Reconstruction
Page 1
Library of America, a nonprofit organization,
champions our nation’s cultural heritage
by publishing America’s greatest writing in
authoritative new editions and providing resources
for readers to explore this rich, living legacy.
RECONSTRUCTION
VOICES FROM AMERICA’S
FIRST GREAT STRUGGLE
FOR RACIAL EQUALITY
Brooks D. Simpson, editor
LIBRARY OF AMERICA E-BOOK CLASSICS
Volume compilation, introduction, notes, and chronology copyright © 2018 by
Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., New York, N.Y.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
the permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Some of the material in this volume is reprinted
by permission of the holders of copyright and publication rights.
Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders.
If an owner has been unintentionally omitted,
acknowledgment will gladly be made in future printings.
See Note on the Texts on page 688 for further information.
Published in the United States by Library of America.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA, a nonprofit publisher,
is dedicated to publishing, and keeping in print,
authoritative editions of America’s best and most
significant writing. Each year the Library adds new
volumes to its collection of essential works by America’s
foremost novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and statesmen.
Visit our website at www.loa.org to find out more about
Library of America, and to sign up to receive our
occasional newsletter with exclusive interviews with
Library of America authors and editors,
and our popular Story of the Week e-mails.
Distributed to the trade in the United States
by Penguin Random House Inc.
and in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Ltd.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017939512
e-ISBN 978-1-59583-563-1
The Library of America—303
Manufactured in the United States of America
Reconstruction:
Voices from America’s First Great Struggle
for Racial Equality
is published with support from
WILLIAM R. BERKLEY
and
THE BERKLEY FAMILY FOUNDATION
Contents
Introduction
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION, 1865–1866
Frederick Douglass: What the Black Man Wants, January 26, 1865
“Do nothing with us!”: Massachusetts, January 1865
Abraham Lincoln: Speech on Reconstruction, April 11, 1865
Washington, D.C., April 1865
Springfield Republican: Restoration of the Union, April 20, 1865
Forgiving rebels: Massachusetts, April 1865
Andrew Johnson: Interview with Pennsylvania Delegation, May 3, 1865
“Treason is a crime”: Washington, D.C., May 1865
Colored Men of North Carolina to Andrew Johnson, May 10, 1865
Muskets and Ballots: North Carolina, May 1865
Andrew Johnson: Reply to a Delegation of Colored Ministers, May 11, 1865
“Liberty to work”: Washington, D.C., May 1865
Salmon P. Chase to Andrew Johnson, May 12, 1865
Three classes of white citizens: North Carolina, May 1865
Joseph Noxon to Andrew Johnson, May 27, 1865
The necessity of black suffrage: New York, May 1865
Delegation of Kentucky Colored People to Andrew Johnson, June 9, 1865
“Most inhuman laws”: Washington, D.C., June 1865
Charles C. Soule and Oliver O. Howard: An Exchange, June 12 and 21, 1865
False ideas of freedom: South Carolina, June 1865
Richard Henry Dana: Speech at Boston, June 21, 1865
“The grasp of war”: Massachusetts, June 1865
Charles Sumner to Gideon Welles, July 4, 1865
“Shame & disaster”: Massachusetts, July 1865
Wendell Phillips to the National Anti-Slavery Standard, July 8, 1865
The Danger of Rebels in Congress: Massachusetts, July 1865
Francis Preston Blair to Andrew Johnson, August 1, 1865
“The white race alone”: Maryland, August 1865
Colored People of Mobile to Andrew J. Smith, August 2, 1865
Defending “pure freedom”: Alabama, August 1865
Jourdon Anderson to P. H. Anderson, August 7, 1865
