E 
 53 \ 
 
 •M34- 
 
 Disunion and Restoration 
 IN Tennessee 
 
 % BY 
 
 JOHN RANDOLPH NEAL, M.A., LL.B. 
 
 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements 
 for the degree of doctor of philosophy 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Political Science 
 Columbia Universiiy 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Zbe IknicNerhocher press 
 
 1899 
 
Qass. 
 Book. 
 
 
Disunion and Restoration 
 IN Tennessee 
 
 JOHN RANDOLPH NEAL, M.A., LL.B. 
 
 .-n 
 
 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements 
 for the degree of doctor of philosophy 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Faculty of Political Science 
 Columbia University 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Ube IkniclterbocNer press 
 
 1899 
 
 f^l 
 
 1^ 
 
 r 
 
 i.u'S^^ 
 
 :«.*a«^' 
 
 BY X^ 3 
 
% 
 
 
 MA;1 13 tin 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Separation ........ i 
 
 II. Responsibility for Separatkjn . . . .12 
 
 III. Loyalty of East Tennessee .... 16 
 
 IV. Restoration of Civil Government ... 24 
 
 V. Recognition by Congress ..... 32 
 
 VI. Tennessee and the New Amendments . . 39 
 
 VII. Financial Administration of the Radical 
 
 Government ... .... 44 
 
 VIII. Radical Municipal Administration ... 52 
 
 IX. Ku-Klux Outrages 57 
 
 X. Close of the Radical Domination ... 66 
 
 XI. Constitutional Convention of 1870 ... 74 
 
f 
 
DISUNION AND RESTORATION IN 
 TENNESSEE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SEPARATION 
 
 The vote of Tennessee in the presidential election of i860 
 shows conclusively that at that time a majority of her citi- t^ 
 zens did not hold disunion sentiments. Her electoral vote 
 was cast for John Bell and Edward Everett, who represented, 
 as their platform expressed it, " no political principle other 
 than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the 
 States, and the enforcement of the laws." 
 
 The first step toward secession was not the result of popu- 
 lar initiative, but was mainly due to the efforts of the Gov- 
 ernor of the State, Isham G. Harris. Governor Harris had 
 entered public life just after the rupture between Andrew 
 Jackson and Hugh Lawson White, which had resulted in 
 the formation, in Tennessee, of the Whig party. For thirty 
 years the Whigs and Democrats contended for the control of 
 the State. They were so equally matched that victory often 
 turned upon the individual strength of the candidate. This 
 resulted in the development of a class of public men who 
 possessed, in a high degree, the usually divergent abilities 
 of public speakers and party leaders. From this school of 
 practical politics were graduated James K. Polk, Cave John- 
 son, Felix Grundy, John Bell, and Andrew Johnson. 
 
 The contest between the Whigs and Democrats, which 
 
2 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 was at first merely a personal quarrel, soon ripened into a 
 division along true party lines. The Democrats, after the 
 death of Andrew Jackson, joined the national Democratic 
 party in its struggle for the perpetuation and extension of 
 slavery. The Whigs on the other hand shared in the broad 
 policies and national aspirations of the national Whig 
 party. 
 
 Governor Harris had at the very beginning of his career 
 allied himself with the Democrats. As early as 1849, "^^^ ^'^^^ 
 been elected to Congress, where he became conspicuous for his 
 advocacy of extreme State rights. In 1857 he defeated Neil 
 S. Brown for governor, and was re-elected in 1859. -^^ ^^s 
 not difificult to predict what his action would be in the crisis 
 of i860. Immediately after the election of President Lin- 
 coln, he issued a call for an extra session of the Legislature. 
 It convened on the seventh day of January, and on the same 
 day he sent in his message. This message is worthy of 
 study, as it has been pronounced by a distinguished writer 
 to be " the ablest and most succinct as well as the most in- 
 telligent presentation and justification of the reasons for the 
 action of the seceding States." ' It began with the following 
 description of the crisis confronting the State : " The long, 
 systematic, and wanton agitation of the slavery question, 
 with actual and threatened aggressions of the Northern 
 States and a portion of their people upon the well-defined 
 constitutional rights of the Southern citizens, the rapid in- 
 crease of a purely sectional party, whose bond of union is 
 uncompromising hostility to the rights and institutions of 
 the fifteen Southern States, have produced a condition in 
 the affairs of the country unparalleled in the history of the 
 past, resulting already in the withdrawal from the Confed- 
 eracy of one of the sovereignties which compose it, while 
 others are rapidly preparing to move in the same direction." * 
 
 ' Cox : Three Decades of Federal Legislation. 
 
 ■■"Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, i86r, pp. i to 13. 
 
SEPARA TION 3 
 
 This opening statement was followed by an historical re- 
 view in which was traced the growth of the Republican party. 
 The offences it had committed against the Southern States 
 were then enumerated. Among other things, he said : 
 
 " It has sought to appropriate to itself, and to exclude 
 the slaveholders from, the territory acquired by the common 
 blood and treasure of all. It has, through the instrument- 
 ality of the Emigrants' Aid Society under State patronage, 
 flooded the territories with its minions armed with Sharp's 
 rifles and bowie knives, seeking thus to accomplish by in- 
 timidation, violence, and murder what it could not do by 
 constitutional means. 
 
 " It claimed the constitutional right to abolish slavery in 
 the District of Columbia, the forts, arsenals, dock-yards, and 
 other places ceded to the United States within the bounds 
 of the slaveholding States. It proposed a prohibition of 
 the slave-trade between the States, thereby crowding the 
 slaves together, and preventing the exit south until they 
 became unprofitable to such an extent that it would force the 
 owner finally to abandon them in self-defence. It has, by 
 the deliberate legislative enactments of a large majority of 
 the Northern States, openly and flagrantly nullified the clause 
 of the Constitution which provided for the return of fugitive 
 slaves. 
 
 " It has, through the executive authority of the States, 
 denied the extradition of murderers and marauders. 
 
 " It obtained its own compromise in the Constitution to 
 continue the importation of slaves, and now sets up a higher 
 law than the Constitution to destroy the property imported 
 and sold to us by their fathers. 
 
 " It has caused the murder of owners in the pursuit of the 
 fugitive slave, and shielded from punishment the murderers. 
 
 " It has on many occasions sent its emissaries into the South- 
 ern States to corrupt our slaves, induce them to run off, and 
 excite them to insurrection. It has by its John Brown and 
 
4 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 Montgomery raids invaded sovereign States and murdered 
 peaceful citizens. It has justified and exalted to highest 
 honors of admiration the horrid murders, arsons, and rapines 
 of the John Brown raid, and canonized the felons as saints 
 and martyrs. 
 
 " It has burned the towns, poisoned the cattle, and con- 
 spired with the slaves to depopulate Northern Texas. In has 
 through certain leaders proclaimed to the slaves the terrible 
 motto : ' Alarm to the sleep, fire to the dwelHngs, and poison 
 to the food and water of the slaveholders.' 
 
 " It has repudiated the decision of the Supreme Court. 
 
 " It has assailed our rights, guaranteed by the plainest pro- 
 visions of the Constitution, from the floor of each House of 
 Congress, the pulpit, the hustings, the schoolroom, their 
 State Legislatures, and through the public press, dividing 
 churches, and disrupting poHtical parties and civil govern- 
 ment." 
 
 The party that had committed the offences enumerated 
 was in possession of the House of Representatives, and h'ad 
 elected one of its leaders to the presidency, and in the pro- 
 gress of events the Supreme Court and Senate must also pass 
 into its hands. With such a party in power, Governor 
 Harris contended that the Union could be preserved only 
 on the condition that certain amendments to the Constitu- 
 tion should be adopted, which would put slavery beyond its 
 attacks. 
 
 The amendments he suggested were : 
 
 1. Establish a line upon the northern boundary of the 
 present slave States, extend it through the territories to the 
 Pacific Ocean, upon such parallel of latitude as will divide 
 them equitably between North and South, expressly provid- 
 ing that all territory now owned, or that may be hereafter 
 acquired, north of said line shall be forever free, and south 
 of it forever slave. 
 
 2. In addition to the fugitive-slave clause, provide, that, 
 
SEPARA TION 5 
 
 whenever a slave has been demanded of the executive 
 authority of the State to which he has fled, and is not 
 delivered, and the owner permitted to carry him out of the 
 State in peace, the State so failing to deliver shall pay 
 to the owner double the value of such slave, and secure his 
 right of action in the Supreme Court. 
 
 3. Provide for the protection of the owner in the peace- 
 able possession of his slave while in transition or temporarily 
 sojourning in any of the States of the Confederacy, and, in 
 the event of the slave's escaping or being taken from the 
 owner, require the State to return, or account for, him as in 
 the case of a fugitive. 
 
 4. Especially prohibit Congress from abolishing slavery in 
 the District of Columbia, in any dock-yard, navy-yard, arse- 
 nal, or any district of any character whatever, within the 
 limits of any slave State. 
 
 5. Provide that these amendments shall never be changed 
 except by consent of all the slave States. 
 
 With these amendments to the Constitution, Governor 
 Harris said that he could feel that the rights of the Southern 
 States were reasonably secure, not only in theory, but in 
 fact, and should indulge the hope of living in the Union in 
 peace. " If the non-slaveholding States refuse to comply 
 with a demand so just and reasonable ; refuse to abandon at 
 once and forever their unjust war upon us, our institutions, 
 and our rights ; refuse, as they have heretofore done to per- 
 form, in good faith, the obligations of the compact of the 
 Union, much as we appreciate the power, prosperity, and 
 glory of this government, deeply as we deplore the existence 
 of the causes which have already driven one State out of 
 the Union, much as we regret the imperative necessity 
 which they have wantonly and wickedly forced upon us, 
 every consideration of self-preservation and self-respect re- 
 quires that we should assert and maintain our equality in 
 the Union, or our independence out of it." 
 
6 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 The message closed with the following recommendation to 
 the Legislature : " I recommend that you provide by law for 
 submitting to the people of the State the question of Con- 
 vention or No Convention ; and also the election of dele- 
 gates by the people to meet in State Convention at the 
 Capitol at Nashville, at the earliest day practicable, to take 
 into consideration our federal relations, and determine what 
 action shall be taken by the State of Tennessee for the 
 security of the rights and the peace of her citizens. This 
 will place the whole matter in the hands of the people, for 
 them, in their sovereignty, to determine how far their rights 
 have been violated, the character of the redress or guaranty 
 they will demand, or the action they will take for their 
 present and future security." 
 
 The Legislature proceeded without delay to put into effect 
 the recommendations contained in Governor Harris's mes- 
 sage. On January 19th it passed an act known as the Con- 
 vention Bill,' which provided for submitting the question of 
 holding a convention to the vote of the people. The con- 
 vention was to take into consideration the relation between 
 the government of the United States and the people of the 
 State, and was to have the power to adopt any measures for 
 vindicating the sovereignty of the State and the people it 
 saw fit. 
 
 Only a few days intervened between the passage of the 
 Convention Bill and the day appointed for taking the popu- 
 lar vote ; nevertheless, an exciting canvass of the State 
 ensued. The people came together in vast crowds to hear 
 the question debated. The Whig leaders were almost 
 unanimous in their opposition. They were joined by the 
 Democrats of East Tennessee. The vote was taken on the 
 fifth of February, 1861. The result was : 24,749 for the Con- 
 vention ; and, 91,803 against it. 
 
 This defeat put a stop for the moment to all official 
 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1861, p. 14. 
 
SEPARATION 7 
 
 action, as the Legislature had adjourned, but the public agi- 
 tation and discussion continued. The disunion sentiment 
 began to grow very rapidly as a result of events which were 
 transpiring outside the State. Amid the intense excitement 
 which followed the taking of Fort Sumter, Governor Har- 
 ris issued a call for a second extra session of the Legislature. 
 On the 1 8th of April he had replied to President Lincoln's 
 call for troops : " Tennessee will not furnish a single man for 
 coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defence of 
 our rights and those of our Southern brothers." 
 
 The Legislature convened on the twenty-seventh of April. 
 The public were excluded from its meeting, and its members 
 were pledged to secrecy. The session opened with the 
 reading of the gubernatorial message,' which asserted that 
 the President of the United States had wantonly inaugurated 
 an internecine war upon the people of the slave States. 
 "This war," he said, " is likely to assume an importance, 
 nearly, if not equal to the struggle of our revolutionary 
 fathers in their patriotic efforts to resist usurpations and 
 throw off the tyrannical yoke of the British Government. 
 
 " This declaration of war upon the South has virtually 
 dissolved the Union. It will be idle to speak of ourselves 
 any longer as members of the Federal Union ; and it is be- 
 lieved by many whose opinions are entitled to the highest 
 respect, that, by reason of the subversion of the Constitution 
 by the authorities in power, inaugurating a revolution be- 
 tween the States thereof, each and every individual is 
 already released from his obligations to that government ; 
 yet, as best comports with the dignity of the subject, and 
 also from due regard to those who may hold a different 
 opinion — and further still, that all the world may be advised 
 of our action, — I respectfully recommend that our connec- 
 tions with the Federal Union be formally annulled in such 
 manner as shall involve the highest exercise of the sovereign 
 'Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, pp. i to 11. 
 
8 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 authority of the people of the State and best secure that 
 harmony, so much to be desired, in times like the present, in 
 questions of detail. The speediest method of accomplish- 
 ing this will be the perfecting of an ordinance by the Legis- 
 lature formally declaring the independence of the State of 
 Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority, 
 and resuming each and every function belonging to a 
 separate sovereignty ; and said ordinance when perfected 
 should be submitted to a vote of the people to be by them 
 adopted or rejected. Under existing circumstances I can 
 see no propriety in encumbering the people of the State 
 with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our 
 power to enable them to do directly for themselves. The 
 most direct as well as the highest act of sovereignty, accord- 
 ing to our theory, is that by which the people vote, not 
 merely for men, but for measures submitted for their ap- 
 proval or rejection. Since it is only the voice of the people 
 that is to be heard, there is no reason why they may not as 
 readily and effectively express themselves upon an ordinance 
 framed and submitted to them by the Legislature as if 
 submitted by a convention." 
 
 The Legislature was as eager as before to execute the will 
 of the Governor. It embodied his recommendations in an 
 act passed May 6, 1861.' This act contained two important 
 provisions. The first was : 
 
 " Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving 
 the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and 
 the United States of America. 
 
 We the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any ex- 
 pression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, 
 but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to 
 alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such 
 manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare, that all 
 the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 13. 
 
SEPARA TION g 
 
 became a member of the Federal Union of the United 
 States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and 
 that all obligation on our part be withdrawn therefrom ; 
 and we do hereby resume all the rights, functions, and 
 powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were con- 
 veyed to the Government of the United States, and absolve 
 ourselves from all obligations, restraints, duties, incurred 
 thereto ; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, 
 and independent State." 
 
 This ordinance was to be submitted to a direct vote of the 
 people. Two sets of tickets were to be prepared ; one set 
 marked Separation, the other Non-Separation. Those 
 favoring the ordinance were to vote the former ticket, those 
 opposed, the latter. The act of May 6th further provided 
 for the submission at the same election of the question as to 
 whether Tennessee, if it severed its relations with the 
 Union, should join the Confederacy. This question was also 
 embodied in the form of an Ordinance. 
 
