in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North
Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number
of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each
having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since violated it,
and being a qualified voter by the election laws of the State
existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and
excluding all others, shall reestablish a State government which
shall be republican, and in no wise contravening said oath, such
shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the
State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional
provision which declares that "the United States shall guarantee
to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on the
application of the legislature, or the executive (when the
legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence."

And I do further proclaim, declare, and make known, that any
provision which may be adopted by such State government in
relation to the freed people of such State, which shall recognize
and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education,
and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with
their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless
class, will not be objected to by the National Executive.

And it is suggested as not improper that, in constructing a loyal
State government in any State, the name of the State, the
boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the general
code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained, subject
only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions
hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening
said conditions, and which may be deemed expedient by those
framing the new State government.

To avoid misunderstanding, it may be proper to say, that whether
members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted to
seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective
houses, and not to any extent with the Executive. And still
further, that this proclamation is intended to present to the
people of the States wherein the National authority has been
suspended; and loyal State governments have been subverted, a
mode in and by which the National authority and loyal State
governments, may be re-established within said States, or, in any
of them; and while the mode presented is the best the Executive
can suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.

Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the eighth day of
December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of
America, the eighty-eighth.

[L. S.]

By the President: Abraham Lincoln.
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.

How the revolted States could be most successfully and
expeditiously restored to their constitutional relations to the
Union on the cessation of hostilities, was the momentous question
of the hour, upon which there were views and schemes as varied
and antagonistic as were the mental differences and political
disagreements of those who felt called upon to engage in the
stupendous work. As history had recorded no similar conditions,
and therefore no demand for the solution of such a problem, there
were no examples or historic lights for the guidance of those
upon whom the task had fallen.

It is apparent that Mr. Lincoln maintained the indestructibility
of the States and the indivisibility of the Union - that the
resolutions of secession were null and void, and that the States
lately in rebellion were never in fact but only in theory out of
the Union - that they retained inherently, though now dormant,
their State autonomy and constitutional rights as before their
revolutionary acts, except as to slavery, and that all their
people had to do, to re-establish their former status, as he
declared to the Emperor of the French when that potentate was
about to recognize the Confederacy, was to resume their duties as
loyal, law-abiding citizens, and reorganize their State
Governments on a basis of loyalty to the Constitution and the
Union. The terms he proposed to formally offer them were first
illustrated in the case of Louisiana, early in 1863, and later in
the foregoing Message and Proclamation; and clearly indicated
what was to be his policy and process of reconstruction.

Messrs. Flanders and Hahn were admitted to the House of
Representatives as members from Louisiana agreeably to the
President's views thus outlined. They had been chosen at an
election ordered by the Governor of the State (Gov. Shepley), who
had undoubtedly been permitted, if not specially authorized by
the President, to take this step, but they were the last to be
received from Louisiana under Mr. Lincoln's plan, as the next
Congress resolved to receive no more members from the seceded
States till joint action by the two Houses therefor should be
had.

Prior to the election at which these gentlemen were chosen, Mr.
Lincoln addressed a characteristic note to Gov. Shepley, which
was in effect a warning that Federal officials not citizens of
Louisiana must not be chosen to represent the State in Congress,
"We do not," said he, referring to the South, "particularly need
members of Congress from those States to get along with
legislation here. What we do want is the conclusive evidence that
respectable citizens of Louisiana are willing to be members of
Congress and to swear support to the Constitution, and that other
respectable citizens are willing to vote for them and send them.
To send a parcel of Northern men as Representatives, elected, as
would be understood, (and perhaps really so) at the point of the
bayonet, would be disgraceful and outrageous."

Mr. Lincoln would tolerate none of the "carpet-bagging" that
afterwards became so conspicuous and offensive under the
Congressional plan of Reconstruction.

These steps for reconstruction in Louisiana were followed by the
assembling of a convention to frame a new constitution for that
State. The convention was organized early in 1864, and its most
important act was the prompt incorporation of an antislavery
clause in its organic law. By a vote of 70 to 16 the convention
declared slavery to be forever abolished in the State. The new
Constitution was adopted by the people of the State on the 5th
day of the ensuing September by a vote of 6,836 in its favor, to
1,566 against it. As the total vote of Louisiana in 1860 was
50,510, the new government had fulfilled the requirement of the
President's Proclamation. It was sustained by more than the
required one-tenth vote.

In a personal note of congratulation to Gov. Hahn, of Louisiana,
the President, speaking of the coming convention, suggested that
"some of the colored people be let in, as for instance, the very
intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in
our ranks." "They would," said he, "probably help in some trying
time in the future TO KEEP THE JEWEL OF LIBERTY IN THE FAMILY OF
FREEDOM."

