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15 - Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics by Archibald Grimké · Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics

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Speaker 1: Chapter fourteen of Charles Sumner, The Scholar in Politics by
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Speaker 1: Archibald Grimkey. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: Reconstruction and Colored Suffrage. At the close of the war,
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Speaker 1: the gravest of problems remained to be solved. The riddle
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Speaker 1: of the slaves Sphinx still awaited its oedipus. How should
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Speaker 1: local self government be reconstituted in the old slave States?
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Speaker 1: Was the momentous question then to be settled. Sumner had
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Speaker 1: his plan others theirs is he erected on the simple
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Speaker 1: basis of equality. No mere party considerations entered into its
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Speaker 1: straightforward intention. He was not careful to enfold within his
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Speaker 1: scheme any principle or device, looking to the political supremacy
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Speaker 1: of his section. As a section, it was freedom which
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Speaker 1: he was ever and solely solicitous of establishing the supremacy
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Speaker 1: of democratic ideas and institutions, of securing and assuring forever
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Speaker 1: to the newborn nation. He desired and strove for the
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Speaker 1: ascendancy of his section and party, so far only as
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Speaker 1: they were the actual custodians of national justice and progress,
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Speaker 1: the real possessors of the great end quickening principles of
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Speaker 1: human rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. Long before
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Speaker 1: the end of the rebellion, Sumner's mind had begun to
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Speaker 1: grapple with this problem as early as February eleventh, eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty two. He broached the subject in the Senate in
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Speaker 1: a series of resolutions touching the constitutional status of the
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Speaker 1: rebellious States and the duty of Congress in regard to
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Speaker 1: their government and reconstruction state rebellion Estate suicide was the
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Speaker 1: pivotal proposition of the resolution. With the termination of statehoods
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Speaker 1: slavery terminated. Also since it derived its existence solely and
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Speaker 1: exclusively from the authority of the state. By reason of
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Speaker 1: their insurrection against the supremacy of the Constitution, the Southern
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Speaker 1: States had reverted to a territorial condition, and like all
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Speaker 1: national territory, their government devolved upon the United States. It
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Speaker 1: was therefore the duty of Congress to assume complete jurisdiction
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Speaker 1: of such vacated territory where such unconstitutional and illegal things
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Speaker 1: have been attempted, and proceed to establish therein republican forms
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Speaker 1: of government under the Constitution, and in the execution of
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Speaker 1: this trust, provided carefully for the protection of all the
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Speaker 1: inhabitants thereof for the security of families, the organization of labor,
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Speaker 1: the encouragement of industry, and the welfare of society, and
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Speaker 1: in every way discharged the duties of a just, merciful
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Speaker 1: and paternal government. Such was the radical and comprehensive scheme
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Speaker 1: for Southern reconstruction presented thus early by Sumner. Its introduction
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Speaker 1: produced quite a flurry of feeling in the Senate and
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Speaker 1: the country at large. Republican leaders like Fessenden, Sherman, Doolittle,
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Speaker 1: and others promptly disowned it as the policy of the party.
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Speaker 1: They were not mistaken in so doing, for the Republican
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Speaker 1: Party at that time had not so much as dreamed
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Speaker 1: in the brain of any other man than Sumner's of
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Speaker 1: a plan at once so bold and radical for the
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Speaker 1: reconstruction of the rebellious States. Four years later, however, these
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Speaker 1: very leaders and the great body of the Republican Party
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Speaker 1: had caught up with Sumner on this question, and occupied
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Speaker 1: then substantially the position taken by him in those famous propositions.
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Speaker 1: These propositions he elaborated and defended in an article published
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Speaker 1: in the Atlantic Monthly for October eighteen sixty three and
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Speaker 1: entitled Our Domestic relations, which the paper contented hinged upon
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Speaker 1: one question, viz. How to treat the rebel states, state
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Speaker 1: suicide and thesion to territorial conditions of states and insurrection
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Speaker 1: against the supremacy of the Constitution, which was the keynote
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Speaker 1: and the keystone of the article, ran without doubt entirely
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Speaker 1: counter to the constitutional fiction at once a state always
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Speaker 1: a state which lay at the bottom of the policy
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Speaker 1: of the administration in the conduct of the war. So
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Speaker 1: totally distinct miss Sumner's idea from that which had officially
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Speaker 1: obtained in the prosecution of the war, that Montgomery Blair,
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Speaker 1: a member of mister Lincoln's cabinet, felt it incumbent upon
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Speaker 1: him to take issue with the article, and to point
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Speaker 1: out that its author had directly arrayed himself against the
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Speaker 1: President on a question of fundamental policy. In the conduct
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Speaker 1: of the war. The tremendous struggle in which the nation
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Speaker 1: was engaged for its life, attracted the entire attention, absorbed
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Speaker 1: the utmost energies which could be put forth of government
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Speaker 1: and people. There was neither time nor disposition under these
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Speaker 1: circumstances to consider less imperial questions. Catch your fish and
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Speaker 1: do your frying afterwards. Conquer the rebellious states, then determine
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Speaker 1: how they shall be treated. Was the unconscious policy pursued
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Speaker 1: by the government until near the close of the war.
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Speaker 1: Even Sumner, fourhanded, as he always was where freedom was concerned,
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Speaker 1: was silent on the subject of reconstruction after the publication
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Speaker 1: of his Atlantic Monthly article, until the spring of eighteen
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Speaker 1: sixty four, when the Senate, having under consideration the credentials
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Speaker 1: of certain claimants as senators from Arkansas, he introduced a
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Speaker 1: resolution declaratory of the necessity of the vote of both
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Speaker 1: houses of Congress for the readmission of rebel states enter
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Speaker 1: the Union, And a little later, on June thirteenth, in fact,
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Speaker 1: when the Senate was discussing a joint resolution for the
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Speaker 1: recognition of the free State Government of Arkansas, he spoke
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Speaker 1: with almost unwonted earnestness, urging the importance of making haste
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Speaker 1: slowly in that direction, as well as the duty of
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Speaker 1: securing from the rebel states, where he described as irreversible
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Speaker 1: guarantees as a condition precedent to their readmission into the Union,
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Speaker 1: which they had attempted to destroy. The question raised by
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Speaker 1: the joint resolution seemed to him the gravest presented for decision,
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Speaker 1: since it was determined to meet the rebellion by arms,
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Speaker 1: and he opposed the admission of Arkansas at that time
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Speaker 1: and under then existing circumstances, as improper, unreasonable, and dangerous.
