When Johnson's term ended and he gave place to President Grant, four states were still unreconstructed--Virginia, Texas, and Mississippi, in which the reconstruction had failed, and Georgia, which, after accomplishing reconstruction, had again been placed under military rule by Congress.In Virginia, which was too near the capital for such rough work as readmitted Arkansas and Alabama into the Union, the new constitution was so severe in its provisions for disfranchisement that the disgusted district commander would not authorize the expenditure necessary to have it voted on.In Mississippi a similar constitution had failed of adoption, and in Texas the strife of party factions, radical and moderate Republican, had so delayed the framing of the constitution that it had not come to a vote.
The Republican politicians, however, wanted the offices in these States, and Congress by its resolution of February 18, 1869, directed the district commanders to remove all civil officers who could not take the "ironclad" oath and to appoint those who could subscribe to it.An exception, however, was made in favor of the scalawags who had supported reconstruction and whose disabilities had been removed by Congress.
President Grant was anxious to complete the reconstruction and recommended to Congress that the constitutions of Virginia and Mississippi be re-submitted to the people with a separate vote on the disfranchising sections.Congress, now in harmony with the executive, responded by placing the reconstruction of the three states in the hands of the President, but with the proviso that each state must ratify the Fifteenth Amendment.Grant thereupon fixed a time for voting in each state and directed that in Virginia and Mississippi the disfranchising clauses be submitted separately.As a result, the constitutions were ratified but proscription was voted down.The radicals secured control of Mississippi and Texas, but a conservative combination carried Virginia and thus came near keeping the state out of the Union.Finally, during the early months of 1870 the three states were readmitted.
With respect to Georgia a peculiar condition of affairs existed.In June 1868, Georgia had been readmitted with the first of the reconstructed States.The state legislature at once expelled the twenty-seven Negro members, on the ground that the recent legislation and the state constitution gave the Negroes the right to vote but not to hold office.Congress, which had already admitted the Georgia representatives, refused to receive the senators and turned the state back to military control.In 1869-70, Georgia was again reconstructed after a drastic purging of the legislature by the military commander, the reseating of the Negro members, and the ratification of both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.The state was readmitted to representation in July 1870, after the failure of a strong effort to extend for two years the carpetbag government of the state.
Upon the last states to pass under the radical yoke, heavier conditions were imposed than upon the earlier ones.Not only were they required to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, but the "fundamental conditions" embraced, in addition to the prohibition against future change of the suffrage, a requirement that the Negroes should never be deprived of school and office-holding rights.
The congressional plan of reconstruction had thus been carried through by able leaders in the face of the opposition of a united white South, nearly half the North, the President, the Supreme Court, and in the beginning a majority of Congress.This success was due to the poor leadership of the conservatives and to the ability and solidarity of the radicals led by Stevens and Sumner.The radicals had a definite program; the moderates had not.The object of the radicals was to secure the supremacy in the South by the aid of the Negroes and exclusion of whites.Was this policy politically wise? It was at least temporarily successful.The choice offered by the radicals seemed to lie between military rule for an indefinite period and Negro suffrage; and since most Americans found military rule distasteful, they preferred to try Negro suffrage.But, after all, Negro suffrage had to be supported by military rule, and in the end both failed completely.
