been the perpetrator. A load of misery must sit heavy

on their souls.

The third section may encounter more difference of opinion here. Among the people I believe it will be the most popular of all the provisions; it prohibits rebels from voting for members of Congress and electors of President until 1870. My only objection to it is that it is too lenient. I know that there is a morbid sensibility, sometimes called mercy, which affects a few of all classes, from the priest to the clown, which has more sympathy for the murderer on the gallows than for his victim. I hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for human woe as others. I have long since wished that capital punishment were abolished. But I never dreamed that all punishment could be dispensed with in human society. Anarchy, treason, and violence would reign triumphant. Here is the mildest of all punishments ever inflicted on traitors. I might not consent to the extreme severity denounced upon them by a pro

visional governor of Tennessee I mean the late lamented Andrew Johnson of blessed memory - but I would have increased the severity of this section. I would be glad to see it extended to 1876, and to include all State and municipal as well as national elections. In my judgment we do not sufficiently protect the loyal men of the rebel States from the vindictive persecutions of their victorious rebel neighbors. Still I will move no amendment, nor vote for any, lest the whole fabric should tumble to pieces.

I need say nothing of the fourth section, for none dare object to it who is not himself a rebel. To the friend of justice, the friend of the Union, of the perpetuity of liberty, and the final triumph of the rights of man and their extension to every human being, let me say, sacrifice as we have done your peculiar views, and instead of vainly insisting upon the instantaneous operation of all that is right accept what is possible, and "all these things shall be added unto you."

Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., I sess. (F. and J. Rives, Washington, 1866), 2459-2460 passim, May 8, 1866.

153. Military Government (1867-1868)

BY MILITARY GOVERNORS

These extracts are from digests of orders of the military governors appointed under the reconstruction act of 1867. - Bibliography as in No. 145 above.

MAX

AY 28 [1867]-Where civil authorities fail to give adequate protection to all persons in their rights of person and property, it was announced that military commissioners would be appointed; trials by the civil courts preferred in all cases where there is satisfactory reason to believe that justice will be done. . . .

June 26 It was decided that, as the laws of Congress declared there was no legal government in Virginia, the Alexandria constitution does not disfranchise any persons.

April 4 [1868]-The office of Governor of Virginia having become vacant by the expiration of Governor Pierpoint's term, and he being ineligible for the next term, Henry H. Wells was appointed. . . .

Second Military District - North and South Carolina..

April 27 [1867]- Local election in Newbern suspended; and officers appointed, and required to take the oath of March 23, 1867. . . .

May 30... In public conveyances, on railroads, highways, streets, or navigable waters, no discrimination because of color or caste shall be made, and the common rights of all citizens therein shall be recognized and respected; a violation of this regulation to be deemed a misdemeanor, and to render the offender liable to arrest and trial by a military tribunal, besides such damages as may be recovered in the civil courts. The remedy by distress for rent is abolished, where lands are leased or let out for hire or rent. No license for the sale of intoxicating liquors in quantities less than one gallon, or to be drank on the premises, shall be granted to any person other than an inn-keeper. . . .

August 1 The session of the Legislature of North Carolina, elected in 1866, indefinitely postponed. . . .

September 5-The act of the Legislature of North Carolina, of March 7, 1867, "for the relief of executors, administrators, &c.," annulled as in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of the acts of Congress passed prohibiting all acts in aid of the late rebellion. Courts directed to dismiss judgments, orders, and decrees, under said legislation. . . .

September 13- General Canby ordered that all citizens assessed for taxes, and who shall have paid taxes for the current year, and who are qualified and have been or may be duly registered as voters, are declared qualified to serve as jurors. Any requirement of a property qualification for jurors is hereby abrogated. The collection of certain illegal and oppressive taxes, imposed in parts of North and South Carolina, was suspended. October 16 - An election ordered in South Carolina, November 19 and 20, for or against a "convention," and for delegates to constitute the Convention. Violence, or threats of violence, or of discharge from employment, or other oppressive agencies against the free exercise of the right of suffrage, prohibited. . . .

December 3

The election of municipal officers in Charleston

A system of taxation established, for the support of the provisional government of South Carolina for the year from October 1, 1867, to September 30, 1868. Appropriations ordered for the various offices and expenses of the State.

December 28- The election declared to have resulted in favor of a convention; and the delegates notified to meet in Charleston, January 14, 1868. . . .

1868, January 14 March 17.

- Conventions of both States met, and adjourned

February 6 - Ordinance of South Carolina Convention for the collection of taxes, promulgated, and the assessors ordered to collect the taxes therein levied. State Treasurer authorized to pay the expenses of the Convention. . .

May 2

Constitution announced ratified by a majority of the votes actually cast by the qualified electors of South Carolina. . . .

Third Military District - Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. . . .
General Wager Swayne issued this order at

April 12 [1867] Montgomery, Alabama :

General Orders, No. 3.

I. Complaints of hardship in the needless apprenticing of minors, particularly in pursuance of the preference given to the "former owner' in the law, have been almost incessant. It is enjoined upon probate judges, upon application, to revise the action taken in such cases, and as a rule to revoke indentures made within the past two years of minors who were capable of self-support. . . .

III. The use of "chain-gangs" as a mode of legal punishment being found to involve serious abuses, will be henceforth discontinued, except in connection with the penitentiary. . . .

August 2- No civil court will entertain any action against officers or soldiers, or others, for acts performed in accordance with the orders of the military authorities. All such suits now pending to be dismissed. August 12 - Ordered, that all advertisements or other official publications under State or municipal authority shall be made in such newspapers only as have not opposed and do not oppose reconstruction under acts of Congress, nor attempt to obstruct the civil officers appointed by the military authorities. . .

January 13 [1868]- This order was issued: "Charles J. Jenkins, Provisional Governor, and Jno. Jones, provisional treasurer, of the State of Georgia, having declined to respect the instructions of and failed to co-operate with the major general commanding the third military district, are hereby removed from office." Brevet Brigadier General Thomas H.