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Speaker 1: The readmission of a rebel state, he declared, is not
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Speaker 1: less important than its original admission into the Union. It
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Speaker 1: is not enough, he argued, if we complyed with certain
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Speaker 1: forms as constitute a state in name only, much more
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Speaker 1: must be done, and all this must be placed under
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Speaker 1: fixed and irreversible guarantees. Bain is victory on the field
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Speaker 1: if these guarantees are not obtained. But the Senate was
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Speaker 1: not yet ready to grapple with the problem mooted by
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Speaker 1: mister Sumner. The resolution for the admission of Arkansas and
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Speaker 1: that of Sumner defining one of the conditions of reconstruction
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Speaker 1: on reference to the Judiciary Committee, were reported upon adversely
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Speaker 1: by that committee, which had the effect for the nonce
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Speaker 1: to push out of the Senate the whole subject of
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Speaker 1: Southern reconstruction. With the sweeping successes which were attending the
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Speaker 1: Union armies in the field, and the probable certainty of
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Speaker 1: the speedy collapse of the rebellion, the subject of rebel
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Speaker 1: reconstruction began to attract the notice of others in Congress
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Speaker 1: then mister Sumner. As early as February fifteen, eighteen sixty four,
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Speaker 1: Henry Winter Davis of Maryland reported a bill in the
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Speaker 1: House to guarantee to certain states whose governments have been
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Speaker 1: usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government. This bill,
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Speaker 1: among others, provided for the assembling of constitutional conventions chosen
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Speaker 1: by loyal white male citizens. In the Senate, the principle
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Speaker 1: of colored suffrage as an element in the reconstruction of
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Speaker 1: the rebel states was proposed for the first time by
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Speaker 1: an amendment to the Davis bill, extending the basis on
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Speaker 1: which the constitutional conventions were to be chosen so as
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Speaker 1: to include the freed men. But the Senate, by voted
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Speaker 1: five to twenty four, rejected the novel and revolutionary proposition. Clearly,
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Speaker 1: the idea of colored suffrage had not then found a foothold,
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Speaker 1: certainly not more than a foothold in the Republican party.
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Speaker 1: The House bill was finally passed by the Senate, but
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Speaker 1: even without the new radicalism of suffrage for the Southern negroes,
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Speaker 1: it failed to meet the approval of the President, and
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Speaker 1: so came to nought another attempt to formulate a scheme
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Speaker 1: for the reconstruction of the South the principle of colored suffrage.
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Speaker 1: The Senate had twice before voted down, first in the
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Speaker 1: case of the Territory of Montana Winnabill, organizing for its
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Speaker 1: temporary territorial government was under consideration, and second, in the
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Speaker 1: case of the City of Washington, Winnabill to amend its
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Speaker 1: charter was on its passage through that body. In both instances,
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Speaker 1: it was attempted, without avail to extend the elective franchise
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Speaker 1: to color men inhabitants of the territory and the city, respectively.
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Speaker 1: Sumner strove strenuously on each occasion against the non exclusion
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Speaker 1: of colored citizens from the register. About the beginning of
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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, the subject of reconstruction had made considerable
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Speaker 1: progress upon the attention of statesmen. The case of Louisiana
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Speaker 1: served still further to advance the question in that regard.
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Speaker 1: On February eighteenth, mister Trumbull reported in the Senator joint
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Speaker 1: resolution recognizing the government of that state inaugurated by a
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Speaker 1: convention held at New Orleans April sixth, eighteen sixty four
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Speaker 1: as the legitimate state government. There was no provision in
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Speaker 1: the new order thus instituted which extended the right to
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Speaker 1: vote to the Negroes. The state therefore was to remain
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Speaker 1: in the hands of the very people who voted four
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Speaker 1: years before to take it out of the Union. The
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Speaker 1: danger through freedom to the Northern idea, which the war
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Speaker 1: was establishing at an expenditure of so much blood and treasure,
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Speaker 1: seemed to summon extreme in view of the possibilities of
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Speaker 1: a return of the South to power opened by the
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Speaker 1: Louisiana Bill. The readmission of Louisiana was a pet enterprise
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Speaker 1: of President Lincoln. He had set his heart on inaugurating
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Speaker 1: his experimental policy for the reconstruction of the rebellious states
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Speaker 1: with the restoration of this one to its own place
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Speaker 1: in the Union. The joint resolution was accordingly pressed upon
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Speaker 1: the attention of the Senate, and a vote insisted upon.
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Speaker 1: But no vote could its friends obtain, owing largely to
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Speaker 1: the firm and vigilant opposition of Sumner and to his
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Speaker 1: parliamentary skill in the contests which continued several days before
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Speaker 1: a postponement of the subject was secured. Another attempt to
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Speaker 1: reconstruct the self. Thus came to naught. If the Republican
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Speaker 1: Party was not then at all disposed to adopt some
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Speaker 1: disp plan, it was not aught to give the willing
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Speaker 1: to swallow the presidents for the constitutional rehabilitation of the
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Speaker 1: slave states. The struggle over the Louisiana Bill developed the
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Speaker 1: fact that at that date the Publican Party was not
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Speaker 1: in favor of adopting colored suffrage as a condition of reconstruction,
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Speaker 1: nor was it included in the President's scheme. On the contrary,
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Speaker 1: it was an open secret that mister Lincoln took the
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Speaker 1: failure of the Joint Resolution to pass the Senate quite
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Speaker 1: to heart. He was sorely disappointed, in chagrined, so much so, indeed,
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Speaker 1: that it was thought mister Sumner's responsibility for the failure
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Speaker 1: would cause a breach between him and the President. That
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Speaker 1: mister Lincoln was a politician of too much calculation and
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Speaker 1: tact to allow the occurrence, however unpleasant, to interrupt the
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Speaker 1: intimate personal political relations which existed between himself and so
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Speaker 1: powerful a leader. Accordingly, on the evening of March fifth,
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Speaker 1: he promptly stopped the wagging tongue of Madame rumoured by
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Speaker 1: inviting Summer to accompany him to the inaugural ball, where
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Speaker 1: the two statesmen appeared before the public on the old
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Speaker 1: friendly footing. Had the wise intactful Lincoln remained at the
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Speaker 1: home during his second term, it is impossible to say
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Speaker 1: how far he might have been able to control the
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Speaker 1: re construction policy of his party. That he would have
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Speaker 1: exerted a distinct influence in shaping its character seemed not
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Speaker 1: at all improbable. But his death put a man in
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Speaker 1: his place as lacking in his great qualities of mind
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Speaker 1: and heart, as it was possible for destiny to pick
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Speaker 1: up wherewith to present a presidential contrast. It is hard
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Speaker 1: to understand when Lincoln was taken in Johnson left. But
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Speaker 1: as there are no accidents in the universe, Andrew Johnson
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Speaker 1: therefore could not have been an accident. We must believe
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Speaker 1: that his accession to the presidency at the time and
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Speaker 1: under the circumstances, was one of those historic occurrences through
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Speaker 1: which an increasing purpose runs. About a week after the
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Speaker 1: death of his great predecessor, Chief Justice Chase and mister
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Speaker 1: Summer called in company on the new head of the
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Speaker 1: nation to learn something of his intentions with regard to
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Speaker 1: the reconstruction of the rebel states, and to urge him
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Speaker 1: to espouse the cause of equal rights for the colored race.
