The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-18
GRANT IN PEACE.
RI GENERAL ADAM BADEAU.
NO. VII.
conrressiona, Reconstruc.ion.

JOHnSOuS SuOTCS prevailed. AlJnOugn every
Northern State had promptly ratified the con-
Etitutional amendment, yet, under presidential
pressure persuasion and advice, every seeded
State rejected it.
When this result was known Grants predic-
tons were speedily verified. Congress at once
determined that the recusant States should re-
turn under very different conditions from those
at first proposed. The whole territory that had
revolted was divided into FIVE military dis
tricts, and military rule declared supreme In
each Commanders were to be appointed with
power and duty to protect all persons at the
South, to suppress instruction and disorder,
and to punish all disturbers of the peace and
criminals These commanders were expressly
authorized to supersede the civil courts by mill
tary tribunals. and all civil or State government
whatever was declared provisional and subject
TO the paramount authority of the United States
This military rule was to continue till the colored
population was allowed to vote and the amend
ment already rejected should be ratified Then,
and not till then, would the seeded States be
admitted to their former position in the Union
and the stern provisions now enacted be an
nnlled. This measure passed both houses of
Congress in March, 1867, by large majorities,
over the Presidents Veto
Grant was at this time completely in accord
with the legislature. The change in his opinion
and in his feeling had been brought about not
Dnly by his Difference to the decision of the
North, and his indignation at the chicanery of
johnson, but in great degree by the action of
the Southerners themselves The Presidents
course had aroused temper at the South that
Grant believed dangerous to the safety Of the
Country Acts had been committed and dispo-
Bition manifested which he considered should be
depressed by stringent means. The population
chat had been subdued, he thought, was excited
again. The reports from his subordinates as
sured him that the Union people at the South
were not safe without Northern over.rule that
the blacks were massacred, in short that the re-
suits he had fought to secure were endangered;
and believing as ne now did that the clemency
extended to the conquered had been abused, he
approved of restraining those who had shown
themselves unworthy of milder treatment He
agreed fully with Congress that the only practi
cal means of securing what had been won in the
field was in the extension of the suffrage to the
freedmen.
Abstractly he did not favor this step, but he
looked upon it. as he had regarded emancipation
in the war. as rendered necessary by events. He
WAS not man much governed by sentiment, or
apt to be led away by theories; he saw the unfit
ness Of the freedman at this time for the ballot;
he recognized the danger of admitting them to
The suffrage; but he felt that this danger was
less than that of allowing those who had been
the Nations enemies to return untrammeled to
TO their former position, to provoke new dissen-
eions and possibly arouse another war. He was
gradually brought to the conviction that In order
70 secure the Union which he desired, and which
the Northern people had fought for, voting
population at the South friendly to the Union
was indispensable, and that until the South was
willing to concede the ballot to the blacks, it
must be kept under military rule. The process
of conversion was slow, and the convert unwill
lng-but when once he accepted the new faith,
he remained firm.
Six weeks before the passage of the recon
etruction measures he wrote to General Howard,
In command of the Freedmen's Bureau:
HEADQUARTERS ARMIES oE THE UNITED STATES
WASHINGTON, Jan. is, 1867.
CONFIDENTIAL
"Dear General-Will you be kind enough to
send me list of authenticated cases of murder
and other violence upon freedmen, Northern or
pther Union men, refugees ETC.. in the Southern
States for the last six months year, My
object in this is to make report showing that
The courts IN the States excluded from Congress
afford no security to life or property of the
GLASSES here referred to, and TO RECOMMEND
THAT MARTIAL Law BE DECLARED over such
districts as do not afford the proper protection.
q ours truly, U. ). GRANT, General.
S'To Gen. o. O. Howard. Cong. Freedmens Bureau,
etc.
Z On the 4th of March, two days after the pas
kage of the reconstruction bill, he wrote to his
Intimate friend Washburne, who was then
abroad:
Reconstruction measures have
passed both houses of Congress over one of the
most ridiculous veto messages that ever en-
Anated from any President Jerry Black is sup
posed to be the author of it. He has been about
Washington for some time, and am told has
been great deal about the White House. It is
fitting end to all our controversy IL believe this
Hast measure to be a solution, unless the Presi-
dent proves an obstruction) that the man who
cried to prove at the beginning OF our domestic
difficulties that the Nation had no constitutional
power to save itself, is now trying hard to prove
that the Nation has not now the power. after
victory, to demand security for the future =
matters Is any one. Il is not proper that a
subordinate should criticise the acts of his
Superiors In public manner | rely upon our
personal relations, however, to speak to you
Freely as feel upon all matters"
His apprehensions in regard to the President
were well founded No sooner did the subor-
dinate commanders begin in good faith to carry
out the law than the administration interviewed
to thwart them. Sheridan, who was in command
at New Orleans, found it necessary to remove
certain civil officers, and Immediately johnson
claimed that district commanders had no power
nnder the law to make such removals. In this
ne was supported by his Attorney general
Grant telegraphed to Sheridan approving his
course. but advised that he should make no fur
ther removals unless they were indispensable.
He was firmly of the opinion that the right ex-
listed, but was anxious to avoid direct conflict