connection said, "The people must be trusted with their government, and, if trusted, my opinion is that they will act in good faith and restore their former constitutional relations with all the States composing the Union."

1

The lapse of fifteen months had worked a revolution in the opinions of the President. Circumstances, it is true, had changed since the delivery of his Nashville speech; the main question, however, had not greatly altered, for it was still important to determine the political people of the late insurgent States. From declaring that "rebels" must take a back seat in the work of restoration, the President had come to believe that "the people must be trusted with their government." It is not to convict Mr. Johnson of inconsistency that his opinions are here brought into juxtaposition, but rather to inquire whether every important consideration for ignoring secessionists in 1864 had disappeared by 1865.

On representation from the Provisional Governor that the Federal commander interfered to prevent the execution of his proclamation for reorganizing the militia, the President on September 2 required General Slocum to revoke his military order. Under instructions somewhat peremptory in tone, that officer two days later rescinded his proclamation.

The condition of the freedmen, as well as their exact legal status, became about this time the subject of much discussion in Mississippi. While many continued in the service of their old masters, numbers roamed about the country in idleness, and nearly all of them had very extravagant notions of their newly acquired rights and privileges, Though the whites admitted of necessity the complete freedom, they were for the most part unprepared to grant equal rights to negroes. Between them and their employers, however, there occurred but little serious trouble. All labor was contracted for, and owners of plantations, apprehensive that labor would be difficult 1 1 Ann. Cycl., 1865, p. 583.

to secure at the beginning of the season, were anxious to make contracts for the year 1866. Toward the close of September the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau turned over to the civil authorities all the business of his court. To get rid of military tribunals, Governor Sharkey promised that in all cases involving the rights of negroes their testimony would be accepted.

In the election, which was held on October 9, General Benjamin G. Humphreys, late of the Confederate army, was chosen Governor; immediately thereafter he was pardoned by the President. Five Representatives in Congress were also elected. By the Legislature, which convened and organized one week later, Governor Sharkey was appointed United States Senator to fill the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. For the long term, Mr. J. L. Alcorn was elected. The legislation relative to freedmen will be subsequently considered.

Besides his complaint to the President relative to the interference of General Slocum with the proposed reorganization of the militia, Governor Sharkey expressed dissatisfaction with the military authorities who refused to obey writs of habeas corpus issued by local judges. To this Secretary Stanton replied that the grant of a provisional government did not affect the proper jurisdiction of military courts, and that this jurisdiction was still called for in cases of wrong done to soldiers, whether white or colored, and in cases of wrong done to colored citizens, and where the local authorities were unable or unwilling to do justice, either from defective machinery, or because some State law declared colored persons incompetent as witnesses. Mississippi was to a considerable extent still under military law, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus had not been revoked. To a similar remonstrance the Secretary of State replied that, the commonwealth being still under martial law, the military power was supreme. On receiving tidings of General Johnston's surrender, Gov

ernor Brown, of Georgia, called a session of the Confederate Legislature, but General Gilmore, who commanded the department including that commonwealth, issued a counterproclamation annulling the late Executive's order. General Wilson, in writing the ex-Governor, used expressions that were needlessly harsh, and whether the language was his own or that of the President, to whom the commander ascribed it, the style was neither dignified nor magnanimous. Whoever may have been responsible for the phraseology, the Union General appears to have believed in a rigorous exercise of the rights of conquest. With the defeat of this attempt of the recent authorities to restore their commonwealth to its old status, Georgia remained in military hands till the appointment, June 17, of James Johnson as Provisional Governor.

In the work of reconciling the people of that State the Provisional Executive was assisted by a sensible address of exGovernor Brown, and by the support of many leading secessionists. Now that the "irrepressible conflict " had been settled, the people appeared anxious for the reorganization of their State. The 4th of October was early fixed as the date for holding an election of delegates. The suffrage of citizens was solicited and received by candidates of ability and character. These were pledged to advocate the necessary measures for restoring their commonwealth.

The convention assembled at Milledgeville on October 25, was called to order by the Provisional Governor, and elected Herschel V. Johnson as its president. Instead of declaring the nullity of the secession and kindred ordinances the convention "repealed" them. On the question of repudiating the war debt the vote stood 133 to 117 in favor of the proposition. This resolution, however, was not carried until November 7, and appears even then to have been passed only after considerable pressure from Washington, whence the President directed or assisted by telegraph the proceedings in all the

reconstruction conventions. The war debt thus declared void amounted to $18,135,775. The necessity for this action is evident; the hardships occasioned thereby can be easily imagined.

The State constitution, which was thoroughly revised, recognized the changes that had occurred in civil and social affairs. In that instrument the freedom of slaves was expressly declared, and the Legislature was required to make regulations respecting the altered relations of this class of persons. The constitution as thus amended was unanimously adopted by the convention.

Though Georgia was not the most loyal supporter of Jefferson Davis in the time of his prosperity, now that adversity had overtaken him, the convention, in a memorial to President Johnson, invoked the Executive clemency in behalf of their late chief. The convention assumed for the people their share in the crime for which Mr. Davis and a few others were undergoing punishment.

As in the case of Mississippi, the President approved the organization of "a police force" in the several counties, for the purpose of arresting maurauders, suppressing crime and enforcing authority.

The Legislature, which was elected November 15, assembled at Milledgeville on the 4th of December following. With its proceedings we are not now concerned more than to observe that the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by that body five days subsequently. The measures of the Georgia Assembly were not before Congress when it convened.

Like the chief magistrates in several other Southern States, the Confederate Governor of Texas, when convinced after the surrender of General Kirby Smith that the war had ceased, took steps toward bringing his commonwealth into its old practical relations with the Union. He accordingly ordered 1 Constitution of the United States, by Francis N. Thorpe, p. 49.

an election of delegates to a convention to be held on June 19, but was anticipated by President Johnson, who two days earlier had appointed Andrew J. Hamilton Provisional Governor. Though the latter did not promptly appoint a day for holding the election, he announced his intention of doing so at an early date. There was probably in the minds of the less intelligent Texans a notion that emancipation was to be gradual, or that it was not yet an accomplished fact. To dispel any such idea the new Executive circulated an address which informed the public that if, " in the action of the proposed convention, the negro is characterized or treated as less than a freeman," Senators and Representatives from Texas would vainly seek admission to the halls of Congress. The choice of delegates having been fixed for January 8, 1866, an account of the convention or of the proceedings in the Assembly subsequently organized in that State does not fall within the scope of this work. In the interval justice was administered by officers temporarily commissioned for that purpose.

The negro population, which, because of the influx from other Southern States, had doubled since 1860, presented a difficult problem in the reorganization of Texas. They knew little of the uses of freedom and were kept systematically at work only by the candid admonitions of General Granger and the Governor. Toward the close of December, however, a better feeling prevailed among them; but it appears to have been a serious problem to have kept the freedmen of Texas steadily at work. Planters throughout the State lost heavily by their inability to engage or to retain in their service laborers enough to gather the standing cotton crop. The full consideration of this subject is inseparable from an analysis of Texan legislation relative to freedmen. Though well advanced, the reconstruction of Texas under the Executive plan was not completed before the meeting of the Thirty-ninth Congress.