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Speaker 1: Mister Sumner fancied that the President seemed impressed. A few
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Speaker 1: days later, Sumner, who was full of uneasiness and apprehension
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Speaker 1: as to the President's course toward the South, called again
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Speaker 1: on mister Johnson and had a second conversation with him
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Speaker 1: on matters discussed during the first visit. It is possible
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Speaker 1: that Sumner and the Chief Justice did all the talking
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Speaker 1: at that time, and that Sumner, who was alone at
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Speaker 1: the second call, talked the whole time then, also to
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Speaker 1: the willing exclusion of the President. Be that as it may.
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Speaker 1: Suder went away believing that he had received from the
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Speaker 1: strange man positive assurances of agreement on the colored suffrage question.
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Speaker 1: To mister Sumner's appeal to him to use the power
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Speaker 1: and influence of his great office toward carrying into the
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Speaker 1: new political order then soon to be established in the South,
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Speaker 1: the principles of the Declaration of Independence, mister Johnson replied
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Speaker 1: on this question, mister Sumner, there is no difference between us.
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Speaker 1: You and I are alike. Some went away deceived in
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Speaker 1: the purpose of the president. It is possible that mister
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Speaker 1: Johnson was no less deceived in his own purpose. His
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Speaker 1: visitor and himself forgot, perhaps the glow of Summer's earnestness
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Speaker 1: and eloquence, that, after all, he Andrew Johnson, President of
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Speaker 1: the United States, was a Southern man, with the traditions,
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Speaker 1: the prejudices, the mental and moral limitations of his section,
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Speaker 1: from the slavery of which no emancipation proclamation was able
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Speaker 1: to liberate his mind, free him for one moment as
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Speaker 1: a voluntary and thinking being index slave holder. It was
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Speaker 1: naturally enough that such a man should approach the Southern
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Speaker 1: problem from the standpoint of his section, rather than from
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Speaker 1: that of the North, and that he should attempt to
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Speaker 1: reorganize civil society in the old slave states and the
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Speaker 1: interests of the old masters rather than of the freed men.
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Speaker 1: Such an attempt, however, at the time, was utterly impracticable,
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Speaker 1: could not possibly succeed. No reconstruction of the seceded states
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Speaker 1: had the slightest chance of adoption as the national policy
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Speaker 1: in that regard, which proceeded upon the absurd assumption that
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Speaker 1: the victorious North had nothing to do with the business.
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Speaker 1: But unfortunately, such was the character of President Johnson's reconstruction policy.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, the old slave masters and the
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Speaker 1: son of this extraordinary policy undertook to frame constitutions and
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Speaker 1: establish governments upon a corresponding assumption that their former slaves
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Speaker 1: had no rights which Southern white men were bound to respect.
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Speaker 1: When the work of framing the new constitutions and laws
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Speaker 1: was finished, it was playing to the dullest comprehension that
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Speaker 1: the freed men were as completely serfs under the new
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Speaker 1: order as they had been slaves under the old one.
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Speaker 1: Nothing was changed except a name. The old wrong lived
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Speaker 1: on vital in every part. If African serfdom was now
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Speaker 1: to take the place of African slavery, was the serf
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Speaker 1: power to ascend the throne of the slave power? Also,
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Speaker 1: what then, had the war settled? What of the expenditure
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Speaker 1: of the blood and treasure of the North effected, If
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Speaker 1: instead of Southern slaves the nation was to be cursed
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Speaker 1: with Southern serfs, If in room of the rule of
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Speaker 1: slave masters there was to succeed the reign of serf masters.
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Speaker 1: Like these, passionate questions ran through the North. The conflagration
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Speaker 1: which ensued consumed to the ashes. This first attempt to
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Speaker 1: reconstruct the rebel states, but we are anticipating. Congress had adjourned,
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Speaker 1: and Sumner had gone home under the glad impression that
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Speaker 1: the anti slavery work of his life was ended. When
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Speaker 1: the President began his reconstruction performance, which, as it progressed
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Speaker 1: from one reactionary step to another, excited through the North,
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Speaker 1: astonishment and consternation, accompanied by a rapidly increasing storm of
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Speaker 1: protest and indignation. Northern alarm and Northern demand found voice
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Speaker 1: in a speech made by Sumner before the Republican State
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Speaker 1: Convention of Massachusetts held at Worcester September fourteen, eighteen sixty five.
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Speaker 1: Sumner interview of the grave emergency which the President's Southern
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Speaker 1: policy had precipitated upon the country, was chosen to preside
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Speaker 1: at this convention. To him, all the friends of freedom
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Speaker 1: turned in the new crisis for instruction and inspiration, and
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Speaker 1: from such a platform, his words were sure to go
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Speaker 1: to the ends of the North without expressly taking issue
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Speaker 1: with the President. For Sumner and others still clung to
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Speaker 1: the delusion that Andrew Johnson might be made to see
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Speaker 1: the error of his way and be induced to take
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Speaker 1: a fresh departure in unison with Northern sentiment and purpose
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Speaker 1: on the reconstruction problem, and were therefore somewhat mindful not
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Speaker 1: to launch into hasty opposition to the official head of
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Speaker 1: their party. The Whister addresses nevertheless sounded the keynote of
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Speaker 1: the Republican reconstruction policy, with no uncertainty of meaning. Justice
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Speaker 1: and protection was its watchword. Justice to the freedmen, protection
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Speaker 1: for the North. They were intimately linked, the one with
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Speaker 1: the other. Security for the future should be the cornerstone
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Speaker 1: and keystone of the reconstructed Union. Defeated in war, the
17:46
Speaker 1: self designed now to retrieve its broken fortunes by a
17:49
Speaker 1: reserve to fraud and cunning. In the restored Union. The
17:53
Speaker 1: abolition of slavery, it was scheming to nullify by substituting
17:56
Speaker 1: for it the old wrong under a new name. The
17:59
Speaker 1: freedman were to be chained to the soil, reduced to serfdom,
18:03
Speaker 1: while the rebel states were to return to their old
18:05
Speaker 1: places in the Union, in consequence, stronger in federal numbers
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Speaker 1: than when they seceded to set up a slave empire.
