Documentary history of reconstruction, political, military, social, religious, educational & industrial, 1865 to the present time

Front matter

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Preface

The purpose of this work is to make more easily accessible to the student and to the general reader some of the original sources relating to the Reconstruction period. The documents reproduced will assist to an understanding of the peculiar conditions — social, political and economic — that prevailed in the Southern states during the Reconstruction. The first volume consists of selections illustrative of the condition of the South after the war, the problems to be solved and the attempts of the President and Congress to solve them, ending with the readmission of the late Confederate States to the Union. The second volume will illustrate the working out in the Southern states of the Congressional plan of Reconstruction, and the adjustments that followed later.

The documents presented are principally laws, state and federal, official reports, and political platforms; accounts of Northern men and foreigners living or traveling in the South; accounts of Southerners, white and black, ex- Confederates and Unionists, Conservatives and Radicals. With the exception of the laws and political documents the material used consists mainly of accounts by persons who had first hand acquaintance with conditions in the South. Owing to the necessity for condensation I have had to leave unused five-sixths of the material gathered while all that has been included has been subjected to a vigorous pruning of all unessential matter. Some congressional debates on matters of theory or policy are included, but I have been obliged reluctantly to omit most of the documents illustrative of those important facts in Reconstruction — viz., the development of public sentiment in the North before 1868 and the reaction that came later.

viii Documentary History of Reconstruction

This public opinion which made possible the Reconstruction and its undoing, is, however, here reflected in the laws and political platforms. Illustrations of it can easily be found in the files of the leading newspapers of the North, such as the Tribune, and the Nation, which are more accessible even in Southern libraries than the files of important Southern journals. So this field has been somewhat neglected in order to develop others quite as important and more difficult of access. And it may be objected that the Radical side is given space out of proportion to its merits. This is due to the fact that most of the official documents and collections of testimony are of Radical origin and have been better preserved than the Conservative material, much of which has been lost and destroyed or is still inaccessible. All who have done work in Southern history know of the exasperating difficulties that still lie in the way of the use of documents which are in the hands of private individuals. Consequently, the history of the Conservative element must in many cases be developed from unfriendly sources, or from documents that have degenerated through careless or unfriendly use. While the bias of the documents in the first volume is toward the Radical, the reverse is true in the second volume. The dates given in the introductory note at the head of each document indicate the period covered by the document and also the date of origin of the present form of the document. Often the dates are the same. The difference between the two is in some degree a measure of the deterioration of the document.

An examination of the contents of the first volume will show that the origin of the various documents and extracts is about as follows: State laws, 25; federal laws, 17; accounts of Northern men, 148; of Southern men (ex-Confederate), 62; of Southern Unionist and Radical,

Preface ix

22; of negroes, 12; of foreigners, 2. In most of the documents the psychological element is important, especially in the non-legal documents. Of the latter, about 64 are from what may be called the Southern point of view; 118 are from the opposite point of view, and 70 are more or less indifferent or impartial. These may be readily interpreted with proper allowance for the personal equation; to those who desire it, the secondary accounts referred to at the end of each Introduction will furnish the information necessary to construct the historical background; a few words of explanation are given in some of the introductory notes for the purpose of furnishing a clew to the point of view illustrated in that particular document.

For assistance given me during the past six years while working on this collection I am indebted tomany considerate friends. North and South, and for special favors to the following: Dr. Thomas M. Owen of the Alabama Department of Archives and History; President D. B. Purinton and Professor Waitman Barbe of West Virginia University; Hon. Dunbar Rowland of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History; Mr. Worthington C. Ford, Chief of the Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress; Mr. L. S. Boyd, of the library of the Inter-State Commerce Commission; the authorities of the West Virginia University Library, and of the Library of Congress; Generals F. C. Ainsworth and George B. Davis of the War Department; Hon. Junius Riggs of the Alabama Supreme Court Library; Senator Stephen B. Elkins; Hon. A. A. Wiley, Montgomery, Alabam.a; Dr. G. P. L. Reid, Marion, Alabama; Mr. T. C. Thompson, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hon. J. S. Reynolds, Columbia, South Carolina; Professor Yates Snowden, South Carolina College; Mrs. Myrta Lockett Avary; Mrs. E. G.

Boyd; Mr. G. W. Duncan of the University Publishing Company; Dr. R. G. Thwaites, Wisconsin Historical Society; Mr Albert Phelps, New Orleans; Hon. W. B. Ridgeley, Comptroller of the Currency. At all stages of the work I have been aided by my wife.

Walter L. Fleming.

West Virginia University,

Morgantown, August 5, 1906.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

Preface. The Editor ... vii

Section I. The destruction of property . . 9 (1) The ruin in city and country

(2) Destruction in the valley of Virginia.

(3) The wear and tear of war.

(4) The impoverished South.

(5) "The Crown of Poverty."

(6) The ruin of the slaveholders.

(7) The wreck of the railways.

Section 2. Destitution and want among the whites 20 (1) Suffering in the white counties

(2) On the Confederate frontier.

(3) In Sherman's track.

(4) Bad crops in ]8G5.

(5) Government aid to the destitute.

Section 3. Confiscation frauds . . 25 (1) Collecting Confederate cotton: and taxes

(2) Theft and confiscation of cotton.

(3) "The government loses in money and character."

(4) Methods of the treasury agents.

(5) "Mere rogues and fortune hunters."

(6) To the victors the spoils.

(7) "Peculation, robbing, intrigue, plunder."

Section 8. The temper of the Southern whites . 51 (1) Desire for peace and reunion

(2) General Grant's observations.

(3) Carl Schurz on conditions in the South.

(4) Popular sentiment in the South.

(5) Historical societies and rebellion.

(6) The deceitful Southerners.

(7) Good advice to the Southern people.

