74

LINCOLN'S PART IN RECONSTRUCTION.

The President further proclaimed that any provision which might be adopted by the reorganized State government, in relation to the freed people of the State, which should recognize and declare their permanent freedom, should provide for their education, and yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their condition as a landless and homeless class, would not be objected to by the national executive. In constructing a loyal State government, the name of the State, its boundaries, its subdivisions, its constitution and general code of laws, existing before the rebellion, were to be preserved, subject only to modifications made necessary by the conditions stated in the proclamation, and to such others, if any, in contravening them, as might be deemed expedient. The proclamation did not apply to States in which loyal governments had all the while been maintained.1

About a month later, the President sent to the commanding officer in Arkansas a set of blank-books and other material, to be used in initiating the new government. This was on the fifth of January, 1864, a date which may be taken as the beginning of the era of reconstruction.2 But the loyal people of Arkansas had already taken the initiative, having chosen a State convention. It assembled at Little Rock on the eighth of January.3 It consisted of forty-four delegates, claiming to represent twenty-two out of the fifty-four counties of the State.1 Delegates were expected daily from six other counties. The convention did not claim to represent the people of the State sufficiently to adopt and promulgate a constitution, but claimed to represent the sentiment of the 1 Lincoln's Works, II, 443, 444.

2 Lincoln to General F. Steel, January 5, 1864. Works, II, 467. 3 See Journal of this Convention, January 4-23, 1864, Little Rock, 1870, 58 pages.

4 Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, VIII, 414.

greater part of its loyal citizens; therefore it made a new constitution, drew up a plan of civil reorganization, and submitted both to popular vote. The entire action of the secession convention, its ordinances and its organization of the State government, were declared null and void.

On the twenty-second of January, slavery, otherwise than for punishment of crime, whereof the parties should be duly convicted, was abolished. Contracts and indentures should be made with persons of color as in a state of perfect freedom. No term of service should exceed one year, except in case of apprenticeship, which for males, should not continue after the parties had arrived at the age of twenty-one, or for females, after the age of eighteen.1 The debt of the State, incurred by the secession convention, was repudiated,2 and an election was appointed for the second Monday in March, when the qualified voters should elect State and county officers, and two members of Congress.2 The President did not know of this convention, and what it was doing at the time he had written to the district commander, General Steele. He now instructed that officer that "he must be master," but that it would be best for him to "merely help the convention on its own plan." Some single mind must control in the State, else there would be no agreement in anything. Citizens were telegraphing to the President to postpone the election to a later date than that fixed either by the convention or by himself. "This discord must be silenced."

1 Article V. Section 1.

2 In Districts, number one and two, according to the Act of January 8, 1861; no election being ordered in District number three, the convention recognized the election of Colonel James M. Johnson as its lawful representative. Schedule, Section 9, see U. M. Rose's Edition of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, Little Rock, 1891, pp. 243, 276, for the constitution of 1864.

3 Lincoln to W. M. Fishback, February 17, 1864. Lincoln's Works, II, 483, 484.

76

PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DIFFER.

General Steele supported the convention, and the ection was held on the day it had named. The new constitution was ratified.1 A loyal Governor2 and State and county officers were chosen and the new government was formally inaugurated at the State capitol, on the eleventh of April.

Meanwhile, Congress was differing with the President as to the policy of reconstruction, and the newly elected United States Senators and members of Congress from Arkansas were not admitted to their seats. In the proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction, the President had declared that whether the members sent to Congress from a State should be admitted to seats, constitutionally rested, exclusively, with Congress and not, to any extent, with the Executive. When Congress refused admission to the newly chosen Arkansas delegates, they naturally feared that the new State government would not have the support of the administration. Lincoln promptly removed this apprehension and ordered General Steele to give the government and the people there the same support and protection as if the members had been admitted; because, in any event, this could do no harm, while it would be the best that could be done in repressing the rebellion. In

3

1 March 18, 1864. The election continued three days. The constitution was ratified by a vote of 12,179 to 226.

2 Isaac Murphy, whom the convention had chosen Provisional Governor, who now was elected to the office without opposition, receiving 12,430 votes. The popular vote of Arkansas in the Presidential election of 1860 was 54,053 (5,227 for Douglas, 28,732 for Buchanan, 20,094 for Bell). The total population was 435,450, consisting of 324,335 free, including 144 freed colored and 111,115 slaves.

3 William M. Fishback and Elisha Baxter, United States Senators; T. M. Jacks, First Congressional District; A. A. C. Rogers, Second Congressional District, and J. M. Johnson, Third Congressional District.

4 Lincoln to Steel, June 29, 1864. Works, II, 539.

spite or the action of Congress, in refusing admission to the Arkansas delegates, the State, by its vote, had declared its firm allegiance to the great policy which the administration was carrying out. It was becoming clear that preservation of the Union meant the overthrow of slavery. Arkansas was the first slaveholding State to abolish the institution,—immediately and without condition. It is well to remember that this was a State, not a national act.

The civil situation at the close of 1863 was set forth by the President in his message to Congress. The emancipation proclamation, issued at the opening of the year, had given the future a new aspect. "According to our political system, as a matter of civil administration, the general government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be repressed without resorting to it as a military measure." The necessity had long been expected, and it came as a crisis in our history. The year had passed; the Mississippi had been opened; the country, still dominated by rebellion, had been divided in distinct parts, with practically no communication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas were declaring openly for emancipation; Maryland and Missouri were only disputing as to the best mode of removing slavery from within their own limits.

Fully one hundred thousand men, who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion, were now in the military service of the United States, and about one-half of them were actually bearing arms in the ranks. "So far as tested," continued the President, "it is difficult to say that they are not as good soldiers as any." He had issued the proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction under authority amply justified under the Constitution. The obligation of the United States, to guarantee to every State.

78

THE PIERPOINT GOVERNMENT.

in the Union a republican form of government and to protect it, is full and explicit. The Constitution does not prescribe a particular way in which this protection shall be exercised. The present case was one of States favorable to republican government under the Constitution, but too feeble to establish it without national aid. "While I remain in my present position," said he, "I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that Proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.

The policy, laid down in the proclamation of amnesty and reconstruction, presented a rallying point around which the loyal inhabitants of the designated States might gather. To whatever extent the plan was indefinite, embarrassments should be avoided and details be left to future developments. Until the people in the contested regions were confident that the insurgent power would not again overrun them, little could be done anywhere for reconstruction.1 When West Virginia was admitted, Governor Pierpoint and his associates, constituting the official body of the State of Virginia, retired from Wheeling to Alexandria, made it the temporary capital, and deposited there the archives of the State. Congress recognized the Pierpoint government as the true one of Virginia, but most of the State was yet in the possession of the Confederate forces. Virginia may be said to have had four governments at this time: two at Richmond and two at Alexandria.

Though the Pierpoint government2 had authority over

1 Message, December 8, 1863, Lincoln's Works, II, 445-456. 2 The territorial limits in which it pretended to exercise this function were only such as lay within the Union military lines; a few counties contiguous with Washington, two counties on the East, south of Fortress Monroe and the Cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. Nicolay and Hay's Lincoln, Vol. IX, p. 438.