“Send us our wages”: Ohio, August 1865
Carl Schurz to Andrew Johnson, August 29, 1865
Lawlessness and Disloyalty: Mississippi, August 1865
Christopher Memminger to Andrew Johnson, September 4, 1865
“Indentures of apprenticeship”: North Carolina, September 1865
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech at Lancaster, September 6, 1865
Confiscating rebel estates: Pennsylvania, September 1865
Georges Clemenceau to Le Temps, September 28, 1865
“The question of negro suffrage”: New York, September 1865
George L. Stearns: Interview with President Johnson, October 3, 1865
“We must be patient”: Washington, D.C., October 1865
Andrew Johnson: Speech to the 1st U.S. Colored Infantry, Washington, D.C., October 10, 1865
Washington, D.C., October 1865
Sarah Whittlesey to Andrew Johnson, October 12, 1865
“A lying, lazy people”: Virginia, October 1865
Edisto Island Freedmen to Andrew Johnson, October 28, 1865
“The only true and Loyal people”: South Carolina, October 1865
J. A. Williamson to Nathan A. M. Dudley, October 30, 1865
Fear of armed freedmen: Tennessee, October 1865
Address of the Colored State Convention to the People of South Carolina, November 24, 1865
Claiming the rights of citizenship: South Carolina, November 1865
Andrew J. Hamilton to Andrew Johnson, November 27, 1865
Prospects for the State Convention: Texas, November 1865
Sidney Andrews: from The South Since the War
Travels in the Carolinas and Georgia: September–December 1865
Carl Schurz: from Report on the Condition of the South
“Submission to necessity”: Washington, D.C., December 1865
Ulysses S. Grant to Andrew Johnson, December 18, 1865
“Such universal acquiescence”: Washington, D.C., December 1865
Lewis Hayden: from Caste among Masons
“The Pharaoh of our day”: Massachusetts, December 1865
Harriet Jacobs to The Freedman, January 9 and 19, 1866
Destitution Among the Freed People: Georgia, January 1866
Marcus S. Hopkins to James Johnson, January 15, 1866
“Insane malice against the freedman”: Virginia, January 1866
Andrew Johnson and Frederick Douglass: An Exchange, and Reply of the Colored Delegation to President Johnson, February 7, 1866
Debating Suffrage: Washington, D.C., February 1866
Joseph S. Fullerton to Andrew Johnson, February 9, 1866
Objections to the Freedmen’s Bureau: Washington, D.C., February 1866
Andrew Johnson: Veto of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill, February 19, 1866
Washington, D.C., February 1866
Andrew Johnson: Speech on Washington�
��s Birthday, February 22, 1866
Washington, D.C., February 1866
Andrew Johnson: Veto of the Civil Rights Bill, March 27, 1866
Washington, D.C., March 1866
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, 1866–1869
Maria F. Chandler to Thaddeus Stephens, April 1, 1866
Suffrage for Women: West Virginia, April 1866
Harper’s Weekly: Radicalism and Conservatism, April 21, 1866
Defining Radicalism: New York, April 1866
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech in Congress on the Fourteenth Amendment, May 8, 1866
“Accept what is possible”: Washington, D.C., May 1866
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Speech at the National Woman’s Rights Convention, May 10, 1866
“We are all bound up together”: New York, May 1866
George Stoneman to Ulysses S. Grant, May 12, 1866
The Memphis Riot: Tennessee, May 1866
The New York Times: An Hour With Gen. Grant, May 24, 1866
Southern “Rights”: Washington, D.C., May 1866
Elihu B. Washburne to Thaddeus Stevens, May 24, 1866
“Butcheries and Atrocities”: Tennessee, May 1866
Cynthia Townsend: Testimony to House Select Committee, May 30, 1866
“They all fired at her”: Tennessee, May 1866
Joint Resolution Proposing the Fourteenth Amendment, June 13, 1866
Washington, D.C., June 1866
Oliver P. Morton: from Speech at Indianapolis, June 20, 1866
Treason and the Democrats: Indiana, June 1866
Philip H. Sheridan to Ulysses S. Grant, August 1 and 2, 1866
The New Orleans Riot: Louisiana, August 1866
Harper’s Weekly: The Massacre in New Orleans
The President’s Responsibility: New York, August 1866
Andrew Johnson: Speech at St. Louis, September 8, 1866
Missouri, September 1866
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech at Lancaster, September 27, 1866
“Congress is the sovereign power”: Pennsylvania, September 1866
Frederick Douglass: Reconstruction, December 1866
“Let there be no hesitation”: December 1866
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech in Congress on Reconstruction, January 3, 1867
“No nearer to a true Republic”: Washington, D.C., January 1867
Mobile Daily Advertiser and Register: No Amendment—Stand Firm, January 9, 1867
“Spurning self-degradation”: Alabama, January 1867
Albion W. Tourgée: To the Voters of Guilford, October 21, 1867
“An Oligarchy or a Republic?”: North Carolina, October 1867
Harper’s Weekly: Impeachment, December 14, 1867
“Doubtful grounds”: New York, December 1867
Albion W. Tourgée: The Reaction, January 4, 1868
Republican timidity: North Carolina, January 1868
New-York Tribune: The President Must Be Impeached, February 24, 1868
“Absolute and despotic power”: New York, February 1868
Thaddeus Stevens: Speech in Congress on Impeachment, February 24, 1868
“His wicked determination”: Washington, D.C., February 1868
Bossier Banner: White Men to the Rescue!
The New State Constitution: Louisiana, March 1868
The Nation: The Result of the Trial, May 21, 1868
The President’s Acquittal: New York, May 1868
Frank P. Blair to James O. Broadhead, June 30, 1868
Overthrowing Reconstruction: Washington, D.C., June 1868
Frederick Douglass: The Work Before Us, August 27, 1868
Electing Grant: August 1868
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Gerrit Smith on Petitions, January 14, 1869
“Universal Suffrage”: New York, January 1869
Joint Resolution Proposing the Fifteenth Amendment, February 27, 1869
Washington, D.C., February 1869
“LET US HAVE PEACE,” 1869–1873
Ulysses S. Grant: First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869
Washington, D.C., March 1869
Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony: Exchange on Suffrage, May 12, 1869
“The question of precedence”: New York, May 1869
Mark Twain: Only a Nigger. The Buffalo Express, August 26, 1869
A Lynching in Tennessee: New York, August 1869
Georges Clemenceau to Le Temps, November 3, 1869
“Struggle for their existence”: France, November 1869
The New York Times: Reconstruction Nationalized, February 21, 1870
“It secures political equality”: New York, February 1870
William W. Holden to Ulysses S. Grant, March 10, 1870
A Klan Insurrection: North Carolina, March 1870
Ulysses S. Grant: Message to Congress on the Fifteenth Amendment, March 30, 1870
“The greatest civil change”: Washington, D.C., March 1870
Albion W. Tourgée to Joseph C. Abbott, May 24, 1870
Klan Terrorism: North Carolina, May 1870
Robert K. Scott to Ulysses S. Grant, October 22, 1870
“Inhuman and brutal outrages”: South Carolina, October 1870
Horace Greeley and Robert Brown Elliott: Exchange on Amnesty, March 16–17, 1871
“Their evil example”: New York and Washington, D.C., March 1871
Joseph H. Rainey: Speech in Congress on the Enforcement Bill, April 1, 1871
Protecting Rights: Washington, D.C., April 1871
James A. Garfield: from Speech in Congress on the Enforcement Bill, April 4, 1871
Preserving Local Government: Washington, D.C., April 1871
Maria Carter: Testimony to the Joint Select Committee, Atlanta, Georgia, October 21, 1871
The Murder of John Walthall: Georgia, April 1871
Horace Greeley: Reply to Committee of the Liberal Republican Convention, May 20, 1872
Accepting a Nomination: New York, May 1872
Frederick Douglass: Speech at New York City, September 25, 1872
Grant Over Greeley: New York, September 1872
