after the war is over. No one need expect me to take any part in hanging or killing these men [the Confederate leaders], even the worst of them. Enough lives have been sacrificed. We must extinguish our resentments if we expect harmony and Union."

But Lincoln did not live to carry out the wise policy which was so clearly foreshadowed by the above noble words. On April 14, 1865, the great man, while sitting in his box in a theatre in Washington, was shot in the head by John Wilkes

Booth, an actor who in his sympathy for the South became mentally unbalanced because the South had failed to win. Lincoln fell forward unconscious when he was shot and never regained consciousness. He sank rapidly, and on the morning of April 15 he died. His death brought sorrow to the North because it felt that his patience and firmness and devotion had saved the Union. The South grieved because it felt that it had lost a good friend. The whole nation mourned, for it knew that no other man "could so wisely and powerfully, or would so earnestly, have applied himself to the compassionate

Andrew
Johnson

Amnesty and Pardon

task of binding together the broken ligaments of national brotherhood."

Sprung from the West,

He drank the valorous youth of a new world.
The strength of virgin forests braced his mind,
The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul.
His words were oaks in acorns; and his thoughts
Were roots that firmly gript the granite truth.

Up from log cabin to the Capitol,
One fire was on his spirit, one resolve-
To send the keen ax to the root of wrong,
Clearing a free way for the feet of God,
The eyes of conscience testing every stroke,
To make his deed the measure of a man.
He built the rail pile as he built the State
Pouring his splendid strength through every blow:
The grip that swung the ax in Illinois
Was on the pen that set a people free.

Edwin Markham.

JOHNSON'S EFFORTS AT RECONSTRUCTION

Three hours after Lincoln's death Vice-President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as President. Andrew Johnson was truly a most remarkable man. In many respects the life of Johnson was a counterpart of the life of Lincoln. Like Lincoln, his childhood was spent in poverty. He never went to school a day in his life. He did not learn to write until after his marriage, when he was taught by his wife. He possessed, however, a marvelous fund of native vigor, and no American` ever made better use of his inborn powers. Beginning his public career as mayor of his town, he passed upward from one office to another, to the state legislature, to the national House of Representatives, to the governorship of his State, to the United States Senate, to the Vice-Presidency-until he found himself at the very top of the political ladder.

Johnson took up the work of reconstruction at the precise point where Lincoln left it, and in the performance of the task he followed closely the plans marked out by his predecessor. He reëstablished federal authority within the limits of the several Southern States; he caused the post-office service to be renewed; he caused the federal taxes to be collected; he

tions

opened the federal courts for the administration of justice; he rescinded the blockade and threw open the ports of the South to the trade of the world. On May 29, 1865, Johnson issued a proclamation granting to all who had been in arms against the Union "amnesty and pardon with restoration of all rights of property except as to slaves," providing that those desiring pardon would take oath that they would henceforth support and defend the Constitution of the United States and abide by all laws and proclamations with reference to the emancipation of Excepslaves. The amnesty, however, did not apply to certain excepted classes of persons, the most important exceptions being civil or diplomatic officers of the Confederacy; military officers above the rank of colonel; those who had left seats in Congress to aid the South in its war; and all who owned property worth more than $20,000. But even these excepted persons might receive pardon upon special application to the President. Speaking broadly, Johnson placed pardon within easy reach of all who had joined the Confederacy.

Andrew Johnson

The

Thirteenth

ment

In the meantime the machinery of government was moving swiftly to bring about the constitutional emancipation of the Amendslave. Even before the war had ended, Congress, in accordance with the wishes of Lincoln, submitted (March, 1865) to the States, for ratification, the Thirteenth Amendment, providing for the complete abolition of slavery throughout the entire extent of the United States (149). The amendment was quickly ratified by three fourths of the States (123) and in December, 1865, it became valid as a part of the Constitution. By the time the federal amendment was adopted slavery was virtually dead, for it had already been abolished by state

Johnson's

Conditions

of Reconstruction

Opposition of Congress

to

Johnson's

Plan

action in all the States but three. Nevertheless, it was the Thirteenth Amendment that gave the moribund institution its death-blow and made freedom henceforth the portion of every person whose feet should rest upon American soil.

While the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment was being secured, President Johnson was undertaking to bring the seceded States back into "their proper practical relation" in the constitutional system. He proposed to recognize as a member of the Union any State that would (1) nullify its ordinance of secession; (2) ratify the Thirteenth Amendment; and (3) agree not to pay the war debts contracted by the Confederate Government. These conditions were quite readily complied with and by the time Congress met in December, 1865, Johnson was able to inform that body that "all the States except Texas had been reconstructed and were ready to resume their places in the two branches of the National Legislature."

THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION

But reconstruction was not to be achieved so easily and so quickly as Johnson hoped. Upon what basis were the States to resume their places in Congress? This was a question that that body itself would have to settle (26). The Republican leaders in Congress were determined that there should be a change in the method of apportioning the number of representatives a State might have. The old arrangement of counting three fifths of the slaves (8) was always regarded by many in the North as unjust; but how much more unjust, the Republicans in 1865 asked, would it be to count all the blacks? The radical Republicans believed that the emancipated negroes ought not to be counted for purposes of representation unless they were given the right to vote. Until this all-important question was settled no scheme of reconstruction would be satisfactory to the Republican majority in Congress. So the radical element in Congress refused to join with Johnson in his plans for dealing with the seceded States. The leader of the opposition to the President was Thaddeus Stevens, a member of

the House from Pennsylvania. Stevens was now a venerable man of seventy-four, but the fires of his strong nature still burned with a fierce heat. He was a violent partizan, and he went about his work in a bitter and vindictive manner. "Speech with Stevens," said Charles Sumner, his friend and chief ally, "was at times a cat-of-nine tails, and woe to the victim on whom the terrible lash descended!" For nearly two years this iron-willed, imperious old man was the virtual dictator of the Republican party. Yielding to his protest Congress instead of admitting the senators and representatives from the South, as Johnson proposed, denied them (26) their seats, and created a joint committee-the famous Reconstruction Committee-with authority to inquire into Southern affairs and report whether any of the States of the Confederacy were entitled to be represented in either house of Congress.

"Black

One reason why Congress halted in carrying out Johnson's The program was that although the Thirteenth Amendment had Codes" been accepted in the South, the negro was nevertheless not being treated in all respects as if he were a free man. He was virtually forbidden to assemble with other negroes, his freedom of locomotion was restricted, and in some places he was deprived of the means of self-defense. In Mississippi the freedman was not allowed to own land; in Louisiana in one place every negro was required to be in the regular service of some white person or former owner; in South Carolina persons of color were forbidden to engage in any occupation except farming or domestic service, unless under a special license. These "black codes," as the laws aimed especially at the negro were called, were regarded by the whites of the South as necessary to prevent vagrancy and disorder and to protect society generally. The freedmen, it was claimed, were not, and in the nature of things, could not be, on the same social and intellectual level with the white man and they could not therefore be made equal with the white man before the law.

But Congress was opposed to the "black codes" and was disposed to treat the negroes as if they were the equals of the whites. From the beginning Congress undertook to shield

The

Freed

man's

Bureau