ilarly divided. I would not say for one moment they should be confiscated, but if sold to maintain the war, now that slavery is destroyed, let the plantation system go with it. We will never have true freedom until we abolish the system of agriculture which existed in the Southern States. It is useless to have any schools while we maintain the stronghold of slavery as the agricultural system of the country.

[R. H. Cain]. I believe the possession of lands and homesteads is one of the best means by which a people is made industrious, honest and advantageous to the State. I believe that it is a fact well known, that over three hundred thousand men, women and children are homeless, landless. . . How are they to live. I know the philosopher of the New York Tribune says, "root hog or die;" . . My proposition is simply to give the hog some place to root. . . As long as people are working on shares and contracts, and at the end of the year are in debt, so long will they and the country suffer. . . If these people had homes along the lines of railroads, and the lands were divided and sold in small farms, I will guarantee our railroads will make fifty times as much money, banking systems will be advanced by virtue of the settlement of the people throughout the whole State. We want these large tracts of land cut up... What we need is a system of small farms. Every farmer owning his own land will feel he is in possession of something. It will have a tendency to settle the minds of the people in the State and settle many difficulties. In the rural districts now there is a constant discontent, constant misapprehension between the parties, a constant disregard for each other... I want these lands purchased by the Government, and the people afforded an opportunity to buy from the Government. I believe if the same amount of money that has been employed by the Bureau in feeding lazy, worthless men and women, had been expended in purchasing lands, we would to-day have no need of the Bureau. . . I propose to let the poor people buy these lands, the government to be paid back in five years time. . .

[C. P. Leslie]. We all know that the colored people want

land. Night and day they think and dream of it. It is their all in all. . . I cannot but denounce those who would, for political purposes, add to their misery by raising expectations that could never be realized. The gentleman from Charleston (R. H. Cain), knew when he offered the resolution and petition he would never get a dollar. Is it right to raise the hopes of these people to have them again dashed to the earth, and made ten fold more miserable? . . I am honest and sincere in my desire to do anything practicable, . . but I will do nothing, even at the risk of my political position or otherwise, that I know will be a snare. Why should we deceive this people? Why allow them to return to their homes and scatter widely through the State that they are going to get a home? Each one tells the other and they tell forty more, and so it goes on causing untold mischief and exciting false hopes among the freedmen. The President, but the other day, directed the attention of the house to a letter received by General Scott, reciting the fact that certain freedmen, who have been working upon a plantation in Berkley district, refused to contract or to do anything until this Convention adjourned, and the owner had to appeal to General Scott to instruct the freedmen, and . . a resolution was passed informing the freedmen that the Convention had no lands at their disposal.

Disfranchising Ex-Confederates in Alabama

Montgomery Mail, November 6, 1867. Speeches of E. W. Peck of New York and Tom Lee, negro, in the Alabama constitutional convention. [November 5, 1867]

[E. W. Peck]. The success and salvation of the Radical party.. depends upon the passage by this convention of the disfranchising clauses of the majority report. I believe the majority report while. . not rigidly. . confined to the letter of the Reconstruction Acts, is framed in the spirit and adheres to their intent and purpose. The great object which ought to govern the action of the convention is to keep the State out of the control of disloyal men. . . The oath protects the colored people of the State effectually against any infringement of the civil and political rights which have been recently

granted, and secures for Alabama perfect civil and political equality. I do not see how a man can conscientiously take that oath if he entertains any intention of depriving the colored people of the equality of the civil and political rights which they now enjoy. . . Most of the men who had entered into the scheme of secession, I believe, have been honest, honorable, Christian men, and if they consented to take this oath they would keep it. . . Under this oath, the Republican party would gain two votes where their enemies would get one. There were many good men who participated in the rebellion, who are now in favor of reconstruction, and would gladly take this oath. The oath does not require this class of men to renounce their belief in the right of secession, but to renounce the right. The question of secession has already been decided by the test of battle, and although some men might still believe in the original right of secession, they are . . if they are sensible and rational, content to abide by the decision. arrived at. The meaning of the Reconstruction Act is undoubtedly that the State should be reconstructed by loyal men, and no man, who insists not only in the belief, but in the right of secession, ought to be regarded as a loyal man or intrusted with any political powers.

[Tom Lee]. I advocate the adoption of the minority report, because this report grants equal civil and political rights to all men, of every race and every color. This is all that I, as a colored man, can ask for my race. . . I have no desire to take away any rights of the white man; all I want is equal rights in the court-house and equal rights when I go to vote. I think the time has come when charity and moderation should characterize the actions of all. Besides, the minority report is confined strictly to the reconstruction measures of Congress, which measures define the powers and limit the action of this convention. To go beyond these would be to endanger the ratification of the constitution formed by this convention, both by the people and by Congress, and I believe that, if the colored race do not get their rights secured without delay, . . they will never get them.

5.

OPPOSITION TO THE NEW CONSTITUTIONS

The New Constitutions

Extracts from the constitutions of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

Louisiana Constitution, 1868

[1868]

Art. 2. All persons, without regard to race, color, or previous condition, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, and residents of this State for one year, are citizens of this State. The citizens of this State owe allegiance to the United States; and this allegiance is paramount to that which they owe to the State. They shall enjoy the same civil, political and public rights and privileges, and be subject to the same pains and penalties. .

Art. 13. All persons shall enjoy equal rights and privileges upon any conveyance of a public character; and all places of business, or of public resort, or for which a license. is required by either State, parish, or municipal authority, shall be deemed places of a public character, and shall be opened to the accommodation and patronage of all persons, without distinction or discrimination on account of race or color.

Arkansas Constitution, 1868

Article VII, Sec. 5. All persons before registering or voting must take and subscribe the following oath: "I,

do solemnly swear, (or affirm) that I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the constitution and laws of the State of Arkansas; that I will never countenance or aid in the secession of this State from the United States; that I accept the civil and political equality of all men, and agree not to attempt to deprive any person or persons, on account of race, color, or previous condition, of any political or civil right, privilege or immunity enjoyed by any other class of men; and, furthermore, that I will not in any way injure, or countenance in others any attempt to injure person or persons, on account of past or present support of the Government of the United States, the laws

of the United States or the principle of the civil and political equality of all men, or for affiliation with any political party.

Mississippi Constitution, 1868

Article VII, Sec. 5. No person shall be eligible to any of fice of profit or trust, civil or military, in this State, who, as a member of the legislature, voted for the call of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession, or who, as a delegate to any convention, voted for or signed any ordinance of secession, or who gave voluntary aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in military hostility to the United States, or who accepted or attempted to exercise any office, civil or military, under any authority or pretended government, authority, power, or constitution, within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto, except all persons who aided reconstruction by voting for this convention, or who have continually advocated the assembling of this convention, and shall continuously and in good faith advocate the acts of the same; but the legislature shall remove such disability: Provided, That nothing in this section, except voting for or signing the ordinance of secession, shall be so construed as to exclude from office the private soldier of the late so-called Confederate States Army.

Objections to the New Constitution of South Carolina J. S. Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, p. 93. Protest submitted to Congress by the whites of South Carolina. [1868]

The superior race Taxation and repreThey who own no

INTELLIGENCE, virtue, and patriotism are to give place, in all elections, to ignorance, stupidity and vice. is to be made subservient to the inferior. sentation are no longer to be united. property are to levy taxes and make all appropriations. The property-holders have to pay these taxes without having any voice in levying them. The consequences will be, in effect, confiscation. The appropriations to support free schools for the education of the negro children, for the support of old negroes in the poor-houses, and the vicious in jails and penitentiary, together with a standing army of negro soldiers, will