 But the Governor and the Legislature did not wait for 
 the popular verdict upon these Ordinances. As early as 
 May 7th, they extended an invitation to the Confederacy to 
 select Nashville as its capital city. A few days later a still 
 more extraordinary step was taken. Governor Harris, 
 acting under a joint resolution of the Legislature, appointed 
 three commissioners to negotiate a military league with the 
 Confederate authorities. These commissioners, representing 
 the State of Tennessee, and Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, an agent 
 of the Confederacy, drew up the following agreement : 
 
 " Convention between the State of Tennessee and 
 Confederate States of America.' 
 
 " The State of Tennessee, looking to a speedy admission 
 into the Confederacy established by the Confederate States 
 of America, in accordance with the Constitution for the 
 Provisional Government of said States, enters into the fol- 
 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 19. 
 
10 
 
 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 lowing temporary Convention, Agreement, and Military- 
 League with the Confederate States, for the purpose of 
 meeting pressing exigencies affecting common rights, in- 
 terests, and safety of said State and said Confederacy. 
 
 " First. Until the said State shall become a member of 
 said Confederacy, according to the constitutions of both 
 powers, the whole military force and military operations, 
 offensive and defensive, of said State in the impending con- 
 flict with the United States, shall be under the chief control 
 and direction of the President of the Confederate States, 
 upon the same basis, principle, and footing as if said State 
 were now during the interval a member of said Confederacy, 
 said force, together with that of the Confederate States, to 
 be employed in common defence. 
 
 " Secondly. The State of Tennessee will, upon becoming 
 a member of said Confederacy under the permanent Consti- 
 tution of said Confederate States, if the same shall ever 
 occur, turn over to the Confederate States all the public 
 property acquired from the United States on the same 
 terms as the other States of said Confederacy have done in 
 like case." 
 
 This agreement was laid before the Legislature in a 
 special message, and almost unanimously ratified. Its pro- 
 visions were promptly executed. The vote of the people 
 upon the Declaration of Independence and the Ordinance 
 adopting the Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy 
 did not occur till the eighth of June. The result of the 
 vote, as shown by the official returns, was as follows : 
 
 
 Separation. 
 
 No Separation. 
 
 East Tennessee 
 
 14,780 
 
 58,265 
 
 29,127 
 
 6,246 
 
 32,923 
 7,956 
 6,117 
 
 Middle Tennessee 
 
 West Tennessee 
 
 Camps 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 108,418 
 
 46,006 
 
 
 

 SEPARA TION 
 
 II 
 
 
 Representation. 
 
 No Representation. 
 
 East Tennessee 
 
 14,061 
 
 58,198 
 
 28,912 
 
 6.340 
 
 32,962 
 8,298 
 6,104 
 
 Middle Tennessee 
 
 West Tennessee 
 
 Camps 
 
 Total 
 
 107,511 
 
 47,364 
 
 Immediately after the election, Gov. Harris issued a 
 proclamation announcing Tennessee's withdrawal from the 
 Union. This was followed by the proclamation of Jefferson 
 Davis, ofificially declaring that Tennessee had become a 
 member of the Confederacy. On the first of August the 
 State adopted the permanent Confederate Constitution by 
 vote of 83,133 for, 30,357 against. 
 
 Nothing now remained to complete Tennessee's absorp- 
 tion into the Confederacy but the election of representatives 
 to the Confederate Congress. In October, the Legislature 
 selected Langdon C Haynes and Gustavus Henry as Con- 
 federate Senators. Haynes was a distinguished Democrat 
 of East Tennessee, while Henry was a Whig. Representa- 
 tives to the Lower House were chosen by a vote of the 
 people. Here again the Whigs and Democrats were equally 
 represented. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEPARATION 
 
 Just as radical differences of opinion have existed as to 
 the parties responsible for the whole secession movement, so 
 the action of Tennessee has been variously interpreted. A 
 number of writers have contended that the majority of her 
 citizens were never in favor of secession, and it was only a 
 coup d' ^tat of Governor Harris that carried the State into 
 the Confederacy. This view is a survival of the opinion once 
 so widely prevalent in the North that the Civil War was the 
 result of a conspiracy of a few ambitious Southern politi- 
 cians, who tricked the mass of the Southern people into 
 a war which never had their genuine approval. 
 
 It must be confessed that at first view the mode of Tennes- 
 see's withdrawal gives some countenance to this theory. 
 In February, 1861, she had placed her disapproval upon 
 secession by voting down a proposition to call a convention. 
 Instead of yielding to this mandate of the people. Gover- 
 nor Harris and the Legislature had entered into a military 
 league with the Confederate authorities, and having thus 
 surrendered the real control of the State, they again went 
 through the form of appealing to a plebiscite for approval of 
 their action. Nevertheless, we are confident that an un- 
 prejudiced examination of these events will show that Ten- 
 nessee, with the exception of the eastern part of the State, 
 joined the Confederacy as willingly as South Carolina or 
 Mississippi. 
 
 In the first place, these writers have made the mistake of 
 classing Tennessee among the border States. Mr. Wilson 
 in his History of the Slave Power says : " Exactly why 
 
RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEPARATION 1 3 
 
 Tennessee should have been taken out of the Union, while 
 Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri were prevented from 
 going, no man is wise enough to say. At least, none but 
 general reasons can be given. Exactly why the conspirators 
 were foiled in one case and not in the other, exactly by whom 
 the current of treason was checked and turned in the one 
 and not in the other, the wisest can only conjecture." 
 
 The answer to the problem which Mr. Wilson found so 
 difficult to solve lies in the fact that conditions in Tennessee 
 were in no wise similar to those in Maryland, Kentucky, and 
 Missouri. These border States were not distinctly slave 
 States. In all of them the institution of slavery existed, but 
 their industrial system was not based upon it. This arose 
 largely from the fact that cotton was not their chief staple. 
 Tennessee, on the other hand, was a great cotton-producing 
 State, According to the census of i860, her annual product 
 was 296,465 bales of 400 lbs. each. Her interest was there- 
 fore identical with the extreme Southern States. If there 
 were to be two republics side by side, one free and the other 
 slave, both sentiment and interest apparently demanded that 
 Tennessee should cast her lot with the latter. 
 
 When the vote of February was taken she was confronted 
 by no such dilemma. At that time, the Confederacy had 
 not yet been organized, and it was by no means clear that 
 war would occur. In June, conditions had entirely changed. 
 The Confederacy was an established fact, and actual 
 hostilities had commenced. Neither side would permit 
 Tennessee to occupy a neutral position. She must fight 
 either for or against the South. 
 
 This change in the issues is clearly shown in the two 
 messages of Governor Harris. In his message of January 
 7th, he had sought to establish the right of secession, and 
 justify its present or immediate assertion. But these 
 principles had found no support in the Whig party. Their 
 opposition defeated the proposal for a convention. The 
 
14 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 keynote to his second message is found in the following 
 passage : " Whatever differences may have heretofore 
 existed amongst us growing out of party divisions, as to the 
 constitutional right of secession as a remedy against usur- 
 pations, all admit the moral right asserted by our fathers to 
 resist wrong and to maintain their liberties by whatever 
 means necessary." This was a direct appeal to the right of 
 revolution, and it found as ready a response among the 
 Whigs as the Democrats. It was therefore this change in 
 the issue, and not coercive means adopted by Governor 
 Harris, that turned the tide toward disunion. 
 
 The recognized leader of the Whig party was John Bell. 
 Throughout his long career in the service of the national 
 government, he had consistently opposed the doctrine of 
 secession. In the presidential election of i860, he, even 
 more than Mr. Lincoln, was the Union candidate. When 
 the question of holding a convention was submitted to a 
 vote of the people, he vigorously opposed it. In this 
 opposition he was joined by Neil S. Brown, Cave Johnson, 
 Ewing, and other distinguished Whig politicians. It was 
 due to their efforts that the Convention proposal was de- 
 feated. The vote against the Convention was 91,803. This 
 represented the entire Whig party, and the Democrats of 
 East Tennessee. The votes cast for the Convention came 
 almost wholly from the Democrats of Middle and West 
 Tennessee. In short, the election of February was a 
 division along party lines. Its result was simply an indica- 
 tion that the Whig party of Tennessee was still opposed to 
 the doctrine of secession. 
 
 In June, party lines had been obliterated. For only a 
 few weeks elapsed after the defeat of the Convention, till a 
 majority of the Whig leaders, either in public addresses or 
 through the public press, counselled withdrawal from the 
 Union. The contest now became sectional ; it was East 
 Tennessee against Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. 
 
RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEPARATION 1 5 
 
 Governor Harris, in his negotiations with the Confederate 
 authorities, was counselled and supported by both Whigs and 
 Democrats. Although the unfavorable verdict of the people 
 upon secession had not been formally reversed, he was con- 
 scious that a real change had taken place in their sentiments, 
 and that he was, in fact, executing their will by concluding 
 a military league with the Confederacy. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE 
 
 While we have attempted to show the untenable position 
 of those who maintain that the majority of the people of 
 Tennessee were opposed to separation and it was only a 
 coup d'etat of Governor Harris that carried the State into the 
 Confederacy, it is, however, true that a great number of her 
 inhabitants did resist withdrawal and remain openly loyal. 
 This was especially the case with East Tennessee. Her per- 
 sistent loyalty is a striking illustration of the physical 
 conditions and causes which lay behind the Civil War. Ten- 
 nessee had been settled by a common stock of pioneers 
 from North Carolina. Many of these, attracted by the 
 beautiful scenery and genial climate, had found homes east 
 of the Cumberland Mountains, while others had crossed the 
 mountains and taken possession of the rich tablelands and 
 the alluvial bottoms of Middle and West Tennessee. When 
 the State was admitted into the Union, in 1796, her popu- 
 lation was homogeneous. The institution of slavery existed 
 in all sections of the State. 
 
 In West and Middle Tennessee, where the soil and climate 
 were suitable for raising cotton, slave labor was very profita- 
 ble. In East Tennessee, the poor upland farms scarcely 
 yielded a return to white labor. As the result of this differ- 
 ence in natural conditions, slavery flourished in West and 
 Middle Tennessee, but in East Tennessee, by i860, it had 
 become almost extinct, except upon the rich plantations that 
 bordered the Tennessee River. The efforts to form a Con- 
 federacy based upon slavery found, therefore, no support 
 among the inhabitants of East Tennessee. Their interests 
 
 16 
 
LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE IJ 
 
 and sympathy were with the free States of the North, and 
 they rejected by a vote of two to one every proposal looking 
 toward separation. 
 
 In the eyes of the nation, Andrew Johnson stood as the 
 representative of East Tennessee loyalty. Upon the floor of 
 the United States Senate he denounced the withdrawal of 
 the Southern members as treason, and refused to vacate his 
 own seat even after Tennessee had been proclaimed by 
 Jefferson Davis a part of the Confederacy. 
 
 Next to Johnson, the most prominent Union man was W. 
 G. Brownlow, the editor of the Knoxville Whig. Mr. Brown- 
 low is in many respects the most unique figure in the his- 
 tory of Tennessee. He commenced life as a carpenter's 
 apprentice, but after serving his apprenticeship he entered 
 the Methodist ministry and travelled as a circuit rider for 
 ten years without intermission. His love of controversy 
 led him into most of the political and religious discussions 
 of the day, and gained for him the name of the " Fighting 
 Parson." About 1835 he became the editor and publisher 
 of a Whig newspaper, which rapidly gained a larger circula- 
 tion than any other political paper in the State. 
 
 In the presidential election of i860 Mr. Brownlow sup- 
 ported Bell and Everett. After the election his voice was 
 on the side of peaceful acquiescence in the results. In 
 vigorous editorials he denounced the sentiments expressed 
 in the message of Governor Harris to the extra session of the 
 Legislature. After the passage of the Convention Bill he 
 joined several prominent citizens in issuing a call for an 
 " East Tennessee Convention." Every county in East Ten- 
 nessee except two responded to the call. The Convention 
 assembled at Knoxville, on the 13th of May, 1861. The 
 delegates present numbered four hundred and sixty-nine, and 
 represented twenty-eight counties. Hon. Thos. A. R. Nelson 
 was elected chairman. On motion, he appointed a commit- 
 tee to prepare and report business for the Convention. 
 
1 8 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 This committee drew up an address to the people, which 
 was in part as follows : ' 
 
 " Our country is at this moment in a most deplorable 
 condition. The Constitution of the United States has 
 been openly contravened and set at defiance, while that of 
 our own State has shared no better fate, and by the 
 sworn representatives of the people has been utterly dis- 
 regarded. In this calamitous state of affairs, when the 
 liberties of the people are so imperilled and their most 
 valued rights endangered, it behooves them, in their primary 
 meetings and in all their other accustomed modes, to as- 
 semble, consult calmly as to their safety, and with firmness to 
 give expressions to their opinions and convictions of right. 
 
 " We, therefore, the delegates here assembled, represent- 
 ing and reflecting, as we verily believe, the opinions and 
 wishes of a large majority of the people of East Tennessee, 
 do resolve and declare ; 
 
 "That the evils which now afflict our beloved country, in 
 our opinion, are the legitimate offspring of the ruinous and 
 heretical doctrine of secession ; and that the people of East 
 Tennessee have ever been, and we believe still are, opposed 
 to it by a very large majority. That while the country is 
 now upon the very threshold of a most ruinous and deso- 
 lating Civil War, it may with truth be said, and we protest 
 before God, that the people, so far as we can see, have done 
 nothing to produce it. That the people of Tennessee, when 
 the question was submitted to them in February last, de- 
 cided by an overwhelming majority that the relations of 
 the State towards the Federal Government should not be 
 changed ; thereby expressing their preference for the Union 
 and the Constitution under which they had lived prosperously 
 and happily, and ignoring in the most emphatic manner the 
 idea that they had been oppressed by the General Govern- 
 ment in any of its acts, legislative, executive,or judicial. 
 
 ' Hume's, Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee. 
 
LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE I9 
 
 " That in view of a so decided expression of the will of the 
 people, in whom all power is inherent and on whose author- 
 ity all free governments are founded, and in the honest 
 •conviction that nothing has transpired since that time which 
 should change that deliberate judgment of the people, we 
 have contemplated with peculiar emotions the pertinacity 
 with which those in authority have labored to over-ride the 
 judgment of the people and to bring about the very re- 
 sult which the people themselves had so overwhelmingly 
 condemned. 
 
 " That the Legislative Assembly is but the creature of the 
 •Constitution of the State, and has no power to enact any 
 laws or to perform any act of sovereignty, except such as 
 may be authorized by that instrument : and believing, as we 
 do, that in their recent legislation, the General Assembly 
 have disregarded the rights of the people and transcended 
 their own legitimate powers, we feel constrained, and we in- 
 voke the people throughout the State, as they value their 
 liberties, to visit that hasty, unconsiderate, and unconstitu- 
 tional legislation with a decided rebuke, by voting on the 
 eighth day of next month against both the Act of Secession 
 and that of Union with the Confederate States. 
 
 " That the Legislature of the State, without having first 
 obtained the consent of the people, had no authority to 
 •enter a 'Military League' with the 'Confederate States' 
 against the General Government, and by so doing to put the 
 State of Tennessee in hostile array against the Government 
 of which it then was and still is a member. Such legislation 
 is in advance of the expressed will of the people to change 
 their governmental relations, was an act of usurpation, and 
 should be visited with the severest condemnation of the 
 people." 
 
 This report was unanimously adopted by the Convention 
 and ordered to be printed, so that it might be circulated 
 among the voters of the State. Before the Convention ad- 
 
20 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 journed it was addressed by Andrew Johnson. According 
 to a contemporary report, " he spoke for three hours and 
 commanded earnest attention throughout his entire speech." 
 
 In the election of June 8th, the vote of East Tennessee 
 stood: 14,780, separation; 39,923, no separation; 14,601^ 
 representation ; 32,962, no representation. 
 
 Nine days afterthe election, a second Convention of Union 
 men assembled at Greenville. Two hundred and ninety- 
 nine delegates were present. Many of them were in favor 
 of forming at once a Provisional Government and organizing 
 an army, but after a heated discussion more moderate coun- 
 sel prevailed. A Declaration of Grievances was drawn up 
 by the same committee that had prepared the address to the 
 people adopted by the Knoxville Convention. A new com- 
 mittee was appointed to prepare and present a memorial to 
 the State Legislature, asking its consent to the formation of 
 a new State to be composed of East Tennessee and such 
 counties in Middle Tennessee as desired to cooperate to that 
 end. But before this committee had an opportunity ta 
 present the memorial to the Legislature the Confederate 
 Government had put it beyond the power of Tennessee to act 
 in the matter by organizing East Tennessee into a military 
 department, and placing General Zolicoffer in supreme com- 
 mand. His presence in Knoxville with several regiments of 
 soldiers prevented any further steps towards the formation 
 of a new State hostile to the Confederacy. 
 
 There was at first no disposition on the part of the Con- 
 federate authorities to deal harshly with the loyal in- 
 habitants of East Tennessee, or to coerce them into the 
 Confederate army. They were allowed to remain undis- 
 turbed in their ordinary occupations. The general leniency 
 with which they were treated is shown by the fact that Mr. 
 Brownlow was allowed to continue the publication of the 
 Knoxville Whig, although every issue contained editorials 
 denouncing the action of Governor Harris and the Legisla- 
 
LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE 21 
 
 ture as treason and rebellion. This peaceful policy was 
 rudely disturbed by an act of the Union men themselves. 
 On the night of the eighth of November, an organized con- 
 spiracy was partially carried out by the bands of Union 
 men, to burn the bridges of the East Tennessee, Virginia, 
 and Georgia Railway. The bridges over the Hiwassee 
 River, Lick Creek, and three other streams were destroyed. 
 That one over the Holston River at Strawberry Plains was 
 saved by the bravery of the watchmen. 
 
 This attempt at bridge-burning created the utmost alarm 
 and excitement. The East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia 
 Railway was the main artery which connected Richmond 
 with the southwest. Thousand of troops were being hurried 
 over it daily in order to reach Richmond in time to defend 
 it from McClellan's advances. The road traversed the whole 
 eastern part of the State, and on account of its extent could 
 not be properly patrolled. Extraordinary measures must 
 thereupon be resorted to, in order to keep open this im- 
 portant line of communication, and protect the lives of the 
 soldiers from the terrible disaster which would have resulted 
 from the secret destruction of the bridges. 
 
 On the 25th of November, the Confederate Secretary of 
 War, Mr. Benjamin, sent the following orders to Colonel 
 Wood, who was in command of the troops at Knoxville: 
 
 " All such as can be identified in having been engaged in 
 bridge-burning are to be tried summarily by drum-head 
 court-martial, and if found guilty, executed on the spot by 
 hanging. It would be well to leave their bodies hanging in 
 the vicinity of the burned bridges." 
 
 This order was vigorously executed. A number of per- 
 sons suspected of complicity in the bridge-burning were 
 seized, and after a summary trial were executed in the man- 
 ner suggested by the Secretary of War. Martial law was 
 proclaimed, and the meetings of Union men forcibly 
 dispersed. 
 
22 DISUNION AND RES TOE A TION 
 
 As a result of these measures there now began a general 
 exodus of the able-bodied Union men. In small bands 
 they crossed over the mountains into Kentucky. Many of 
 them joined the Federal army, and rendered valuable 
 service. Others formed camps safely within the Union 
 lines, and quietly awaited the termination of the war. 
 Their most prominent leaders made tours of the Northern 
 cities, and raised funds for their support. Boston alone 
 contributed over one hundred thousand dollars to this 
 purpose.' Vast crowds listened to the eloquent appeals 
 of these exiled loyalists, and the impression became general 
 in the North that the Southern authorities were treating 
 the loyal mountaineers of East Tennessee with the most 
 savage cruelty. Edward Everett, in a brilliant oration, 
 compared them with followers of William Tell and the 
 slaughtered saints of Piedmont. 
 
 The sacrifices and sufferings of the loyal inhabitants of 
 East Tennessee were indeed very great, but there is no 
 evidence that they were treated by the Confederacy in any 
 manner not necessary and justified by the usages of war. 
 After the failure of its conciliatory policy, the Confederacy 
 either had to permit the erection of a hostile State within 
 the heart of its territorj^ or coerce the loyalists into submis- 
 sion. It naturally adopted the latter alternative. It is 
 frequently stated that in thus adopting coercive methods it 
 acted inconsistently with the principles under which it with- 
 drew from the Union. Mr. Everett, in the same speech 
 quoted above, said : " One would suppose that under the 
 usurped rule of men who profess to go to war for self- 
 government and State rights, the people of East Tennessee, 
 if for any reason they saw fit to do so, had a right to burn 
 their own bridges." 
 
 The absurdity of such statements lies in the fact that they 
 confuse the denial of coercive powers to federal government, 
 
 ' See Everett's "Account of the Fund for the Relief of East Tennessee." 
 
LOYALTY OF EAST TENNESSEE 23 
 
 with the denial of coercive powers to all government. The 
 first is State rights, but the second is anarchy. It was in 
 perfect harmony with the Southern theory of State 
 sovereignty, that Tennessee should use any means it saw fit, 
 to force its citizens into obedience to its laws. The Con- 
 federate army acted as the agent of the State in quelling 
 insurrection and rebellion in East Tennessee. 
 
 After the intense excitement created by the bridge- 
 burning had somewhat subsided, the Confederate and State 
 authorities again manifested a desire to win over, or at least 
 conciliate, the Union element. The commander at Knoxville 
 issued a proclamation to the " Disaffected People of East 
 Tennessee," and assured " all those interested who have fled 
 to the enemy's lines, and who are actually in their army, 
 that he will welcome their return to their homes and their 
 friends ; they are offered amnesty and protection, if they 
 come to lay down their arms, and act as loyal citizens." 
 But these conciliatory measures again met with failure, as it 
 soon became necessary to enforce the military drafts, which 
 aroused the greatest opposition. In the summer of 1863, 
 East Tennessee became the theatre of active war. Its 
 history for the next three years is to be found in the 
 military annals of the State. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 
 
 While Tennessee escaped both executive and congres- 
 sional reconstruction, it did not follow in the restoration of its 
 civil government the plan laid down by President Lincoln. 
 The most distinctive feature of Lincoln's reconstruction 
 policy lay in the fact that it made the old political people 
 in each of the Southern States self-acting nuclei, which were 
 to bring order out of chaos. According to this theory, 
 neither the President nor Congress had the power to recon- 
 struct a State government. The people within a State alone 
 had the right to initiate and carry into effect measures for 
 the rehabilitation of the deranged governmental machinery. 
 It was the duty of the President under Article IV, Section 4, 
 of the Constitution, to see that their efforts in this direction 
 did not prove abortive by reason of domestic violence. 
 
 The germs of this policy may be seen in the instructions 
 sent to the military governors. It was more fully developed 
 in the amnesty proclamation of Dec. 8, 1863. By the terms 
 of this proclamation, a general pardon was granted to all 
 " who directly or by implication had participated in the re- 
 bellion, with certain exceptions specified, upon their taking 
 an oath to henceforth support the Constitution of the 
 United States, and abide by the proclamations of the Presi- 
 dent and the acts of Congress in relation to slavery." It was 
 further promised, " that whenever a number of persons in 
 any of the rebel States, equal to not less than one tenth of the 
 votes cast in such State in the presidential election of the 
 year i860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not 
 having violated it, and being a qualified voter by the elec- 
 
 24 
 
THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 2$ 
 
 tion law of the State existing immediately before the so- 
 called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall estab- 
 lish a State government which shall be republican in form, 
 and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recog- 
 nized as the true government of the State." 
 
 This was, substantially, Lincoln's plan for reconstruction. 
 It was not carried out in any of the Southern States. In all, 
 except Tennessee, it was succeeded by executive reconstruc- 
 tion under Johnson, which was in turn supplanted by con- 
 gressional reconstruction. In Tennessee an entirely original 
 plan was adopted. This plan shut out from participation 
 in the work of organizing civil government, all those who 
 had taken part in secession. An oath of past loyalty was 
 made the test of political capacity. In short, the restored 
 civil government in Tennessee was based solely on that por- 
 tion of its inhabitants that had remained loyal to the Union. 
 These Union men, or Radicals as they chose to call them- 
 selves, composed about one third of the population of the 
 State, and represented about one fifth of the taxpayers. It 
 will be the object of this chapter to trace the steps by which 
 this small minority seized the reins of government and ex- 
 ercised for three years absolute control of the State. 
 
 After the fall of Fort Donelson, on February 15, 1862, 
 the greater part of Tennessee soon came into the posses- 
 sion of the Union army, president Lincoln immediately 
 appointed Andrew Johnson military governor. Athough 
 vested with almost unlimited powers, Governor Johnson 
 had at first little opportunity for their exercise, as the Union 
 army did not remain in peaceful possession of the State. 
 Along the southern border raged the bloody battles of 
 Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. 
 
 By the fall of 1863, the tide of battle had rolled so far 
 southward that the soil of Tennessee was at last free from 
 contending armies. The time had now arrived for the res- 
 toration of civil government. But Governor Johnson felt 
 
26 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 secure in the exercise of his power only so long as it rested 
 upon a military basis. He therefore seemed in no hurry to 
 reorganize the State government. He contented himself 
 with filling the vacant offices, most of which under the laws 
 were elective, by the appointment of his political friends 
 thereto. 
 
 The leaders of the Union men in the State, the majority of 
 whom were never in sympathy with Johnson, began to grow 
 restive under his military dictatorship. 
 
 In May, 1864, occurred Johnson's nomination for the Vice- 
 Presidency. He naturally desired to obtain the electoral vote 
 of his own State. A Convention was therefore called to 
 meet in Nashville for the purpose of nominating an electoral 
 ticket. The Union leaders seized the opportunity which the 
 Convention presented for perfecting an organization of the 
 Union party. A committee was appointed by the Conven- 
 tion, and empowered to issue a call for a second Convention. 
 
 The second Convention was called to meet in Nashville, 
 Dec. 19, 1864. It failed to convene on the day appointed, 
 as Nashville was at that time threatened by Hood's army. 
 The defeat of the Confederate forces in the battle of Nash- 
 ville removed the danger, and the Convention came together 
 on the third day of January, 1865, 
 
 The work of the Convention was summed up in the pass- 
 age of one resolution.' The first section contained this 
 statement of the authority under which it claimed to act : 
 " Whereas the first article and the first section of the 
 Declaration of Rights in the Constitution of the State 
 of Tennessee declares, 'That all power is inherent in the 
 people, and all free governments are founded on their au- 
 thority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness ; 
 and that for the advancement of these ends they have at all 
 times an inahenable and indefeasable right to alter, reform, 
 or amend the governments as they may think proper,' We, 
 ' Laws of Tennessee, 1865, Introductory Documents, p. 3. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 2/ 
 
 the people of Tennessee, in Convention assembled, do pro- 
 pose the following alterations and amendments to the Con- 
 stitution, which, when ratified by the sovereign loyal people 
 shall be and constitute a permanent part of the Constitution 
 of Tennessee." This assertion of constituent powers by the 
 Convention was purely a revolutionary act. The Constitu- 
 tion could be legally changed only in the manner prescribed 
 by the Constitution itself. In the third section of the eleventh 
 article, it provided that all amendments must originate with 
 the State Legislature. In no sense could the Convention be 
 held to represent the Legislature. It was therefore in the 
 eyes of the law a body of private citizens. 
 
 The second section of the resolution passed by the Con- 
 vention contained the proposed amendments. The most 
 important were : the abolition of slavery, the declaration of 
 the invalidity of the secession acts, and an article giving 
 the Legislature the power to determine the suffrage. It was 
 further provided that these amendments should be submitted 
 to a vote of the people, and if ratified by the majority of 
 those voting, the military governor was ordered to hold 
 an election for Governor and Legislature. All voters should 
 be required to take the following oath : " I solemnly swear 
 that I will henceforth support the Constitution of the 
 United States, and defend it against the assaults of all its 
 enemies ; that I am an active friend of the government of 
 the United States, and the enemy of the so-called Confede- 
 rate States ; that I ardently desire the suppression of the 
 present rebellion against the United States; that I rejoice 
 in the triumph of the armies and navies of the United States, 
 and in the defeat of the armies, navies, and all other armed 
 combinations of the so-called Confederate States; that I will 
 cordially oppose all armistices or negotiations for peace with 
 rebels in arms until the Constitution of the United States 
 and all laws and proclamations made in pursuance thereof, 
 shall be established over all the people of every State and 
 
28 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 territory embraced within the national Union; and that I 
 will heartily aid and assist the loyal people in whatever 
 measures may be adopted for the attainment of these ends • 
 and further, that I take this oath freely and voluntarily and 
 without mental reservation, so help me God." 
 
 This test oath marks the first grave departure from Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's plan. He had suggested a simple oath " to 
 henceforth " support the Constitution on the principle, as he 
 expressed in his message to Congress, that " that test is a 
 sufificient one which accepts as sound whoever will make a 
 sworn recantation of his former unsoundness." This test 
 oath, framed by the Convention, went much further and 
 virtually disfranchised all who had served in the Confederate 
 army. 
 
 The Convention completed its labors by nominating a 
 candidate for Governor, and a general ticket for the Legisla- 
 ture. It thus combined the functions of a political and 
 constitutional convention. 
 
 Governor Johnson now had no motive for delaying the 
 reorganization of the State government, as it was only a 
 month until his inauguration as Vice-President. He there- 
 upon gave force to the action of the Convention by a proc- 
 lam.ation ordering a vote of the people to be taken in the 
 mode prescribed by the Convention. The election was held 
 on February 22d, and resulted in 25,293 for, 48 against. 
 On February 25th, Johnson issued a second proclamation 
 declaring the amendment ratified, and ordering an election 
 for Governor and Legislature. The second election occurred 
 on the 4th of March. W. G. Brownlow, the candidate 
 for Governor, received 23,352 votes against 35 scattering. 
 The legislative candidates received the same number of 
 votes as the election was by general ticket. 
 
 In the presidential election of i860 the vote of the State 
 was 145,000. Johnson therefore held that Tennessee had 
 fulfilled the 10 per cent, requirement of Lincoln's amnesty 
 
THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 29 
 
 proclamation. He issued a final proclamation in which he 
 attempted to set the stamp of legality upon the newly 
 elected Governor and Legislature. 
 
 The energies of the new State government were immedi- 
 ately directed toward securing the continued ascendancy of 
 the Union party. This was at first an easy matter, as one 
 of the new amendments to the Constitution had given the 
 Legislature the power of determining the suffrage qualifica- 
 tions. 
 
 The Legislature convened on the 2d of April. On the 
 7th Brownlow was inaugurated. His message contained the 
 following brief reference to the all-important question of 
 the franchise : " While I would not recommend you to give 
 way to the impulse of vengeance any more than to the ap- 
 peals of sympathy and pity, I would urge you to guard the 
 ballot-box faithfully and effectually against the approach of 
 treason, no matter in what character it may come." ' 
 
 Most of the Union leaders in the Legislature desired the 
 absolute disfranchisement of the " rebels," but it was feared 
 so extreme a measure would arouse hostility in Congress to 
 seating the Representatives from Tennessee. A compromise 
 bill, known as the Arnell BilV was finally passed. By its 
 provisions the right to vote was restricted to the following 
 persons : " White men over twenty-one years old, who were 
 publicly known to have entertained unconditional Union 
 sentiment from the outbreak of the Rebellion, or who ar- 
 rived at age since March 4, 1866, and who had not been 
 engaged in armed rebellion against the United States Gov- 
 ernment, also those who had served in the Federal army, 
 and been honorably discharged, those who had been con- 
 scripted by force in the Confederate army, and were known 
 to be Union men^ and all those who had voted at the elec- 
 tion in March and February, 1865." All other persons were 
 disfranchised. For all persons who had held civil or diplo- 
 ' Laws of Tennessee, 1865, 1-15. "^ Ibid., p. 32. 
 
30 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 matic office under the Confederate Government, or who had 
 held military offices above the ranks of captain in the Con- 
 federate army, or lieutenant in the Confederate navy, also 
 for those who had resigned from the Congress of the United 
 States, or the army or navy of the United States, the 
 term of disfranchisement was for fifteen years. For all 
 other persons from whom the suffrage was withheld the 
 disfranchisement was to last only four years. 
 
 The first election to occur after the passage of the Arnell 
 Franchise Law, was the congressional election of August 3, 
 1865. All the candidates were Union men, but one set repre- 
 sented the conservative element which opposed disfranchise- 
 ment and tests oaths. The Radicals felt perfectly confident 
 of defeating the Conservatives, if the provisions of the new 
 law were carried out. But it soon became evident that the 
 Radicals had much to fear both from open violation of the 
 law, and secret intimidation of the voter. Governor Brown- 
 low, on the loth of July, issued a proclamation declaring 
 " that all who had banded together to defeat the franchise 
 law would be dealt with as rebels." 
 
 The election passed off without violence. On the loth 
 of August, before all the returns were in, Governor Brown- 
 low requested the clerks and sheriffs to give him information 
 as to illegal voting. On the information thus received, he 
 cast out the vote of twenty-five counties. Notwithstanding 
 this action of the Governor, four of the Conservatives were 
 elected. 
 
 The August election demonstrated to the Union party the 
 necessity of enacting a more efficient machinery for executing 
 the election laws. On January 19, 1866, a new franchise bill 
 was introduced in the Legislature.' It made the disfranchise- 
 ment of the ex-Confederates perpetual. It also established 
 the office of the Commissioner of Registration in each 
 county, and required that certificates of registration issued 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, 1866-67, P- 26. 
 
THE RESTORATION OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 3 1 
 
 by these commissioners should be presented by every voter 
 in all elections, municipal, county, and State. The power of 
 appointing and removing these commissioners was given to 
 the Governor. He was also authorized to cast out any regis- 
 tration he considered illegal. This made him absolute judge 
 of elections. The bill was passed May 3, 1866. It was 
 amended in November so as to give the suffrage to the 
 negro. The ascendancy of the Union party in Tennessee 
 was now secured, so far as State statute could accomplish 
 this result. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS 
 
 The Radical leaders in Tennessee naturally expected that 
 the readmission of the Representatives to their seats in Con- 
 gress would immediately follow the restoration of the State 
 government. Therefore, upon the assembling of the first 
 session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, the full delegation from 
 Tennessee was present on the floor, ready to answer to their 
 names. When Mr. Edward McPherson, the clerk of the 
 House, omitted the name of Tennessee along with the other 
 Southern States from the preliminary roll-call, Mr. Horace 
 Maynard created a dramatic scene by waving aloft his cer- 
 tificate of election, and demanding recognition. In the 
 discussion which followed the roll-call, the cause of Mr. 
 Maynard was championed by Mr. Brooks, the leader of the 
 Democratic minority. "If Mr. Maynard," he said, "is not 
 a loyal man, and is not from a State in this Union, what man, 
 then, is loyal? In the darkest and most doubtful period of 
 the war, when an exile from his own State, I heard his elo- 
 quent voice on the banks of the St. Lawrence rousing the 
 people of my State to discharge their duties to their country." 
 The action of Mr. McPherson was upheld by a vote of the 
 House. 
 
 This refusal to seat the Tennessee Representatives arose, 
 partly on account of the failure to distinguish between the 
 loyal government in Tennessee, and the so-called Johnson 
 governments, but chiefly because the Republican leaders 
 wished to delay action until a complete reconstruction policy 
 could be mapped out. The Representatives continued, 
 however, to press the claims of the State for recognition 
 
 32 
 
RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS 33 
 
 before the "Joint Committee of Fifteen," to which was 
 referred all measures affecting the status of the Southern 
 States. 
 
 This Committee was just on the point of yielding, when 
 the veto of the Freedman Bureau Bill occurred. The day 
 after the veto, Mr. Stevens brought before the House, from 
 the Committee of Fifteen, a "concurrent resolution con- 
 cerning the insurrectionary States," as follows : " Be it 
 resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate con- 
 curring), that in order to close agitation upon a question 
 which seems likely to disturb the action of the Government, 
 as well as to quiet the uncertainty which is agitating the 
 minds of the people of the eleven States which have been 
 declared to be in insurrection, no Senator or Representative 
 shall be admitted to either branch of Congress, from any of 
 the said States until Congress shall have declared such State 
 entitled to such representation," A strong effort was made 
 to exempt Tennessee from the provisions of the Resolution. 
 Mr. Grider, a member of the Committee of Fifteen, offered, 
 to that effect, a minority report as follows: "The minority 
 of the Committee on Reconstruction, on the part of the 
 House, beg leave to report that said committee have caused 
 an inquiry to be made as to the condition and loyalty of 
 Tennessee. There has been a large amount of evidence 
 taken, a part of it conducing to show that at some localities 
 occasionally there have been some irregularities and disaf- 
 fection, yet the main direction and weight of the testimony 
 are ample and conclusive to show that a great body of the 
 people in said State are not only loyal and willing, but 
 anxious to have and maintain amicable, sincere, and patri- 
 otic relations with the General Government. Such being 
 the state of facts, we offer the following resolution, to wit: 
 
 ''Resolved, That the State of Tennessee is entitled to 
 representation in the Thirty-ninth Congress, and the repre- 
 sentatives elected from and by said State are hereby ad- 
 
34 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 mitted to take their seats therein upon being qualified by- 
 oath according to law." 
 
 In speaking in opposition to this minority resolution, Mr. 
 Stevens said : " I think I may say without impropriety, 
 that until yesterday there was an investigation into the con- 
 dition of Tennessee, to see whether by act of Congress we 
 could admit that State to a condition of representation here, 
 and admit its members to seats here, but since yesterday 
 there has arisen a state of things which the committee deem 
 puts it out of their power to proceed further without surren- 
 dering a great principle, without the loss of all their dignity, 
 without surrendering the rights of this body to the usurpation 
 of another power." The " Concurrent Resolution," intro- 
 duced by Mr. Stevens, was carried without amendment, so the 
 readmission of Tennessee was again postponed indefinitely. 
 
 Two months later, however, its readmission was fore- 
 shadowed in a speech by Mr. Bingham on the Fourteenth 
 Amendment. " I trust," he said, " that this amendment will 
 pass this House, that the day will soon come when Tennes- 
 see — loyal Tennessee — loyal in the very heart of the rebel- 
 lion, her mountains and plains blasted by the very ravagers 
 of war and stained with blood of her faithful children fallen 
 in the great struggle for the maintenance of the Union, 
 having already conformed her constitution and laws to every 
 provision of this amendment, will at once, upon its sub- 
 mission by Congress, irrevocably ratify it, and be, with- 
 out further delay, represented in Congress by her loyal 
 Representatives and Senators. Let that great example be 
 set by Tennessee, and it will be worth a hundred thousand 
 votes to the loyal people in the free North." 
 
 The suggestion contained in this speech was promptly 
 acted upon by the Radical government in Tennessee. On 
 the 19th of June, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified 
 by the Legislature. Mr. Brownlow immediately sent the 
 following telegram to Washington : 
 
RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS 35 
 
 "Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, July i8. 
 
 To Hon. E. M. Stanton, Sec. of War, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 " My compliments to the President. We have carried the 
 
 Constitutional Amendment in the House. Vote 43 to 18; 
 
 two of his tools refusing to vote. 
 
 " W. G. Brownlow." 
 
 On the same day the news of this ratification was re- 
 ceived, Mr. Bingham introduced into the House the 
 following resolution : 
 
 " Joint resolution declaring Tennessee again entitled to 
 Senators and Representatives in Congress. 
 
 ''Whereas, The State of Tennessee has in good faith rati- 
 fied the article of amendment to the Constitution of the 
 United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress to the 
 Legislatures of the several States, and has also shown, to 
 the satisfaction of Congress, by the proper spirti of obedi- 
 ence in the body of her people, her return to her due 
 allegiance to the Government, laws, and authority of the 
 United States; therefore, 
 
 Be it resolved by the Senate and the House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 
 bled, That the State of Tennessee is hereby restored to her 
 former proper practical relation in the Union, and again en- 
 titled to be represented by Senators and Representatives in 
 Congress, duly elected and qualified, upon their taking the 
 oaths of ofifice required by existing laws." 
 
 In urging the immediate adoption of the resolution, Mr. 
 Bingham declared that : " Inasmuch as Tennessee has con- 
 formed to all our requirements ; inasmuch as she has, by a 
 majority of her whole Legislature in each House, ratified the 
 amendment in good faith ; inasmuch as she has of her own 
 voluntary will conformed her constitution and laws to the 
 Constitution and Laws of the United States ; inasmuch as 
 
36 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 she has by her fundamental law forever prohibited the 
 assumption or payment of the rebel debt, or the enslave- 
 ment of men ; inasmuch as she has by her own constitution 
 declared that rebels shall not exercise any of the political 
 power of the State or vote at elections ; and thereby giving 
 the American people assurance of her determination to 
 stand by this great measure of security for the future of the 
 Republic, Tennessee is as much entitled to be represented 
 here as any other State of the Union." 
 
 The resolution was opposed by a few members on the 
 ground that Tennessee had not, as yet, conferred the suffrage 
 upon the negro. Mr. Boutwell offered an amendment pro- 
 viding that Tennessee should not be readmitted until it had 
 established an " equal and just system of suffrage." 
 
 On June 20th the resolution passed the House, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five voting in the affirmative, and twelve in 
 the negative. On the succeeding day, it came up for con- 
 sideration in the Senate. Mr. Trumbull proposed, in the 
 place of the preamble which had been framed by Mr. 
 Bingham and passed by the House, the following substitute: 
 " Whereas, In the year 1861, the government of the 
 State of Tennessee was seized upon and taken possession of 
 by persons in hostility to the United States, and the inhabi- 
 tants of said State in pursuance of an act of Congress were de- 
 clared to be in a state of insurrection against the United 
 States, and whereas said State government can be restored 
 to its former political relations in the Union only by the 
 consent of the law-making power of the United States ; and 
 whereas the people of said State did on the 22d of February, 
 1865, by a large and popular vote adopt and ratify a consti- 
 tution of government whereby slavery was abolished, and all 
 ordinances and laws of secession and debts contracted under 
 the same were declared void ; and whereas a State govern- 
 ment has been organized under said Constitution, which has 
 ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 
RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS 37 
 
 States abolishing slavery, also the amendment proposed by 
 the Thirty-ninth Congress, and has done other acts 
 proclaiming and denoting loyalty ; Therefore, etc." 
 
 Mr. Sherman opposed the substitution of this preamble on 
 the ground that it would probably cause the President to 
 veto the resolution. "These political dogmas," he said, 
 " cannot receive the sanction of the President, and to insert 
 them will only create delay, and postpone the admission of 
 Tennessee." 
 
 After a considerable discussion, the question being taken 
 on the passage of the preamble as substituted by the Senate, 
 together with the resolution of the House, resulted in 
 twenty-eight votes in the afifirmative, and four in the nega- 
 tive. The House promptly agreed to the amendment of 
 the Senate, and the joint resolution was sent to the 
 President for his approval. 
 
 The President approved the joint resolution, but sent a 
 message to the House which was in the nature of a protest 
 against the opinions expressed in the preamble. After 
 giving at length his objections to the preamble, the 
 President said : 
 
 " Earnestly desiring to remove every cause of further 
 delay, whether real or imaginary, on the part of Congress to 
 the admission to their seats of loyal Senators and Represen- 
 tatives from the State of Tennessee, I have, notwithstanding 
 the anomalous character of this proceeding, affixed my sig- 
 nature to the resolution. My approval, however, is not to 
 be construed as an acknowledgment of the right of Congress 
 to pass laws, preliminary to the admission of duly qualified 
 representatives from any of the States. Neither is it to be 
 construed as committing me to all the statements made in 
 t;he preamble, some of which are, in my opinion, without 
 foundation in fact, especially the assertion that the State of 
 Tennessee has ratified the amendment to the Constitution 
 of the United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress. 
 
38 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 No official notice of such ratification has been received by 
 the Executive, or filed in the Department of State ; on the 
 contrary, unofficial information from most reliable sources, 
 induces the belief that the amendment has not yet been 
 constitutionally sanctioned by the Legislature of Tennessee. 
 The right of each House, under the Constitution, to judge 
 of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own mem- 
 bers is undoubted, and my approval or disapproval of the 
 resolution could not in the slightest degree increase or 
 diminish the authority in this respect conferred upon the 
 two branches of Congress." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 TENNESSEE AND THE NEW AMENDMENTS 
 
 The deed of cession of Tennessee to the United States 
 by North Carolina contained the provision " that no regula- 
 tion made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emanci- 
 pate slaves." The constitution under which Tennessee was 
 admitted into the Union also recognized slavery by the 
 use of the term " freeman " throughout the bill of rights. 
 It was, however, exceedingly liberal in regard to the suffrage, 
 conferring it upon every " freeman of the age of twenty-one 
 years, and upwards." Under this provision, free negroes 
 were allowed to vote. 
 
 About 1830, there developed a strong movement in favor 
 of emancipation. At Jonesborough was established the 
 first abolition newspaper ever published in America. But 
 this emancipation sentiment had entirely disappeared by 
 i860. Even in East Tennessee, the most extreme opponents 
 of secession were firm believers in slavery. 
 
 The Emancipation Proclamation of January i, 1863, did 
 not include Tennessee within its provisions. Slavery, there- 
 fore continued to exist as a legal institution until abolished 
 by an amendment to the State constitution. This amend- 
 ment, as we have seen, was framed by the Radical Conven- 
 tion of 1865. In April, of the same year, Gov. Brownlow 
 laid before the Legislature a joint resolution of Congress 
 containing the proposed Thirteenth Amendment. It was 
 promptly ratified. 
 
 In his initial message. Gov. Brownlow discussed, at con- 
 siderable length, the race problem. He sought to impress 
 upon the Legislature, " that some legislation was neces- 
 
 39 
 
40 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 sary for the protection, government, and control of the 
 emancipated slave." The Legislature did not enter upon 
 this work immediately. It was not till May ii, 1866, that 
 a bill was passed entitled, "An act to define the term, * A 
 Person of Color,' and to declare the rights of such persons." 
 
 The first section of this act provided that under the term 
 " Person of Color " should be included all " negroes, 
 mulatoes, meztigsoes, and their descendants having African 
 blood," The second section declared : " That persons of 
 color have the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue 
 and be sued, to be parties and give evidence, and have full 
 and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security 
 of person and estate, and shall not be subject to any other 
 or different punishment, pains, or penalty for the commission 
 of any act or offence than such as are prescribed for white 
 persons committing like acts or offences." By the fifth sec- 
 tion, slave marriages were legalized. The last section declared 
 that nothing in the act should be so construed as to admit 
 persons of color to serve on the jury, or to require the 
 education of colored and white children in the same school. 
 
 Soon after the passage of this act occurred the great 
 struggle over the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. 
 At the time of its submission by Congress to the State the 
 Legislature was not in session. Gov. Brownlow, therefore, 
 issued a call for an extra session to convene on July 4th. 
 The members were very slow in assembling. It became 
 apparent that the opponents of the amendment in the 
 Lower House would seek to defeat its ratification by pre- 
 venting a quorum, which was fixed by the constitution at 
 two thirds of all the members. Upon the first roll-call only 
 forty-two members answered to their names. At the third 
 meeting this list was increased to fifty-four, but it still fell 
 short two votes of the necessary two thirds. The Sergeant- 
 at-arms was, therefore, instructed to arrest the absentees, and 
 bring them by force to the floor of the House. He did not 
 
TENNESSEE AND THE NEW AMENDMENTS 4 1 
 
 find this an easy task, as the refractory members sought by 
 every means possible to elude his search. 
 
 The following extract from his report gives a glimpse of 
 the ludicrous game of hide-and-seek enacted in different 
 parts of the State : 
 
 " I have the honor to report that in compliance with in- 
 struction that I should proceed to Hamilton County, and 
 arrest George B. Foster, member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, I proceeded to Chattanooga on Friday the 13th, 
 1866, arriving on the morning of the fourteenth, at 2 o'clock ; 
 communicated with the Sergeant of the Metropolitan Police, 
 procured a wagon, and, in company with Sergeant Bently, 
 proceeded to the summit of Lookout Mountain, to the resi- 
 dence of Mr. Foster, and was there informed by his family 
 that he had ridden out in the country ; carefully watched 
 the premises without result until evening; was informed 
 that he would be home that night ; lay up on the mountain 
 all night, awaiting his return. Mr. Foster did not return. 
 I am satisfied that his family on the mountain, at the time 
 of my leaving them, did not positively know of his where- 
 abouts, although there was a manifest intention on their 
 part to mislead as to his locality. I found it impossible to 
 conceal my business, and destination, — the resolution of the 
 House and order for the arrest of the absentees having 
 been published and otherwise communicated." ' 
 
 Several of the members attempted to resign, but Governor 
 Brownlow refused to accept their resignations. He sent 
 the following response to Mr. Dunnaway, representative 
 from Bedford County: "Sir, — As it is evident the design of 
 your resignation is to reduce the House below a quorum and 
 to break up the Legislature, the same is not accepted." 
 
 Exasperated at the repeated failure of the Sergeant-at- 
 arms to arrest the hiding members, Governor Brownlow, on 
 the 14th of July, applied to General Thomas for military 
 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1866. 
 
42 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 assistance. This request was referred to the Secretary of 
 War, Mr. Stanton, who replied :" That the duty of the 
 United States forces is not to interfere in any way in the 
 controversies between the political authorities of the State, 
 and Gen. Thomas will strictly refrain from any interfer- 
 ence between them." 
 
 The deadlock was finally broken on the 19th of July, in a 
 somewhat extraordinary manner. Two members, arrested 
 by the Sergeant-at-arms, were brought to the Capitol, and 
 placed in a committee-room communicating with the hall 
 of the House. A motion was then passed that they " be 
 invited and required to take their seats within the bar of 
 the House." The two members refused to come out of the 
 committee and continued to remain silent when their names 
 were called. The Speaker thereupon declared that no 
 quorum was present. An appeal was taken from this ruling, 
 and it was reversed. The House then proceeded to a vote 
 upon the amendment ; and it was declared duly ratified, 
 forty-three votes having been cast in the af^rmative, and 
 eleven in the negative. 
 
 In the meantime, Mr. Williams, one of the arrested mem- 
 bers, applied for and obtained a writ of habeas corpus. It 
 was made returnable to Thomas N, Frazier, Judge of the 
 Criminal Court of Davidson County, who, upon the hearing 
 of the case, discharged Mr. Williams from the custody of 
 the Sergeant-at-arms. On account of this decision, the 
 House of Representatives preferred articles of impeach, 
 ment against Judge Frazier. He was tried by the Senate, 
 sitting as a Court of Impeachment. It sustained the ar- 
 ticles of impeachment, and deposed Judge Frazier from 
 office. He was also forever disqualified from holding any 
 office of profit or trust in the State. His disqualifications 
 were however removed by the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1870, and he was afterward re-elected Criminal Judge. 
 
 The Fifteenth Amendment was submitted to Tennessee in 
 
TENNESSEE AND THE NEW AMENDMENTS 43 
 
 1869, just before the close of the radical era. The suffrage 
 had been conferred upon the negro by an act of the Legis- 
 lature of the previous year, but it was known that the whole 
 question would be reopened by the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion which had just been called. The; Legislature, there- 
 fore, refused to take final action on the amendment. It was 
 referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, from which 
 it was never reported. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE RADICAL 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 The joint resolution of July 24, 1866, completed, so far 
 as Congress was concerned, the restoration of civil govern- 
 ment in Tennessee. Her Senators and Representatives were 
 admitted to their seats, and the State, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, was restored to the same position it had occupied 
 prior to the attempted withdrawal in 1861. 
 
 The political basis of the restored government was, as we 
 have pointed out, the loyal people of the State. They 
 consisted mainly of four elements, namely, the inhabitants 
 of the small towns and the upland farms of East Tennessee, 
 and poor whites, or " white trash," as they were commonly 
 called, scattered throughout the State, a few " old-line " 
 Whigs in West and Middle Tennessee, and lastly the negro 
 and the carpetbagger. This ruling minority was, therefore, 
 neither an aristocracy of wealth, intelligence, nor social posi- 
 tion. It could not be expected that the management of 
 public affairs by such hands would be just and conservative. 
 From the beginning it showed a tendency toward reckless 
 expenditures and an entire disregard of property rights. Mr. 
 Brownlow, in his first message to the Legislature, advised a 
 general increase in the salaries of State officials. This ad- 
 vice came at a time when the finances were at a low ebb, 
 and the whole industrial and agricultural interests of the 
 community were thoroughly demoralized. Nevertheless, the 
 Legislature was only too ready to carry these suggestions 
 of Governor Brownlow into execution. They passed a bill 
 increasing the salaries of the supreme judges from $2000 to 
 
 44 
 
RADICAL FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 45 
 
 $5CX)0 a year. This was followed by other bills increasing 
 the salaries of the various State officials. This resulted 
 in an enormous increase in the current expenditures of the 
 State. 
 
 The whole expenses of the State government for the 
 years 185 1 to 1861, inclusive, had been about $6,500,000. 
 The entire expenses during the Brownlow administration, 
 which lasted only three years and a half, were $7,301,352. 
 The taxes in 1868 were fourfold greater than in 1861, 
 yet on the former date, the Comptroller announced in his 
 report to the Legislature that the State was on the verge of 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 But the most troublesome legacy Mr. Brownlow left the 
 people of Tennessee was an increase in the State debt of 
 $21,647,000. 
 
 By an Act of the Legislature in 1852, known as the Gen- 
 eral Internal Improvement Law, the Governor had been 
 empowered to issue State bonds to the amount of $8000 
 per mile in aid of railroad companies, upon the following 
 conditions: '' i. That the company shall first secure bona- 
 fide subscriptions to its capital stock to an amount sufficient 
 to grade, bridge, and prepare for the inner rails the whole 
 extent of the main trunk line proposed to be constructed ; 
 2. That it be shown by the company to the Governor that 
 the said subscriptions are good and solvent ; 3. That the 
 company shall have graded, bridged, and made ready to put 
 down the necessary timbers, for the reception of rails, and 
 fully completed a specified number of miles at either ter- 
 minus in a good and substantial manner, with good material 
 for putting the iron rails and equipments in place, and that 
 the State shall be given a first-mortgage lien on their 
 property ; 4. That the Governor shall be notified of these 
 facts by the written affidavits of the Chief Engineers and 
 President of the Company, together with the written affi- 
 davit of a competent engineer appointed by the Governor to 
 
46 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 examine the specified section ; and shall be furnished with 
 an affidavit of the President of the Company, and a resolu- 
 tion of a majority of its Board of Directors for the time 
 being, pledging that the bonds issued to it shall not be 
 used for any other purpose than that of procuring the iron 
 rails, chairs, spikes, and equipments, and for putting down 
 the iron rails on the specified section for which they are 
 issued ; and that the President shall deposit in the office of 
 the Secretary of State a full and accurate list of all the 
 stockholders, with the sum subscribed by each and every 
 stockholder." 
 
 Under the provisions of this act, there had been issued, 
 prior to the war, bonds amounting to $14,841,000. In the 
 main, the conditions enumerated in the act, were fairly com- 
 plied with, and the State protected from all loss. 
 
 The close of the war left the railroads, like every other in- 
 dustrial interest in the State, in a thoroughly demoralized 
 condition. Upon the first arrival of the Federal troops, they 
 had been seized by the Government and used for military 
 purposes. A great part of the rolling stock had been de- 
 stroyed, and many of the bridges and buildings burnt. 
 
 As soon as the restored government was in working 
 order, the railroad interests turned to the State treasury for 
 relief. This was obtained through the passage of a number 
 of bills, which professed to be based upon the Act of 1852. 
 They were known as Omnibus bills, and under their pro- 
 visions bonds to the amount of $14,393,000 were issued. 
 
 The means resorted to to secure the passage of the 
 Omnibus bills furnished the greatest scandals of the restor- 
 ation period. They are vividly set forth in the following 
 extract from the Report of the Committee of Investigation 
 appointed by the Legislature of 1879: 
 
 " Many corporate presidents, agents, and representatives 
 came to Nashville to attend the sittings of the Legislature. 
 All known influences were used upon the supposed repre- 
 
RADICAL FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 47 
 
 sentatives of the people. From the pulpit to the bagnio, 
 recruits were gathered for the assault on the treasury of the 
 State. Fine brandy by the barrel was on hand to fire thirst 
 and muddle the brain, and first-class suits of clothing to 
 capture the vanity or avarice of the gay or needy. Money, 
 the proceeds of the bonds issued by the State, for specific 
 purpose to these men, was here in abundance, and it was 
 used. Take one example : A man came to the State. He 
 was appointed Receiver of two short insolvent railroads at 
 a salary of $5000. He was appointed Commissioner of 
 Registration for Franklin County. He sent his Superin- 
 tendent to the Legislature of 1867 as a member. That 
 member, in conjunction with a certain Senator, was active 
 in procuring ' State aid.' The Commissioner and Receiver 
 let out contracts on his road, and was a silent member. The 
 proof shows that this Receiver, this member, and this Senator 
 formed a conspiracy to defraud the State. About a million 
 dollars of bonds issued under the Act of 1867 went into the 
 hands of the Receiver. Take another: A president of a 
 railroad would sell bonds and apply a portion of the pro- 
 ceeds in corrupt efforts to get more bonds. They got bonds 
 for roads that had never been surveyed and located. One 
 railroad president says that he had great influence with the 
 Governor, that another railroad president wanted bonds and 
 desired his services with said Governor, that he got them, 
 that, in addition to pay directly for his services and influences 
 with the Governor, he was to have control of a portion of 
 the bonds obtained to use as margin in stock speculations in 
 New York. They got 885 bonds in New York. This man 
 of influence with the Governor further says that he and 
 the other president were partners in stock speculation, 
 and used the bonds obtained from the State in these 
 speculations." 
 
 When the Democrats regained control of the State, the 
 settlement of the State debt, which had been so greatly 
 
48 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 increased by the Brownlow Administration, proved a most 
 perplexing question. It became an apple of political discord, 
 and retarded the industrial and commercial regeneration of 
 the State. It disrupted the Democratic party into three 
 factions. A few of the most prominent leaders desired to 
 see the State's credit preserved by paying the bonds in full. 
 A still larger number, while recognizing the validity of the 
 bonds, conscientiously believed that the State, on account of 
 the amount of the debt, and the demoralized business condi- 
 tions resulting from the war, would be unable to meet its just 
 obligations. They therefore favored some agreement with 
 the bondholders, whereby the debt could be scaled without 
 inflicting dishonor upon the State. A third faction was 
 for open repudiation. They contended that the bonds were 
 illegal on two grounds, first, they had been issued in direct 
 violation of the conditions precedent laid down in the 
 Internal Improvement Act of 1852, and its amendments; 
 secondly, the Brownlow Administration, which had issued 
 the bonds, did not represent the State, it was a mere interim 
 of usurpation and revolutionary government. While for 
 purposes of convenience its acts, which affected merely 
 private rights, should not be disturbed, nevertheless it 
 could not pledge the credit of the State. 
 
 In 1873 a Funding Act was passed by the Legislature. It 
 provided that all past due coupons and bonds might be 
 funded into new bonds bearing interest at six per cent., re- 
 deemable after July i, 1884, and payable July i, 1914. 
 Coupons on the new bonds were payable on January and 
 July of each year, beginning with July, 1874. The question 
 as to the validity of the Brownlow bonds was avoided by 
 inserting a provision that only " bonds legally issued should 
 be funded." But the State ofificials ignored this provision 
 by funding all the bonds that were presented. 
 
 This Funding Act of 1873 proved a failure. The State 
 was unable to meet its interest on the new bonds. A series 
 
RADICAL FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 49 
 
 of bad crops increased the difficulty. The assessment 
 returns for 1874, as compared with those of 1873, exhibited 
 a decrease of $18,556,173. 
 
 On January i, 1877, the arrears of interest amounted to 
 $1,570,646. It now became apparent to the bondholders 
 that they must either effect some compromise with the 
 State, or run the risk of losing the entire debt. They, 
 therefore, entered into personal communications with the 
 Governor, and signified to him their willingness to com- 
 promise. Their communications were laid before the Legis- 
 lature, and it adopted on January 26, 1877, the following 
 resolution : 
 
 " Whereas, The General Assembly has with pleasure 
 received, through the message of his Excellency the Gov- 
 ernor, the communications of certain gentlemen, holders of 
 bonds of the State, and representatives of holders of bonds, 
 asking for a conference looking to a permanent and equita- 
 ble adjustment and compromise of the claims held by them 
 against the State ; therefore, be it 
 
 " Resolved, By the General Assembly, that the Governor 
 be requested to communicate by telegram, or by letter, 
 with the gentlemen holding securities of the State, men- 
 tioned in his message, and request them to submit, on the 
 earliest day possible, through him, to the General Assembly 
 any proposition of adjustment and compromise, which they 
 may desire." 
 
 As the result of this resolution, a committee of the Legis- 
 lature and a committee of the bondholders met and agreed 
 to the following proposition : " That arrearages of interest 
 to July I, 1877, be added to the bonds, and that new ones 
 for sixty per cent, of the total amount be issued, made to 
 bear interest at six per cent., and to fall due in thirty years." 
 It was naturally expected that the Legislature would 
 ratify the action of its committee. Much to the surprise of 
 every one concerned, it not only rejected the proposition, 
 
50 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 but decreased the tax rate from forty to ten cents per hun- 
 dred dollars, and thus made the payment of interest abso- 
 lutely impossible. 
 
 Later in the year the bondholders presented a second 
 proposition, in which they agreed to a scaling of the debt 
 fifty per cent., but this was also rejected by the Legislature. 
 
 In 1879 3- committee was appointed by both Houses of 
 the Legislature to investigate and report upon the State debt. 
 This committee, after taking a great amount of evidence, 
 presented an elaborate report. Acting upon this report the 
 Legislature passed a second bill, March 31st. It provided 
 for the issue of bonds bearing four per cent, interest to be 
 exchanged for outstanding bonds with the interest accrued 
 thereon, at the rate of fifty per cent, on the dollar. It was 
 not to become a law until approved by a vote of the people, 
 and two thirds of the bondholders. The consent of the 
 bondholders was readily obtained, but the measure was de- 
 feated at the polls. 
 
 A settlement of the debt now seemed hopeless. It was 
 the chief issue in the gubernatorial campaign of 1880. The 
 divisions of the Democratic party resulted in the election of 
 the Republican candidate, Alvin Hawkins. The newly 
 elected Legislature was also favorable to the bondholders. 
 A bill was passed which provided for the funding of the 
 outstanding debt at par, the new bonds to bear interest at 
 three per cent., and the coupons to be receivable for taxes. 
 The bill was signed by the Governor, and went into effect 
 in April. It was regarded as a great triumph for the bond- 
 holders, but their rejoicing was short-lived. In a test case 
 the courts decided the law unconstitutional, on the ground 
 that the Legislature could not make a valid contract in which 
 the coupons should be receivable for taxes for ninety-nine 
 years. This decision reopened the whole question. 
 
 The defeat which the Democrats had suffered in 1880 
 served to unite them in 1882. Their candidate, W. B. 
 
RADICAL FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION 51 
 
 Bate, was elected Governor. In his message to the Legis- 
 lature, Governor Bate marked out a plan for the settlement 
 of the debt which was finally adopted, by an act passed 
 March 15, 1883. This act declares: "That the State will 
 pay in full the bonds held by Mrs. James K. Polk, and 
 all bonds held by educational, literary, and charitable in- 
 stitutions in the State ; that it will pay in discharge of 
 its just obligations, what is known as the State debt proper 
 in full, less war interest ; and that in compromise of the re- 
 mainder of the debt, known as the railroad debt, it will pay 
 one half of the principal and accrued interest by issuing 
 therefor bonds of the State bearing interest at the rate of 
 three per cent, per annum." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 RADICAL MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The "carnival of crime and corruption" described in the 
 preceding chapter was not confined to the Legislature. 
 Similar scenes were enacted in almost every county and 
 city in the State. As the suffrage limitations placed upon 
 the ex-Confederates applied to all elections, the Radicals 
 were in complete control of these local governments. The 
 large municipalities, such as Memphis, Nashville, Chat- 
 tanooga, and Knoxville were the greatest sufferers from the 
 rule of irresponsible and corrupt officials. 
 
 In 1867, a carpetbagger, by the name of Alden, had suc- 
 ceeded in being elected Mayor of Nashville. Having filled 
 the city council with his political followers, most of whom 
 were non-property-holders, he entered upon a course of 
 open and systematic public plunder, which made even the 
 State administration stand aghast. The city treasury was 
 soon drained. The tax rate was enormously increased ; 
 but as this did not suffice, checks, warrants, and due 
 bills, made out in the name of the city, and payable to 
 bearer, were sold to street shavers of notes at any price 
 they could bring. Bonds were also issued. As these evi- 
 dences of indebtedness multiplied, the market quotations 
 for them declined. 
 
 In the face of this wholesale corruption, Alden and his 
 associates were re-elected. It now became evident that, 
 unless some heroic measure was resorted to, the entire 
 property of the city would be confiscated by their rapacity. 
 A tax-payers association was formed, which began a cam- 
 paign of public agitation. Public meetings were held in 
 
 52 
 
RADICAL MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 53 
 
 various parts of the city, and resolutions were adopted de- 
 nouncing the " Alden ring " in the most scathing terms. 
 
 It was finally decided to seek relief through the courts. 
 All the judges throughout the State were Radical, but in 
 striking contrast with all the other officials of the Radical 
 regime, they were men of unquestioned integrity, and, for 
 the most part, lawyers of high standing. They had dis- 
 played great independence in interpreting the franchise laws, 
 and in curtailing, as far as possible, the excessive use of the 
 military power. Mr. Thornburg, the defeated candidate for 
 mayor, filed a bill in the Chancery Court of Davidson 
 County, in which he alleged that the city administration was 
 inefficient, that its members were guilty of fraud and cor- 
 ruption, and that of right their offices were vacant because 
 they were not owners of real estate, as required by law. He 
 therefore prayed that the city officials be enjoined from the 
 further issuance of checks and notes, and that they be 
 declared usurpers and turned out of office, and that a 
 receiver be appointed to take charge of the affairs of the cor- 
 poration. Pending the coming in of the answer of the de- 
 fendants, and the final decision of the case. Chancellor 
 Shackelford granted a temporary injunction restraining the 
 mayor and the city council from receiving any salary or per- 
 quisites of office. On December 7th, final decision was 
 rendered, the Chancellor using the following language: "I 
 am of the opinion that the complainants are not entitled to 
 the injunction or the receiver prayed for, and the application 
 is therefore refused." 
 
 In May, 1869, Col. A. S. Colyar, editor of the Unio7i and 
 American, and one of the most distinguished lawyers in the 
 South, made a thorough examination of the city's books and 
 records. At a mass-meeting of the citizens, he made the 
 most startling disclosure in regard to the extravagance and 
 corruption uncovered by that investigation. He declared 
 that the city was in the hands of thieves, and expressed the 
 
54 DISUNION AND RES TOR A TION 
 
 opinion that there was not a judge on the bench of Tennes- 
 see who would refuse to grant relief. On June ist, he filed 
 a bill at Gallatin, Tenn., before Charles Smith, Chancellor 
 of the Seventh Chancery Division, 
 
 The bill was brought " in the name of the State in the 
 relation of 466 citizens in behalf of themselves and others 
 against the mayor, and the city council, the city treasurer, 
 revenue collector, and others." It prayed " that further 
 speculation in checks be enjoined ; that no more checks be 
 issued and no more received until, on the one hand, the 
 right of the city to issue them should be accurately defined,^ 
 and until, on the other, the validity of outstanding checks 
 should be determined ; that the corporation officers wha 
 were defendants in the case, be compelled to account for 
 money made by speculation in the means and credit of the 
 city ; and lastly, that a receiver of known financial ability, 
 with good credit and good reputation, be appointed with 
 full power to control the finances of the city and make con- 
 tracts so as to save the city from ruin," 
 
 The terrible condition of the city was set forth at length 
 in the bill. It was alleged, among other things, that 
 $1,323,668 in checks had been issued, $759,000 of which 
 were without authority of law, while much of the remainder 
 was for illegal purposes. The most exorbitant rates of 
 interest were paid, in some cases as much as 100^. Failing 
 to meet its maturing obligations, the creditors of the city 
 were resorting to the courts, and the city's property was 
 being sold to satisfy them. 
 
 After an elaborate [argument of the case, in which the 
 defendants were represented by eminent lawyers, Chancellor 
 Smith granted the prayer of the petitioners. Mr. John M. 
 Bass was appointed receiver. After furnishing a bond of 
 $500,000, he entered upon the receivership, June 28th, On 
 the following month, a motion was made by the deposed 
 officials, in the Nashville Chancery Division, to have the 
 
RADICAL MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 55 
 
 receivership dissolved. The motion came up for hearing 
 before Judge Edwin H. East, the successor of Chancellor 
 Shackelford. Judge East had been the private secretary 
 of President Johnson, and had taken a leading part in the 
 reorganization of the State. 
 
 In arguing against the motion to dissolve, Col. Colyar 
 took the ground that a municipal corporation was not 
 a political body, but simply a business corporation whose 
 officers were amenable to the courts for the proper dis- 
 charge of their functions. Judge East concurred in this 
 view, and upheld the receivership. In his opinion, he used 
 the following language : " The functions of a municipality 
 are twofold : first, political, discretionary, legislative ; 
 secondly, ministerial. While acting within the sphere of 
 the former, they are exempt from liability inasmuch as the 
 corporation is a part of the government, to that extent, and 
 its ofificers are to the same extent public ofificers, and as 
 such entitled to the protection of this principle ; but within 
 the sphere of the latter (ministerial duties), they drop the 
 badge of governmental ofificers, and become, as it were, the 
 representatives of a private corporation in the exercise of 
 private functions. The distinction between these legislative 
 powers which it holds for public purposes as a part of the 
 government of the country, and those public franchises 
 which belong to it as creation of law, is well taken." 
 
 The receivership was of short duration. In August the 
 regular city election occurred. Mr. Morris, a wealthy 
 citizen, was elected mayor. Immediately after the election, 
 the affairs of the city were again placed in the hands of its 
 ordinary officials. 
 
 Several years after the occurrence of these extraordinary 
 proceedings, Col. Colyar, in a speech delivered at Buffalo, 
 N. Y., explained the legal theory on which he placed the 
 application for the receivership. " I took the ground," he 
 said, " that, while in England, cities were in a sense political, 
 
$6 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 because in the creation of the House of Commons, the cities 
 and boroughs had in part organized it, in the time of 
 Edward I., and to this day, as cities and boroughs, they 
 elect members to the House of Commons ; but that in this 
 country, our cities have no such political status, and that in 
 nowise are they separate from the balance of the com- 
 munity in politics, and therefore our cities are not political 
 bodies, and that the delegation of a part of a State's sov- 
 ereignty is a fiction, and the management of a city is a mere 
 trust." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 
 
 It does not fall within the limits of our subject to go into 
 the general history of Ku-Klux Klan. This mysterious or- 
 ganization originated in Tennessee, but it soon spread be- 
 yond the borders of the State, and became the organ of all 
 those who believed in resorting to violent measures to 
 secure the emancipation of the Southern States from negro 
 and carpetbag domination. Its history, therefore, belongs 
 under the general history of Reconstruction. Nevertheless, 
 the study of the civil disturbances in Tennessee resulting 
 from the war would indeed be incomplete without some 
 account of the operation of the Ku-Klux within the borders 
 of the State. It formed the chief occasion for interferences 
 with civil liberty, as well as for congressional legislation, 
 which rendered the Radical goverr^^ent so hateful in the 
 eyes of the ex-Confederates. 
 
 The first of^cial reference to disturbances of an extraordi- 
 nary character is found in Governor Brownlow's first message 
 to the Legislature. In this, he calls the attention of the 
 Legislature to " the roving bands of guerrillas and squads of 
 robbers and murderers who frequent those counties remote 
 from the military forces. " He recommended that the 
 criminal law of the State be so revised as to make house- 
 stealing, and house-breaking, and highway robbery punish- 
 able with death. Acting upon his recommendations, the 
 Legislature, in May, 1865, passed a bill to punish "all armed 
 Prowlers, Guerrillas, Brigands, and Highway Robbers." But 
 as yet there were no indications, either in the message of 
 the Governor or the action of the Legislature, that these 
 early disturbances were of a political character. 
 
 57 
 
58 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 The Ku-Klux Klan did not come into existence until the 
 following year. The little town of Pulaski, in Giles County, 
 claims the doubtful honor of being its birthplace. It seems 
 to have originated with a coterie of young men, who banded 
 together for the purpose of obtaining amusement by playing 
 upon the superstitious fancies of the negroes. They organ- 
 ized themselves into a lodge, and adopted a fantastic cere- 
 mony and ritual. Their meetings were held at night, and 
 they usually came together mounted on horseback, and 
 wearing hideous disguises. They frightened the negroes by 
 telling them horrible ghost stories. 
 
 It was quickly seen that the measures adopted purely for 
 amusement could be turned into practical use in controlling 
 the negro. The conditions were ripe all over the South for 
 such an organization, so it spread like wildfire. Lodges 
 sprang up in all parts of the Southern States, with the pos- 
 sible exception of Virginia. A loose bond of union was 
 formed between them, but in different localities they as- 
 sumed various names, such as " The Pale Faces," " The 
 Invisible Empire," " The Brotherhood." They were all 
 finally denominated "The Ku-Klux Klan," 
 
 Somewhat antedating the Ku-Klux Klan, and almost 
 equally rapid in growth, were the Union secret societies. 
 They also bore various names, the most popular being 
 ** The Loyal League " and " The Union League of Amer- 
 ica." They were devoid of any fantastic features, and did 
 not, as a rule, resort to violent measures, but their object was 
 the same as the rival organization, namely, to secure political 
 control of the negro. 
 
 In the spring of 1867, the Radical newspapers of Knox- 
 ville, Nashville, and Memphis commenced to be filled with 
 reports of outrages committed upon negroes and Union men. 
 Upon investigation, these reports oftentimes turned out 
 to be either wholly untrue or greatly exaggerated, but they 
 served to throw the Radical party into a state of intense 
 
KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 59 
 
 excitement. Their leaders believed, or professed to believe, 
 that another general insurrection was threatened. Acting 
 under this conviction, the Legislature passed a bill on the 
 twentieth of February, 1867, to equip and call into active ser- 
 vice, under the absolute command of the Governor, a State 
 Guard to be composed solely of Union men. It also passed 
 a joint resolution requesting the Governor to " apply to 
 General Thomas, the commander of the department, for a 
 sufificient force of United States soldiers to keep the peace 
 and restore order and quiet in our State. " ' In response to 
 this application several regiments were furnished by General 
 Thomas, but he cautioned that they should be used only in 
 aid of the civil authority. 
 
 These Ku-Klux outrages followed closely upon the pass- 
 age of the Arnell Franchise Law. This bill, as we have 
 pointed out, made the political disabilities of the ex-Con- 
 federate absolute and perpetual. It destroyed the last hope 
 of regaining political control of the State, through legal and 
 constitutional means. As a natural result, public opinion 
 commenced to tolerate acts of violence which till then had 
 been strongly condemned. The best men of the com- 
 munities, while they did not take active part in the Ku- 
 Klux movement, gave it their approval by a policy of 
 acquiescence. Juries refused to commit, even upon the 
 clearest evidence, persons accused of offences against negroes 
 or Union men. 
 
 A crisis was reached in the spring of 1868. Mr. S. M. 
 Arnell, the framer of the election law and Congressman 
 from the Eighth District, was made the object of a Ku-Klux 
 raid. Having narrowly escaped hanging through flight and 
 concealment, he sent the following dispatch to the Gover- 
 nor: " The Ku-Klux searched the train for me last night, 
 pistols and rope in hand. Empower me to call upon the 
 military here, if necessary in your name, to suppress all 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, 1867-68, p. 22. 
 
6o DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 armed and masked parties in this vicinity. I propose to 
 fight it out." 
 
 Upon the receipt of this dispatch, Governor Brownlow 
 made a second request for federal troops. This time he re- 
 ceived an unfavorable response. General Thomas informed 
 him that " the State of Tennessee, being in full exercise of 
 the civil functions of a State, the military authority of the 
 United States cannot legally interfere except in aid and sup- 
 port of the civil authority. For these purposes troops have 
 been sent to various locations. These details, together with 
 the present demand for troops to assist the United States 
 of^cers in collecting revenue, have so exhausted the forces at 
 my command as to prevent the complying with your 
 request to send companies to the counties named." 
 
 Governor Brownlow now had recourse to an extra session 
 of the Legislature. His message was couched in the most 
 violent language. " The rebel element of the State," he 
 said, " were secretly arming themselves, and perfecting a 
 military organization, known as the Ku-Klux Klan, com- 
 posed of ex-rebel soldiers, and those in sympathy with 
 them, thus violating their paroles at the time of their sur- 
 render, and violating the laws of the State, and plotting and 
 planning mischief in every respect. 
 
 " These men have been arming and organizing for a year 
 past, with an eye to the overthrow of the State government, 
 and, ultimately, to carrying the State in the presidential 
 election. Organized upon the same basis, and having the 
 same dark designs in view that found a fit culmination in 
 Booth's assassination of Abraham Lincoln, it works in secret 
 with signs, symbols, and pass-words, hatching plans to scatter 
 anarchyand permanent disorder wherever it may have an exist- 
 ence. I recommend, most emphatically, that these organized 
 bands of assassins and robbers be declared outlaws by special 
 Legislature, and punished with death wherever found." ' 
 ' Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1868; 
 
KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 6 1 
 
 The violent language of the message aroused the greatest 
 alarm among the Democratic leaders of the State. They 
 feared that if the measures recommended by the Governor 
 were adopted, civil war would indeed result. A meeting 
 was held at Nashville in August, and a memorial to the 
 Legislature was framed, by the following men, all of whom 
 had been generals in the Confederate army: N. B. Forrest, 
 B. F. Cheatham, W. B. Bate, J. C. Brown, Bushrod John- 
 son, Gideon J. Pillow, W. A. Quarles, S. R. Anderson, G. G. 
 Dibrell, and George Maney. 
 
 In this memorial they expressed a deep solicitude for the 
 peace and quiet of the State, protested against the charge 
 of hostility to the State government, or of a desire for its 
 overthrow by revolutionary or lawless means, as well as 
 against the charge that those who had been associated with 
 them in the past days contemplated any such rashness or 
 folly; nor did they believe that there was in Tennessee 
 any organization, public or secret, which had such a pur- 
 pose, and that, if there was, they had neither sympathy 
 nor affiliation therewith. They further declared, that the 
 peace of the State did not require a military organization ; 
 that such a measure might bring about and promote col- 
 lisions rather than conserve the harmony and good order of 
 society ; and finally that they would pledge themselves to 
 maintain the order and peace of the State with whatever 
 influence they possessed, and would uphold and support the 
 laws and aid the constituted authorities in their execution, 
 trusting that a reciprocation of those sentiments would pro- 
 duce the enactment of such laws as would remove all causes 
 disturbing society. 
 
 " For," they continued, " when it is remembered that 
 the large mass of white men in Tennessee are denied the 
 right to vote or to hold ofifice, it is not wonderful or unnatural 
 there should exist more or less dissatisfaction among them. 
 And we beg leave respectfully to submit to your considera- 
 
62 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 tion that prompt and efficient action on the part of the 
 proper authorities, for the removal of the political disabili- 
 ties resting upon so many of our people, would heal all the 
 wounds of our State, and make us once more a prosperous, 
 contented, and united people." ' 
 
 This memorial came too late to allay the excited minds of 
 the Radicals. On the loth of September, the Legislature 
 passed a bill "to preserve the public peace." This bill im- 
 poses "a fine of not less than five hundred dollars, and im- 
 prisonment in the penitentiary for not less than five years, 
 and renders infamous any person who shall unite with, 
 associate with, promote or encourage any organization of 
 persons who shall prowl through the counties and towns of 
 this State, by day or night, for the purpose of disturbing the 
 peace or alarming the peaceful citizens of any part of the 
 State. In order to secure the proper execution of this act, 
 the same punishment is to be meted out to any person 
 summoned as a witness, who shall fail or refuse to obey 
 the summons, or who shall appear and refuse to testify ; the 
 same to any prosecuting attorney who shall be informed 
 of the violation of the act, and fail or refuse to prosecute 
 the person informed on; the same to any officer or other 
 person who shall inform any other person that he was to be 
 summoned as a witness, with the intent of defeating any of 
 the provisions of the act ; the same to any one who shall 
 feed, lodge, or entertain or conceal in the woods, or else- 
 where, any one known to such person to be charged with 
 an offence under the act." 
 
 The act further provides, that " no indictment shall be 
 required for prosecution, and no indictments held insuf- 
 ficient for want of form ; that where any sheriff or other 
 officer shall return process issued under the act, unexecuted, 
 an alias shall issue, and the officer shall give notice to the 
 inhabitants of the county of such alias by posting a notice 
 ' See Why the Solid South, by Hilary Herbert, and others. 
 
KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 63 
 
 at the court-house door, and if the inhabitants shall permit 
 the defendant to be or live in the county without arrest, 
 they shall be subject to an assessment of not less than five 
 hundred dollars and not more than five thousand dollars; 
 that all the inhabitants of the State shall be authorized 
 to arrest offenders under the act, without process ; that 
 every public officer shall swear that he has never been a 
 member of the Ku-Klux Klan." The measure of damages 
 was as follows : For entering the house or place of residence 
 of any officer at night, in a hostile manner, or against his 
 will, ten thousand dollars ; and for the killing of any peace- 
 able individual at night, twenty thousand dollars. All other 
 damages were to be assessed in proportion.' 
 
 Even the passage of this extraordinary law did not satisfy 
 Governor Brownlow. Under his guidance, the Legislature 
 re-enacted the military laws, and conferred upon him the 
 power to declare martial law whenever and wherever he saw 
 fit. He did not suffer this prerogative to remain idle. On 
 the 20th of January, 1868, he called the State Guards into 
 active service. Several days later he issued the following 
 proclamation : 
 
 " Whereas, There are now sixteen hundred State Guards 
 at Nashville armed and equipped under the command of 
 Joseph Cooper ; and Whereas, These troops are intended 
 to preserve peace and enforce the laws in counties here- 
 tofore in partial rebelion. 
 
 " Now, therefore, I, W. G. Brownlow, Governor of Ten- 
 nessee, do hereby proclaim martial law in and over the 
 following named counties, to wit : Overton, Jackson, 
 Maury, Giles, Marshall, Lawrence, Gibson, Madison, and 
 Haywood. 
 
 "And I further direct that General Cooper distribute 
 these troops at once and continue them in service until 
 'Acts of Tennessee, Extra Session, 1868, p. 18. 
 
64 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 unmistakable evidence is given by all parties of a disposi- 
 tion to keep the peace. 
 
 "W. G. Brownlow, 
 
 *' Governor of Tennessee'' 
 
 The counties named in the proclamation were among the 
 richest and most populous in the State. Their prominent 
 citizens were unanimous in condemning what they con- 
 ceived to be the tyrannical and arbitrary action of the 
 Governor. The following is a fair sample of the numerous 
 protests made through the public press' : 
 
 "Nashville, February 21, 1869. I see that martial law 
 is declared over the county of Lawrence, the county I have 
 the honor to represent, which I must acknowledge greatly 
 astonished me, for I know of no person or persons who 
 complained of any depredations in the county, or that 
 there was any difficulty at all in enforcing the law in 
 said county ; but on the contrary, the people of the said 
 county are at this time, and have been for some months 
 past, more peaceable, quiet, and law-abiding than they have 
 been for the past ten years ; and only a few days ago James 
 H. MacKay, sheriff, Ira J. Brown, clerk of the Circuit 
 Court, and other officials of said county in a written com- 
 munication to the Governor, stated that there was no 
 difficulty in enforcing the civil law in said county, and 
 consequently no necessity for the militia or other troops to 
 enforce law, all of whom are men of respectability and 
 worthy of credit, and the persons specially named above 
 were soldiers of the Federal army during the late Rebellion, 
 and are all now, and always have been, members of the 
 Radical Republican party. 
 
 " I am at a loss to know why troops should have been 
 quartered upon the people of my county without consult- 
 
 ' Union and American, February 2i, 1869. 
 
KU-KLUX OUTRAGES 65 
 
 ing their immediate Representative. I think surely some 
 person or persons have made misrepresentations to the 
 Governor, and sincerely hope that the order will be revoked 
 and save my people the mortification and expense of having 
 troops quartered amongst them in times of profound peace. 
 ' Let us have peace.' 
 
 "W. P. H.Turner, 
 " Representative, Lawrence County'' 
 
 Governor Brownlow answered these protests by declaring 
 his intention to further extend the sway of martial law. 
 But fortunately for the peace of the State, only a few days 
 of his term as Governor remained. Under his successor the 
 troops were withdrawn and the military laws were repealed. 
 A state of tranquillity quickly ensued. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION 
 
 After the recognition of the loyal government by Congress, 
 the only hope of the disfranchised ex-Confederates of re- 
 gaining political control of the State lay in a division in the 
 ranks of the Union party. So long as Governor Brownlow 
 remained at the head of affairs, no such division occurred. 
 He served as Governor the full term of two years, and was 
 re-elected. Before the expiration of his second term, he 
 was chosen by the Legislature to represent Tennessee in the 
 United States Senate. According to a provision of the 
 State constitution, the vacant governorship descended to 
 De Witt Senter, Speaker of the State Senate. Mr. Senter 
 was inducted into ofifice on the 29th of February, 1868. 
 
 Three years had now passed since the close of the war, 
 and the restoration of civil government, but the majority 
 of the white citizens still remained disfranchised, and no 
 steps had been taken to remove their disqualifications. In 
 speaking of this aspect of the situation, Mr. Fletcher, Sec- 
 retary of the State, said : " Our mistake was that we made 
 the franchise law sweeping and perpetual, offering no hope 
 or inducement to the ex-rebel to become loyal. The man 
 who is disfranchised in a republic is not apt to feel that it 
 is his government, or to take pride or interest in it, nor apt 
 to make a useful or even law-abiding citizen of it. I do not 
 feel comfortable in a State where half of the people and 
 two thirds of the tax-payers are publicly degraded by law, 
 without motive to be proud of the State and government." 
 
 Upon the day of Governor Senter's inauguration, the air 
 was filled with rumors and signs of coming changes. Whether 
 
 66 
 
CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION 67 
 
 it would be a violent eruption or a peaceful change through 
 constitutional means, no one could foresee. In the great 
 crowd which gathered at the Capitol to hear the inaugural 
 address, there was noticed by the press reporters a number 
 of distinguished Southern leaders. This in itself was con- 
 sidered a harbinger of the coming storm. The address 
 proved disappointing to all. It was expected that the 
 Governor would give some intimation of the policy he 
 intended to pursue, but he simply expressed his apprecia- 
 tion of the ofifice to which he had been elevated, and his 
 •desire to see peace and prosperity restored to the State. 
 
 There was little of interest in the character or career of 
 the new Governor. He was born in Granger County in 
 1833. His father, William F. Senter, had represented 
 the Second Congressional District in the Twenty-eighth 
 Congress. Although Governor Senter had been chosen 
 Speaker of the Radical Senate he had never shown himself 
 an extreme partisan. He had even been a member of the 
 secession Legislature of 1861 ; but Congress had relieved him 
 of his political disabilities on the 22d of December, 1868. It 
 was therefore with a hopeful expectancy that the people of 
 Tennessee hailed his advent into the ofifice of Governor. 
 
 But before Governor Senter could make any change in the 
 administration, the State was plunged into a heated campaign 
 to elect his successor. He was entitled by the Constitution 
 to serve out Brownlow's unexpired term, but only a few 
 months remained of that. His aspirations naturally went 
 beyond his brief /r^ teni. term, and he, therefore, announced 
 his intention of becoming a candidate subject to the ap- 
 proval of the Union party. 
 
 A new candidate soon appeared in the person of W. B. 
 Stokes. Mr. Stokes was the Representative of the Third 
 District in Congress. His record had been somewhat 
 similar to that of Governor Senter. At the beginning of 
 the war he had identified himself with the secession move- 
 
68 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 ment, but had quickly deserted what he saw to be a 
 sinking ship. After the war, as if to make amends for 
 his past conduct, he became one of the most extreme and 
 bitter Radicals. 
 
 At first, the canvass was a mere personal contest, having 
 little significance to any one except the Radical leaders. A 
 Convention of the Union party was called to meet in Nash- 
 ville on May 22d. Both candidates pledged themselves to 
 abide by the decision of this Convention. 
 
 Ex-President Johnson's return to Tennessee at this time 
 added to the uncertainty of the contest. He was still a 
 power in Tennessee politics, and it was rumored that he 
 might enter the race as a Conservative Democrat. The 
 Radical Convention assembled in Nashville on the day 
 appointed. It was called to order by Thos. Cates, chairman 
 of the Central Committee, who was a Stokes man. After the 
 reading of the call, Judge Houck moved that Mr. Pearne, 
 a friend of Governor Senter, be made temporary chairman of 
 the Convention. His motion having failed to be recognized 
 by Mr. Cates, he put it to the House himself and declared 
 Mr. Pearne elected. Mr. Pearne attempted to reach the 
 chair, but was forcibly prevented. This resulted in a hand- 
 to-hand contest between the delegates. Failing to perfect 
 a temporary organization, the Convention adjourned until 
 the following day. But at the second meeting the disgrace- 
 ful scenes of the first were repeated. It finally dissolved 
 amid the utmost confusion. 
 
 The Union and American, a daily newspaper, published in 
 Nashville, contained the following report of the Convention's 
 proceedings. 
 
 "The so-called Radical State Convention, the most dis- 
 graceful, profane, and vulgar assemblage of nnen ever con- 
 gregated in the State to consider public affairs, came to an 
 abrupt termination yesterday, after an ineffectual attempt 
 of two days to organize. It simply dissolved. It could not 
 
CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION 6g 
 
 even adjourn. It had no chairman, no secretary, and could 
 not even transact any business. It met as if by chance, and 
 dispersed from necessity. It was an agglomerate discord, 
 an inflamed mob filled with mean whiskey and meaner 
 passions. It was a meeting of mortal enemies under the 
 guise of friendship to decide the spoils of misdeeds and 
 crimes. They quarrelled and fought, and called each other 
 liars and thieves, and all manner of epithets. Such a con- 
 gregation of vulgar elements, so fierce, so bitter, and so 
 reckless, was never seen before in this section of the Union. 
 
 " This assemblage of Radicals was called together to coun- 
 sel for the good of the State, and present to the people a 
 person of such fair name and true patriotism as to be worthy 
 of them and the State for their chief executive ! " 
 
 The above description was written by a " rebel " editor, 
 but the following account, taken from the Knoxville Whig, 
 is scarcely less severe : " We share in the regret of all good 
 Republicans that the late Convention was so divided, bois- 
 terous, disrupted. We have attended many conventions, 
 national and State. We never attended one in which such 
 injustice, violence, and fraud were practised." 
 
 These two pictures of the Convention, drawn from differ- 
 ent standpoints, give us some idea of the kind of men that had 
 ruled Tennessee for four years. At last the household was 
 divided against itself ; it was only a matter of a few weeks 
 until it should fall. 
 
 The Senter faction attempted to throw the blame for the 
 disrupted Convention upon Mr. Stokes and his friends. 
 They denied the charge, and asserted that at least sixty- 
 four counties had been instructed for Mr. Stokes, which 
 would have insured him the nomination. The result of 
 the discussion was that Governor Senter and Mr. Stokes 
 declared their intentions to " fight it to a finish at the polls." 
 They began at Nashville, January 5th, a joint canvass of the 
 State. A direct issue was soon made between them on the 
 
70 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 franchise question. Governor Senter declared " that the 
 time has come, and is now, when the limitations and dis- 
 abilities which have found their way into our statute-books,, 
 as the result of the war, should be abolished and removed^ 
 and the privilege of the elective franchise be restored, and 
 extended so far as to embrace the mass of the adult popu- 
 lation of the State." 
 
 Mr. Stokes thus defined his position: " When the killing 
 of Union men ceases, the hellish organization of Ku-Klux 
 is abandoned, and the laws are observed, then I am willing 
 to entertain a proposition to amend the State constitution 
 so far as to allow the disfranchised to come in gradually, by 
 providing that the Legislature may by a two thirds vote 
 remove the disabilities for those who petition, and come well 
 recommended by their loyal neighbors." 
 
 After these declarations of principles the struggle became 
 one of paramount importance to the whole people of the 
 State. 
 
 As the time for the election approached, and the official reg- 
 istration began, signs of uneasiness appeared among the sup- 
 porters of Mr. Stokes. They felt confident that the majority 
 of the Radical votes were for their candidate, but they real- 
 ized that Governor Senter was " master of the situation. "^ 
 He had control of the same machinery Governor Brownlow 
 had employed so successfully in changing the results of 
 Congressional and State elections. Would Governor Senter 
 use this in his own behalf, thus destroying the Radical party 
 with an instrument of their making? This question was 
 asked and discussed both upon the stump and in the news- 
 papers. 
 
 The election occurred on the 5th day of August. At 
 the same time the election for the State Legislature was 
 held. The issue was the same as in the gubernatorial con- 
 test — that is, universal suffrage or continued disfranchise- 
 ment. Contrary to expectations, the election passed without 
 
CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION "J I 
 
 any serious conflicts or disturbances of the peace. The 
 result was not long in doubt. It could be seen on the fol- 
 lowing day from the partial returns that Governor Senter 
 had been elected by an enormous majority. 
 The ofificial returns were as follows: 
 
 Senter. Stokes. 
 
 East Tennesssee 23,877 22,471 
 
 Middle " 58,646 19,149 
 
 West " 37,681 13,209 
 
 120,204 54,874 
 
 54,874 
 
 Senter's majority 65,330 
 
 The Conservative candidates to the Legislature, who stood 
 upon the same platform as Governor Senter, were elected 
 almost to a man. 
 
 Immediately after election, Mr. Stokes and his friends 
 raised the cry of fraud. They lost no time in hurrying to 
 Washington in order to bring pressure to bear upon Presi- 
 dent Grant to declare the election void. Mr. Stokes set 
 forth his claims in a lengthy interview. He said in part : 
 *' Governor Senter being governor or acting-governor had the 
 appointment of the registrars of the election. He put in 
 such men as he thought would do his bidding. They at 
 once opened the flood-gates and let everybody in, the dis- 
 franchising clauses of the Constitution were trodden under 
 foot and entirely disregarded, certificates of qualification as 
 voters were issued to disfranchised rebels, and even boys of 
 sixteen and seventeen were allowed to vote. Besides this 
 there was a course of intimidation pursued under the in- 
 struction of Senter which prevented hundreds of Republi- 
 cans from voting. You see Senter was governor. He had 
 militia and intended to use them, if necessary, to elect him- 
 
^2 DISUNION AND RESTORATION 
 
 self. In many cases where the rebels had the upper hand 
 the Republicans, especially the negroes, could not vote in 
 their precincts for fear of violence. What defeated me was 
 the rebels who were disfranchised under the constitution. 
 I got 56,000, which was Grant's vote last fall. Seymour's 
 was 33,000 last fall, but Senter's vote was this time 119,000. 
 The 86,000 additional which Senter got were rebels and 
 minors." 
 
 These charges made by Mr. Stokes were replied to in the 
 daily press by Governor Senter. He claimed that it was un- 
 fair to compare the vote in the recent election with the 
 presidential election of the previous fall. In the presiden- 
 tial election the Republicans were sure of the result in the 
 State, so they had made no effort to bring out a full vote. It 
 would be much fairer to take the vote cast in the gubernato- 
 rial election of 1867 as the standard by which to measure 
 the result of the recent election. In 1867, Governor Brown- 
 low's vote was 19,900 more than Mr. Stokes had received, 
 yet the registration of 1867 exceeded the vote cast by over 
 20,000. The old registration law was still in force, but had 
 been modified by a decision of the Supreme Court which 
 admitted at least 40,000 votes which had been kept out in 
 1867. In other words, Mr. Senter claimed he could have 
 received a majority of 20,000 had there been no new regis- 
 tration. The newly appointed registrars, referred to in Mr. 
 Stokes's interview, were, with the exception of three tenths, 
 regularly discharged Federal soldiers. 
 
 Mr. Stokes in his efTorts to secure Federal intervention 
 was supported by all the Radical leaders. Many of those 
 who had supported Governor Senter in the election were 
 now most active in the attempt to prevent his induction 
 into ofifice. Among the first to change front was Mr. 
 Brownlow. Early in the contest he had favored the nomi- 
 nation of Governor Senter. After the disruption of the 
 Radical Convention, he still continued to support Governor 
 
CLOSE OF THE RADICAL DOMINATION 73 
 
 Senter. It was not until after election that he seemed 
 to realize that Governor Senter's victory meant the return 
 to power of the ex-Confederate and consequently the down- 
 fall of Radical domination. 
 
 President Grant turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of the 
 Radical leaders. They sought Congressional action, but 
 met defeat here also, as Congress passed a resolution thank- 
 ing President Grant for his refusal to interfere with affairs in 
 Tennessee. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1 8/0 
 
 While the Radical leaders were engaged in their futile 
 efforts at Washington to obtain Federal intervention, the 
 Legislature convened at Nashville, and Governor Senter was 
 inaugurated with the usual ceremony. Both the Governor 
 and the Legislature manifested a desire to fulfill their elec- 
 tion pledges, by restoring the franchise to the ex-Confeder- 
 ates, but the manner in which this should be accomplished 
 was not at first very apparent. 
 
 In the Constitution, as it was prior to the war, the suffrage 
 qualifications had been clearly stated and no power had 
 been vested in the Legislature to alter them. It was in vir- 
 tue of the amendments adopted by the Radical Convention 
 of 1865, that the Legislature had passed the disfranchising 
 acts of 1866 and 1867, 
 
 The simple repeal of these acts would have re-enfranchised 
 the ex-Confederates, but it would have left unsettled a num- 
 ber of perplexing problems resulting from the war. It was 
 felt that the solution of these questions should not be left to 
 the Legislature, as its members were all Union men, and 
 therefore did not represent the whole political body. It 
 was also recognized that the questions to be settled were of 
 a constitutional character, and could be properly dealt with 
 only by a constitutional Convention. 
 
 These considerations led to the passage of an act which 
 authorized the Governor to put to a vote of the people the 
 question of holding a constitutional Convention. At the 
 same election delegates were to be chosen. Every male 
 person not convicted of infamous crime, of the age of 
 
 74 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1870 75 
 
 twenty-one, and a citizen of the United States, and a citizen 
 of the State of Tennessee was allowed to vote. The elec- 
 tion was held on the 3d of December and resulted in a large 
 majority in favor of the Convention. 
 
 The first constitutional Convention in the history of the 
 State was the one which had met in Knoxville, and framed 
 the Constitution under which Tennessee had been admitted 
 into the Union.' Conspicuous among the members of the 
 first Convention were John Sevier and Andrew Jackson. 
 The constitution they adopted was modelled after that of 
 the mother State, North Carolina. In 1834, a second Con- 
 vention met at Nashville, and modified the old Constitution, 
 so as to bring it into harmony with the industrial changes of 
 the first quarter of a century. The next assertion of con- 
 stituent powers was in 1861, when the Legislature passed 
 the Declaration of Independence, and the Ordinance of 
 Union with the Confederacy. In 1865, the Radical Conven- 
 tion, as we have seen, framed a number of constitutional 
 amendments. 
 
 The newly elected convention assembled at Nashville on 
 the loth day of January. The character of its members was 
 a guaranty that its action would be Conservative. It has 
 been pronounced the most intelligent body ever elected in 
 Tennessee for any purpose. John C. Brown, an ex-major- 
 general of the Confederate army, was elected to preside 
 over its deliberations. As the Authorization Act did not 
 limit the power of the Convention, it was at liberty to enter 
 into a thorough-going provision of the constitution, but it 
 manifested from the start the intention to confine itself to 
 the task of settling the question growing out of the war. 
 Chief among these was negro suffrage. 
 
 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 
 United States had not yet been adopted, so it was still 
 in the power of the State to withhold the franchise from 
 
 ' Caldwell's " Studies in the Constitutional History of Tennessee." 
 
']^ DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 the negro. In the discussion of this suffrage question, the 
 Convention was divided into three factions. The Union 
 delegates, who were greatly in the minority, favored uni- 
 versal suffrage. The extreme opposite opinion was ex- 
 pressed in the minority report of the Suffrage Committee : 
 " We hold that the negro race is the lowest order of human 
 beings, incapable in themselves of a virtuous intelligence, or 
 free government ; and for the truth, we appeal to history, 
 and challenge the world to show a single exception. We 
 hold that the inferiority of the negro to the white man, in 
 race, color, and capacity for permanent, well-ordered govern- 
 ment has been fixed by Him who ' doeth all things well,' 
 and whose natural or revealed law has never been violated 
 by any human government without disaster and confusion." 
 In the abstract, the above statement undoubtedly repre- 
 sented the view of a majority of the delegates. But the 
 conservative men of the Convention recognized that the re- 
 jection of negro suffrage would strengthen the Radicals in 
 their efforts to obtain Federal intervention. Considerations 
 of political expediency led, therefore, to the adoption of the 
 following provision in regard to suffrage : " Every male 
 person of the age of twenty-one years, being a citizen of the 
 United States, and a resident of this State for twelve 
 months, and of the county wherein he may offer his vote, 
 for six months next preceding the day of election, shall be 
 entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly, and 
 all civil officers of the county or district in which he resides, 
 and there shall be no qualification attached to the right 
 of suffrage, except that each voter shall give to the judge of 
 the election, where he offers to vote, satisfactory evidence 
 that he has paid the poll taxes assessed against him for such 
 preceding period as the Legislature shall prescribe, and at 
 such time as may be prescribed by law, without which his 
 vote cannot be received." ^ 
 
 ' yournal of the Constitutional Convention of i8jo. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF iSjO JJ 
 
 After fixing the suffrage qualifications, all the important 
 changes in the constitution proposed by the Convention, 
 were directed, with possibly two exceptions, towards the 
 prevention of the recurrence of the political abuses, from 
 which the State had suffered under the Radical adminis- 
 tration. Fresh in the minds of all were the arbitrary acts of 
 Governor Brownlow in suspending the writ of habeas corpus, 
 and proclaiming martial law. A number of limitations were, 
 therefore, placed upon the military power of the Governor. 
 It was provided that " the militia shall not be called into 
 service except in case of rebellion or invasion, and then only 
 when the General Assembly shall declare by law that the 
 public safety requires it." The Bill of Rights was so 
 amended that " the writ of habeas corpus shall not be 
 suspended, unless when, in case of rebellion or invasion, 
 the General Assembly shall declare the public safety re- 
 quires it." 
 
 Another flagrant abuse under Radical rules had been the 
 too frequent meeting of the Legislature. During the four 
 years of Governor Brownlow's administration, it had been 
 in almost continuous session. To remedy this, regular ses- 
 sions were made biennial, and it was provided that no 
 member " shall be paid for more than seventy days of the 
 regular session, or for more than twenty days of an extra 
 or called session." 
 
 The two important changes in the constitution, which 
 had no relation to the disturbed political conditions result- 
 ing from the war, were the creation of a homestead 
 exemption, and the delegation to the Legislature of the 
 power to pass general laws for the organization of private 
 corporations. 
 
 Having completed its labors, the Convention proceeded 
 to the Capitol, and, in the presence of both Houses of the 
 Legislature, it placed the revised constitution in the hands 
 of the Governor. By him it was submitted to a vote of the 
 
78 DISUNION AND RESTORA TION 
 
 people, and ratified by a vote of 98,128 for, to 33,872 
 against. 
 
 At the first State election that occurred under the pro- 
 visions of the new Constitution, the Democrats regained 
 political control of the State. This ended the Reconstruc- 
 tion Period in Tennessee. 
 
AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Acts of Tennessee: Extra Session, 1861 ; 2d Extra Session, 1861 ; 1861- 
 62 ; 1865 ; 1865-66 ; Extra Session, 1866 ; 1868 ; 1869 ; 1869-70 ; 1870 ; 1870- 
 71 ; 1871 ; 1872 ; 1S73 ; 1875 ; 1877 ; 1879 ; 1881. Extra Session, 1881 ; 
 1882; 1883. 
 
 Barnes, W. H. " History of the Thirty-ninth Congress." 
 
 Bate, W. B. Messages to the General Assembly. 
 
 Blaine, James G. " Twenty Years of Congress." 
 
 Brown, John C. Messages to the General Assembly. 
 
 Brownlow, W. G. " Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Seces- 
 sion, with a Narrative of Personal Experiences among the Rebels." 
 Philadelphia, 1862. 
 
 Caldwell, Joshua W. "Studies in the Constitutional History of 
 Tennessee." Cincinnati, 1895. 
 
 Cox, S. S. " Three Decades of Federal Legislation." 
 
 Dunning, W. A. " Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction." New- 
 York, 1898, 
 
 Everett, Edward. " Account of the Fund for the Relief of East 
 Tennessee." Boston, 1864. 
 
 Harris, Isham G. Messages to the General Assembly. 
 
 Hawkins, Alvin. Messages to the General Assembly. 
 
 House Journals for 1865, 1865-66, 1866. Extra Session, 1866, 1867-68. 
 Extra Session, 186S, 1868-69, 1869-70. 
 
 Humes, Thomas William. "The Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee." 
 Knoxville, 1888. 
 
 Journal oj the Constitutional Convention of 1870. 
 
 Knoxville Whig, Knoxville, Tennessee. 
 
 Mark, Albert. Messages to the General Assembly. 
 
 MacPherson, Edward. " History of the Rebellion." 
 
 MacPherson, Edward. " History of the Reconstruction." 
 
 Miller, Chas. A. "-The Official and Political Manual of the State of 
 Tennessee." Nashville, 1890. 
 
 Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the State Debt. Appendix 
 to the Senate Journal ior 1879. 
 
 Scott, W. A. " The Repudiation of State Debts." New York, 1893. 
 
 Senate Journal lov 1865, 1866, 1867-68, 1868-69. Extra Session, 1868. 
 
 Senter, De Witt. Message to the General Assembly. 
 
 Townsend's Records of the Great Rebellion. 
 
 The Union and American, Nashville. 
 
 " Why the Solid South ?" Hilary Herbert, Baltimore, 1890. 
 
 Wilson, Henry. " History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power." 
 
 79 
 
MAR 13 19H 
 
 O 
 
 VITA 
 
 The author of this dissertation, John Randolph Neal, was 
 born September, i6, 1874, at Rhea Springs, Tennessee. His 
 early education was received at the public schools in Ten- 
 nessee and Washington, D. C. In 1890, he entered the Uni- 
 versity of Tennessee and was graduated in 1893 with the 
 degree of A.B. During the years 1893-96, he pursued 
 graduate work in Vanderbilt University, taking courses in 
 History, Economics, Literature, and Philosophy. In 1894, 
 he received the degree of A.M. ; and in 1896, the degree of 
 LL.B. 
 
 Since 1896, Mr. Neal has been a graduate student at 
 Columbia University. He has had Constitutional and 
 Administrative Law as a major subject, and Roman Law, and 
 Political Economy and Finance as minor subjects. He has 
 attended courses given by Professors Burgess, Goodnow, 
 Munroe Smith, Mayo-Smith, Moore, and Seligman. 
 
 While at Vanderbilt, Mr. Neal held university scholar- 
 ships in Economics and History. At Columbia, he has been 
 University Scholar in Political Science and Public Law. 
 
 80 
 
I