Thus all the theories of reconstruction invented for the purpose of transforming a third of the States into territories or colonies, fall with the rebellion, as all sagacious men foresaw that they must. They have served only to distract loyal men and embarrass the government. They have fulfilled their mission, and their inventors will be glad to have them forgotten. We stand again on solid ground; the rebel is a citizen of the United States, to be forgiven and restored if he repents—to be excluded from all the rights of citizenship if he continues obdurate—to be punished as a traitor if the public safety require it. The rebel State is a State of the Union, to be recovered from disloyal and placed in loyal hands. This is the work we have been doing for four years, now almost accomplished. And now that the needful fighting has been done, all problems for the future are of easy solution, unless we willfully complicate them, for the narrow purposes of fraction or party, or by obstinate adhearance to crochety notions of policy. But of this there is little danger. The popular heart is sound, and the popular eye clear. We have not fought our way out upon the firm highway to be cheated of our object at last. The restoration of the Union is a simple and straightforward process, and it will be speedy and permanent. The heresy of secession perishes with the rebellion, and slavery ends with the war it provoked.
April 20, 1865
“TREASON IS A CRIME”:
WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 1865
Andrew Johnson:
Interview with Pennsylvania Delegation
May 3, 1865
MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN I can only reply in general terms; perhaps as good a reply as I can make would be to refer to or repeat what I have already said to other delegations who have come for the purpose of encouraging and inspiring me with confidence on entering upon the discharge of duties so responsible—so perilous. All that I could now say would be but a reiteration of sentiments already indicated. The words you have spoken are most fully and cordially accepted and responded to by me. I, too, think the time has arrived when the people of this nation should understand that treason is a crime. When we turn to the catalogue of crime we find that most of those contained in it are understood, but the crime of treason has neither been generally understood nor generally appreciated, as I think it should be. And there has been an effort since this rebellion commenced to make the impression that it was a mere political struggle, or, as I see it thrown out in some of the papers, a struggle for ascendancy of certain principles from the dawn of the government to the present time, and now settled by the final triumph of the Federal arms. If this is to be a determined, settled idea and opinion the government is at an end, for no question can arise but they will make it a party issue, and then to whatever length they carry it the party defeated will be only a party defeated, and no crime attaches thereto. But, I say treason is a crime—the highest crime known to the law—and the people ought to understand it and be taught to know that unless it be so considered there can be no government. I do not say this to indicate a revengeful or improper spirit. It is simply the enunciation of deliberate consideration and temperate judgement. There are men who ought to suffer the penalties of their treason; but there are also some who have been engaged in this rebellion, who, while, technically speaking, are guilty of treason, yet are morally not. Thousands who have been drawn into it, involved by various influences—by conscription, by dread, by force of public opinion in the localities in which they lived—these are not so responsible as those who led, deceived and forced them. To the unconscious, deceived, conscripted—in short, to the great mass of the misled—I would say mercy, clemency, reconciliation, and the restoration of their government. To those who have deceived—to the conscious, influential traitor, who attempted to destroy the life of a nation, I would say “On you be inflicted the severest penalties of your crime.” [Applause.] I fully understand how easy it is to get up an impression in regard to the exercise of mercy; and, if I know myself and my own heart, there is in it as great a disposition to mercy as can be manifested on the part of any other individual. But mercy without justice is a crime. In the exercise of mercy there should be deliberate consideration, and a profound understanding of the case; and I am not prepared to say but what it should often be transferred to a higher court—a court where mercy and justice can best be united. In responding to the remarks of your chairman in reference to free government and the discharge of my duties, I can only say again that my past public life must be taken as the guide to what my future will be. My course has been unmistakable and well defined. I know it is easy to cry out “demagogue;” but let that be as it may. If I have spent the toil of youth and the vigor of my life for the elevation of the great masses of the people, why it was a work of my choosing and I will bear the loss. And if it is demagogism to please the people—if it is demagogism to strive for their welfare and amelioration—then I am a demagogue. I was always proud when my duties were so discharged that the people were pleased. A great monopoly—the remark of your chairman brings me to it—existed: that of slavery; and upon it rested an aristocracy. It is the work of freemen to put down monopolies. You have seen the attempt made by the monopoly of slavery to put down the government. But the making of the attempt, thereby to control and destroy the Government, you have seen the government put down the monopoly and destroy the institution. [Applause.] Institutions of any kind must be subordinate to the government or the government cannot stand. I do not care whether it be North or South. A government based upon popular judgment must be paramount to all institutions that spring up under that government; and if, when they attempt to control the government, the government does not put them down, they will put it down. Hence the main portion of my efforts have been devoted to the opposition of them. Hence I have ever opposed aristocracy—opposed it in any shape. But there is a kind of aristocracy that has always, that always will, command my respect and approbation—the aristocracy of talent, the aristocracy of virtue, the aristocracy of merit, or an aristocracy resting upon worth, the aristocracy of labor, resting upon honest industry, developing the industrial resources of the country—this commands my respect and admiration—my support in life. In regard to my future course in connection with this rebellion, nothing that I can say would be worth listening to. If my past is not sufficient guarantee, I can only add that I have never knowingly deceived the people, and never have betrayed a friend—[applause]—and, God willing, never will. [Applause.] Accept my profound and sincere thanks for the encouragement you have given me, and believe me when I say that your encouragement, countenance and confidence are a great aid and a great spur to the performance of my duties. Once more I thank you for this manifestation of your regard and respect.
