The Greater Republic Part 51

Thus a quarrel arose between the President and Congress. The latter proposed to keep the States on probation for a time, before giving them their full rights, while the President strenuously insisted that they should be admitted at once on the same status as those that had not been engaged in secession. To keep out the eighty-five members who had been refused admission, Congress imposed a test oath, which excluded all who had been connected in any way with the Confederate government. The Republicans had a two-thirds vote in Congress which enabled them to pa.s.s any bill they chose over the President's veto. While they had not formulated any clear policy, they were resolved to protect the freedmen in all their rights. The reorganization of Tennessee being satisfactory, her members were received by Congress in 1866.

The congressional elections of this year intrenched the Republicans in Congress, and they were sure of the power for the next two years to carry through any policy upon which they might agree. By that time, too, they had fixed upon their plan of reconstruction and prepared to enforce it.

This policy was to allow the freedmen to vote and to deprive the Confederate leaders of the right to do so. To accomplish this, the plan was to place all the seceding States under military governors, who should call new conventions to form State governments. The negroes and not the leading Confederates had the power to vote for these delegates.

Provided the new governments allowed the freedmen the right of suffrage, and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment (which excluded the leading Confederates from office), then the Southern senators and representatives would be admitted to Congress.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.

The "civil rights" bill, which placed the blacks and whites on the same footing, was vetoed by the President, March 27th. He pointed out the danger of giving suffrage to 4,000,000 ignorant people, lately slaves, and said unscrupulous men in the North would hasten South and take advantage of their ignorance. This was precisely what took place. The South was overrun by a set of scoundrels known as "carpet-baggers"

(because they were supposed to carry all their worldly possessions when they reached the South in a carpet bag; in many instances a score of trunks would not have sufficed to hold what they took back), whose rule was worse than a pestilence, and forms one of the most shameful episodes in our history. According to the old system, the negroes were counted in making up the congressional representation of the South, and the Republicans insisted that they were, therefore, ent.i.tled to vote. The bill was pa.s.sed April 9th, over the President's veto.

The story of the bitter quarrel between the President and Congress is an unpleasant one. Words were uttered by him and by leading members of Congress which it would be well to forget. The President became angrier as the wrangle progressed, for, in the face of the hostile majority, he was powerless. The fight continued through the years 1867 and 1868. In June of the latter year, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina were re-admitted to Congress. The States that had seceded were divided into five military districts, and President Johnson, much against his will, was obliged to appoint the governors. As a result of all this, the negroes were largely in the majority in the South, and the Republican vote in Congress was greatly increased. But in the North, the fall elections went mostly Democratic, though not enough so to overcome the opposing majority in Congress.

During these exciting times there were several occurrences of a different nature which require notice. The Fenians are men of Irish birth who favor the independence of their country from Great Britain.

One of their favorite methods is by the invasion of Canada. In 1866, about 1,500 of them entered Canada from Buffalo, and some skirmishing occurred, but the movement was so clearly a violation of law that the President sent a military force to the frontier and promptly stopped it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOG-CABIN CHURCH AT JUNEAU, ALASKA.]

EXECUTION OF MAXIMILIAN.

France had taken advantage of our Civil War to make an attempt to establish a monarchy in Mexico. French troops were landed, an empire proclaimed, and Maximilian, an Austrian archduke, declared emperor. He went to Mexico in 1864, where he was compelled to fight the Mexicans who had risen against his rule. With the help of the strong military force which Louis Napoleon placed at his disposal, he was able to maintain himself for a time. With the conclusion of the war, our government intimated to Emperor Napoleon that it would be politic for him to withdraw from Mexico, although we were quite willing to allow Maximilian to remain emperor if it was the wish of the Mexicans. Napoleon acted on the warning, but the misguided victim chose to stay, and was captured by the Mexicans in 1867 and shot. That was the end of the attempt to establish an empire in Mexico, which has long been a prosperous and well-governed republic.

ADMISSION OF NEBRASKA.