(8) Popular regard for Confederate leaders.

(1) The news' of freedom.

(2) "Free as birds."

(3) A plan for a negro town.

(4) Free negro labor.

Section 12. Treatment of negroes . . 77 (1) Conditions of the negroes after the surrender

(2) Treatment of negroes in Texas.

(3) "East Tennesseeans do- not like niggers."

(4) Loyalists oppose negroes.

(5) Friends and enemies of the negroes.

(6) A Northern view of the negro.

(7) After a year of freedom.

Section I. The President's plan In operation . 167 (1) An, early attempt at restoration

(2) Southern state governments not recognized.

(3) Johnson's proclamation of amnesty.

(4) Appointment of a provisional governor.

(5) Formdng a "Johnson" state government.

(6) President Johnson on negro suffrage.

(7) A dehPiite on the abolition of slavery.

(8) Abolition in North Carolina.

(9) The ordinance of secession null and. void.

(10) Repudiation of the Confederate debt.

(11) Organizing a new state government.

(12) Laws in force after the war.

(13) Slavery andi suffrage in a new constitution.

(14) The Thirteenth Amendment.

(15) Stanton's opinion of Johnson's policy in 1866.

(16) The President's report on restoration.

Section 2. The "provisional" governments In the South 189 (1) What the war decided

(2) The effects of the Test Oath.

(3) The "iron clad" Test Oath.

(4) The Alabama legislature on the state of the Union.

(5) The legal end of the war.

(6) A Southern opinion of the "Johnson" governments:

Section 7. Rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment 234

(1) Alexander H. Stephens on the conditions of Reconstruction.

(2) The Fourteenth Amendment rejected in Florida.

(3) Arkansas rejects the Fourteenth Amendment.

(4) The President opposes the Fourteenth Amendment.

(5) A Southern proposal for a Fourteenth Amendment.

Contents of Volume I xv

Section i. Discussion of race and labor problems 247

(1) C. G. Memminger on race and labor problems.

(2) The negro problemi in Mississippi.

(3) Reasons for admitting negro testimony.

(4) Labor problems in Florida.

(5) The duty of the whites to the negroes.

(6) Negro testimony in North Carolina.

(7) The labor situation in Alabama.

(8) Rights of the negro in Virginia.

(9) The negi'O under the provisional government.

(10) A negro's view of the Black Laws.

Section 2. Laws relating to freedmen . 273 (1) M'arriages of negroes (Alabama)

(2) Intermarriage between the races forbidden (Alabama).

(3) Civil rights of negroes in Arkansas.

(4) Negro testimony in Alabama courts.

(5) Labor contracts^ in Florida.

(6) Schools for freedmen in Florida.

(7) Regulations for freedmen in Louisiana.

(8) A Mississippi "Jim Crow" law.

(9) Mississippi apprentice law.

(10) 'Mississippi vagrant law.

(11) Civil Rights of freedmen in Mississippi.

(12) Certain offenses of freedmen (Mississippi).

(13) North Carolina "Black Code."

(14) The domestic relations of negroes, pauperism and vagrancy

(South Carolina).

(15) "Persons of color" in Tennessee.

(16) The negro in the new constitutions.

Chapter V. The Freedmen's Bureau and the Freedmen's Bank

Section i. Laws relating to the Bureau . 319

(1) First Freedmen's Bureau act.

(2) Second Freedmen's Bureau act.

Section 2. Official regulations and reports . 327

(1) The army and the freedmen.

(2) Rules and regulations for assistant commissioners.

(3) Instructions to assistant commiissioners.

(4) The Bureau and the laws of the states.

(5) Regulation of labor conti-acts.

xvi Documentary History of Reconstruction

(G) Advice to Texas planters.

(7) Advice to white and blaclv.

(8) Tlie Bureau in Louisiana.

(9) Report of General Grant.

(10) Jealousy of the army.

(11) The fate of the "Old Time Southerner."

(12) Dislike of the Bureau in Kentucky.

(13) Bureau courts in Georgia.

(14) Failure of the colonization plan.

Section 3. Confiscation: "Forty acres and a mule" 350 (1) Sherman's confiscations

(2) The policy of the Bureau in regard to confiscation.

(3) Freedmen expect lands.

(4) Confiscations in South Carolina.

(5) Some results of Sherman's order.

(6) Land certificates in Floiida.

(7) Painted pegs from Wasl.ington.

(8) Sales of stripedi pegs.

Section 4. Estimates and opinions of the Bureau's work 361 (1) Carl Schurz defends the Bureau

(2) Dissaitisf action about wage regulation.

(3) The necessity for the Bureau.

(4) The Bureau and the negro troops.

(5) A Northern man's opinion.

(6) Views of John Miinor Botts.

(7) "Productive only of miscliief."

(8) Criticism of the Bureau not disloyalty.

(9) The Bureau demoralized labor.

(10) Wade Hampton's opinion of the Bureau.

(11) Influence in labor and politics.

(12) The Bureau as a political machine.

(13) Political activities of Bureau officials.

(14) The workings of the Bureau.

(15) Success of the Bureau.

(16) A negro's description of the Bureau.

(17) Charges against General Howard.

Section 3. The use of the army in reconstruction 428 (1) The army takes control

(2) Status of state officials.

(3) Registrars and registration disitrictsi.

(4) Enrolling the new electorate. ('5) Persons disfranchised.

(6) Interference with the civil government.

(7) Regulation of local government.

(8) Military police and courts.

(9) General Grant versus the attorney general.

(10) Freedom of the press limited.

(11) Forcing "patriotism."

(12) General Sheridan in New Orleans.

(13) Miilitary misrule in Alabama.

(14) Military "justice."

(15) Completion of militairy reconstruction.

(16) Military districts discontinuedi