MUSKETS AND BALLOTS:
NORTH CAROLINA, MAY 1865
Colored Men of North Carolina
to Andrew Johnson
Newbern, May 10, 1865.
To His Excellency Andrew Johnson, President of the United States:—
We, the undersigned, your petitioners, are colored men of the State of North Carolina, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards; and we humbly come to you with our request, and yet in great confidence, because you are occupying a place so recently filled by a man who had proved himself indeed our friend, and it must be that some of his great and good spirit lingers to bless his successor; and then we are assured that you are a man who gives kind attention to all petitioners, and never turns a deaf ear to any one because he may be in poor or humble circumstances. In many respects we are poor and greatly despised by our fellow men; but we are rich in the possession of the liberty brought us and our wives and our little ones by your noble predecessor, secured to us by the armies of the United States and promised to be permanent by that victorious flag which now flies in triumph in every State of the Union. We accept this great boon of freedom with truly thankful hearts; and shall try by our lives to prove our worthiness. We always loved the old flag, and we have stood by it, and tried to help those who upheld it through all this rebellion; and now that it has
brought us liberty, we love it more than ever, and in all future time we and our sons will be ready to defend it by our blood; and we may be permitted to say that such blood as that shed at Fort Wagner and Port Hudson is not altogether unworthy of such service. Some of us are soldiers, and have had the privilege of fighting for our country in this war. Since we have become freemen, and been permitted the honor of being soldiers, we begin to feel that we are men, and are anxious to show our countrymen that we can and will fit ourselves for the creditable discharge of the duties of citizenship. We want the privilege of voting. It seems to us that men who are willing on the field of danger to carry the muskets of republics, in the days of peace ought to be permitted to carry its ballots; and certainly we cannot understand the justice of denying the elective franchise to men who have been fighting for the country, while it is freely given to men who have just returned from four years fighting against it. As you were once a citizen of North Carolina, we need not remind you that up to the year 1835 free colored men voted in this State, and never, as we have heard, with any detriment to its interests. What we desire is that, preliminary to elections in the returning States, you would order the enrolment of all loyal men, without regard to color. But the whole question we humbly submit to your better judgment—and we submit it with full belief in your impartial integrity, and in the fond hope that the mantle of our murdered friend and father may have fallen upon your shoulders. May God bless and ever protect you and our beloved country from all assassins shall be the constant prayer of your faithful friends and humble petitioners.
“LIBERTY TO WORK”:
WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 1865
Andrew Johnson:
Reply to a Delegation of Colored Ministers
May 11, 1865
IN RESPONDING to what you have said on this occasion as the representative and organ of those colored men who stand about you, I presume it is hardly necessary for me to inform them as to what my course has been in reference to their condition. I imagine there is not a colored man within the reach of information but has to some extent been informed upon, and placed in possession of, a knowledge of the course I have pursued in the past in reference to their present condition.
Now I shall talk to them plainly. They know I have been born and raised in a slave State; that I have owned slaves, raised slaves, but I never sold one.
They know, I presume, that my slaves have been made free, and that there is a difference in the responsibility that persons have taken in reference to emancipation when living in or out of slave States. It is very easy for a man who lives beyond the borders to talk about the condition of colored men, when in fact they know little about it. They know they have some friends who feel as cordially toward them, and who live beyond the Southern lines. They know, too, there are men there who, though they have been masters, yet feel as deep an interest in and regard for them, and would do as much for their elevation and amelioration, as those who live anywhere else.
I feel it would be unnecessary for me to state what I have done in this great cause of emancipation. I have stood in their midst, met their taunts and jeers, and risked all in the shape of property, life, and limb—not that I would claim anything to myself in establishing, sustaining, and carrying out the great principle that man could not own property in man. I was the first that stood in a slave community and announced the great fact that the slaves of Tennessee were free upon the same principle as those who were assumed to own them.
I know it is easy to talk and proclaim sentiments upon paper, but it is one thing to have theories and another to reduce them to practice; and I must say here, what I have no doubt is permanently fixed in your minds, and the impression deep, that there is one thing you ought to teach, and they should understand, that in a transition state, passing from bond to free, when the tyrant’s rod has been bent and the yoke broken, we find too many—it is best to talk plain—there are, I say, too many in this transition state, passing from bondage to freedom, who feel as if they should have nothing to do, and fall back upon the Government for support; too many incline to become loafers and depend upon the Government to take care of them. They seem to think that with freedom every thing they need is to come like manna from heaven.
