out it all are sure to be ruled by traitors; and loyal men, black and white, will be oppressed, exiled, or murdered. There are several good reasons for the passage of this bill. In the first place, it is just. I am now confining my argument to negro suffrage in the rebel States. Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers and make laws as rebel whites? In the second place, it is a necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the seceded States. The white Union men are in a great minority in each of those States. With them the blacks would act in a body; and it is believed that in each of said States, except one, the two united would form a majority, control the States, and protect themselves. Now they are the victims of daily murder. They must suffer constant persecution or be exiled. .

Another good reason is, it would insure the ascendency of the Union party... I believe. I believe. . that on the continued ascendency of that party depends the safety of this great nation. If impartial suffrage is excluded in the rebel States, then every one of them is sure to send a solid rebel representative delegation to Congress, and cast a solid rebel electoral vote. They, with their kindred Copperheads of the North, would always elect the President and control Congress. While slavery sat upon her defiant throne, and insulted and intimidated the trembling North, the South frequently divided on questions of policy between Whigs and Democrats, and gave victory alternately to the sections. Now, you must divide them between loyalists, without regard to color, and disloyalists, or you will be the perpetual vassals of the free-trade, irritated, revengeful South.

I am for negro suffrage in every rebel State. If it be just, it should not be denied; if it be necessary, it should be adopted; if it be a punishment to traitors, they deserve it.

Reasons for Confiscations

Congressional Globe, March 10, 1866, p. 1309.

[1866]

I HAVE never desired bloody punishments to any great extent. . But there are punishments quite as appalling, and longer

remembered, than death. They are more advisable, because they would reach a greater number. Strip a proud nobility of their bloated estates; reduce them to a level with plain republicans; send them forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the workshops or handle the plow, and you will thus humble the proud traitors. Teach his posterity to respect labor and eschew treason. Conspirators are bred among the rich and the vain, the ambitious aristocrats. I trust yet to see our confiscation laws fully executed.

A Plan for Confiscation

Congressional Globe, March 19, 1867, p. 203. A bill introduced by Stevens.

[1867]

WHEREAS it is due to justice, as an example to future times, that some proper punishment should be inflicted on the people who constituted the "confederate States of America," both because they, declaring an unjust war against the United States for the purpose of destroying republican liberty and permanently establishing slavery, as well as for the cruel and barbarous manner in which they conducted said war, in violation of all the laws of civilized warfare, and also to compel them to make some compensation for the damages and expenditures caused by said war: Therefore,

Be it enacted. . That all the public lands belonging to the ten States that formed the government of the so-called "confederate States of America" shall be forfeited by said States and become forthwith vested in the United States.

Sec. 2. . . The President shall forthwith proceed to cause the seizure of such of the property belonging to the belligerent enemy as is deemed forfeited by the act of July 17, A. D. 1862, and hold and appropriate the same as enemy's property, and to proceed to condemnation with that already seized.

Sec. 3. . In lieu of the proceeding to condemn the property thus seized as enemy's property, as is provided by the act of July 17, A. D. 1862, two commissions or more, as by him may be deemed necessary, shall be appointed by the President

for each of the said "confederate States," to consist of three persons each, one of whom shall be an officer of the late or present Army, and two shall be civilians, neither of whom shall be citizens of the State for which he shall be appointed; the said commissions shall proceed to adjudicate and condemn the property aforesaid, under such forms and proceedings as shall be prescribed by the Attorney General of the United States, whereupon the title to said property shall become vested in the United States.

Sec. 4. .. Out of the lands thus seized and confiscated the slaves who have been liberated by the operations of the war and the amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, who resided in said "confederate States" on the 4th day of March, A. D. 1861, or since, shall have distributed to them as follows, namely to each male person who is the head of a family, forty acres; to each adult male, whether the head of a family or not, forty acres; to each widow who is the head of a family, forty acres to be held by them in fee simple, but to be inalienable for the next ten years after they become seized thereof. For the purpose of distributing and allotting said land the Secretary of War shall appoint in each State as many commissions as he may deem necessary, to consist of three members each, two of whom at least shall not be citizens of the State for which he is appointed... At the end of ten years the absolute title to said homesteads shall be conveyed to said owners or to the heirs of such as are then dead.

Sec. 5. Out of the balance of the property thus seized and confiscated there shall be raised, in the manner hereinafter provided, a sum equal to fifty dollars, for each homestead, to be applied by the trustees hereinafter mentioned toward the erection of buildings on the said homesteads for the use of said slaves; and the further sum of $500,000,000, which shall be appropriated as follows, to-wit: $200,000,000 shall be invested in United States six per cent. securities; and the interest thereof shall be semi-annually added to the pensions allowed by law to the pensioners who have become so by reason of the late war; $300,000,000, or so much thereof as may be needed,

shall be appropriated to pay damages done to loyal citizens by the civil or military operations of the government lately called the "confederate States of America."

Sec. 6... In order that just discrimination may be made, the property of no one shall be seized whose whole estate on the 4th day of March, A. D. 1865, was not worth more than $5,000, to be valued by the said commission, unless he shall have voluntarily become an officer or employee in the military or civil service of "the Confederate States of America," or in the civil or military service of some one of said States, and in enforcing all confiscations the sum or value of $5,000 in real or personal property shall be left or assigned to the delinquent. . . Sec. 8. If the owners of said seized and forfeited.estates shall, within ninety days after the first of said publications, pay into the Treasury of the United States the sum assessed on their estates respectively, all of their estates and lands not actually appropriated to the liberated slaves shall be released and restored to their owners.

Sec. 9. .. All the land, estates, and property, of whatever kind, which shall not be redeemed as aforesaid within ninety days, shall be sold and converted into money, in such time and manner as may be deemed by the said commissioners the most advantageous to the United States: Provided, That no arable land shall be sold in tracts larger than 500 acres.

9.

VARIOUS PLANS AND SUGGESTIONS

The Sherman-Johnston Convention

Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, by Himself, vol. ii, p. 356. This agreement, drawn up by General Sherman, was repudiated by the Washington administration. [April 18, 1865]

Memorandum or Basis of Agreement made this 18th day of April, A. D. 1865, near Durham's Station, in the State of North Carolina by and between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major General W. T. Sherman, commanding the army of the United States in North Carolina, both present:

2. The Confederate armies now in existence to be disbanded and conducted to the several State capitals, there to deposit their arms and public property in the State arsenal; and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement to cease from acts of war, and to abide the action of the State and Federal authority. The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported to the Chief of Ordnance at Washington City, subject to the future action of the Congress of the United States, and, in the meantime, to be used solely to maintain peace and order within the borders of the States respectively.

3. The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the several State Governments, on their officers and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, and, where conflicting State Governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The reëstablishment of all Federal Courts in the several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution of the United States and of the States respectively.

5. The people and inhabitants of all the States to be guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights and franchises, as well as their rights of person and property, as defined by the Constitution of the United States and of the States respectively.