Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

on the leaves of the forest. History will teach, to remotest ages, that no nation on earth was ever engaged in a more righteous cause than ours. Success could but ensue!

'Our fight

Was waged in Heaven's approving sight;
The smile of God is victory.'"

The regiment, having on the next day, Thursday, June 8th, participated in the ceremonies of Governor Frederick Smyth's inauguration, with much well-merited commendation for its fine appearance, was on Saturday, June 10, 1865, paid off and formally discharged the service of the United States. We now read from the colonel's army diary its closing words:

46

Sunday, June 11, 1865. I am now at home in Warner. My regiment has been mustered out of the service. . . . The record of the regiment is a proud one, and we now retire to our accustomed peaceful pursuits at a happy period in our national affairs. The rebellion is defunct, and the federal authority has been vindicated to the extremest limits of our country. 'Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!'"

Colonel Harriman's military career could not, upon impartial retrospect, but find the gratifying approval of an upright conscience and a manly, patriotic heart. Experience had been for him at times a harsh teacher, but he always stood high in his class, that class of worthy commanders, of higher or lower grade, who, without previous military training, proved their eminent ability to lead in war, and to win its difficult honors, while contributing many a page of noble achievement to the history of their country saved. It was always a source of great satisfaction to him that he saw the rebellion snuffed out; that he was in at the end; that he marched into Petersburg on the morning of April 3, 1865, in command of an army of nine regiments, comprising three times as many troops as constituted the whole American army in the battle of Bunker Hill. He retired from the military service of his country, bringing home

with him, as priceless spoil, the respect and love of his command, the friendship of his fellows in authority, and the high confidence and esteem of his official superiors, from Grant downward, confidence and esteem always retained, and early manifested in procuring his unsolicited promotion as brigadier-general by brevet, "for gallant conduct during the war, to date from March 13, 1865."

[blocks in formation]

GENERAL HARRIMAN, within a few days after his return, received at his home in Warner official notice that he had been elected by the legislature secretary of state. The office was conferred in view of eminent personal fitness, and in recognition of good service rendered the country in "the tented field." He accepted the place and performed its duties, retaining his residence at Warner. He was reëlected the next year with but slight opposition.

Politics ran high throughout the country in 1866, and the issues involved were of vital importance. These pertained to reconstruction, or the restoration of the seceded States to normal relations in the Union. Andrew Johnson, the unworthy successor of Abraham Lincoln, had undergone metamorphosis; and from being a foe of the "Southern oligarchs," by whom he had always been ostracised as "poor white trash," he had been wheedled by his former arrogant enemies into becoming their cat's-paw in giving them the opportunity, without repentance, restraint, or condition, at once to help rule the country which they had just been doing their utmost to ruin. By his vicious and usurpative meddling, he was hindering the work of Southern reconstruction, which Congress was striving to accomplish on principles of justice and safety. The executive and legislative departments of the government were in fierce antagonism. Johnson had with him some Republicans, and the Democratic party of both the North and the South. With Congress stood the Republican party, which had under its

banner, on pending issues, ninety-nine hundredths of those who had fought for the Union cause.

The position of Johnson and his allies was that Congress had no right to deny congressional representation to a seceded State for a single day after the ending of the war, no matter how disloyal that State might be in sentiment and purpose still. This, of course, involved the unconditional readmission of the rebel States to their vacated seats in Congress, and to an unrestricted share in the administration of the government. The position of the Republican party and of Congress was that Congress had the rightand, from considerations of common sense, common justice, and the common safety, should exercise it to prescribe the conditions upon which the lately rebellious States should participate in the national councils, and, in so doing, to provide against contingencies dangerous or fatal to the rights and liberties of American citizens, or to the financial faith and credit of the nation. The congressional measures of reconstruction were at this time embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. That clearly defined American citizenship, and guaranteed to every citizen. his rights. It did away with the old provision of the Constitution which made a negro slave count as three fifths of a man in the representative apportionment, and placed the right of representation upon a just and equal basis, making the vote of a man in one State as potent as the vote of a man in any other State. It righteously excluded from places of honor and trust in the government the chief conspirators and guiltiest rebels, unless relieved by the consent of two thirds of both houses of Congress. It solemnly sanctioned the inviolability of our national financial obligations, and as solemnly repudiated all obligations contracted in support of the rebellion.

This amendment had passed Congress on the 13th of June, 1866, and had been promptly adopted by the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Tennessee, whose legislatures were in session in the summer. In other 1 Connecticut adopted the amendment June 30; New Hampshire, July 7;

States the adoption of the amendment was still a question at issue, and intensified the interest in the election of legislatures to which that question was to be submitted. Moreover, a House of Representatives for the Fortieth Congress was to be chosen, and that, too, upon the reconstruction issue. In short, in all the state elections to be held in the autumn of 1866, a ballot cast for governor, member of Congress or of state legislature was to be for or against the plan of reconstruction embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment, for or against the administration of the recreant Andrew Johnson.

[ocr errors]

Four national conventions were held in late summer and early autumn. The first, held at Philadelphia August 14th, was intended to consolidate an administration party out of Johnson Republicans and the Democratic party. Whatever consolidation it wrought was spoiled of all effectiveness by its infatuated utterances, radically hostile and extremely offensive to the loyal sentiment of the country.

The second convention assembled in the same city on the 3d of September, and was more imposing in numbers and influential in results. It had been called by the Southern loyalists, and was composed of them and invited delegations from the Northern States. The address of those loyal men of the South, adopted in convention and sent out to the country, was a scathing indictment of Johnson and his wicked policy, and it frightened him and his supporters, who saw all, North or South, who had given earnest support to the war for the Union, likely to be arrayed in irresistible combination against them. Accordingly they summoned what they called a "Soldiers' Convention" at Cleveland, which was held on the 17th of September, the third of the series of conventions. But the number of soldiers present was small; the proceedings were manipulated by politicians who had opposed the war against rebellion; and so the administration scored another failure in its frantic efforts to stem the current of hostile public sentiment.

Tennessee, July 19. Its adoption throughout the North was the work of Republican majorities against Democratic opposition.

« AnteriorContinuar »