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Speaker 1: This enlarged representation, conspiring with the Copperhead Party of the North,
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Speaker 1: would presently re establish Southern domination in the Republic. This
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Speaker 1: will achieved, the new serfmasters would proceed with the execution
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Speaker 1: of their monstrous program, which included a repudiation of the
18:29
Speaker 1: national debt or else an intention to fasten upon its
18:32
Speaker 1: payment as a condition the payment of the rebel debt,
18:35
Speaker 1: also compensation for the emancipated slaves, and the pensioning of
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Speaker 1: rebel soldiers equally with loyal ones. Safeguards, irreversible guarantees security
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Speaker 1: for the future against these perils must be demanded and
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Speaker 1: assisted upon by the Republican party speaking and acting for
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Speaker 1: the victorious North. Irreversible guarantees could not be obtained by haste,
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Speaker 1: by executive action, by yielding to the prejudice of color,
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Speaker 1: by oaths or pardons. How then may they be obtained?
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Speaker 1: One time is necessary. Two rebels must be excluded from
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Speaker 1: political power. Three a hand of iron in a velvet
19:11
Speaker 1: glove is required in dealing with the leaders of the rebellion.
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Speaker 1: For the North must earn to constant loyalists in the self,
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Speaker 1: regardless of race or color. Five it must look to Congress,
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Speaker 1: which has plenary powers over the whole subject, and finding
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Speaker 1: all of the guarantees. Thus obtained must be completed and
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Speaker 1: crowned by an amendment of the Constitution, expressly providing that
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Speaker 1: hereafter there shall be no denial of the elective franchise,
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Speaker 1: or any exclusion of any kind on account of race
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Speaker 1: or color, but all persons shall be equal before the law.
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Speaker 1: Thus spoke similar to Massachusetts, who in turn took up
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Speaker 1: the stern deep note and scented pealing through the North
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Speaker 1: and in the ears of the President, but all heedless
19:51
Speaker 1: of the rising storm, Andrew Johnson bent himself stubbornly upon
19:55
Speaker 1: his obnoxious course. In November, Sumner remonstrated by telegraph with him.
20:00
Speaker 1: They were words thrown away. Republican remonstrance and protests exerted
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Speaker 1: not the slightest effect upon the conduct of the President,
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Speaker 1: who metaphorically had taken the political bit between his official teeth, and,
20:12
Speaker 1: regardless of the frantic outcries of the North, was dashing wilfully,
20:15
Speaker 1: in viciously with the results of the war toward an
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Speaker 1: overturned where all would be lost. The Republican Party was
20:24
Speaker 1: almost stupefied with fright that Ius Stevens, who had not
20:27
Speaker 1: yet adopted colored suffrage as a condition of reconstruction, was
20:30
Speaker 1: almost in despair lest the North Starard, since the President
20:33
Speaker 1: had proceeded so far acquius in his policy. As a
20:36
Speaker 1: finality before the meeting of Congress in December, Stevens had
20:40
Speaker 1: but one hope, which was to get the rebel states
20:43
Speaker 1: in a territorial condition. This was in the line of
20:46
Speaker 1: Sumner's reconstruction policy that once accomplished, the Pennsylvania congressmen did
20:51
Speaker 1: not doubt Congress would then be able to deal with
20:54
Speaker 1: the question and avert the impending peril to Northern political ascendancy,
20:58
Speaker 1: which was generally looked upon as one of, if not
21:01
Speaker 1: the capital achievement of the war. Henry Winter Davis saw
21:06
Speaker 1: but two modes of averting the threatened catastrophe of a
21:09
Speaker 1: return to power of the South and the restored Union,
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Speaker 1: and they were for Congress on assembling, to pass a
21:14
Speaker 1: law by two thirds over the president's veto prescribing the
21:18
Speaker 1: conditions of reconstruction of any state government and declaring non
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Speaker 1: republican inform which excludes negroes from voting, or secondly, to
21:26
Speaker 1: pass an amendment of the Constitution over the head of
21:29
Speaker 1: the President prescribing universal suffrage. Mister Davis did not, however,
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Speaker 1: anticipate with any confidence that the then coming Congress would
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Speaker 1: be equal to these things. He was in despair at
21:41
Speaker 1: the national outlook, and died suddenly. When Congress had been
21:44
Speaker 1: in session but a few weeks. Sumner shared in the
21:47
Speaker 1: general dejection and foreboding of disaster. His apprehensions as a
21:52
Speaker 1: statesman and a man were indeed intense. So great were
21:55
Speaker 1: these fears of evil that he determined to make a
21:58
Speaker 1: final attempt to induce the President to hearken to the
22:00
Speaker 1: prayers and remonstrances of his party, and to abandon his
22:03
Speaker 1: mischievous policy in the treatment of the rebel states. On
22:08
Speaker 1: the eve of the assembling of Congress, he called on
22:11
Speaker 1: mister Johnson in pursuance of this purpose, And though the
22:14
Speaker 1: interview lasted three years, mister Summer, at his close was
22:17
Speaker 1: convinced that the President was beyond the reach of reason,
22:19
Speaker 1: and that there was nothing for the Republican Party to
22:22
Speaker 1: do under the circumstances but to annull, by congressional action
22:26
Speaker 1: the presidential policy, and to save the results of the
22:29
Speaker 1: war to the North and the Negro a reconstruction which
22:32
Speaker 1: should guarantee protection to the one and citizenship to the other.
22:37
Speaker 1: The pre vision of Winter Davis that the Congress, which
22:40
Speaker 1: was to convene in December eighteen sixty five, would not
22:43
Speaker 1: be equal to the contest with the President, was fully
22:45
Speaker 1: born out by its performance, or rather by its failures
22:49
Speaker 1: in that regard. This was owing partly to the indisposition
22:52
Speaker 1: of many Republican members of both branches to take issue
22:56
Speaker 1: with the administration, lest the doing so should perchance divide
22:59
Speaker 1: and down reached the party. But more especially was it
23:02
Speaker 1: due to their strong unwillingness to adopt the idea of
23:05
Speaker 1: colored suffrage as a condition of reconstruction of the rebel states.