Now, I want to impress this upon your minds, that freedom simply means liberty to work and enjoy the product of your own hands. This is the correct definition of freedom, in the most extensive sense of the term.
There is another thing; and I have been surprised that people beyond the lines have not pressed upon you this important idea. It is easy in Congress and from the pulpit North and South to talk about polygamy, and Brigham Young, and debauchery of various kinds, but there is also one great fact, that four millions of people lived in open and notorious concubinage. The time has come when you must correct this thing. You know what I say is true, and you must do something to correct it by example as well as by words and professions.
It is not necessary for me to give you any assurance of what my future course will be in reference to your condition. Now, when the ordeal is passed, there can be no reason to think that I shall turn back in the great cause in which I have sacrificed much, and perilled all.
I can give you no assurance worth more than my course heretofore, and I shall continue to do all that I can for the elevation and amelioration of your condition; and I trust in God the time may soon come when you shall be gathered together, in a clime and country suited to you, should it be found that the two races cannot get along together.
I trust God will continue to conduct us till the great end shall be accomplished, and the work reach its great consummation.
Accept my thanks for this manifestation of your respect and regard.
THREE CLASSES OF WHITE CITIZENS:
NORTH CAROLINA, MAY 1865
Salmon P. Chase to Andrew Johnson
Charleston, May 12, 1865.
My dear Sir,
I wrote you briefly from Wilmington. I hope you have taken an opportunity to confer with General Dodge who bore my letter. I found the other two generals—Hawley who commands the District & Abbot who commands the post—ready in mind & heart to sustain your policy of enfranchisement and reorganization.
The white citizens may be divided into three classes; (1) the old conservatives who opposed secession and are now about and, in some cases, even more opposed to letting the black citizens vote; these would like to see slavery restored:—(2) the acquiescents who rather prefer the old order of things & would rather dislike to see blacks vote but want peace and means of living & revival of business above all things & will take any course the government may desire; this is the largest class:—(3) the progressives who see that Slavery is stone dead & are not sorry; who see too that the blacks made free must be citizens, &, being citizens must be allowed to vote; & who, seeing these things, have made up their minds to conform to the new condition & to lead in it. These are the men of brains and energy; but they are few, & few of the few have been hertofore conspicuous. In the end, however, they will control.
One of the best specimens of the first class I met in Wilmington was Mr. Moore. He is an able lawyer; a good citizen; a good man; thoroughly sincere & truly upright. He was a Whig of the Clay school; opposed secession earnestly & only submitted to it perforce. I promised to convey his views to you & will as well as I can.
They may be stated thus: (1) The best mode of reorganization in North Carolina is to reassemble the Legislature which was lately in session & require each member to take the oath of allegiance to the United States. He thinks nearly every member would take the oath & that this would be the severest humiliation to them & the most impressive lesson to all others. (2) The courts, Supreme, Superior, & Quarter Sessions should be immediately required to resume the exercise of their respective jurisdictions; &, if this cannot be done, that the Courts of Quarter Sessions, composed of the Justices of the Peace of each county should at least be put in action. (3) If the Administration has decided not to recognize the Legislature, el
ected while the State was in rebellion, then that the white loyal citizens shall be enrolled under order of the military commander by Justices of the Quarter Sessions, selected by him, or by other citizens where loyal Justices cannot be found to act; and that the citizens enrolled should be invited to elect a Convention to revise the Constitution & provide for the election of Governor & Legislature; for the election or appointment of Judges; & for the doing of such other things as may be necessary to restore civil government & national relations. (4) That unrestricted trade except in arms & powder within the state, with other states & with foreign nations should be restored.
His first proposition is of course inadmissable. I think the second equally so, except as to the Courts of Quarter Sessions: perhaps these might well be authorized to resume their functions, each Justice taking the oath; but until complete state restoration their action must necessarily be subject to military supervision. The third seems right except that I would not restrict suffrage to whites. The fourth strikes me as altogether expedient & just.
Nothing needs be said of the second class of citizens—the acquiescents—except that its existence ensures the success of any policy, right & just in itself & enforced with steady vigor, which you may think best to adopt.
The third class includes the men of the future. I met several individuals of it. One of the best specimens at Wilmington was Col. Baker, who was in the rebel service; made prisoner & pardoned by President Lincoln. He seemed to comprehend the new situation & was ready to take an active part in the regeneration of North Carolina on the basis of universal suffrage. He is what you & I would call a young man—say thirty five—active, ready, intelligent, ambitious, of popular manners. Another individual a paroled Colonel from South Carolina was described to me by Mr. Lowell, connected with the detective service of the Treasury Department, who mixed freely with the people without being known to be of our party. They met at the Palmetto Hotel, where few of the northern men go. He declared himself fully satisfied that the Confederacy was gone up; that slavery was gone up with it; that the negroes must now be citizens & voters; &, for his part he was determined not to be behind the times.
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