Nebraska was admitted to the Union in 1867. It was a part of the Louisiana purchase and was made a Territory in 1854, by the Kansas-Nebraska act. Being located much further north than Kansas, it escaped the strife and civil war which desolated that Territory. It has proven to be a rich agricultural region, though it suffers at times from gra.s.shoppers, drought, and storms.

The attempts to lay an Atlantic telegraph cable resulted in failures until 1866, when a cable was laid from Ireland to Newfoundland. Since then other cables have been successfully stretched beneath the ocean until it may be said the world is girdled by them.

PURCHASE OF ALASKA.

In 1867 our country purchased from Russia the large tract in the northwest known as Russian America. The sum paid was $7,200,000, a price which many deemed so exorbitant that it was considered a mere pretext of Secretary Seward, who strongly urged the measure, in order to give Russia a bonus for her valuable friendship during the Civil War.

Inclusive of the islands, the area of Alaska is 577,390 square miles.

The country was looked upon as a cold, dismal land of fogs and storms, without any appreciable value, but its seal fisheries and timber have been so productive of late years that it has repaid its original cost tenfold and more.

WIDENING OF THE BREACH BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.

One of the acts pa.s.sed by Congress in March, 1867, forbade the President to dismiss any members of his cabinet without the consent of the Senate.

The President insisted that the Const.i.tution gave him the right to do this. Secretary of War Stanton, who had resigned by his request, was succeeded by General Grant, who gave way to Stanton, when the latter was replaced by the Senate, in January, 1868. On the 21st of February the President dismissed him and appointed Adjutant-General Thomas secretary _ad interim_. Stanton refused to yield, and remained at his office night and day, with a company of friends and a military guard. Several demands for the office were made by General Thomas, but all were refused. It was believed the President would send troops to enforce his order, but he did not proceed to that extremity.

IMPEACHMENT AND ACQUITTAL OF THE PRESIDENT.

On the 24th of February the House of Representatives pa.s.sed a resolution to impeach the President. This was simply to accuse or charge him with the commission of high crimes and misdemeanors. In such cases the trial must be conducted by the Senate. A committee was appointed to prepare the articles of impeachment, which, in the main, accused the executive of violating the civil tenure act in his removal of Secretary Stanton, though other charges were added.

When the President is impeached, the Const.i.tution provides that his trial shall take place before the Senate, sitting as a court. The trial occupied thirty-two days, lasting until May 26th, with Chief Justice Chase presiding, on which day a vote was taken on the eleventh article of impeachment. Thirty-five senators voted for acquittal and nineteen for conviction. One more vote--making the necessary two-thirds--would have convicted. Ten days later the same vote was given on the other charges, whereupon a verdict of acquittal was ordered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SOUTHERN LEGISLATURE UNDER CARPET-BAG RULE.

The carpet-baggers debauched the negroes, sending some of the most ignorant of them to the Legislature, where their personal conduct was a disgrace and they voted away vast sums of money for adventurers who bribed them with a pittance.]

SAD CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.

The country was in a lamentable condition. Congress censured the President, who expressed his contempt for that body. General Sheridan, whom the President had removed from the governorship of Louisiana, was complimented for his administration, and Congress declared that there was no valid government in the South, the jurisdiction of which was transferred to General Grant, the head of the army.

By this time the carpet-baggers had swarmed into the sorely harried region like so many locusts. They secured the support of the ignorant blacks, by falsehood and misrepresentations, controlled the State Legislatures, and had themselves elected to Congress. Enormous debts were piled up, and negroes, who could not write their names, exultingly made laws for their former masters, who remained in sullen silence at their homes and wondered what affliction was coming next. The colored legislators adjourned pell-mell to attend the circus; hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen, and extravagance, corruption, and debauchery ran riot. As a public man remarked, one general conflagration, sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, could not have wrought more devastation in the South than the few years of carpet-bag governments.