23:10
Speaker 1: In one form or another. The equal rights of the
23:12
Speaker 1: colored race was almost constantly before the Congress. It was
23:16
Speaker 1: actually equal, however, to the passage over the veda of
23:18
Speaker 1: the President of the First Civil Rights Bill, which opened
23:21
Speaker 1: all court, state in national to colored persons as parties
23:24
Speaker 1: and witnesses as to white citizens. But it could not
23:27
Speaker 1: conquer its prejudice against an extension of the suffrage to
23:31
Speaker 1: the southern colored man, until assisted by the fault elections
23:35
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty six. To cross that rubicon of reconstruction.
23:38
Speaker 1: A radical leader like Sumner could not budget it an
23:42
Speaker 1: inch during its long session, the Republican majority of both
23:45
Speaker 1: houses shrank back from colored suffrage, as the government had
23:49
Speaker 1: previously shuffled and played the coward before emancipation and colored troops.
23:53
Speaker 1: How to protect the North and the Republican Party against
23:57
Speaker 1: the return to power of the South without reasons origin,
24:00
Speaker 1: colored suffrage was, in truth the problem which the Congress
24:04
Speaker 1: endeavored to solve. Could the ascendancy of the Republican Party
24:08
Speaker 1: be preserved and Northern supremacy in the reconstruction Union be
24:12
Speaker 1: secured without having recourse to so extraordinary and extreme a measure?
24:18
Speaker 1: If so, that Congress wanted to discover just such a
24:22
Speaker 1: go between way and to walk therein. This was true
24:25
Speaker 1: then of leaders like Vessenden, Sherman, and Trumbull, who afterwards
24:30
Speaker 1: accepted the new radicalism I of stouthearted fad Stevens, and
24:34
Speaker 1: sturdy ben Wade as well. They all in that Congress
24:38
Speaker 1: desired and sought without ceasing, another and more convenient way
24:41
Speaker 1: to attain their object, viz. The political ascendancy of their
24:45
Speaker 1: section in the Republic, the erection of a permanent barrier
24:48
Speaker 1: against future tidal waves of Southern domination over it. This
24:53
Speaker 1: grand end Congress attempted to reach by a proposition to
24:56
Speaker 1: apportion representatives among the several states according population, with a
25:01
Speaker 1: proviso which excluded from the basis of representation all persons
25:05
Speaker 1: excluded from the right to vote on account of race
25:08
Speaker 1: and colored. The calculation of the author of the device,
25:12
Speaker 1: who was mister Blaine, and of the Republican members of
25:15
Speaker 1: Congress who supported it, was that the South, caught between
25:18
Speaker 1: the upper and nether millstones of it, would, rather than
25:21
Speaker 1: have its federal numbers reduced, extend the right to vote
25:24
Speaker 1: to the freedmen, in which case the new voters would
25:27
Speaker 1: augment the numerical strength of the Republican Party and so
25:30
Speaker 1: confirm it in power. But if, on the other hand,
25:33
Speaker 1: the South should, in view of these future consequences, refuse
25:36
Speaker 1: to take that horn of the dilemma presented to it
25:39
Speaker 1: by Congress, it would be thrown upon the other horn,
25:42
Speaker 1: which would operate with no less fatality to any future
25:45
Speaker 1: revival of its political ascendency under the Constitution. Thoroughly clipped
25:50
Speaker 1: in the wings and spurs of it, the dreaded Southern
25:53
Speaker 1: bird would of course be no match in the national
25:56
Speaker 1: cockpit for the mighty Northern foul plainly, the prime object
26:00
Speaker 1: of this scheme was not protection for the freedmen. Protection
26:03
Speaker 1: for the North and the Republican Party was the one
26:06
Speaker 1: clear end which it was designed to reach. If the
26:09
Speaker 1: Nigros got there, too, so be it. But their safe
26:12
Speaker 1: arrival could not be under the circumstances chargeable to the
26:15
Speaker 1: Republican Party, but to an inscrutable providence for whose action
26:19
Speaker 1: in the premises that party could not possibly be held
26:22
Speaker 1: accountable at the polls. Against this compromised proposition, some set
26:28
Speaker 1: himself like Flint. He was not willing to interest national
26:32
Speaker 1: security to the chapter of probabilities and accidents to which
26:35
Speaker 1: they were committed by the Blame Amendment. He would establish
26:38
Speaker 1: irreversible guarantees of freedom and the public faith and the
26:42
Speaker 1: national peace, all of which could be done in but
26:44
Speaker 1: one way, and that was by carrying out in the
26:47
Speaker 1: reconstruction of the self the promises of the Declaration of Independence,
26:51
Speaker 1: by the ample execution of the Constitutional injunction to guarantee
26:55
Speaker 1: to the several Southern States, as a condition precedent to
26:58
Speaker 1: their readmission and to the Union, a republican form of government.
27:02
Speaker 1: Nor more nor less would he support or be satisfied
27:05
Speaker 1: with colored suffragee argued, was not a matter of national
27:10
Speaker 1: choice at all, but an overruling necessity. It was the
27:13
Speaker 1: awe sufficient guarantee, being in itself peacemaker, rere, conslar, schoolmaster,
27:18
Speaker 1: and protector. And now he said, finally declaring my belief
27:22
Speaker 1: in liberty and equality as the God given birthright of
27:26
Speaker 1: all men, let me say, in the same spirit, if
27:28
Speaker 1: this be an error, it is an error I love.
27:31
Speaker 1: If this be a fault, it is a fault I
27:32
Speaker 1: shall be slow to renounce. If this be an illusion,
27:35
Speaker 1: it is an illusion which I pray may wrap the
27:37
Speaker 1: world in its angelic forms. The Blain Amendment, after a while,
27:42
Speaker 1: passed both houses of Congress, but was vetoed by the President.
27:46
Speaker 1: It was thereupon carried by the lower chamber over the veto,
27:49
Speaker 1: but in the Senate, owing to Sumner's opposition, it failed
27:52
Speaker 1: to receive the requisite two thirds vote, and therefore was
27:55
Speaker 1: never submitted for ratification to the States. Sumner's opposition to
28:00
Speaker 1: this pretty political contrivance, which was to secure protection to
28:04
Speaker 1: the North and the Republican Party at the expense of
28:07
Speaker 1: the Negro, called down upon him from his Republican associates
28:11
Speaker 1: a good deal of harsh criticism that Stevens in particular
28:14
Speaker 1: bittedly claimed him for its final failure to pass the
28:17
Speaker 1: Senate over the head of the President. But none of
28:20
Speaker 1: these things moved some from his fixed purpose to make
28:22
Speaker 1: colored suffrage an indispensable element in the reconstruction of the South.
