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judging from its recent vote cast against negro suffrage,1 would probably reject; Ohio and Indiana were hostile to the negro; California and Nevada, great mining States, were not friendly to negro labor.2 Thus to the six New England could be added only eight other Northern States whose ratification could be considered certain. The action of the South was problematical. Radical Republicans, like Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, expected a unanimous rejection and their opinion was shared by Union Democrats, like Reverdy Johnson, though for different reasons. As the Union consisted of thirty-seven States, ratification by thirty was necessary. It was not without anxiety, therefore, that Seward, the Secretary of State, transmitted the amendment to the governors.

1 1860; 1868, note, pp. 172-173.

2 See my Constitutional History of the American People, 17761850, Vol. II, p. 12, on the question of free labor in California.

CHAPTER II.

THE NORTH ACCEPTS, THE SOUTH REJECTS THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT-CONGRESS PLANS

RECONSTRUCTION.

Connecticut was the first State to take action on the amendment, and ratified on the thirtieth of June, a sign of the reception awaiting the amendment at the North. It was a party vote, the Democrats contending that Congress had no power to amend the Constitution so long as representatives from the South were forcibly excluded, and that the amendment itself was impolitic and inexpedient. The Republicans maintained that Congress had the right to treat the Southern States as conquered provinces.1 The conflicting ideas of the two parties in Connecticut were repeated in conventions of other States and may be accepted as a brief of public opinion at this time.2 New Hampshire and Tennessee followed in July.3 Governor Brownlow had convened the Tennessee legislature

1 For the ratification of Connecticut, see Documentary History, II, 641. The ratification was 11 ayes and 6 nays, absent and not voting 4; Senate Journal, June 25; and 131 ayes to 92 nays, absent and not voting 14, House Journal, June 27, 1866.

2 For the State party platforms of 1866-1868, see the Tribune Almanac for those years.

3 New Hampshire, July 7, 1866. See its ratification in Documentary History, II, p. 645. The House, June 28, yeas 207, nays 112; Senate, July 6, yeas 9, nays 3. See the resolutions of the Republican State Conventions at Concord, January 3, favoring, and those of the Democratic State Conventions at Concord, February 7, opposing ratification.

Tennessee ratified July 19; see its act in Documentary History, II, p. 635, 14 ayes, 6 nays, Senate Journal, July 11; 43 ayes, 11 nays, House Journal, July 19, 1866. The Union State Convention at Nashville, February 22, adopted resolutions deprecating the at

in special session on the fourth for the purpose of ratifying the amendment, but in neither branch did a quorum respond. On the eleventh the House was still unorganized. but the Senate ratified on that day. The Speaker issued warrants for the arrest of eight refractory members and instructed the sergeant-at-arms to employ necessary force to bring absentees before the bar of the House. On the fifth one of the representatives had sent in his resignation which Brownlow refused to accept on the ground that its design was evidently "to reduce the House below a quorum and break up the legislature;" another member informed the governor that he would not vote on the amendment until he knew the wishes of his constituents respecting it. With characteristic promptness the governor requested General George H. Thomas, the military commander of the District, to assist in compelling the fugitive members to return and perform their duties. This delicate demand was transmitted to the Secretary of War, who instructed Thomas to abstain from any interference between the political authorities, as the administration of law and the preservation of the peace in Nashville belonged properly to the State authorities. At last the sergeant-at-arms was successful in arresting two absentees and brought them before the Speaker, thus securing a quorum. The amendment was then ratified by the House.1

Governor Ward of New Jersey convened its legislature in extra session on the tenth of September, for the purpose of passing on the amendment and urged its ratification "as the most lenient amnesty ever offered to treason."

tempt of Congress to force negro suffrage upon the South, opposed any interference with the Constitution, but approved the guarantee of the payment of the public debt.

1 Compare the proceedings in the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1787, Vol. II, p. 19.

302

OREGON AND VERMONT.

It was adopted the following day,' the Democratic members of the Senate, however, refusing to vote.

The legislature of Oregon assembled on the same day with that of New Jersey. At the preceding session, two Republican members of the House had been unseated and two Democrats admitted in their place. This gave the Republicans a majority of one in the House, and by that majority the amendment was approved. A resolution declaring the ratification illegal and fraudulent was lost by one vote. The hostility of these two legislatures to the amendment was prophetic, for both States later withdrew their consent.

3

2

Vermont, the first State in the Union to grant all rights to negroes, equally with whites, ratified in November. Its legislature went further than merely to record its approval by adopting resolutions-which were sent to Congress-that laws ought to be in force in all States guaranteeing equal and impartial suffrage without respect to color; thus emphasizing the cardinal political principle which had distinguished the State from its foundation.*

1 For the ratification of New Jersey, see Documentary History, II, p. 657. The amendment passed the Senate by 11 ayes, the ten Democratic members refusing to vote; in the House by 34 ayes to 24 nays; Journal of the Senate and House, September 11, 1866.

2 For the ratification by Oregon on September 19, 1866, see Documentary History, II, p. 661. The Senate ratified by a vote of 13 ayes to 9 nays; the House, same day, by 25 ayes to 21 nays. 3 Constitution of 1777, Chapter 1, Article I, Id. 1786 and 1793. For the Vermont act of ratification, see Documentary History, II, p. 664. By the Senate unanimously; in the House, 196 ayes to 11 nays. See also the resolutions passed by the Republican State Convention at Montpelier, June 20, advocating "impartial suffrage and equal rights for all." The resolutions of the Democratic State Convention, June 29, made in reference to the amendment, deprecated the exclusion of the Southern States from representation in Congress.

Nine states, including Ohio, ratified in January; five in February; one in March, and one in June. New York in ratifying and by a large majority, adopted joint resolutions approving the policy of Congress.1 Ohio later withdrew her consent.2 The governor of Illinois, in transmitting the amendment to its legislature, declared that if it should fail of adoption, or if adopted should fail to secure its purposes, other more adequate and comprehensive measures would be proposed which could not fail to "restore and re-establish the Government upon the basis of the indivisibility of the Union, the supreme authority of its laws and the equal liberty of all its citizens, in every State in the Union." West Virginia, the most zealous

1 For the ratification by New York, January 10, 1867, see Documentary History, II, p. 668. See also the resolutions of the Republican State Convention at Syracuse, September 5, declaring the amendment to be "essentially to engrave upon the organic law the legitimate results of the war;" and the resolutions of the Democratic State Convention at Albany, September 11, affirming that President Johnson's proclamation of amnesty, May 29, 1865, restored the great mass of people of the South to all the rights and functions of citizenship. New York Senate, January 3, ayes 23, nays 3, four members later recorded their vote in the affirmative; House, January 10, 71 ayes, 36 nays.

2 See the ratification by Ohio, January 11, 1867, in Documentary History, II, p. 675; the resolutions of the Republican State Convention at Columbus, June 20, endorsing the amendment; and those of the Democratic State Convention at Columbus, May 24, denouncing the exclusion of the South, "unless on the degraded condition of inferiority in the Union, and of negro political and civil equality enforced by the Federal Government." Ohio Senate, 21 yeas, 12 nays; House, 54 yeas, 25 nays.

3 See the act of ratification by Illinois, January 15, 1867, in Documentary History, II, p. 690; also the resolutions of the Republican State Convention at Springfield, August 8, endorsing the amendment; and that of the Democratic State Convention, August 29, disapproving the policy of Congress. Senate, 17 yeas, 8 nays; Journal, p. 76; House, 60 yeas, 25 nays; Journal, Vol. I, p. 155.

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