Mexico. Mr. Polk in his Message of July 6, 1848, to Congress maintained that with the termination of war his power to establish temporary civil governments over New Mexico and California had ceased; the legality of their previous existence he justified by the law of nations. By cession to the United States, the government of Mexico no longer pretended to any control over them.1 President Polk, differing from other leaders of his party, held that "until Congress shall act, the inhabitants will be without any organized government." 2 But Congress, notwithstanding urgent appeals of the Executive, moved very deliberately in the matter of abolishing the office of military governor. In May, 1847, Colonel Richard B. Mason assumed the office of Governor and commander-in-chief of the United States forces in California. Two months after ratification of the treaty with Mexico he received notice of the fact, but no intimation that the civil government instituted by the President was discontinued. Without other instructions than an order to extend over California" the revenue laws and tariff of the United States he, as well as his successor, General Riley, continued the existing government.

After affirming the legality of its institution the United States Supreme Court (Cross vs. Harrison, p. 193, 16 Howard) says that the existing government did not cease as a consequence of the restoration of peace; the President might have dissolved it, but he did not do so. Congress could have put an end to it, but that was not done. "The right inference from the inaction of both is, that it was meant to be continued until it had been legislatively changed." In fact it was so continued until the people in convention formed a government, subsequently recognized by Congress, when California was admitted during the autumn of 1850 as a State.

The authority, then, of both political departments, as well as the more deliberate opinion of the judicial branch, of the General Government had established a precedent with which Mr. Lincoln was thoroughly familiar; for, by a singular coincidence, both he and Mr. Johnson were serving together in the Thirtieth Congress, which began its first session in December, 1847. They participated in, or were interested spectators of, all those stirring scenes that marked the beginning of one of the last legislative victories of slavery; so that this portion at least of American history was not strange to either the President or the Senator from Tennessee.

The question whether Tennessee was within or without the Union will be reserved for more ample discussion farther on; it is sufficient to observe here that its territory was held by an adverse party and its government hostile to the national authority. If the administration of Colonel Mason and his successor in California was not regarded by President Lincoln as a sufficient basis for his action there was still left an undoubted foundation. The appointment was deemed an element of strength to the Union forces operating in Tennessee, and, in this view, the act was entirely within the power of the President as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States. Though its wisdom may be questioned and its results dismissed with a sneer, it was not a novelty nor can his admirers claim for Mr. Lincoln the merit of its invention; and if in its origin the office had a bearing on the extension, its present application was not wholly unconnected with the abolition of slavery. The remaining pages of this chapter and the two succeeding ones will be employed in tracing rapidly the operation of the system of military governors in those States in which it was seriously attempted to be enforced.

The movements of contending armies had already obliterated in many districts of Tennessee almost every trace of civil

government, and when State officials hurried away to Memphis, where Governor Harris had reassembled the Legislature, they left behind them an uncontrolled mob which General Forrest found it necessary to charge with his cavalry to remove a portion of Confederate military stores that had not been distributed among the poor or perished in the prevailing anarchy.1 General Grant had already, on February 22, from Fort Donelson, issued an order that "no courts will be allowed to act under State authority, but all cases coming within reach of the military arm will be adjudicated by the authorities the Government has established within the State. Martial law is therefore declared to extend over West Tennessee." The order added, "whenever a sufficient number of citizens return to their allegiance to maintain law and order over the territory, the military restriction here indicated will be removed." 2 Union troops under General Nelson having occupied the city on the 25th, Governor Johnson on his arrival, March 12, 1862, from his seat in the United States Senate was not under the necessity of employing the harsh discipline of General Forrest to restore order in the deserted capital. For this part of his career he was, however, severely censured by political adversaries in Tennessee. Detached from their historical settings, indeed, his acts could justly be described as tyrannical. But it is precisely these figures in the back-ground that are necessary to harmonize the whole and set before us in its proper light a truthful picture of the times. As his professions preceded his administrative acts it is proper to introduce this portion of the subject by quoting from a speech which he delivered in Nashville the evening after his arrival. Five days later, March 18, it was printed under the style of "An Appeal to the People" of Tennessee. After some general observations on the tran

quil and prosperous existence of the State in the Union, and en the honors by which many of her sons had been distinguished, he noticed the fact that the very leaders of secession themselves had been the recipients of Federal bounty and patronage; had taken oaths to support the Constitution and yet labored to overturn Federal authority. Entering fairly upon his theme, he continued:

Meanwhile the State Government has disappeared. The Executive has abdicated; the Legislature has dissolved; the Judiciary is in abeyance. The great ship of State . . . has been suddenly abandoned by its officers and mutinous crew, and left to float at the mercy of the winds, and to be plundered by every rover upon the deep.

Pausing to enumerate many acts of spoliation, he resumes: In such a lamentable crisis the Government of the United States could not be unmindful of its high constitutional obligation to guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, an obligation which every State has a direct and immediate interest in having observed towards every other State. . . . This obligation the national Government is now attempting to discharge. I have been appointed, in the absence of the regular and established State authorities, as Military Governor for the time being, to preserve the public property of the State, to give the protection of law actively enforced to her citizens, and, as speedily as may be, to restore her government to the same condition as before the existing rebellion.

The "regular and established State authorities," to whom Governor Johnson refers, were, of course, none other than those officials who administered affairs in Tennessee before the 6th of May. Of these some had actually abandoned their offices, while others had subordinated their functions to a power hostile to the constitution of the State. He proceeded:

These offices must be filled temporarily, until the State shall be restored so far to its accustomed quiet, that the people can peaceably assemble at the ballot-box and select agents of their own choice. . . I shall, therefore, as early as practicable, designate for various positions under the State and county governments, from among my fellowcitizens, persons of probity and intelligence, and bearing true allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States, who will execute the functions of their respective offices until their places can be

filled by the action of the people. Their authority, when their appointment shall have been made, will be accordingly respected and observed.

. . Those who through the dark and weary night of rebellion have maintained their allegiance to the Federal Government will be honored. The erring and misguided will be welcomed on their return. And while it may become necessary, in vindicating the violated majesty of the law, and in reasserting its imperial sway, to punish intelligent and conscious treason in high places, no merely retaliatory or vindictive policy will be adopted.1

To all who in private and unofficial capacity had assumed an attitude of hostility to the Government amnesty was offered for all past acts and declarations upon condition of yielding obedience to the supremacy of the laws. This the Governor advised them to do. Though the "Appeal," brief, clear and characterized by the best temper, is a state paper of decided merit, there were many classes still residing at the capital upon whom it made little impression. The mayor and the city council were ordered to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, and on their refusal were imprisoned. Of the harshness of this measure it need only be observed that the essence of government is to govern, and had the new executive failed on this occasion to assert authority his administration would have been wrecked at the outset. For printing seditious matter the press was placed under restraint, and within a few months it was found necessary to punish with unusual severity, even ministers of the gospel. Clergymen, with a few exceptions, were not only hostile to the Union but actually encouraged treason from their pulpits. These offenders Governor Johnson summoned to take the oath of allegiance or to depart from the State. They appeared before him, as commanded to, refused compliance, but asked time for deliberation; this being granted, to the full extent desired, and still persisting in their refusal they were placed in confinement. That they were not proceeded against with 'Life and Speeches of Andrew Johnson, pp. 451-456. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1866.