Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-24


wished they had permitted negroes who had
property, or could read, 10 vote, but this
was question which they must decide for
themselves. Yet some, very few, OF our
friends, were not willing TO let the people
Of the States determine these questions.
but, in violation of first and fundamental
principles, would exercise arbitrary power
ever them. These humanitarians break
down all State rights and constitutional
rights. Had the Louisianians inserted
the negro in their constitution, and had
that instrument been in all other re-
spects the same, Mr.. Sumner, he said, would
never have excepted to that constitution.
The delegation would have been admitted
and the State all right. Each house of
Congress, he said, had the undoubted right
to receive or reject members; the Executive
had no control in the matter. But Con
gress had nothing to do with the State gov
ernments which the President could recog-
nize, and, under existing laws, treat as
other States-give them the same mail ia
cilities, collect taxes, appoint Judges, Mar
shals, Collectors, etc, subject, of course, to
confirmation. There were men who OBJ
jected to these views, but they were not
here, and we must make haste to do our
duty before they came here"
It was at this cabinet meeting that Mr..
Stanton first preached his plan Of recon-
struction. Mr.. Welles says:
cit was a military or executive order,
and by it the War Department was desig-
mated to reorganize those States whose i'll
dividuality it assumed was sacrificed. Di-
vested of its military features, it was in
form and outline The same as the plan ulti-
mately adopted. This document proposed
establishing a military department to be
composed of Virginia and North Carolina,
with military governor"
At a special cabinet meeting on the 9Th
of May, NJ. Stanton, at the request of
President Johnson, presented an elaborate
prcgrsTnle for the reorganization Of States
lately in rebellion. The essence of it is
thus given by Mr.. Welles:
"The sixth section or order, as originally
proposed by Mr.. Stanton, was the longest
and fullest. 1t gave into the hands of the
Secretary of War the whole machinery for
organizing civil government for the States,
through provost marshals, to be by him ap-
pointed"
The Stanton plan was rejected at once,
manifestly to his disappointment, but from
it, added the Republican, we may see
where originated that military system Of
reconstruction which has since worked such
a vast amount of harm at the South, and
almost destroyed all respect for the const.-
tuition at the North. Lincoln proposed to
deal generously and mercifully with the
Southern States, and give the people there
Of an opportunity to resume their
places in the federal union unmo-
Tested by outside interference. Stanton re-
garded these States as merely conquered
provinces, to be dealt with as the conquer
ers saw fit, and he desired to rule them by
the sword. Lincoln, with all his errors,
was at heart an honest and conscientious
man, loving liberty and hating oppression
Stanton, with all his jealous loyalty, was
at heart a tyrant, and preferred the devices
of despotism to the milder and more bene-
cent reign of constitutional freedom.