THE RESULT
The execution of the Reconstruction bill was regarded as a test of the
Presidents disposition. It was felt that if he promptly executed it in its own
spirit, the public mind would be softened. If he evaded it, or was satisfied with a mere
technical execution, the desire of his removal would greatly stimulate the friends of
impeachment. It is but fair to say that his course has been wise. Upon consultation with
General Grant he has appointed Military District Commanders of whose experience and
sympathy with the national purpose there can be no question. It was supposed that the
President might name certain officers like Generals Granger and Custer, who have been most
unpleasantly identified with his policy; but the selection of Thomas, Sheridan, Schofield,
Sickles, and Ord is a sincere deference to public opinion. They are men who will execute
faithfully the provisions of the bill.Congress has been engaged in removing the difficulty which we
suggested upon the passage of the bill? its failure to define precisely the
method of its own execution. The Senate Supplementary bill provides that before the 1st
of September 1867, the military commander shall register all voters qualified by the act.
There shall then be an election to determine if a Constitutional Convention shall be held.
At this election a majority of the registered electors must vote; and if a majority of
those voting declare for a Convention, it shall be held agreeably to the act. The
Convention, having adopted a Constitution, must submit it to the people for ratification;
and if a majority of the registered voters of the State approve it, the President of the
Convention must forward a copy to the President of the United States, who must immediately
lay it before Congress. If Congress approves it, the State will resume its representation
in Congress.
Thus the great principle is definitively
settled that a State which rises in rebellion against the Union can be restored to its
position in the Union only upon such conditions as the loyal people in Congress shall
determine. That is the obvious common-sense of the situation, while the theory of the
continuous right of States, as expounded by Alexander H. Stephens, and held by the
Democratic party, is rejected as no less foolish and untenable than the old Democratic
sophistries of State sovereignty and the Doctrine that the Constitution was a conditional
compact instead of a national bond.
The result shows the superiority of the
general popular instinct to technical chicanery. It is the vindication of the spirit
against the letter. Ever since the surrender of the rebel armies the country has been
confronted with a sophistical syllogism, which the President has repeated in every form,
and which the Secretary of State has gravely offered as a great political truth. The
syllogism was this: The war was for the Union; the Union has been maintained; therefore
every State is equal with every other State. Now politics are extremely practical. A
nation which has spent three thousand millions of dollars and countless precious lives in
a furious war of four years to maintain its existence will hardly surrender at the summons
of a syllogism. The reply which the country made to the President, the Secretary of State,
the Democratic party, and the late rebels, was very simple. It was this: We have fought to
maintain the Union; we have succeeded; therefore we shall do what is necessary to secure
the Union from a similar peril hereafter.
That was the meaning of the elections and
of the Reconstruction bill. The difference between the President and his supporters on the
one side, and the loyal American people upon the other, is just this: the first see in the
result the destruction of the Constitution and the end of civil liberty; the second see in
it the salvation of the Constitution and the beginning of civil liberty.
Articles Related to Military Reconstruction:
News Items
January 19, 1867, page 35
Impeachment
January 26, 1867, page 50
Congress and
Impeachment
February 16, 1867, page 98
The Probability of
Impeachment
February 23, 1867, page 114
The Louisiana Bill
March 2, 1867, page 130
Reconstruction
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Thirty-Ninth
Congress
March 9, 1867, page 146
The Veto of the Reconstruction Bill
March 16, 1867, page 162
The Fortieth Congress
March 30, 1867, page 195
The Fortieth Congress
April 6, 1867, page 211
Sprats and Vetoes
April 6, 1867, page 210
Adjournment of Congress
April 13, 1867, page 226
Prometheus Bound
March 2, 1867, page 137
The Result
March 30, 1867, page 194
The Southern Commanders
April 6, 1867, page 218
The Debate upon Impeachment
March 23, 1867, page 178
We Accept the Situation (cartoon)
April 13, 1867, page 240
The Big Thing (cartoon)
April 20, 1867, page 256
The End of Impeachment
June 22, 1867, page 386
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