University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XXIX

RECONSTRUCTION AND RESTORATION

Condition of Virginia after the War. — Virginia had
poured out her resources in a lavish stream to meet the
ever-increasing needs of the Confederate government.
She had borne the brunt of the war; and great was the
devastation brought upon her by the conflict through which
she had passed. When the end came, her condition was
deplorable. Her slaves had been forcibly freed, and, all over
her territory, houses had been burned, fences destroyed,
cattle killed, and farms devastated. Worse than all this,
her fields had been drenched with blood; and the land was
filled with mourning for fathers, brothers, husbands, and
sons, who had gone forth to battle and had never returned.

Suspension of Civil Government. — When Richmond was
evacuated, the state government, as it existed under the
Confederacy, came practically to an end. Governor Smith,
it is true, moved the seat of the government to Lynchburg;
but, becoming convinced after the surrender of General
Lee that any further effort on the part of the state to continue
the war would be useless, he gave himself up to the
Federal authorities and received his parole.

On April 6 President Lincoln issued an order which authorized
the legislature to assemble at Richmond, but this
he recalled[51] before a formal meeting of the body was held.

Provisional Government Established. — Unfortunately
for Virginia, President Lincoln was assassinated[52] by John
Wilkes Booth soon after the evacuation of Richmond. Had
Lincoln lived, the people believed that the state would have
been speedily restored to her place in the Union, and this
his successor, President Johnson, tried to bring about, but
he was unable to control the dominant party in Congress.
One month after Lee's surrender, Johnson, in following
out his plan for the restoration of the state, appointed
Francis H. Pierpont provisional governor.

Refused Readmission into the Union. — Governor Pierpont,[53]
in taking charge of affairs, showed a patriotic

spirit in his efforts to reestablish the state government.
On October 12, 1865, elections were held for members of
the General Assembly and of Congress. But when the
representatives of Virginia appeared in Washington, Congress
refused to allow them to take their seats, and, before
its adjournment, decided not to readmit into the Union any
state that had formed a part of the Confederacy, till it
would ratify the fourteenth amendment to the Federal
Constitution. This made the negro a citizen and put the
political and military leaders of the Confederacy under
disability to hold office. Virginia refused to take the action
required of her, and so was not readmitted. Governor
Pierpont continued to administer the provisional government
established by President Johnson, and the people
displayed a law-abiding spirit. The state government was
theoretically independent, but the military authorities frequently
interfered with the operations of the civil law.

Under Military Rule. — Finally, in 1867, Congress passed
over the President's veto the Reconstruction Acts, which
put Virginia under military rule. By these measures the
government existing in the state was made entirely subordinate
to a military commander, who had authority to administer
all the powers of the state, life and liberty being
subject to such military commissions as he might create.
The courts of the state could sit, but only by permission of
the commander. During this period no one was allowed
to vote or hold office unless he could take an oath[54] that he

had never borne arms against the United States, and had
never given aid to the Confederacy, nor held an office
under its authority.

The Rule of "Carpet-baggers"[55] and "Scallawags"[56] . —
Under the test oath required but few white men could take
part in politics, and so the government of the state fell into
the hands of "Carpet-baggers," "Scallawags," and negroes.
For a time there was a reign of ignorance, fraud, and robbery,
during which the state debt, already a very heavy
one, was increased over thirteen millions. Two of the
military commanders complained to the authorities at
Washington that it was impossible, under the test oath
required, to find enough competent persons to fill the
offices in the state.

In the Union again. — In 1870 the state was readmitted
into the Union under a constitution which accepted all the
legislation that had been made in regard to the negro, but
without any clause disfranchising the citizens who had
taken part in the War of Secession. After this the government
came into the hands of those competent to administer
it, and soon law and order prevailed throughout the
commonwealth. President Grant aided in rescuing the
state from the rule of the "Carpet-baggers" and "Scallawags,"
by using his influence in getting the disfranchising
clause submitted to a separate vote which resulted in its
rejection.

The Freedmen's Bureau. — An account of the Reconstruction
period would be incomplete without a notice of
the Freedmen's Bureau. As the war drew to an end, the
number of negroes dependent upon the Federal government
had become so great that Congress established in
connection with the War Department a bureau, which was
to have control of all matters relating to refugees and
freedmen from the territory that had been in the Confederacy.
It was authorized to issue provisions, clothing,
fuel, and medical supplies to the destitute. It had power
also to take charge of abandoned or confiscated land, and
to rent it to refugees and freedmen in forty-acre tracts for
a term of three years. At the end of this time, the bureau
could sell the land to the occupants. This provision gave
rise to a widespread belief among the negroes that it was
the purpose of the government to give each one of them
"forty acres and a mule." The hope of this expected
legacy, which was for a long time cherished, had the effect
of increasing idleness. It was used, too, by unscrupulous
adventurers from the North to extort money from the
negroes, on the promise that the land would be divided
out among them as soon as they all paid a small fee.

The establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau was due
to sectional prejudice, which ran high in 1865, and to a
mistaken idea that it would prove a benefit to the negro
race. In Virginia and elsewhere its operations ended in
failure.

Wreck of the Plantation System. — The plantation system
that had existed from the earliest period came to a sudden
end with Lee's surrender. After this event, the conditions
of country life were practically revolutionized. The obligation
that had rested upon a master to feed, clothe, take
care of, and protect his slaves for life-time services was

changed at once to a business contract between master
and servant, which could be easily terminated. For a
short time, in most parts of the state, the negroes remained
upon the land of their former masters. Then the desire
to enjoy their newly acquired freedom caused them to
move from place to place, and to seek busy centers.
Soon the deserted and roofless cabins that were seen all
over the country were unmistakable and melancholy signs
that the plantation system, as it existed in the olden times,
was no more.

Spirit of the People. — The Virginians have always been
known as a sanguine people; and this phase of their character
came out prominently in the way they accepted the
issues of the war without repining. They addressed themselves
resolutely to the difficult task of restoring their
ruined homes, when they were without capital, without
credit, and in many cases hopelessly involved in debt.
Men, who had never done a day's work in their lives but
had lived in comfort upon the labor of their slaves, began
at once to cultivate the land with their own hands; and
fair women, brought up in luxury and accustomed to all
the refinements of life, performed without a murmur household
drudgery, to which they had been strangers. The
heroic spirit the people had displayed when tried in the
fiery ordeal of war was not more admirable than the patient
endurance and self-control they manifested in adjusting
themselves to the new conditions that confronted them.

QUESTIONS

• 1. Describe the condition of Virginia after the Civil War.

• 2. What is said of the suspension of civil government?

• 3. Give an account of President Lincoln's assassination.

• 4. What did President Johnson wish to do for the state, and what
  kind of governor did he appoint?

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• 5. Give the history of "Restored Virginia"

• 6. What happened when Virginia's representatives appeared in
  Washington?

• 7. Why was she refused readmission into the Union?

• 8. Describe the military rule under which the state was put by Congress.

• 9. Who were the "Carpet-baggers" and "Scallawags"?

• 10. What was the ironclad oath?

• 11. When and under what conditions did Virginia enter the Union
  again?

• 12. What was the Freedmen's Bureau?

• 13. How did it prove an injury to the negro?

• 14. When and in what way was the plantation system wrecked?

• 15. Describe the spirit of the people in adjusting themselves to the
  changed condition of affairs.