Page images
PDF
EPUB

No. 148. Elective Franchise in the Terri

tories

January 31, 1867

A BILL to amend the organic acts of the several Territories was introduced in the House April 24, 1866, by James M. Ashley of Ohio, and referred to the Committee on Territories. The bill was reported without amendment on the 26th, recommitted, and again reported May 3. A substitute offered by Ashley May 15, the ninth section of which prohibited the denial of the elective franchise on account of race or color, was agreed to by a vote of 79 to 43, 61 not voting, a motion to strike out the ninth section being defeated by a vote of 36 to 76, 72 not voting. The bill was reported with amendments in the Senate May 31, but went over until the next session. January 10, 1867, a substitute in the words of the act following, offered by Wade of Ohio, was agreed to. The Senate amendment was accepted by the House by a vote of 104 to 38, 49 not voting. The bill became a law without the President's approval.

REFERENCES.

Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV., 379. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., 1st and 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. An abstract of the House bill of May 3 is in the Globe for that date; Ashley's substitute, ibid., May 15.

An Act to regulate the elective Franchise in the Territories of the United States.

[ocr errors]

Be it enacted That from and after the passage of this act, there shall be no denial of the elective franchise in any of the Territories of the United States, now, or hereafter to be organized, to any citizen thereof, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude; and all acts or parts of acts, either of Congress or the Legislative Assemblies of said Territories, inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby declared null and void.

No. 149. First Reconstruction Act

March 2, 1867

THE question of the restoration of the insurrectionary States to a place in the Union early engaged the attention of Congress, and many resolutions setting forth the opinions of their framers as to the way in which such restoration should be brought about, were submitted. A concurrent resolution

of March 2, 1866, declared “that, in order to close agitation upon a question which seems likely to disturb the action of the government, as well as to quiet the uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the eleven States which have been declared to be in rebellion, no senator or representative shall be admitted into either branch of Congress from any of said States until Congress shall have declared such State entitled to such representation." The majority report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction was submitted June 18, 1866, and the minority report four days later. A bill to reconstruct North Carolina was introduced by Thaddeus Stevens December 13. February 6, 1867, however, Stevens reported from the joint committee a general reconstruction bill. On the 13th a substitute offered by Stevens was agreed to, and the bill passed the House, the vote being 109 to 55, 26 not voting. An amendment submitted by James G. Blaine of Maine, providing that when Congress should have approved the Constitution of any State conferring suffrage in accordance with the Fourteenth Amendment, the other sections of the bill should become inoperative, was rejected. In the meantime the Fourteenth Amendment had been rejected by all the seceding States except Tennessee. The Blaine amendment, offered by Sherman in the Senate, was accepted by that house, and the amended bill passed, February 16, by a vote of 29 to 10. On the 19th the House, by a vote of 73 to 98, refused to concur, but the next day receded from its disagreement, and concurred in the amendments of the Senate, with the addition of amendments embracing section 6 and the proviso of section 5 of the act as passed. The bill was vetoed by President Johnson March 2, but was promptly passed over the veto the same day, the vote in the House being 138 to 51, 3 not voting, and in the Senate 35 to 11. An act of January 22 had provided “for the meeting of the fortieth and all succeeding Congresses immediately after the adjournment of the preceding Congress," while another act of February 21 directed the clerk of the House to include in the roll of representatives for the next Congress members from those States only which had been represented in the preceding Congress. A joint resolution of March 30 appropriated $500,000 for the expenses of executing the various reconstruction acts.

