THE AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES

RECONSTRUCTION AND THE CONSTITUTION

1866-1876

JOHN W. BURGESS, PH.D., LL.D.

PREFACE

In my preface to "The Middle Period" I wrote that the re-establishment of a real national brotherhood between the North and the South could be attained only on the basis of a sincere and genuine acknowledgment by the South that secession was an error as well as a failure. I come now to supplement this contention with the proposition that a corresponding acknowledgment on the part of the North in regard to Reconstruction between 1866 and 1876 is equally necessary.

In making this demand, I must not be understood as questioning in the slightest degree the sincerity of the North in the main purpose of the Reconstruction policy of that period. On the other hand, I maintain that that purpose was entirely praiseworthy. It was simply to secure the civil rights of the newly emancipated race, and to re-establish loyal Commonwealths in the South. But there is now little question that erroneous means were chosen.

Two ways were open for the attainment of the end sought. One was that which was followed, namely, placing the political power in the hands of the newly emancipated; and the other was the nationalization of civil liberty by placing it under the protection of the Constitution and the national Judiciary, and holding the districts of the South under Territorial civil government until the white race in those districts should have sufficiently recovered from its temporary disloyalty to the Union to be intrusted again with the powers of Commonwealth local government.

There is no doubt in my own mind that the latter was the proper and correct course. And I have just as little doubt that it would have been found to be the truly practicable course. The people in the loyal Commonwealths were ready in 1866 to place civil liberty as a whole under national protection; and not half of the whites of the South entertained, at that moment, disloyal purposes or feelings. Even the solid Democratic South was yet to be made; and I doubt most seriously if it would ever have been made, except for the great mistakes of the Republican party in its choice of means and measures in Reconstruction.

I will not, however, enter upon the argument in reference to this question at this point. That belongs to the body of the book. I will only add that, in my opinion, the North has already yielded assent to this proposition, and has already made the required acknowledgment. The policy of Mr. Hayes's administration, and of all the administrations since his, can be explained and justified only upon this assumption. And now that the United States has embarked in imperial enterprises, under the direction of the Republican party, the great Northern party, the North is learning every day by valuable experiences that there are vast differences in political capacity between the races, and that it is the white man's mission, his duty and his right, to hold the reins of political power in his own hands for the civilization of the world and the welfare of mankind.

Let the South be equally ready, sincere, and manly in the consciousness and the acknowledgment of its share in past errors, and the reconciliation will be complete and permanent!

I have again to express my thanks to my friend and colleague, Dr. Cushing, for his aid in bringing this volume through the press. I desire also to acknowledge the courtesy of the New York Independent for allowing parts of my article on the Geneva Award, published some years ago in that esteemed journal, to be incorporated in the last chapter of this book.

    323 WEST 57TH ST., NEW YORK CITY,
        January 22d, 1902.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
THE THEORY OF RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER II
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S VIEWS AND ACTS IN REGARD TO RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER III
PRESIDENT JOHNSON'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION AND HIS PROCEEDINGS IN REALIZATION OF IT

CHAPTER IV
THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION

CHAPTER V
THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN (Continued)

CHAPTER VI
THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN (Continued)

CHAPTER VII
THE CONGRESSIONAL PLAN (Completed)

CHAPTER VIII
THE EXECUTION OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS

CHAPTER IX
THE ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE PRESIDENT

CHAPTER X
RECONSTRUCTION RESUMED

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