name of philanthropy and progress. Among the removals from civil office was that of H. H. Wells, the governor. The removal was not made on the ground of Mr. Wells' inability to take the test-oath. No such inability existed. Governor Wells was removed because, under the reconstruction laws, all the powers of the chief executive of the state devolved on the commanding officer of the First military district, by whom they were assumed, and would be performed. General Stoneman was shortly afterwards removed from the command of the First district, and General Canby was assigned to it. Until the arrival of the latter officer, Gen. Alexander S. Webb was to act as commander. General Webb's earliest official acts were to restore Mr. Wells to the office of governor, and to proceed to fill the vacancies in the civil offices by the appointment thereto of army officers. In restoring the civil governor, he violated General Grant's order of March 20, 1867.

General Canby assumed command of the First district of Virginia on the 20th of April, 1869. On the 21st of May, he issued an order for an election for the ratification or rejection of the state constitution which had been adopted by the convention in April of the preceding year. Congress had, in compliance with the earnest petitions of the more intelligent and respectable Republicans, authorized a separate vote to be taken on the disfranchising clause before referred to, and on the test oath. The election was held on the 6th of July. The total vote on the question of ratification was 215,422. There were 206,233 for, and only 9,189 against ratification. The total vote on the disfranchising clause was 208,765 — 84,404 being in its favor, and 124,361 against it. The test oath clause was rejected by a majority of 40,992 votes. This co-operation of the Virginia Democracy with liberal Republicanism saved the state from the misfortunes that overtook North Carolina and other states. The postponement of the election for a year was also attended with good results. It gave an opportunity for the President and Congress to see what sort of men they had installed in power in the South. It tended to relax their rigorous policy. The authority given by Congress, on the recommendation of the President, for the submission of the constitution to the popular vote, and for a separate vote on the disfranchising clauses, furnishes conclusive evidence of the growth of a more generous feeling.

An election for governor and state officers was held on the same day that the vote was taken on the constitution. Gilbert C. Walker, then a liberal Republican, was elected governor by a vote of 119,535 as against 101,204 for H. H. Wells, the provisional governor. The conservatives elected thirty of the forty-three state senators and ninety-five of the 138 members of the house of delegates. Six of the Republican senators and eighteen of the Republican delegates were colored men. The legislature met on the 5th of October. Previous to that time Mr. Wells had resigned the pro

FINANCIAL CONDITION OF VIRGINIA.

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visional governorship, and Mr. Walker had been installed in his place. General Canby held that the members of the legislature should be required to take the test oath; but the Attorney-General of the United States gave an opinion to the contrary. It was absurd to say that the members of a state legislature should be sworn into office under an oath prescribed by an act of Congress, which they could not take without perjury. The governor and legislature, however, were still provisional, until the state should be received back into the Union under a formal act of Congress. The bill for this purpose became a law on the 26th of January, 1870, and contained the requirement that every member of the legislature, before taking his seat, should make oath either that he had never as a member of Congress, as an officer of the United States, or as a state officer or legislator, taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and afterward engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or that the disabilities imposed upon him by the Fourteenth Amendment had been removed. From that date the Virginians have enjoyed the rights and prerogatives of self-government. The white race was dominant in both branches of the legislature, and in the person of Governor Walker. He was a Northern man who had gone into the state from New-York during the war. He was afterward in Congress from Virginia, as a Democrat. He returned to New-York City a few years ago. His death has just been announced.

Although Northern men have been elected to office by the Republicans, together with men of the African race, — still it cannot be said that Virginia, like most of the other Southern States since the era of reconstruction, has been subjected to the yoke of the carpet-baggers and negroes. Her political status, recently, has a history connected rather with her fiscal than her social order. This chapter on reconstruction, therefore, as regards Virginia, will be closed with the following statement of her financial condition. From the report of the sub-committee of the joint select committee of Congress, in 1872, the following facts are gathered:

Debt of Virginia in 1860,
Old debt in 1865,

$31,938,144 41,061,316

This is exclusive of the repudiated debt incurred in aid of the rebellion, which amounted to $7,505,724. In 1870, the "old debt," by the accruing of unpaid interest, had risen to $45,872,778. In 1872, there was a slight reduction, about $300,000, from the figures of 1870. In 1860, the state held assets, in the shape of railroad and canal aid and bank stock, amounting to about forty million dollars; but, the bank stock having been lost or squandered during the war, there remained in 1865 only about twenty-seven millions of assets, consisting of unproductive railroads and canals.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

RECONSTRUCTION ACTS IN THE SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT.

NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA-GENERAL SICKLES ASSIGNED TO COMMANDTHE PRINCIPLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS APPLIED REMOVALS OF LOCAL OFFICERS - OBJECTIONS FROM THE PRESIDENT-STATE "STAY LAWS" ENFORCED BY GENERAL SICKLES - THE UNITED STATES MARSHAL OF NORTH CAROLINA Disregards THE "STAY LAW"-HE IS SUSTAINED BY THE PRESIDENT - GENERAL SICKLES RESIGNS THE COMMAND-GENERAL CANBY SUCCEEDS HIM-HE APPROVES OF SICKLES' COURSE-THE REGISTRATION OF VOTERS IN THE TWO STATES THE WHITE AND COLORED VOTES-THE CONVENTIONS-THE NEW CONSTITUTIONS -THE LEGISLATURES AND THE LEGISLATION-THE STATE OFFICERS-THE METHODS OF THE "CARPET-BAGGERS" AND THEIR NATIVE ASSOCIATES - NOT MAKING BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW THE ISSUE OF FRAUDULENT BONDS THE TAXATION AND THE DEBTS THE PLUNDerers dispERSED-A JUSTIFIABLE REVOLUTION CONGRESSIONAL CONDITIONS OF REHABILITATION-THEIR ACCEPTANCE THE LONG PROBATION—1865 TO 1877.