REFERENCES. – Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XIV., 428, 429. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. The bill reported February 6 is the same as the act as passed, except the fifth and sixth sections, which were added as amendments. For the texts of the more important resolutions on reconstruction, with the action upon them, see McPherson, Reconstruction, 109-114, 183-187. Johnson's message of July 20, 1867, transmitting a report of a cabinet meeting, is in Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, VI., 527-531. The documentary literature is extensive. The report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction is House Report 30, 39th Cong., 1st Sess. On the early disturbances in the South see House Exec. Doc. 96 and House Report 101, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Docs. 61, 68, and 72 and House Report 16, 39th Cong., 2d Sess. The most important orders, etc., relating to military reconstruction, are in Senate Exec. Doc. 14, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; see also Senate Exec. Doc. 14, and Senate Report 14, 38th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Report 23, 39th Cong.,

2d Sess.; House Exec. Doc. 342, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. The State constitutions of the reconstruction period are in Poore, Charters and Constitutions. On political conditions see House Exec. Doc. 131, Senate Exec. Doc. 43, Senate Misc. Doc. 62, and Senate Report 112, 39th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Docs. 20 and 34 and House Misc. Docs. 29 and 53, 40th Cong., 1st Sess.; House Exec. Docs. 53 and 276 and Senate Exec. Doc. 53, 40th Cong., 2d Sess.; Senate Exec. Doc. 13, 41st Cong., 2d Sess. On the constitutional question see particularly Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wallace, 475; Georgia v. Stanton, 6 ibid., 51; Texas v. White, 7 ibid., 200.

An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States.

WHEREAS no legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exists in the rebel States of Virginią, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is necessary that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until loyal and republican State governments can be legally established: Therefore,

Be it enacted. . ., That said rebel States shall be divided into military districts and made subject to the military authority of the United States as hereinafter prescribed, and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina the second district; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida the third district; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth district.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the President to assign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the army, not below the rank of brigadier-general, and to detail a sufficient military force to enable such officer to perform his duties and enforce his authority within the district to which he is assigned.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of each officer assigned as aforesaid, to protect all persons in their rights of person and property, to suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the public peace and criminals; and to this end he may allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, when in his judgment it may be necessary for the trial of offenders, he shall have power to

organize military commissions or tribunals for that purpose, and all interference under, color of State authority with the exercise of military authority under this act, shall be null and void.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons put under military arrest by virtue of this act shall be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted, and no sentence of any military commission or tribunal hereby authorized, affecting the life or liberty of any person, shall be executed until it is approved by the officer in command of the district, and the laws and regulations for the government of the army shall not be affected by this act, except in so far as they conflict with its provisions: Provided, That no sentence of death under the provisions of this act shall be carried into effect without the approval of the President.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who have been resident in said State for one year previous to the day of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates, and when such constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same, and when said State, by a vote of its legislature elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen, and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and senators and representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed

by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said State: Provided, That no person excluded from the privilege of holding office by said proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, shall be eligible to election as a member of the convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person vote for members of such convention.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That, until the people of said rebel States shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil governments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same; and in all elections to any office under such provisional governments all persons shall be entitled to vote, and none others, who are entitled to vote, under the provisions of the fifth section of this act; and no persons shall be eligible to any office under any such provisional governments who would be disqualified from holding office under the provisions of the third article of said constitutional amendment.

No. 150. Tenure of Office Act

March 2, 1867

A BILL "to regulate the tenure of offices" was introduced in the Senate December 3, 1866, the first day of the session, by George H. Williams of Oregon, and referred to the Joint Select Committee on Retrenchment. On the 10th a substitute amendment was reported by George F. Edmunds of Vermont, who also offered the next day a further amendment, being the last five sections of the act. The amended bill passed the Senate on the 18th by a vote of 29 to 9, 14 not voting. The House, by a vote of 82 to 63, 46 not voting, added an amendment striking out the clause excepting cabinet officers from the operation of the act, the vote on the passage of the amended bill being 111 to 38, 42 not voting. The Senate refused to concur, but the insistence of the House on its principal amendment forced the Senate to agree to the compromise contained in the first section of the act. The report of the conference committee was accepted by the Senate February 18, by a vote of 22 to 10, and by the House the following day by a vote of 112 to 41, 37 not voting. March 2 the bill was vetoed by President Johnson, but was passed over the veto the same day, the vote in the Senate being 35 to 11, 6 not vot

« PreviousContinue »