This action in regard to Louisiana was accompanied, indeed in
some particulars preceded, by similar action in Arkansas. A
Governor was elected, an anti-slavery Constitution adopted, a
State Government duly installed, and Senators and Representatives
in Congress elected, but were refused admission by Congress. Mr.
Sumner, when the credentials of the Senators-elect were
presented, foreshadowing the position to be taken by the
Republican leaders, offered a resolution declaring that "a State
pretending to secede from the Union, and battling against the
General Government to maintain that position, must be regarded as
a rebel State subject to military occupation and without
representation on this floor until it has been readmitted by a
vote of both Houses of Congress; and the Senate will decline to
receive any such application from any such rebel State until
after such a vote by both Houses."

A few weeks later, on the 27th of June, 1864, this resolution was
in effect reported back to the Senate by the Judiciary Committee,
to which it had been referred, and adopted by a vote of 27 to 6.
The same action was had in the House of Representatives on the
application of the Representatives-elect from Arkansas for
admission to that body.

This was practically the declaration of a rupture between the
President and Congress on the question of Reconstruction. It was
a rebuke to Mr. Lincoln for having presumed to treat the seceded
States as still in any sense States of the Union. It was in
effect a declaration that those States had successfully
seceded - that their elimination from the Union was an
accomplished fact - that the Union of the States had been
broken - and that the only method left for their return that would
be considered by Congress was as conquered and outlying
provinces, not even as Territories with the right of such to
membership in the Union; and should be governed accordingly until
such time as Congress should see fit (IF EVER, to use the
language of Mr. Stevens in the House) to devise and establish
some form whereby they could be annexed to or re-incorporated
into the Union.

It was at this point - on the great question of Reconstruction, or
more properly of Restoration - that the disagreements originated
between the Executive and Congress which finally culminated in
the impeachment of Mr. Lincoln's successor; and that condition of
strained relations was measurably intensified when, on the
following July 4th, a bill was passed by Congress making
provision for the reorganization and admission of the revolted
States on the extreme lines indicated by the above action of
Congress and containing the very extraordinary provision that the
President, AFTER OBTAINING THE CONSENT OF CONGRESS, shall
recognize the State Government so established. That measure was
still another and more marked rebuke by Congress to the President
for having presumed to initiate a system of restoration without
its consultation and advice. Naturally Mr. Lincoln was not in a
mood to meekly accept the rebuke so marked and manifestly
intended; and so the bill not having passed Congress till within
the ten days preceding its adjournment allowed by the
Constitution for its consideration by the President, and as it
proposed to undo the work he had done, he failed to return it to
Congress - "pocketed" it - and it therefore fell. He was not in a
mood to accept a Congressional rebuke. He had given careful study
to the duties, the responsibilities, and the limitations of the
respective Departments of, the Government, and was not willing
that his judgment should be revised, or his course censured,
however indirectly, by any of its co-ordinate branches.

Four days after the session had closed, he issued a Proclamation
in which he treated the bill merely as the expression of an
opinion by Congress as to the best plan of Reconstruction - "which
plan," he remarked, "it is now thought fit to lay before the
people for their consideration."

He further stated in this Proclamation that he had already
presented one plan of restoration, and that he was "unprepared by
a formal approval of this bill to be inflexibly committed to any
single plan of restoration, and was unprepared to declare that
the free State Constitutions and Governments already adopted and
installed in Louisiana and Arkansas, shall be set aside and held
for naught, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens
who have set up the same as to further effort, and unprepared to
declare a constitutional competency in Congress to abolish
slavery in the States, though sincerely hoping that a
constitutional amendment abolishing slavery in all the States
might be adopted."

While, with these objections, Mr. Lincoln could not approve the
bill, he concluded his Proclamation with these words:

"Nevertheless, I am fully satisfied with the plan of restoration
contained in the bill as one very proper for the loyal people of
any State choosing to adopt it, and I am and at all times shall
be prepared to give Executive aid and assistance to any such
people as soon as military resistance to the United States shall
have been suppressed in any such State and the people thereof
shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the
Constitution and laws of the United States - in which Military
Governors will be appointed with directions to proceed according
to the bill."

"It must be frankly admitted," says Mr. Blaine in reciting this
record in his 'Thirty Years of Congress,' that Mr. Lincoln's
course was in some of its respects extraordinary. It met with
almost unanimous dissent on the part of the Republican members,
and violent criticism from the more radical members of both
Houses. * * * Fortunately, the Senators and Representatives had
returned to their States and Districts before the Reconstruction
Proclamation was issued, and found the people united and
enthusiastic in Mr. Lincoln's support."