Yet all such evils are sure to right themselves, sooner or later. The means are apt to be violent and revolutionary, and sometimes breed crime of itself. It was not in the nature of things that the whites should remain pa.s.sive and meek under this unspeakable misrule. They united for self-protection. One of the bands thus formed was the Ku-Klux, which in time committed so many crimes in terrorizing the negroes that they were suppressed by the stern arm of the military; a revolt of the best people took place, and soon after 1870 the blight of carpet-bag government disappeared from the South.

TRUE RECONCILIATION.

Despite the turbulence and angry feeling, the work of reconciliation went on of itself. Northern capital entered the promising fields of the South; former Union and Confederate leaders, as well as privates, respected one another, as brave men always do, and became warm friends.

While many of the former went South, hundreds of the latter made their homes in the North, where they were welcomed and a.s.sisted in the struggle to "get upon their feet." This fraternal mingling of former soldiers and the friendly exchange of visits between Union and Confederate posts brought about true reconciliation, despite the wrangles of politicians.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1868.

Before, however, this was fully accomplished, the presidential election of 1868 took place. The most popular hero in this country, as in others, is the military one, and the great value of General Grant's services in the war for the Union made it clear, long before the a.s.sembling of the nominating convention, that he would be the candidate of the Republican party. He was unanimously named, with Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the nominee for Vice-President. The Democrats placed in nomination Horatio Seymour, of New York, and General Francis P. Blair, of Missouri. The result in November was as follows: Republican ticket, 214 electoral votes; Democratic, 80. The election was a striking proof of the popularity of the great soldier.

Andrew Johnson was hopeful of a nomination from the Democrats, but his name was scarcely mentioned. He lived in retirement for a number of years, but was elected United States senator in 1875, and he died at his home July 31st of that year.

THE EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT.

Ulysses S. Grant had already become so identified with the history of our country that little remains to be added to that which has been recorded. He was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822. Appointed to West Point, he gave no evidence of special brilliancy, and was graduated in 1843 with only a fair standing. He did good service in the war with Mexico and was brevetted captain, but resigned his commission in 1854 and went into business, where he attained only moderate success.

He was among the first to volunteer when the Civil War broke out. The opportunity thus presented for the full display of his military genius rapidly brought him to the front, the culmination of his career being reached when he compelled the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court-House in April, 1865, thereby bringing the long and terrible war to a triumphant conclusion. He was a man of simple tastes, modest, but with an unerring knowledge of his own abilities, thoroughly patriotic, honest, chivalrous, devoted to his friends, and so trustful of them that he remained their supporters sometimes after receiving proof of their unworthiness. The mistakes of his administration were due mainly to this trait of his character, which it is hard to condemn without reservation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT.

(1822-1885.) Two terms, 1869-1877.]

The country being fairly launched once more on its career of progress and prosperity, the government gained the opportunity to give attention to matters which it was compelled to pa.s.s by while the war was in progress. The first most important step was to call England to account for her help in fitting out Confederate privateers, when we were in extremity. It required considerable tact and delicacy to get the "Alabama Claims," as they were termed, in proper form before the British authorities, for they felt sensitive, but it was finally accomplished.

The arbitration tribunal which sat at Geneva, Switzerland, in June, 1872, decreed that England should pay the United States the sum of $15,500,000 because of the damage inflicted by Confederate cruisers upon Northern commerce. The amount was paid, and friendly relations between the two countries were fully restored.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. JULIA DENT GRANT.]

Our rapid growth had long since made the building of a railroad from the East to the Pacific a necessity that continually grew more urgent.

Construction was begun as early as 1863, but the Civil War caused the work to lag, and at the end of two years only one hundred miles had been graded and forty laid. The progress then became more vigorous.

The road consisted of two divisions. The first was from Omaha, Nebraska, to Ogden, Utah, a distance of 1,032 miles, while the western division, known as the Central Pacific, covered the distance of 885 miles between Ogden and San Francisco. Steadily approaching each other, these long lines of railway met on the 10th of May, 1869, when the last spike, made of solid gold, was driven, and the two locomotives, standing with their pilots almost touching, joined in a joyous screech of their whistles.

The important event was celebrated with much ceremony, for it was worthy of being commemorated.