persons elected as delegates by a plurality of the votes cast at said election; and upon receiving said returns, he shall open the same, ascertain the persons elected as delegates, according to the returns of the officers who conducted said election, and make proclamation thereof; and if a majority of the votes given on that question shall be for a convention, the commanding general, within sixty days from the date of election, shall notify the delegates to assemble in convention at a time and place to be mentioned in the notification, and said convention, when organized, shall proceed to frame a constitution and civil government according to the provisions of this act and the act to which it is supplementary; and when the same shall have been so framed, said constitution shall be submitted by the convention for ratification to the persons registered under the provisions of this act at an election to be conducted by the officers or persons appointed or to be appointed by the commanding general, as hereinbefore provided, and to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of notice thereof, to be given by said convention; and the returns thereof shall be made to the commanding general of this district.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, according to said returns, the constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the votes of the registered electors qualified as herein specified, cast at said election, at least one half of all the registered voters voting upon the question of such ratification, the president of the convention shall transmit a copy of the same, duly certified, to the President of the United States, who shall forthwith transmit the same to Congress, if then in session, and if not in session, then immediately upon its next assembling; and if it shall, moreover, appear to Congress that the election was one at which all the electors in the state had an opportunity to vote freely and without restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud, and if the Congress shall be satisfied that such constitution meets the approval of a majority of all the qualified electors in the state, and if the said constitution shall be declared by Congress to be in conformity with the provisions of the act to which this is supplementary, and the other provisions of said act shall have been complied with, and the said constitution shall be approved by Congress, the state shall be declared entitled to representation, and senators and representatives shall be admitted therefrom as therein provided.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That all elections in the states mentioned in the said "Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel states" shall, during the operation of said act, be by ballot, and all officers making the said registration of voters and conducting said elections shall, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, take and subscribe the oath prescribed by the act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled, “An act to prescribe an oath of office:" Provided, That if any person shall knowingly and falsely take and subscribe any oath in this act prescribed, such person so offending, and being thereof duly convicted, shall be subject to the pains, penalties, and disabilities which by law are provided for the punishment of the crime of wilful and corrupt perjury.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all expenses incurred by the several commanding generals, or by virtue of any orders issued, or appointments made by them, under or by virtue of this act, shall be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the convention for each state shall prescribe the fees, salaries, and compensation to be paid to all delegates and other

officers and agents herein authorized, or necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act not herein otherwise provided for, and shall provide for the levy and collection of such taxes on the property in such state as may be necessary to pay the same.

SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the word "article," in the sixth section of the act to which this is supplementary, shall be construed to mean "section."

It must be allowed that the framers of the first reconstruction act did their work thoroughly, so far as congressional enactment could do it. But in the second and supplementary act, passed twenty-one days after the first one, they made the scheme still more effectual. This was done by making it the duty of the commanding general in each district, before the 1st of September, 1867, to cause a registration to be made of the male citizens of the United States twenty-one years of age and upwards, resident in each county or parish in the state or states included in his district, which registration shall include the persons qualified to vote for delegates under the act of March 2, 1867 (the first reconstruction act). The persons registering were to take and subscribe an oath declaring their qualifications. There could be very few of the negroes who could know the meaning of the oath, and probably there were not five of them in a thousand who could subscribe their names, if there were even that number. After the completion of the registration, an election of delegates to a convention was to be held for the purpose of establishing a constitution and civil government for each state loyal to the Union; the convention to consist of the same number of members as the most numerous branch of the Legislature of such state in the year 1860, to be apportioned among the several districts, counties, and parishes of the state by the commanding general, giving to each representation the ratio of voters registered, as nearly as might be.

At the election of delegates to the convention, the registered voters were to have written or printed on their ballots the words "For a Convention" or "Against a Convention." The persons appointed by the commanding general to superintend the election, and to make returns to him of the votes given, were to count and make returns of the votes for and against a convention. The commanding general was to ascertain and declare the total vote in each state for and against a convention. If a majority of the

votes should be for a convention, it was to be held as provided in the act; if a majority of votes should be against a convention, none was to be held under the act. It was provided, however, that the convention should not be held unless a majority of all the registered voters should have voted on the question of its being held.

It is obvious that negroes who could neither read nor write, and who would, of their own intelligence, know nothing of the meaning of voting for or against a convention, must be guided by persons who would put the ballots into their hands; and, under such circumstances, the ballot would express the will of those who directed the voter how to vote.

