oath to support the Constitution, as well as all acts of Congress and proclamations of the President relating to slaves; and declared that whenever one-tenth of the voters of any insurrectionary State should take the oath, and re-establish their state government, "which shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath," that government would be recognized as the true government of the State and would. receive the protection guaranteed to the States. But all questions concerning admission to Congress would, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, rest entirely with the respective houses of Congress. The questions of negro suffrage and federal supervision of the freedmen were not touched, and no provision was made to ensure good faith in reconstruction, beyond the mere oath exacted, and the general oversight of the President.

5. Under the provisions of the proclamation, three States, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee,' set up new governments, which were recognized by the President as true governments. Congress, however, was by no means satisfied with this lenient way of treating the humbled States. The feeling that the executive was encroaching upon the legislative power added strength to the discontent. Many thought that if the presidential policy, without modification, were carried out, the reconstructed States would speedily revert to the control of the very element against whom the war had been waged. The House, by a strict party vote,3 authorized the appointment of a select commitgressmen and had aided the rebellion; (5) those who left U. S. Army and Navy to aid the rebellion; (6) those who had treated negroes captured while in U. S. military or naval service otherwise than as prisoners of war.

1 Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, iii, 531-41; Cf. Gillet, Democracy in the United States, pp. 304-7.

2 For results of this reorganization in Tennessee, see chap. iii.

3 With one exception—a Republican, Whaley, of West Virginia, voted with the negative.

tee of nine, to consider that portion of the President's message relating to reconstruction, with authority to report by bill or otherwise. Henry Winter Davis was appointed chairman. Resolutions were submitted by Mr. Williams on March 14, 1864, which were backed by a sentiment in Congress that was of great significance. Congress began to feel its way towards a distinctive policy, which had heretofore been supported by only a few, who were considered as holding extremely wild and untenable views. These resolutions stated that although the local laws were subverted, and the functions of the civil authorities suspended in the States under armed occupation, "as soon as the rebellion is suppressed in any of the revolting States," the President should communicate the fact to Congress, "in order that it may take the proper measures for the reorganization of the civil governments and the re-establishment of the civil functionaries therein, and prescribe such terms as it may deem wise and proper and consistent with the public safety for the readmission of those districts as States of this Union." The exclusive right of the legislative power "to say upon what terms those territories shall be allowed to return to the Union," was also asserted.

The issue between Congress and the President took more definite form through the Davis-Wade bill of 1864.1 This bill had been drafted during the latter part of 1863 by the select committee of nine, but it did not come before the House for consideration till March 22, 1864.

The objections of those who supported this bill to the Presidential plan, are clearly expressed in the speech of H. Winter Davis, in support, of his measure. He says that

1So called from the chairmen of the House and Senate committees reporting the bill.

2 Congressional Globe, appendix, 1st Session, 38th Congress, p. 84. See also

it (the Presidential plan), "proposed no guardianship of the United States over the reorganization of the governments, no law to prescribe who shall vote, no civil functionaries to see that the law is faithfully executed, no supervising authority to control and judge of the elections. But if, in any manner, by the toleration of martial law lately proclaimed the fundamental law, under the dictation of any military authority, or under the prescriptions of a provost marshal, something in the form of a government shall be presented, represented to rest on the votes of one-tenth of the population, the President will recognize that, provided it does not contravene the proclamation of freedom and the laws of Congress; and to secure that, an oath is exacted." This government "may be recognized by the military power and may not be recognized by the civil power, so that it would have a doubtful existence, half civil and half military, neither a temporary government by law of Congress, nor a state government, something as unknown to the Constitution as the rebel government that refuses to recognize it."

In place of this method of organization, which Mr. Davis justly thought so wretchedly loose, he proposed that the President should appoint provisional governors over these States, whose first duty should be to enroll the white citizens, through duly appointed United States marshals. Then when. a majority of these citizens should have taken the oath of allegiance, they should be permitted to hold a State convention for the purpose of forming a constitution under which the government might be re-established. But all Confederate office-holders and those voluntarily bearing arms. against the United States were to be ineligible as delegates to the convention. The bill further provided that the consti

Lalor, iii, 546: Cox, Three Decades, etc., 339–341; Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, iii, 520-28; Johnson's American Orations, iii, 242–260; Scott, Reconstruction during the Civil War, 274 ff.

tution should "repudiate the rebel debt, abolish slavery, and prohibit the higher military and civil officers from voting for or serving as governors or members of the legislature." When these conditions should have been fulfilled, and the assent of Congress to the recognition of the new government obtained, the President should be notified, and should then officially recognize the government by proclamation, after which senators and representatives would be admitted to Congress.1

In the speech mentioned above, Mr. Davis claimed that "the bill challenges the support of all who consider slavery the cause of the rebellion, and that in it the embers of rebellion will always smoulder; of those who think that freedom and permanent peace are inseparable, and who are determined, so far as their constitutional authority will allow them, to secure these fruits by adequate legislation."

But in this plan there was no attempt to introduce negro suffrage. The only question of importance seemed to be: "How can we ensure the subservience of these States to the federal constitution?" The supporters of the Davis plan insisted that "the rebel States must be governed by Congress till they submit and form a state government under the Constitution"; otherwise "Congress must recognize state governments which do not recognize either Congress or the Constitution of the United States; or there must be an entire absence of all government in the rebel States; and that is anarchy." It was absurd, the argument continued, to recognize a government which did not recognize the Constitution; and to accept the alternative of anarchy as the constitutional condition of a State is to assert the failure of the Constitution and the end of republican government. Until, therefore, Congress recognize a state government, organized under its auspices, there is no government in the rebel

1 Cooper, American Politics, bk. i, p. 169.

States except the authority of Congress." From this it logically followed that in the absence of all State government it was the duty of Congress to "administer civil government until the people shall, under its guidance, submit to the Constitution of the United States," and reorganize government under whatever conditions Congress might require.

These arguments appealed to sentiments which were becoming very popular in Congress. The theory that a State by seceding ceased to exist as a State was gradually gaining ground, and the Davis plan, by which the central government was to control the State as a territory, though for so limited a time, rapidly gained supporters.

Mr. Fernando Beaman, of Michigan, who also considered that the seceded States had ceased to exist, said in an extended speech favoring the adoption of this bill: "As a people without government or organization are in a state of anarchy, their efforts to establish law and order must be more or less impeded by caprice, by divided counsels, and by the want of forms, regulations, and methods. The passage of this bill is the establishment of incipient civil government, and provides at once rules, regulations and system, with the proper officials to carry them into execution."

Although the bill was avowedly drawn up to provide what the presidential plan failed to provide, a method of reconstruction so thorough that those elements which had produced the discord could no longer influence the state governments, it itself furnished no means to prevent any of these States from so amending their constitutions, after their senators and representatives had received recognition, that the very conditions of readmittance might be rendered nugatory.

But the bill seemed to the majority in Congress to offer a 1 Congressional Globe, part ii, 38th Congress, Ist Session, p. 1246.