James S. Pike: South Carolina Prostrate, March 29, 1873
“A descent into barbarism”: South Carolina, February 1873
Ulysses S. Grant: Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1873
Washington, D.C., March 1873
THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, 1873–1877
Levi Nelson and Benjamin Brim: Testimony in the Colfax Massacre Trial, New Orleans, February 27 and March 3, 1874
“Dead men all around me”: Louisiana, April 1873
Robert Brown Elliott: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, January 6, 1874
“Perfect equality before the law”: Washington, D.C., January 1874
New York Herald: General Grant’s New Departure, January 20, 1874
“I am tired of this nonsense”: Washington, D.C., January 1874
Richard Harvey Cain: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, January 24, 1874
“A nation of croakers”: Washington, D.C., January 1874
James T. Rapier: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, June 9, 1874
“I am treated as a pariah”: Washington, D.C., June 1874
William Lloyd Garrison to the Boston Journal, September 3, 1874
“A reign of terror”: Massachusetts, September 1874
Eugene Lawrence to Harper’s Weekly, October 31, 1874
“A war of intimidation”: Louisiana, October 1874
Isaac Loveless to Ulysses S. Grant, November 9, 1874
A Black Veteran’s Appeal: Tennessee, November 1874
Ulysses S. Grant: from Annual Message to Congress, December 7, 1874
Washington, D.C., December 1874
Philip H. Sheridan to William W. Belknap, January 4 and 5, 1875
Suppressing Terrorism: Louisiana, January 1875
Carl Schurz: from Speech in the Senate on Louisiana, January 11, 1875
“A gross and manifest violation”:
Washington, D.C., January 1875
William Lloyd Garrison to the Boston Journal, January 12, 1875
Defending Grant and Sheridan: Massachusetts, January 1875
Ulysses S. Grant: Message to the Senate on Louisiana, January 13, 1875
Washington, D.C., January 1875
John R. Lynch: from Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, February 3, 1875
Social Rights and Public Rights: Washington, D.C., February 1875
Thomas Whitehead: from Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, February 3, 1875
“His condition cannot be altered”: Washington, D.C., February 1875
Charles A. Eldredge: Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, February 4, 1875
“The pride of blood and race”: Washington, D.C., February 1875
James A. Garfield: from Speech in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill, February 4, 1875
“This act of plain justice”: Washington, D.C., February 1875
Hinds County Gazette: How to Meet the Case, August 4, 1875
An Election Plan: Mississippi, August 1875
Ulysses S. Grant to Edwards Pierrepont, September 13, 1875
“The whole public are tired out”: New Jersey, September 1875
Edwards Pierrepont to Adelbert Ames, September 14, 1875
Refusing an Appeal for Aid: Washington, D.C., September 1875
Sarah A. Dickey to Ulysses S. Grant, September 23, 1875
“A kind of guerrilla war”: Mississippi, September 1875
Margaret Ann Caldwell: Testimony to the Select Senate Committee, June 20, 1876
Murder in Hinds County: Mississippi, September–December 1875
Albion W. Tourgée: Root, Hog, or Die, c. 1876
The Failure of Reconstruction: North Carolina, 1876
John R. Lynch: Speech in Congress on Mississippi, February 10, 1876
Defending Republican Rule: Washington, D.C., February 1876
Ulysses S. Grant to Daniel H. Chamberlain, July 26, 1876
The “Barbarous” Hamburg Massacre: Washington, D.C., July 1876
The Nation: The South in the Canvass. The Nation, July 27, 1876
Republican Corruption: New York, July 1876
Robert G. Ingersoll: from Speech at Indianapolis, September 21, 1876
“Every one was a Democrat”: Indiana, September 1876
David Brundage to Ulysses S. Grant, October 14, 1876
Intimidation at the Polls: Georgia, October 1876
Rutherford B. Hayes: Diary, November 12, 1876
The Election Results: Ohio, November 1876