28:27
Speaker 1: The dread of a return of the Cell to power
28:30
Speaker 1: in the restored Union had another and unmistakable manifestation in
28:34
Speaker 1: this Congress. It was the meaning of the movement to
28:37
Speaker 1: secure the admission of Colorado and Nebraska to the ranks
28:41
Speaker 1: of the states, which would be effected give the North
28:43
Speaker 1: four more votes in the Senate and as many in
28:46
Speaker 1: the House before the rebel states got back into their
28:48
Speaker 1: old places. Protection was the soul of this attempt, protection
28:54
Speaker 1: for the North, not for the negro which the constitutions
28:57
Speaker 1: of these would be states left no room for it.
29:00
Speaker 1: Doubt each of these instruments limited the right to vote
29:03
Speaker 1: to white male citizens. But here again Sumner's uncompromising spirit
29:08
Speaker 1: proved a thorn in the sides of his party his associates,
29:11
Speaker 1: not all, but many of them, wherefore creating two new states,
29:14
Speaker 1: regardless of the wrong which their fundamental laws did the
29:17
Speaker 1: colored race. Because the exigencies of party called for more
29:21
Speaker 1: votes in Congress and the Electoral College. But with Sumner,
29:25
Speaker 1: principle was ever above party. He could not vote to
29:28
Speaker 1: grant the prayer of these applicant states when they came
29:31
Speaker 1: with the stain of inequality and cast upon their hands. No,
29:35
Speaker 1: however great might be the emergent needs of party, he
29:38
Speaker 1: could not and would not vote to admit Cholorado and
29:41
Speaker 1: Nebraska until their constitutions were Republican, informed and consistent with
29:46
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Independence. Even Stanchio ben Wade did not
29:51
Speaker 1: consider the matter worth fighting for in Colorado in view
29:54
Speaker 1: of the insignificance of the number of colored people in
29:57
Speaker 1: the territory. But Sumner retorted, with characters integrity of purpose,
30:01
Speaker 1: that we should fight for a principle if by the
30:03
Speaker 1: sacrifice of it only one man was injured in his liberties.
30:08
Speaker 1: In other times, he exclaimed, the cry was no more
30:11
Speaker 1: slave states. The cry of our times should be no
30:14
Speaker 1: more states with inequality of rights. After a protracted struggle,
30:19
Speaker 1: Colorado and Nebraska were compelled to abandon the obnoxious distinction
30:23
Speaker 1: contained in their respective constitutions. It was not, however, until
30:27
Speaker 1: the short session that Nebraska got in and this was
30:30
Speaker 1: achieved over the veto of the President. Colorado was less lucky,
30:34
Speaker 1: and her admission was longer delayed, But the principle of
30:37
Speaker 1: colored suffrage as an indispensable prerequisite for admission into the
30:41
Speaker 1: Union was established by the President made in the case
30:44
Speaker 1: of the former. Sumner turned his attention likewise to the
30:49
Speaker 1: abolition of the hateful distinction against color, which disfigured the
30:52
Speaker 1: election laws of the District of Columbia. Having become a
30:55
Speaker 1: member of the Committee on the District of Columbia, he
30:58
Speaker 1: pressed the justice of color suffrage upon his associates until
31:02
Speaker 1: the Committee reported a bill prohibiting any exclusion from the
31:05
Speaker 1: right to vote on account of race and color. An
31:09
Speaker 1: educational qualification was at first grafted by way of amendment
31:12
Speaker 1: upon the bill, but it was afterwards rejected in the Senate,
31:15
Speaker 1: owing no doubt to the growing feeling that the suffrage
31:18
Speaker 1: must be without this qualification if the adoption of colored
31:21
Speaker 1: suffrage and the reconstruction of the South were to act
31:24
Speaker 1: as a barrier against the return of that section to
31:27
Speaker 1: power in the Union. This was at the long session
31:30
Speaker 1: of the thirty ninth Congress, which could not be relied
31:33
Speaker 1: upon for any radical handling of the colored suffrage question
31:37
Speaker 1: in opposition to the President. The bill extending the elective
31:40
Speaker 1: franchise to colored citizens of the district was, under the
31:43
Speaker 1: circumstances allowed to go over to the short session when
31:47
Speaker 1: the autumn election of eighteen sixty six should have occurred,
31:50
Speaker 1: and given the popular queue to dubious minded congressmen on
31:53
Speaker 1: the subject. The rapidly rising tide of public sentiment was
31:57
Speaker 1: flowing with accumulated force in but one direction, vist toward
32:01
Speaker 1: a reorganization of the rebel states on the basis of
32:04
Speaker 1: universal suffrage as the only sure guarantee to the continued
32:09
Speaker 1: political ascendancy of the North in the Union. Sumna was, therefore,
32:14
Speaker 1: was to postpone action on the district to build to
32:17
Speaker 1: the short session, when the voice of the Northern people
32:19
Speaker 1: should have been heard at the polls on reconstruction and
32:22
Speaker 1: colored suffrage. On the first day of the short session,
32:25
Speaker 1: he pressed the district elective franchise bill to a vote
32:28
Speaker 1: in the Senate. Ten days afterward, that body passed the
32:31
Speaker 1: measure without the educational qualification provision. The next day went
32:35
Speaker 1: promptly through the House. It was vetoed by the President,
32:38
Speaker 1: but was passed by both houses over the veto, and
32:40
Speaker 1: so became a law as well as a guide for
32:42
Speaker 1: similar legislation in the reconstruction of the South. The thirty
32:46
Speaker 1: ninth Congress, having had its courage stiffened by the elections,
32:51
Speaker 1: was ready to inaugurate a policy of reconstruction of the
32:53
Speaker 1: rebel states in opposition to that of the President. Dolls
32:57
Speaker 1: took the initiative by the passage of a bill the
33:00
Speaker 1: Efficient Government of the Insurrectionary States, which, as it went
33:04
Speaker 1: to the Senate, contained no provision in regard to colored
33:06
Speaker 1: suffrage or to the exclusion of rebels. The consideration by
33:11
Speaker 1: the Senate of this bill developed wide divergencies of use
33:14
Speaker 1: on the subject by the Republicans of that body. Some
33:17
Speaker 1: were satisfied with measures of protection simply, while others wanted
33:21
Speaker 1: to add to protection colored suffrage as an act of
33:24
Speaker 1: justice to the freedmen, which would operate at once as
33:27
Speaker 1: a safeguard to themselves against that the old slave masters,
33:31
Speaker 1: and the best possible protection to the North from the
33:33
Speaker 1: same class. This latter view finally prevailed with the Senate,
33:37
Speaker 1: which adopted a substitute bill introducing the principle of colored
33:40
Speaker 1: suffrage into the South. This bill was rejected by the
33:43
Speaker 1: House because it did not exclude rebels from the right
33:46
Speaker 1: to vote. Without such a provision, it seemed to that
33:50
Speaker 1: Stevens that the measure, instead of protecting, would open the
33:54
Speaker 1: floodgates of misery. The Senate, however, insisting on it substitute.