Finally it was provided, by the supplementary act, that all expenses incurred by the commanding generals, or by virtue of any orders issued, or appointments made by him under or by virtue of the act, should be paid out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Thus, with the Treasury of the United States to draw upon for defraying the expenses of this proceeding, and with the army of the United States to execute it, there was no lack of means for the fruition of the plan. In addition to this the convention of each state was to prescribe the fees, salaries, and compensation to be paid to all delegates and other officers and agents authorized by the act, or necessary to carry into effect its purposes, and the conventions were to provide for the levy and collection of such taxes on the property in each state as might be necessary to pay the same.

It has been my duty to describe the scheme of the reconstruction acts as it appears on the face of the statutes, and to bring it to the test of all the constitutional power that could be said to be applicable to the situation of the Southern States after the close of the civil war. Objectionable as the scheme was obnoxious as it was to the charge that it was a proceeding entirely unwarranted by the Constitution of the United States-it was yet a scheme that was capable of an honest and fair execution, if any scheme could be which was designed to subvert the sovereignty of American states by supplanting the sovereign people, who constituted the state after the civil war as they had constituted it before. How the scheme of reconstruction worked whether it was pursued in consistency even with the provisions of the laws which established it-must be described in another chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

RECONSTRUCTION RECONSTRUCTED.-GROSS INCONSISTENCY IN CARRYING OUT THE SCHEME.-CONGRESS ACTS IN BAD FAITH TOWARDS THE WHITE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH.-DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE UPON THE SOUTHERN STATES.-How IT WAS DONE.

It has been seen in the preceding chapter that the process of reconstruction was to consist in the following stages:

First. A registration of voters under the direction of the commanding general of each military district; the registration to include all adult male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years of age and upward, resident in each county or parish in the state or states included in the district, and to include all adult males of whatever race, color, or previous condition who shall have taken and subscribed an oath setting forth their own qualifications.'

Second. An election by the registered voters of delegates to a constitutional convention, at which election the voters were to have written or printed on their ballots for delegates the words "For a Convention," or the words "Against a Convention."

Third. The holding of the convention, if one had been voted for by a majority of the votes given, provided a majority of all. the registered voters had voted on the question of holding it.

Fourth. The framing of a constitution and civil government for the state by the convention of delegates, according to the provisions of the first reconstruction act and the supplementary act.

Fifth. The submission of the constitution, by the convention, for ratification, to the persons registered as voters, at an election

Many of the terms of this act could not possibly have been understood by any but a small fraction of the negroes, even with such explanation as they were likely to get from the officers of registration. Nor could many of them have subscribed the oath except by making their "mark."

to be conducted by the person or persons appointed by the commanding general; such election to be held after the expiration of thirty days from the date of notice thereof to be given by the convention; and the returns of the election to be made to the commanding general.

Sixth. The remaining stage of the process, after all the others had been gone through, was prescribed by the fifth section of the supplementary act as follows:

"SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, according to said returns, the constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the votes of the registered electors qualified as therein specified, cast at said election, at least one half of all the registered voters voting upon the question of such ratification, the president of the convention shall transmit a copy of the same, duly certified, to the President of the United States, who shall forthwith transmit the same to Congress, if then in session, and if not in session, then immediately upon its next assembling; and if it shall, moreover, appear to Congress that the election was one at which all the electors in the state had an opportunity to vote freely and without restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud, and if the Congress shall be satisfied that such constitution meets the approval of a majority of all the qualified electors in the state, and if the said constitution shall be declared by Congress to be in conformity with the provisions of the act to which this is supplementary, and the other provisions of said act shall have been complied with, and the said constitution shall be approved by Congress, the state shall be declared entitled to representation, and senators and representatives shall be admitted therefrom as therein provided."

It is thus apparent that here was a process for creating a new state government by a body of voters a large part of whom had never before participated in any political proceeding; who were to vote by written or printed ballots for delegates to a constitutional convention, and on the question whether or not there should be a convention held. These voters could neither write a ballot nor read one; they could cast only such ballots as might be put into their hands. The framing of a constitution for an American state is the highest and most important act of sovereignty that can be performed by a free people before its ratification; and to be able to read and understand a constitution, or, if