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ENERAL Daniel E. Sickles assumed the command of the Second military district, composed of North and South Carolina, with headquarters at Charleston, on the 21st of March, 1867. On the same day he issued an order announcing his assumption of authority, and the principles by which he would be governed. The latter were those of the Reconstruction acts of Congress. For the protection of the inhabitants in their persons and property, and the suppression of insurrection and disorder, the local civil tribunals were permitted to take jurisdiction of and try causes, excepting only such as might, by order of the commanding general, be referred to a commission or other military tribunal for trial. The order stated that the civil government then existing in North Carolina and South Carolina was provisional only. It was subject to the paramount authority of the United States. It might at any time be abolished, modified, or superseded. Local laws and municipal regulations, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States or the proclamations

GENERAL SICKLES IN COMMAND.

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of the President, or with such regulations as might be prescribed in the orders of the commanding general, were declared to be in force. In conformity with these principles, the civil officers were authorized to continue the exercise of their proper functions. Every case of neglect or refusal on the part of the civil authorities to perform the duties required of them by law was to be promptly reported to headquarters by the post commanders. These officers were required to make arrests for crimes and offenses against the laws, whenever the civil officers neglected or failed to act. The commanding general appealed to the civil officers and to all good citizens to aid him in the delicate duties imposed upon him for preservation of order. A special order was issued on the 10th of April, in regard to affairs at Wilmington, North Carolina. By this order, two policemen of that town were removed, on the charge that they had "shown a want of discretion and judgment in the discharge of their duties, and had exhibited unwarranted violence in making arrests." This, and similar acts on the part of other district commanders, led to an elaborate opinion from the Attorney-General on the powers conferred upon the district commanders by the Reconstruction acts. The opinion was to the effect that no authority had been given them to remove the civil officers of the states, or to appoint others in their places. This is the same opinion to which reference is made on page 378, ante. On the 14th of June, General Sickles sent a telegram to the Attorney-General, which read as follows: "In the present condition of these states, it is not practicable to afford adequate security to persons and property, unless the commanding general of the district is authorized to remove civil officers who fail to perform their duties."

General Sickles regarded the opinion of the Attorney-General as an impeachment of his administration. Other district commanders had construed their powers in favor of removals, and had acted accordingly. He tendered his resignation in a dispatch dated June 19. It was not acepted, however. An order issued by him on the 11th of April forbade sheriffs to execute civil process for the sale of property. This was in the nature of a stay law. It conformed to the act of the state legislature. It led to his removal from command of the district. The administrative officers of the two states obeyed the order. The marshal of South Carolina did likewise; but the marshal of North Carolina disregarded it. He attempted to sell the property of parties in Wilmington, under executions issued by order of Chief Justice Chase, presiding in the Circuit Court at Raleigh, in June of that year. General Sickles' subordinate, Colonel Frank, stopped the deputy in the execution of his duty. The deputy was instructed by the marshal to suspend the sale until General Sickles could be heard from. The latter officer sustained Colonel Frank. The marshal reported the facts to the Attorney-General, who laid the matter before the President. The course of the marshal was fully sustained. Chief Justice Chase had said on the 6th of June, when ad

dressing the Raleigh bar at the opening of his circuit in reference to the military government under the act of March 2, 1867: "This military authority does not extend in any respect to the courts of the United States." This was, no doubt, the first judicial interpretation of the act, and probably General Sickles had no information of it. He had too much regard for lawful, judicial authority ever to attempt to resist it. General Sickles was relieved, August 26, from the command of the district. He was directed to repair to New-York on leave.

Prior to his being relieved, General Sickles issued a general order announcing that a registration of voters under the Reconstruction acts. would commence on the third Monday in July. Instructions for this purpose were embraced in the order. On the 6th of July, however, he proposed, in a letter to the Adjutant-General, that the work should be postponed until the rights of certain classes to registration should be determined by Congress, or otherwise. General Canby superseded General Sickles on Sept. 5, 1867. Among his first important acts as commander of the district was a regulation for the selection of juries. He ordered that personal fitness, and not color, should be the rule. In his annual report of Aug. 31, 1868, General Canby expressed his approval of General Sickles' order for the arrest of the execution of civil process. The order continued to be enforced against process out of the state courts, because, as stated, the legislature had passed a stay law, on which the order was based. It is true that stay laws are unconstitutional, but martial rule is avowedly above constitutional restraints. This action of Generals Sickles and Canby evinced a strong disposition on their part to respect and enforce the state laws.

The number of persons registered under the acts of Congress, and authorized to vote for delegates to the state convention of 1867, as well as on the question whether a convention should be held, was 178,665. Of these, 93,006 voted for a convention, 32,962 voted against a convention, and 52,697 refrained from voting. A large majority of the delegates chosen were Republicans, in name at least, though most of them were ignorant of the real import of the term. The constitution framed by this convention enfranchised the whole male population of voting age,- twenty-one years,― without regard to race or color. In other words, the class which had been excluded from the polls in electing delegates to the convention, and in the ratification of the constitution, was enfranchised. They were given equal privileges to those conferred on their former slaves by the Reconstruction acts. The revised registration, which was made on April 1, 1868, only six months after the first, showed the voting population of the state to be 198,873, or 20,208 more than the original registration under the Reconstruction acts. These additional voters, who were mostly white, did not vote, however, at the first election for governor, state officers, legislature, and congressmen. This was owing to an amendatory act of Congress, passed on March 11,