In the last speech Mr. Lincoln ever made, (April 11th, 1865)
referring to the twelve thousand men who had organized the
Louisiana Government, (on the one-tenth basis) he said:

"If we now reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize
and disperse them. We say to the white man, you are worthless, or
worse. We will neither help you or be helped by you. To the black
man we say, 'this cup of liberty which these, your old masters
hold to your lips, we will dash from you, and leave you to the
chances of gathering the spilled and scattered contents IN SOME
VAGUE AND UNDEFINED WHEN AND WHERE AND HOW.' If this course,
discouraging and paralyzing to both white and black, has any
tendency to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with
the Union, I have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the
contrary, they reorganize and sustain the new Government of
Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We encourage
the hearts and nerve the arms of twelve thousand men to adhere to
their work and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for
it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored
man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired with
vigilance and with energy and daring to the same end. Grant that
he desires the elective franchise. HE WILL YET ATTAIN IT SOONER
BY SAVING THE ALREADY ADVANCED STEPS TOWARD IT THAN BY RUNNING
BACK OVER THEM. Concede that the new Government of Louisiana is
only to what it should be as the egg to the fowl; we shall sooner
have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it."

It is manifest that Mr. Lincoln intuitively foresaw the danger of
a great body of the people becoming accustomed to government by
military power, and sought to end it by the speediest practicable
means. As he expressed it, "We must begin and mould from
disorganized and discordant elements: nor is it a small
additional embarrassment that we, the loyal people, differ among
ourselves as to the mode, manner, and measure of reconstruction."

Louisiana was wholly in possession of the Union forces and under
loyal influence in 1863, and in his judgment the time had come
for reconstructive action in that state - not merely for the
purpose of strengthening and crystallizing the Union sentiment
there, at a great gate-way of commerce, that would become a
conspicuous object-lesson to foreign governments in behalf of
more favorable influences abroad, but also to the encouragement
of Union men and the discouragement of the rebellion in all the
other revolted States. He had fortified his own judgment, as he
frankly declared, "by submitting the Louisiana plan in advance to
every member of the Cabinet, and every member approved it."

The steps taken in Louisiana were to be but a beginning. The
nature of subsequent proceedings on his part must be governed by
the success of this - that under then existing conditions it was
inexpedient, in view of further possible complications, to
forecast further proceedings, and especially to attempt to
establish, at the outset, and under the chaotic conditions of the
time, a general system of reconstruction applicable to all the
States and to varying conditions. So the beginning was made in
Louisiana. It is manifest that the purpose of this immediate
action was two-fold - not only to restore Louisiana to the Union
at the earliest practicable day - but also to so far establish a
process of general restoration before Congress should reconvene
at the coming December session, that there would be no sufficient
occasion or excuse for interfering with his work by the
application of the exasperating conditions that had been
foreshadowed by that body.

On this point Mr. Welles, his Secretary of the Navy, testifies
that at the close of a Cabinet meeting held immediately preceding
Mr. Lincoln's death, "Mr. Stanton made some remarks on the
general condition of affairs and the new phase and duties upon
which we were about to enter. He alluded to the great solicitude
which the President felt on this subject, his frequent recurrence
to the necessity of establishing civil governments and preserving
order in the rebel States. Like the rest of the Cabinet,
doubtless, he had given this subject much consideration, and with
a view of having something practical on which to base action, he
had drawn up a rough plan or ordinance which he had handed to the
President.

"The President said he proposed to bring forward that subject,
although he had not had time as yet to give much attention to the
details of the paper which the Secretary of War had given him
only the day before; but that it was substantially, in its
general scope, the plan which we had sometimes talked over in
Cabinet meetings. We should probably make some modifications,
prescribe further details; there were some suggestions which he
should wish to make, and he desired all to bring their minds to
the question, for no greater or more important one could come
before us, or any future Cabinet. He thought it providential
that, this great rebellion was crushed just as Congress had
adjourned, AND THERE WERE NONE OF THE DISTURBING ELEMENTS OF THAT
BODY TO HINDER AND EMBARRASS US. If we were wise and discreet, we
should reanimate, the States and get their governments in
successful operation, with order prevailing and the Union
reestablished, BEFORE CONGRESS CAME TOGETHER IN DECEMBER. This he
thought important. We could do better, accomplish more without
than with them. There were men in Congress who, if their motives
were good, were nevertheless impracticable, and who possessed
feelings of hate and vindictiveness in which he did not
sympathize and could not participate. Each House of Congress, he
said, had the undoubted right to receive or reject members, the
Executive had no control in this matter. But Congress had NOTHING
TO DO WITH THE STATE GOVERNMENTS, which the President could
recognize, and under existing laws treat as other States, give
the same mail facilities, collect taxes, appoint judges,
marshals, collectors, etc., subject, of course, to confirmation.
There were men who objected to these views, BUT THEY WERE NOT
HERE, AND WE MUST MAKE HASTE TO DO OUR DUTY BEFORE THEY CAME
HERE."