33:57
Speaker 1: The House receided from its position and passed the Senate
34:00
Speaker 1: bill with an amendment which embodied to a limited extent,
34:03
Speaker 1: the principle of exclusion of rebels. This action of the
34:07
Speaker 1: House was concurred in by the Senate, vetoed by the President.
34:10
Speaker 1: The First Congressional Reconstruction Act passed both houses over the
34:14
Speaker 1: negative of the Executive, and so became law. Congress, influenced
34:20
Speaker 1: by its fears, had at length got itself in motion
34:22
Speaker 1: and nearly in line with some disposition on the Southern question,
34:26
Speaker 1: by requiring that in voting for delegates to conventions to
34:29
Speaker 1: frame constitutions for the rebel states, there should be no
34:32
Speaker 1: exclusion on account of race or color, and that this
34:34
Speaker 1: principle of equals suffrage should be embodied in the instruments,
34:38
Speaker 1: so framed as an indispensable qualification for the readmission of
34:42
Speaker 1: these states into the Union. In addition to colored suffrage
34:45
Speaker 1: as a factor in the reconstruction of the South, Sumner
34:48
Speaker 1: maintained that it was the duty of the national government
34:51
Speaker 1: to guarantee universal education for that section also and a
34:55
Speaker 1: homestead for every head of a family of freedmen. He
34:59
Speaker 1: was besides in favor of a more rigid exclusion of
35:02
Speaker 1: the disloyal portion of the Southern population from participation in
35:06
Speaker 1: the government of the Southern States, then was provided for
35:09
Speaker 1: by the Reconstruction Act. He wanted a provision incorporated in
35:13
Speaker 1: the constitution of re Southern State requiring its legislature to
35:18
Speaker 1: establish and support a system of free public schools open
35:21
Speaker 1: to all, without distinction of race or color. All these
35:24
Speaker 1: things were included in his scheme for the reconstruction of
35:27
Speaker 1: the South. All these things he tried again and again
35:30
Speaker 1: to have Congress including its plan in that regard, but
35:33
Speaker 1: without avail. Two other reconstruction measures supplementary to the Act,
35:38
Speaker 1: passed March eighteen sixty seven, went through the fortieth Congress
35:42
Speaker 1: in quick succession. Each of these acts, like the first law,
35:45
Speaker 1: encountered the objections of President Johnson, and was thereupon passed
35:49
Speaker 1: over his veto by the two houses of Congress. The
35:52
Speaker 1: contest between the National executive and the National Legislature had
35:56
Speaker 1: meantime become very serious. The President seen bent on bulking
35:59
Speaker 1: congres and defeating the will of the North respecting the
36:02
Speaker 1: reconstruction of the South. The veto power was in constant
36:06
Speaker 1: requisition by him. With this powerful weapon, he ran a
36:09
Speaker 1: tilt against every measure passed by Congress and bearing any
36:13
Speaker 1: sort of relation to the two races in the South.
36:16
Speaker 1: Not even the Joint Resolution proposing the adoption of the
36:19
Speaker 1: Fourteenth Amendment by the States was able to escape the
36:22
Speaker 1: presidential negative on this amendment to the Constitution. The North
36:26
Speaker 1: may be said to have set its heart and hope
36:28
Speaker 1: the attempt of the President to kill it excited against him.
36:32
Speaker 1: In consequence throughout that section, passionate indignation and fierce aversion,
36:38
Speaker 1: the people became furiously anti Johnson. Congress as the strife
36:42
Speaker 1: waxed between it and the President, became furiously anti Johnson. Also,
36:47
Speaker 1: more than any member of either branch of Congress, with
36:50
Speaker 1: the apostle exception of Thaddeus Stevens, was smilar opposed to the
36:53
Speaker 1: President and his Southern policy. And the President so understood
36:58
Speaker 1: and returned the hate of those eight men, measure for measure,
37:02
Speaker 1: heaping up and running over from the steps of the
37:04
Speaker 1: White House in his speech to a number of citizens
37:07
Speaker 1: who had gathered to pay their respects to him as
37:09
Speaker 1: the head of the nation on Washington's birthday of the
37:12
Speaker 1: year eighteen sixty six, mister Johnson, class Sumner, Stevens, and
37:15
Speaker 1: Wendell Phillips, and with Jefferson, Davis, Tombs, and Slydelle and
37:20
Speaker 1: Sumner's in unberversions, it must be confessed, were hardly less
37:24
Speaker 1: personal or complimentary to the President, whose message on the
37:27
Speaker 1: Southern situation the Defender of Humanity characterized on the floor
37:30
Speaker 1: of the Senate as whitewashing, finding a parallel between the
37:34
Speaker 1: whitewashing message of Franklin Pierce, which covered up their crimes
37:38
Speaker 1: committed against free Kansas by the slave power, and the
37:41
Speaker 1: whitewashing message of Andrew Johnson, which covered up the actual
37:45
Speaker 1: condition of things in the South. A year later, the
37:48
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Senator in the same place did not hesitate to
37:51
Speaker 1: denounce the Chief Magistrate as a bad man who had
37:54
Speaker 1: exposed himself in a condition of intoxication. While taking the
37:58
Speaker 1: oath of office as Vice President. His speeches were rated
38:02
Speaker 1: as modern and their author was accused of degrading the
38:06
Speaker 1: country as it had never been before degraded. Nor were
38:09
Speaker 1: there wanting allusions to rumors of pardons sold or of
38:13
Speaker 1: personal corruption, nor yet the ominous invective that the President
38:17
Speaker 1: was the enemy of his country. The denunciation of the
38:21
Speaker 1: President as the enemy of his country, naturally enough produced
38:24
Speaker 1: a sensation among the friends of the administration. In the Senate,
38:27
Speaker 1: the Speaker was quickly called to order, first by mister McDougall,
38:30
Speaker 1: and afterwards on its repetition by mister Doolittle. On the
38:34
Speaker 1: first point to Chair, mister Anthony of Rhode Island declared
38:37
Speaker 1: the remarks in order, and on the second point, the
38:39
Speaker 1: question being submitted to the Senate, the language was again sustained.
