vided, whose duty it should be to enforce the act; "and all persons. appointed to service under this act and the act to which this is an amendment, shall be so far deemed in the military service of the United States as to be under the military jurisdiction and entitled to the military protection of the Government while in discharge of the duties of their office." Sales of certain lands in South Carolina, under the "act for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary districts within the United States" (June 7, 1862), and the act amendatory thereof (February 6, 1863), were confirmed, and other lands bid in by the United States were directed to be sold to the occupants in lots of twenty acres at $1.50 per acre. "School farms" in the parish of St. Helena were directed to be sold, and the proceeds to be invested in United States bonds as a fund for "the support of schools, without distinction of color or race, on the islands in the parishes of St. Helena and St. Luke."

The act further provided that "in every State or district where the ordinary course of judicial proceedings has been interrupted by the rebellion, and until the same shall be fully restored, and in every State or district whose constitutional relations to the government have been practically discontinued by the rebellion, and until such State shall have been restored in such relations and shall be duly represented in the Congress of the United States," the rights, remedies, and immunities conferred by the Civil Rights act, hereafter noticed, should be secured to and enjoyed by all the citizens of such State or district, without respect to race or color or previous condition of servitude. In such State or district the President was vested with power to "extend military protection and exercise military jurisdiction over all cases and questions concerning the free enjoyment of such immunities and rights" as were created or conferred by the act.

The bureau in South Carolina was under the management of Brig.-Gen. R. K. Scott, assistant commissioner, aided by a sufficient corps of subordinates. Vested by the act with military authority, these officials nevertheless appeared to occupy towards the State government the relations of independent civil functionaries deriving all their power from the Congress of the United States. Aside from the actual custody of lands held by the Government under color of title acquired through the enforcement of the direct tax or by

seizure in the course of military operations, the bureau officers undertook to exercise a supervisory control in all matters affecting the freedmen or their rights consequent upon emancipation.

In the matter of contracts between landlords and tenants or between farmers and their laborers-where any party thereto was a person of color-the bureau established standards and regulations which, though put forth in the form of suggestions, were yet of sufficient force to cause the negroes to feel that the bureau was the authorized arbiter for the enforcement of their rights and the protection of their interests. Regulations made by the bureau were generally respected by the freedmen-and the white people had little choice in such matters.

In June, 1866, the assistant commissioner suggested the surrender of all lands occupied otherwise than by virtue of title to their true owners a step which led to the ultimate restoration of the owners' rights. Shortly afterwards he ordered the arrest of all freedmen (including women) who should for any but lawful reasons have quitted the farms whereon they had been working and who, having broken their contracts, were idlers or vagrants. Trading in crops before division among the parties entitled to them and before they were ready for market was made an offense punishable by a fine varying from $50 to $500, in the discretion of the post commandera repetition of the offense to be punished with imprisonment not exceeding six months.

In January, 1867, the jail at Kingstree was destroyed by fire—this, according to the newspaper accounts given at the time, caused by the act of some of the negro prisoners who thus endeavored to escape. Of those confined in the building nineteen colored men and two colored women were burnt to death-the single white prisoner getting out unharmed. General Scott issued a sort of proclamation charging the sheriff and his two deputies with criminal misconduct. in not protecting the lives of the negro prisoners "while the single white prisoner was permitted to escape unharmed." The officers mentioned were on General Scott's order arrested by a squad of soldiers and taken to Castle Pinckney, where they were confined for a time, but were neither tried nor punished.

In Marion District in July, 1867, a negro was lawfully committed to jail on the charge of assault and battery, with intent to kill, upon the person of a white citizen. Two agents of the Freedmen's Bureau

-an army captain and a civilian-demanded of the clerk of the circuit court that the prisoner should be discharged on his own recognizance. The clerk refused-basing his action upon the State law and the standing orders of General Sickles. The officers replied that they had nothing to do with General Sickles, that they acted under General Scott, who was "the ruling power in this State," that they had orders from him directing that freedmen should not be required to give bail, that they recognized General Scott only, and that the negro should not give bail. The clerk still refusing to discharge the prisoner, the captain sent a message to the jailer with a peremptory order to release him. The jailer felt constrained to obey, and the prisoner was discharged.