The subjugated States were in a condition that could not be
safely permitted to continue for any indefinite period. It would
be inconsistent with the purpose of the war, incongruous to the
American system and idea of government, and antagonistic to
American political, or even commercial or social autonomy.
Naturally upon Mr. Lincoln would fall largely the duty and
responsibility of formulating and inaugurating some method of
restoration. With the abolition of slavery, the most difficult of
settlement of all the obstacles in the way of reconstruction had
been removed. Naturally, too, during the later months of the war,
when it became manifest that the end of the struggle was near,
the question of reconstruction and the methods whereby it could
be most naturally, speedily, and effectively accomplished, came
uppermost in his mind. A humane, just man, and a sincere,
broad-brained, patriot and far-seeing statesman, he instinctively
rejected the many drastic schemes which filled a large portion of
the public press of the North and afterwards characterized many
of the suggestions of Congressional action. With him the prime
purpose of the war was the preservation of the political,
territorial and economic integrity of the Republic - in a word, to
restore the Union, without needless humiliation to the defeated
party, or the imposition of unnecessarily rigorous terms which
could but result in future frictions - without slavery - and yet
with sufficient safeguards against future disloyal association of
the sections; and that purpose had been approved by an
overwhelming majority of the people in his re-election in 1864.

In these purposes and methods Mr. Lincoln appears to have had the
active sympathy and co-operation of his entire Cabinet, more
especially of Mr. Stanton, his Secretary of War. Indeed, Mr.
Stanton is understood, from the record, to have been the joint
author, with Mr. Lincoln, of the plan of reconstruction agreed
upon at the later meetings of the Cabinet immediately prior to
Mr. Lincoln's death. Mr. Stanton proposed to put it in the form
of a military order - Mr. Lincoln made an Executive order. The
plan was embodied in what afterwards became known as the "North
Carolina Proclamation," determined upon by Mr. Lincoln at his
last Cabinet meeting and promulgated by Mr. Johnson shortly after
his accession to the Presidency as Mr. Lincoln's successor, and
is inserted in a subsequent chapter.

Mr. Lincoln unquestionably comprehended the peculiar conditions
under which the Republican party had come to the control of the
legislative branch of the Government, and fully realized the
incapacity of the dominant element in that control for the
delicate work of restoration and reconstruction - leading a
conquered and embittered people back peacefully and successfully,
without unnecessary friction, into harmonious relations to the
Union.

No such responsibility, no such herculean task, had ever before,
in the history of civilization, devolved upon any ruler or
political party.

Mr. Lincoln seems to have realized the incapacity of party
leaders brought to the surface by the tumult and demoralization
of the time, whose only exploits and experiences were in the line
of destruction and who must approach the task with divided
counsel, to cope successfully with the delicate and responsible
work of restoration the close of the war had made imperative. He
comprehended the incongruities which characterized that great
party better than its professed leaders, and foresaw the futility
of any effort on its part, at that time and in its then temper,
to the early establishment of any coherent or successful method
of restoration. Hence, unquestionably, his prompt action in that
behalf, and his failure to call the Congress into special
session, to the end that there should be no time unnecessarily
consumed and lost in the institution of some efficient form of
civil government in the returning States - some form that would
have the sanction of intelligent authority competent to restore
and enforce public order, without the dangers of delay and
consequent disorder that must result, and did afterwards result,
from the protracted debates sure to follow and did follow the
sudden precipitation of the questions of reconstruction and
reconciliation upon a mass of Congressmen totally inexperienced
in the anomalous conditions of that time, or in the methods most
needed for their correction.

That Mr. Lincoln contemplated the ultimate and not remote
enfranchisement of the late slaves, is manifest from his
suggestion to Gov. Hahn, of Louisiana, hereinbefore quoted in
connection with the then approaching Convention for the
re-establishment of State Government there, and again still more
manifest from his last public utterance on April 11, 1865,
deprecating the rejection by Congress of his plan for the
restoration of Louisiana, in which, he said, speaking of that
action by Congress rejecting the Louisiana bill: "Grant that the
colored male desires the elective franchise. He will attain it
sooner by saving the already advanced steps towards it than by
running back over them."

It is also apparent in the light of the succeeding history of