38:43
Speaker 1: All this was significant, the grave charge against the executive
38:47
Speaker 1: head of the nation, and the action of the Presiding
38:49
Speaker 1: Officer of the Senate, and of that body itself in
38:53
Speaker 1: relation to it, highly significant of the impeachment scheme which
38:56
Speaker 1: Congress was even then preparing for the overthrow of its
38:59
Speaker 1: hate adversary. Sumner's frank fierce criticism of Andrew Johnson was
39:05
Speaker 1: strongly condemned by several of his Republican associates like Fessenden
39:10
Speaker 1: and German, on the ground that as a senator he
39:12
Speaker 1: would be called to sit as one of the judges
39:14
Speaker 1: before whom the President would be tried in the event
39:17
Speaker 1: of his impeachment. Miss Sumner held firmly to the complete
39:20
Speaker 1: immunity of the Senate in that regard in its duty
39:23
Speaker 1: to consider the facts and circumstances of the case in
39:26
Speaker 1: advance of impeachment. For himself, he did not doubt that
39:29
Speaker 1: the President was a bad man, and that he should
39:31
Speaker 1: be watched or removed. This was certainly the view which
39:35
Speaker 1: Congress took of the matter. So decidedly was Congress of
39:38
Speaker 1: the opinion that the President needed to be watched, that
39:40
Speaker 1: it hardly dared to adjourn when once it assembled. If
39:43
Speaker 1: it passed an act to check his activity in one direction,
39:46
Speaker 1: he was sure to break out in another. It was moved,
39:49
Speaker 1: and check check made a move between them according to
39:52
Speaker 1: a sort of perpetual motion. When Congress can Bean Sumner
39:56
Speaker 1: regrets the least fraction of his time for adjournment, which
39:59
Speaker 1: could be added to the term of the session. On
40:02
Speaker 1: one occasion, mister Grimes of Iowa moved the adjournment of
40:05
Speaker 1: the two houses at eleven and a half o'clock on
40:08
Speaker 1: a given date, whereupon Sumner suggested twelve o'clock instead, giving
40:12
Speaker 1: as his reason that he was not willing to leave
40:14
Speaker 1: one half an hour to the President, within which he
40:16
Speaker 1: may take advantage of the absence of Congress and issue
40:19
Speaker 1: commissions which might run to the last of the next session.
40:24
Speaker 1: The President had announced his intention to kick out of
40:26
Speaker 1: the government the opponents of his policy, and as he
40:29
Speaker 1: was a man with rather light extremities in this respect,
40:32
Speaker 1: he soon set to work with a vengeance to prove
40:34
Speaker 1: himself as good as his word. The opponents of his
40:37
Speaker 1: policy began to feel in consequence and official visa tegu
40:41
Speaker 1: as far and as fast as the presidential heels could reach.
40:45
Speaker 1: By the tenure of offa Sact, Congress essayed to restrain
40:48
Speaker 1: to a limited extent, this ricalcitor and propensity of the President.
40:52
Speaker 1: To Sumner's mind, the check imposed by the Act went
40:55
Speaker 1: not far enough. He proposed to include within its intenment
40:59
Speaker 1: all officers and agents except clerks, and the vacation of
41:03
Speaker 1: all offices filled by the President or heads of departments
41:06
Speaker 1: without the advice and consent of the Senate. Since July one,
41:09
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six, on the last day of the month
41:12
Speaker 1: of February of the year eighteen sixty seven, Sumner's amendment
41:17
Speaker 1: being altogether too drastic a dose of Congressional rule for
41:20
Speaker 1: Republican stomachs to take, for there had already developed in
41:24
Speaker 1: the party, decided differences and symptoms of reaction in the
41:27
Speaker 1: contest with the executive department of the government. It was
41:30
Speaker 1: rejected by the Senate. But no sooner had the Office
41:33
Speaker 1: Tenure Act become law than the President, through the interpretation
41:37
Speaker 1: fastened upon it by his legal advisers, was able to
41:40
Speaker 1: evade its provisions. And so went on this duel between
41:43
Speaker 1: Congress and the President, growing fiercer and yet more fierce,
41:46
Speaker 1: week after week and month after month, until exasperated to
41:50
Speaker 1: the highest degree of passion and resentment, Congress shot its
41:53
Speaker 1: last error, the impeachment, in the hope of destroying the
41:56
Speaker 1: wee man power of Andrew Johnson. Sumner said as one
41:59
Speaker 1: of the judges of the impeached President, and voted him
42:02
Speaker 1: guilty of the high crimes and misdemeanors charged upon his
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Speaker 1: head by the House of Representatives. Sumoner filed a powerful
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Speaker 1: statement of his reasons for so voting swiftly in the
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Speaker 1: track of the congressional reconstruction measures. Armed foes sprang up
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Speaker 1: to shoot them to death. Violence and misgovernment arose all
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Speaker 1: over the South. Tremendous scenes and saturnalias of blood and
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Speaker 1: scoundrelism appeared in every state. Thieves and thugs established between
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Speaker 1: them a reign of terror, the like of which history
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Speaker 1: has rarely been called to shudder and weep over. Sectional
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Speaker 1: and party selfishness and short sightedness was the fatal rock
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Speaker 1: on which the Congressional attempt to reconstruct the Southern States
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Speaker 1: was wrecked. The President's policy had left out the Negro
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Speaker 1: and the North. The Congressional plan had ignored the South
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Speaker 1: and included the Negro as secondary consideration only the terrible
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Speaker 1: illiteracy of the new citizens and their appalling poverty. This
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Speaker 1: scheme did not wrapple with or seek to reduce, alas
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Speaker 1: Congress did not perceive that the Southern serf power so
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Speaker 1: justly dreaded by it could not be overthrown but by
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Speaker 1: the general diffusion of intelligence and property among those who
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Speaker 1: constitute the basis of that power. No plan or policy
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Speaker 1: looking to the ultimate solution of the Southern problem will
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Speaker 1: prosper which does not seek primarily the education and social
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Speaker 1: wellbeing of the laboring classes of that section. And this,
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Speaker 1: we think is what Sumner had in his mind when
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Speaker 1: he proposed a public school system for the self, open
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Speaker 1: to all, without distinction of race and color, and a
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Speaker 1: homestead for the head of every family of freed men.
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Speaker 1: End of Chapter fourteen.