There were thus, between the Federal occupation of territory in South Carolina and the appointment of the district commander under the Reconstruction acts hereafter noticed, at least three separate powers exercising authority over the people of this State-the civil government organized under the proclamations and directions of President Johnson; the military forces of the United States, acting in the apparent exercise of the right to control conquered territory, by express authority of Congress and with the apparent acquiescence of the President; and, lastly, the organs of the Freedmen's Bureau, deriving their quasi-military powers from the acts of the lawmaking branch of the Federal Government.

THE RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES.

The Thirty-eighth Congress adjourned March 3, 1865, and the President did not call an extra session of the Thirty-ninth. That body, composed of forty Republican senators and eleven Democratic, 146 Republican representatives and forty Democratic, met in regular session on December 4, 1865. The course of the President, together with the action of the Southern States in the adoption of his suggestions and the furtherance of his plan, had been much discussed by the press of the country and criticized by leading men in the Republican party. It was clear that the new congress would not acquiesce in the adjustments embodied in the Presidential scheme of Reconstruction.

The credentials of the Southern senators and representatives were severally ordered to lie on the table, pending the report of the joint committee on Reconstruction, which was composed of fifteen members, as follows: Senators W. P. Fessenden, of Maine; James W.

Grimes, of Iowa; Ira Harris, of New York; Jacob M. Howard, of Michigan; George H. Williams, of Oregon, and Reverdy Johnson (Dem.) of Maryland; Representatives Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania; Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois; Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont; John A. Bingham, of Ohio; Roscoe Conkling, of New York; George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts; Henry T. Blow, of Missouri; A. J. Rogers, of New Jersey (Dem.), and Henry Grider, of Kentucky (Dem.).

The Reconstruction committee was directed to inquire, ascertain and report what was the actual condition of affairs in the States "lately in rebellion," and also what were the relations of those States to the Federal Union. The "investigation" by the committee was long and laborious.

On January 10, 1866, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 94 to 37, adopted a resolution declaring that "in order to the maintenance of the national authority and the protection of loyal citizens of the seceded States it is the sense of this House that the military forces of the Government should not be withdrawn from those States until the two houses of Congress shall have ascertained and declared that their further presence there is no longer necessary." A declaration of the same purport was made by the Senate.

On February 20 the two bodies adopted a concurrent resolution declaring that neither the House nor the Senate would admit any representative from any of the seceded States until both houses should declare such State entitled to representation.

Next came the Civil Rights act-"an act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights and furnish the means of their vindication"-vetoed by President Johnson, and passed over the veto April 9, 1866. By the first section it was enacted that "all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power (excluding Indians not taxed) are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States, and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same rights in every State and territory in the United States to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of

person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains and penalties, and none otherany law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." Penalties were affixed for depriving any person of any right thus declared, because of race, color or previous condition of servitude, and of the offenses thus denounced the district courts of the United States were vested with jurisdiction, exclusively of the courts of the several States. Provision was made for the removal of causes wherein any right declared by the act was involved to the courts of the United States, and the duties of attorneys, marshals and commissioners were fully set forth.

By a resolution of Congress, passed June 16, 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution was submitted to the several States. On June 18, 1866, the Reconstruction committee finally reported to Congress. The majority, after what was claimed to be an exhaustive and impartial review of the testimony submitted by the President and that otherwise taken by the committee, presented a series of accusations against the Southern people, of which the following may be taken as specimens:

From the whole mass of testimony submitted by the President it appears that in no instance in the Southern States was any regard paid to any other consideration than obtaining immediate admission. to Congress under the barren form of an election in which no precaution was taken to secure regularity of proceedings or the assent of the people.

Indeed, all feeling of conciliation on the part of the North has been treated with contempt. The bitterness and defiance against the United States have been unparalleled in the history of the world.

The burden rests upon the Southern people, before claiming to be reinstated in their former positions, to show that they ought to resume their federal relations. In order to do this they must prove that they have established, with the consent of the people, a republican form of government in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the United States-that all hostile purposes have ceased, and that they have given adequate guaranties against future treason and rebellion, which will be satisfactory to the Government against which they have rebelled and by whose army they were subdued."

The committee further reported that the seceding States had deliberately severed their relations with the Union, renounced their right to representation and abolished their State governments so far as these connected them with the Union, but nevertheless that the

4-R. S. C.