election in a sarcastic article, and indicates that the movement, having but a small following, was arrogating too great importance to itself. A certain Colonel A. P. Field, who had "received 125 votes in one of the parishes, with two districts to hear from," and Dr. Cottman (said to have been a personal friend of Lincoln's) were elected to Congress. They stayed in Washington for a while, and even voted for the election of clerk of the House, but they were not recognized after the organization was effected.1 Field, however, lingered on until Congress presented him with fifteen hundred dollars for his expenses and sent him home.2 How the movers ever hoped to succeed in the face of the opposition of the president and the military governor, or to win the favor of Congress while they were unwilling to give up slavery, is hard to understand. The negro was becoming every day a more prominent feature in the great conflict. Even now he could not be ignored as a political factor, though he was not yet of decisive importance in this respect. When opportunity offered, as we shall see, he was not slow to urge his claims to equal rights.

The failure of the conservatives to secure recognition in Congress for their representatives seemed to open the way for the success of the Free State party. The party was all the time pushing on its work of reorganizing the State on what was termed "the fundamental principle of our government that all men are created free and equal,' a principle which the conservatives evidently did not accept. That the president was on their side seemed to be shown not only by his letter to the conservatives in June, 1863, but also by a later letter to Banks, August 5, 1863, in which he said: "Governor Shepley has informed me that Mr. Durant is now taking a registry, with a view to the election of a constitutional convention in Louisiana. This, to me, appears

1 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1865, subject "Louisiana," p. 509. 2 Reed, Life of Dostie, p. 126.

This latter phrase is, of course, a misquotation of a phrase in the Declaration of Independence, which declares that "all men are created equal" (not free). It was borrowed by Jefferson from Locke's Essay on Government.

proper." It is true that in October, 1863, he told B. F. Flanders, then in Washington, that the work of registration was proceeding too slowly; and when Flanders showed how necessary the delay was, the president is reported to have said he would recognize and sustain a state government organized by any part of the population then controlled by the Federal power. Still, the Free State party found it so difficult to win over adherents to its radical policy that registration by December, 1863, had not advanced far enough to justify the plans of that party. The registration was pushed on, however, and plans were made to obtain permission from Governor Shepley to hold an election on January 25, 1864,

1 New Orleans Times, May 7, 1865. Lincoln's letter of this date is so interesting that it is quoted more fully:

"While I very well know what I would be glad for Louisiana to do, it is quite a different thing for me to assume direction in the matter. I would be glad for her to make a new constitution, recognizing the emancipation proclamation, and adopting emancipation in those parts of the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relation to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan. After all, the power or element of contract' may be sufficient for this probationary period, and by its simplicity and flexibility may be the better. "As an antislavery man, I have a motive to desire emancipation which proslavery men do not have; but even they have strong enough reason to thus place themselves again under the shield of the Union, and to thus perpetually hedge against the recurrence of the scenes through which we are now passing.

"Governor Shepley has informed me that Mr. Durant is now taking a registry, with a view to the election of a constitutional convention in Louisiana. This, to me, appears proper. If such convention were to ask my views, I could present little else than what I now say to you. I think the thing should be pushed forward, so that, if possible, its mature work may reach here by the meeting of Congress.

"For my own part, I think I shall not, in any event, retract the emancipation proclamation: nor, as executive, ever return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.

"If Louisiana shall send members to Congress, their admission will depend, as you know, upon the respective Houses, and not upon the President.

Yours very truly,

A. Lincoln."

-Writings of Lincoln (Lapsley), VI, 374.

2 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1863, subject "Louisiana," p. 591.

at which delegates should be chosen to a convention which should form a new constitution for the State.

In the meantime, Lincoln had been revolving in his own mind some feasible method of restoring the seceded States to their normal relations with the Federal government. There were two, or possibly three, theories held as to the status of seceded States. One was that by the act of secession a State placed itself entirely outside the pale of the Union and passed under the power of Congress as if it were a territory. Another theory was that a State might be " in rebellion" but that it could never, by its own act, be outside of the Union. In Congress, at a somewhat later period, there was a protracted discussion between the adherents of these two views; but Lincoln, with his strong leaning toward practical results, never formally gave his support to either of them. He regarded the discussion as metaphysical and impractical, and he used to say that at any rate both sides would agree-and this may be regarded as the third theory-that the relation of the seceded States with the Union had been so far disarranged that a readjustment was necessary before they could be recognized as in good standing. This view, while seeming to take a middle course, inclined strongly to the theory that the seceded States were still in the Union.1

As a cautious approach to the subject, Lincoln issued a proclamation on December 8, 1863, defining in a not very definite way what has been termed the executive mode of reconstruction. He held that, by a combination of disloyal persons in certain States—a kind of conspiracy—a rebellion had been undertaken, and now the time had come in some of those States to restore the government to the hands of the loyal element, which should be encouraged to come for

1Cox says that Thaddeus Stevens hated "bitterly, some of his own party who would not follow his doctrine, and obliterate states in order to territorialize and terrorize them." Three Decades, p. 365. The South, following the States' Rights doctrine, held that a seceded State was out of the Union, but when it returned to its allegiance, it came not as a territory but with all its former rights and privileges.

ward and assume the responsibility of self-government.1 The steps in this restoration were to be, first, the taking of an oath of allegiance to the United States government, as follows: "I, -, do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by congress, or by decision of the supreme court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the president made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the supreme court. So help me God!" All persons taking this oath voluntarily, except those having been civil or diplomatic officers of the so-called Confederate government, or military officers thereof above the rank of colonel, or those having left seats in the United States Congress or judicial office under the United States, or having resigned commissions in the army or navy of the United States, in order to aid in rebellion, or those having treated colored persons found in the United States service in any capacity, or white persons in charge of same, in any other manner than as prisoners of war,—all persons, with these exceptions, should be regarded as having restored themselves to loyal citizenship. Second, whenever, in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons not less than one tenth in number of the votes cast in each State at the presidential election of 1860, having taken the oath and being qualified voters by law of the State

As we shall see, the government based upon this plan pleased neither the "rebels," who were designated as conspirators, nor the radical Republicans, who thought it was too lenient. It was based on the theory that secession was the act of a number of individual rebels and not of States.

previous to secession, should reestablish a state government which should be republican and in no wise contravening said oath, such should be recognized as the true government of the State, and the United States should guarantee it all constitutional privileges. The president cautiously added that whether members sent to Congress from any State should be admitted rested exclusively, by the Constitution, with Congress and not with the executive. Third, "that, in constructing a loyal state government in any state, the name of the state, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the rebellion," should be maintained, "subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new state government.'

The last clause allowed considerable latitude to an improvised government representing only one tenth of the voters, and the president brought upon himself much adverse criticism by deciding on so small a proportion of the population as a representative body. According to Lincoln himself, he chose one tenth because the "guarantee of a Republican form of government, which is imposed by the Federal Constitution, implies a feeble minority struggling against a hostile element." However this may be, it should be said that the president's offer of one tenth showed far more consideration for the South in the midst of the war than did the policy substituted by Congress after the close of the war. It did not exclude the great mass of Confederate soldiers who owned the property of the South and who might wish at some time to return to their Federal allegiance, nor did it give the franchise to the emancipated slave.

1

1 Proclamation of Amnesty, Dec. 8, 1863, Macdonald, Select Statutes, No. 35.

"The delays caused by the inroads of the Confederate forces in the parishes around the city induced the President to consent to a reorganization of the state on a basis of less population than he had prescribed in his amnesty proclamation." Cox, Three Decades, p. 426. I think a further explanation is that Lincoln could not hope to obtain more than one tenth.