"SEC. 4. That the acts of the officers of the army, already done in removing in said districts persons exercising the functions of civil officers, and appointing others in their stead, are hereby confirmed; provided that any persons heretofore or hereafter appointed by any district commander to exercise the functions of any civil office may be removed either by the military officer in command of the district, or by the general of the army, and it shall be the duty of such commander to remove from office, as aforesaid, all persons who are disloyal to the government of the United States, or who use their official influence in any manner to hinder, delay, prevent or obstruct the due and proper administration of this act and the acts to which it is supplementary.

"SEC. 5. That the boards of registration provided for in the act entitled 'An Act supplementary to an Act entitled "An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, and to facilitate Restoration,' passed March 23, 1867, shall have power, and it shall be their duty, before allowing the registration of any person, to ascertain, upon such facts or information as they can obtain, whether such person is entitled to be registered under said act, and the oath required by said act shall not be conclusive on such question; and no person shall be registered unless such board shall decide that he is entitled thereto; and such board shall also have power to examine under oath, to be administered by any member of such board, any one touching the qualification of any person claiming registration; but in every case of refusal by the board to register an applicant, and in every case of striking his name from the list, as hereinafter provided, the board shall make a note or memorandum, which shall be returned with the registration list to the commanding general of the district, setting forth the ground of such refusal or such striking from the list: Provided, that no person shall be disqualified as a member of any board of registration by reason of race or color.

"SEC. 6. That the true intent and meaning of the oath presented in said supplementary act is (among other things), that no person who has been a member of the legislature of any State, or who has held any executive or judicial office in any State, whether he has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States or not, and whether he was holding such office at the commencement

THE DESOLATED STATES.

621 of the rebellion or had held it before, and who has afterwards engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof, is entitled to be registered or vote; and the words 'executive or judicial' office in any State, in said oath mentioned, shall be construed to include all civil offices created by law for the administration of any general law of a State, or for the administration of justice.

"SEC. 7. That the time for completing the original registration provided for in any act may, in the discretion of the commander of any district, be extended to the 1st day of October, 1867; and the board of registration shall have power, and it shall be their duty, commencing fourteen days prior to any election under said act, and upon reasonable public notice of the time and place thereof, to revise for a period of five days the registration lists, and upon being satisfied that any person not entitled thereto has been registered, to strike the name of such person from the list, and such person shall not be allowed to vote. And such board shall also, during the same period, add to each registry the names of all persons who at that time possess the qualifications required by said act, who have not been already registered, and no person shall at any time be entitled to be registered or to vote by reason of any executive pardon or amnesty, for any act or thing which, without such pardon or amnesty, would disqualify him from registration or voting.

"SEC. 8. That all members of said boards of registration, and all persons hereafter elected or appointed to office in said military districts under any so-called State or municipal authority, or by detail or appointment of the district commander, shall be required to take and subscribe to the oath of office prescribed by law for the officers of the United States.

"SEC. 9. That no district commander or member of the board of registration, or any officer or appointee acting under them, shall be bound in his action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States.

"SEC. 10. That section four of said last-named act shall be construed to authorize the commanding general named therein, whenever he shall deem it needful, to remove any member of a board of registration, and to appoint another in his stead, and to fill any vacancy in such board.

"SEC. 11. That all the provisions of this act, and of the acts to which this is supplementary, shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out."

A bill was also passed appropriating $1,675,000 to carry out the Reconstruction Acts, which was vetoed, and passed over the veto; in the Senate by 32 to 4, and in the House by 100 to 24. The Senate passed a bill, 25 to 5, providing that in the District of Columbia no person should be disqualified for holding office on account of race or color. The President sent in a communication, stating that the annual cost of maintaining State Governments in the ten States was $14,000,000, and if the General Government undertook to manage them it would be greater; also that if it abolished the present State Governments, it would be liable for their debts, amounting to at least $100,000,000. The House passed a resolution, 100 to 18, declaring this communication "at war with the principles of international law, a deliberate stab at the national credit, abhorrent to every sentiment of loyalty, and well pleasing only to the vanquished traitors by whose agency alone the governments of said States were overthrown and destroyed."

Such was the legislation on the subject of reconstruction during the year 1867. We shall see in our next chapter what was done by the military authorities and the people of the desolated States, during the year, to carry out these meas

ures.

With a glance at the condition of these States early in the year, we close our present chapter. The winter of 1866-67 was one of great and widely extended suffering. The crops had been short, and of inferior quality, and for want of help many of them had not been fully gathered. In some sections there was actual starvation. Over $500,000 had been raised in the Northern States and distributed mostly in breadstuffs to those who were most in need. Congress, in March, authorized the distribution of aid to a limited extent through the Freedmen's Bureau. In April, 65,000 persons received ra

THE DESOLATED STATES.

623

tions daily through the Freedmen's Bureau, in Alabama alone, and 20,000 more were on the verge of distress. There was also prevalent a deplorable state of lawlessness. Bands of armed men, ruffians, mostly bushwhackers, formerly connected with the Rebel army, roamed through many districts, plundering and burning property, and destroying the lives of loyal men, white and black, often under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. Some parts of the South, and especially Kentucky, Middle and Western Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas, seemed given over to anarchy.

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CHAPTER LXXXIV.

THE WORK OF RESTORATION.

Votes on the Fourteenth Constitutional Amendment. - The New States and Reconstructed States likely to vote for it. Action of the Commanders of the Military Districts. The Fifth District. Measures adopted by General Sheridan. -His Reasons for them. Further Action of General Sheridan. Governor Wells removed, and Governor Flanders appointed. Incidents in Charleston: The Railroad Cars; The Flag at the Charleston Fire Parade. - General Sickles' Order No. 10: Its Provisions. - Attorney-General Stanbery's Objections to it. -Other Orders of General Sickles. He asks to be relieved of his Command. - Troubles in General Pope's District. - Insubordination of Governor Jenkins: General Pope asks that he be removed; General Grant's Indorsement. Riot in Mobile.- In Richmond. Registration, and Powers of Military Commanders.-The Interference of the Attorney-General. - His Written Opinions. - General Grant decides that they are not Mandatory. - General Sheridan's Opinion of them. - Removal of Throckmorton. - Sheridan's Complaint of Rousseau. - The Removal of Secretary Stanton determined upon, and of General Sheridan also. - The President's Letter to Stanton. - Stanton's Reply.-General Grant's Private Letter to the President. Stanton suspended, and Grant appointed Secretary of War ad interim.The Order for Sheridan's Removal. - General Grant's Protest.- The President's Reply. Thomas appointed to the Fifth District, but declines on account of his Health. Hancock appointed. - General Griffin's Death. - General Sickles' Removal. - Generals Canby and Mower's Orders. - The President's two Proclama- Who are to be amnestied. The President's Pardons. - General Hancock's Special Order. - The President's delight with it. He proposes that Congress shall make a Public Recognition of the General's Patriotism.- Congress "don't see it." — - Measures of General Hancock. General Grant revokes his Orders. Hancock asks to be relieved, and is appointed by the President to the Command of the New Department of Washington. — The New Constitutions.— Alabama: The Measures of the Rebels to prevent the adoption of the Constitution. The Constitutions of the other States adopted. - Vote on Convention and Con

tions.

stitution.

BEFORE proceeding to give an account of the progress of reconstruction under the Congressional acts, in the Desolated States, we subjoin the following table of the votes of the Legislatures of the several States on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was submitted to them for ratification on the 13th June, 1866: