On December 3d, under an order of the military Governor, Shepley, a so-called election was held for members of Congress in the First and Second State Districts, each composed of about half the city of New Orleans and portions of the surrounding parishes. Benjamin F. Flanders received the majority of all votes cast in the First District, and Michael Hahn the majority in the Second District. Those persons presented themselves at Washington, and their claims to seats in the House of Representatives were favored by the Committee on Elections. As the proclamation for the elections was not issued by the civil Governor, as the law explicitly required, the admission of these claimants, elected in defiance of the legal requirement, would be a recognition by Congress of the validity of a military order over a State civil law. But although all the departments of the Federal Government had acted on the theory that the Confederate States were in a state of insurrection, and that the Union was unbroken, so that they could come back to the Union with all their laws unimpaired; and although Congress, under this theory, was as much bound to uphold the laws of Louisiana as the laws of New York — yet the Louisiana claimants were admitted to seats in the House of Representatives.
Nor was this all. The work of reconstructing the State of Louisiana out of the small portion of her population and territory subjugated by the military forces of the United States still went on. The next project was to hold a State Convention to frame a new Constitution; but its advocates were so few that nothing was done during the year 1863. The object of the military power was to secure such civil authority as to enforce the abolition of slavery; and, until the way was clear to that result, every method of organization was held in abeyance.
Meanwhile, on December 8, 1863, the President of the United States issued a proclamation which contained his plan of making a Union State out of a fragment of a Confederate State, and also grant only an amnesty to the general mass of the people on taking an oath of allegiance. His plan, briefly stated, was that, whenever any number of persons in any one of the Confederate States, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of 1860, each having taken the prescribed oath of allegiance, and having been a qualified voter by the election laws of the State existing immediately before the act of secession, should reestablish a State government, said government should be recognized as the true government of the State. The oath required was to support the Constitution, the Union, and “all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves,” and also “all proclamations of the President” issued during the same period and referring to slaves, until or unless modified and declared void by decision of the Supreme Court.
This Presidential plan to restore States to the Union did not contain a single feature to secure a republican form of government, nor a single provision authorized by the Constitution of the United States. With his usurped war-power to sustain him in the work of destruction, he found it easy to destroy; but he was powerless to create or restore.
Under the proclamation of the President, Major-General Banks issued at New Orleans, on January 11, 1864, a proclamation for an election of State officers and for members of a State Constitutional Convention. The State officers, when elected, were to constitute, according to the proclamation, “the civil government of the State under the Constitution and laws of Louisiana, except so much of the said Constitution and laws as recognize, regulate, or relate to slavery, which, being inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs, and plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended.” The number of votes given for State officers was 10,270. The population of the State in 1860 was 708,902. The so-called Governor-elect was inaugurated on March 4th, and on March 11th he was invested with the powers hitherto exercised by the military Governor for the President of the United States. On the same day Major-General Banks issued an order relative to the election of delegates to a so-called State Convention. The most important provisions of it defined the qualifications of voters. The delegates were elected entirely within the army lines of the forces of the United States. The so-called Convention assembled and adopted a so-called Constitution, declaring “instantaneous, universal, uncompensated, unconditional emancipation of slaves.” The meagre vote on the Constitution was, for its adoption, 6,836; for its rejection, 1,566. The vote of New Orleans was, yeas, 4,664; nays, 789. This state of affairs continued after the close of the war. Violent disputes arose as to the validity of the so-called Constitution. The so-called Legislature elected under it adopted Article XIII. as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, prohibiting the existence of slavery in the United States.
It will be seen from these facts that the State of Louisiana was not a republican State, instituted by the consent of the governed; that its Legislature was an unconstitutional body without any “just powers and that the vote which it gave for the amendment of the Constitution of the United States was no vote at all; for it was given by a body that had no authority to give it, because it had no “just powers” whatever. Yet this vote was counted among those necessary to secure the passage of the constitutional amendment. Was this an attempt to enforce a fiction or to establish the truth? Such are the deeds which go to make up the record of crime against the liberties of mankind.
The proceedings in Arkansas to “institute” a republican State government were inaugurated by an order from the President of the United States to Major-General Steele, commanding the Federal forces in Arkansas. At this time the regular government of the State, established by the consent of the people, was in full operation outside the lines of the United States army.
Meanwhile some persons in the northern part of Arkansas, acting under the proclamation of December 8, 1863, got together a so-called State Convention, containing the slavery prohibition, etc. This was ordered to be submitted to the popular vote, and at the same time State officers were to be elected. President Lincoln acceded to these proceedings after they had been placed under the direction of General Steele, the military commander. The election was held, the Constitution received 12,000 votes, and the State officers were declared to be elected. Then Arkansas came forth as a so-called republican State, “instituted” by military authority, and of course received the benefit of the constitutional provision which declares that “the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government.” It should be added that Arkansas, thus “instituted” a State, was regarded by the Government of the United State as competent to give as valid a vote as New York, Massachusetts, or any other Northern State for the ratification of Article XIII., as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, prohibiting the existence of slavery in the United States. The vote was thus given; it was counted; and it served to make up the exact number deemed by the managers to be necessary. Thus were fraud and falsehood triumphant over popular rights and fundamental law.
The perversion of republican principles was greater in Virginia than in any other State, through the co-operation of the Government of the United States. In the winter of 1860-61 a special session of the Legislature of the State, convened at Richmond, passed an act directing the people to elect delegates to a State Convention, to be held on February 14, 1861. The Convention assembled and was occupied with the subject of Federal relations and the adjustment of difficulties until the call for troops by President Lincoln was made, when an ordinance of secession was passed. The contiguity of the northwestern counties of the State to Ohio and Pennsylvania led to the manifestation of much opposition to the withdrawal of the State from the Union, and the determination to reorganize that portion as a separate State. This resulted in the assembling of a so-called Convention of Delegates at Wheeling on June 11th. One of its first acts was to provide for a reorganization of the State government of Virginia by declaring its offices vacant and the appointment of new officers throughout. The new organization assumed to be the true representative of the State of Virginia; and, after varying fortunes, was recognized as such by President Lincoln. The next act of the Convention was “to provide for the formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of this State.” Under this act delegates were elected to a so-called Constitutional Convention, which framed a so-called Constitution for the new State of West Virginia, which was submitted to a vote of the people in April, 1862, and carried by a large majority of that section. Meanwhile the Governor of the reorganized government of Virginia issued his proclamation for an election of members, and the assembly of an extra session of the so-called Legislature. The body assembled on May 6, 1862, and assumed to be the Legislature of the State of Virginia. This body immediately passed an act giving its consent to the formation of a new State out of the territory of Virginia. The formal act of consent and the draft of the new Constitution of West Virginia were ordered by this so-called Legislature to be sent to the Congress of the United States, then in session, with the request that “the said new State be admitted into the Union.” On December 31, 1862, the President approved an act for that purpose.
When the question of the admission of West Virginia was before the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, declared, with exemplary frankness, that he would not stultify himself by claiming the act to be constitutional. He said: “We know that it is not constitutional; but it is necessary.”