The Status of the Freedmen.-Even more intricate than the issues involved in restoring the seceded states to the union was the question of what to do with the newly emancipated slaves.That problem,often put to abolitionists before the war,had become at last a real concern.The thirteenth amendment abolish-ing slavery had not touched it at all.It declared bondmen free,but did nothing to provide them with work or homes and did not mention the subject of politi-cal rights.All these matters were left to the states,and the legislatures of some of them,by their famous "black codes,"restored a form of servitude under the guise of vagrancy and apprentice laws.Such methods were in fact partly re-sponsible for the reaction that led Congress to abandon Lincoln's policies and undertake its own program of reconstruction.
Still no extensive effort was made to solve by law the economic problems of the bondmen.Radical abolitionists had advocated that the slaves when emancipated should be given outright the fields of their former masters;but Congress steadily rejected the very idea of confiscation.The necessity of immediate assistance it recognized by creating in 1865the Freedmen's Bureau to take care of refugees.It authorized the issue of food and clothing to the destitute and the renting of abandoned and certain other lands under federal control to former slaves at reasonable rates.But the larger problem of the relation of the freedmen to the land,it left to the slow working of time.
Against sharp protests from conservative men,particularly among the Democrats,Congress did insist,however,on conferring upon the freedmen certain rights by national law.These rights fell into broad divisions,civil and political.By an act passed in 1866,Congress gave to former slaves the rights of white citizens in the matter of making contracts,giving testimony in courts,and purchasing,selling,and leasing property.As it was doubtful whether Congress had the power to enact this law,there was passed and submitted to the states the fourteenth amendment which gave citizenship to the freedmen,assured them of the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States,and declared that no state should deprive any person of his life,liberty,or property without due process of law.Not yet satisfied,Congress attempted to give social equality to negroes by the second civil rights bill of 1875which promised to them,among other things,the full and equal enjoyment of inns,theaters,publicconveyances,and places of amusement-a law later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The matter of political rights was even more hotly contested;but the radical Republicans,like Charles Sumner,asserted that civil rights were not secure unless supported by the suffrage.In this same fourteenth amendment they attempted to guarantee the ballot to all negro men,leaving the women to take care of themselves.The amendment declared in effect that when any state deprived adult male citizens of the right to vote,its representation in Congress should be reduced in the proportion such persons bore to the voting population.
This provision having failed to accomplish its purpose,the fifteenth amendment was passed and ratified,expressly declaring that no citizen should be deprived of the right to vote "on account of race,color,or previous condition of servitude."To make assurance doubly secure,Congress enacted in 1870,1872,and 1873three drastic laws,sometimes known as "force bills,"providing for the use of federal authorities,civil and military,in supervising elections in all parts of the Union.So the federal government,having destroyed chattel slavery,sought by legal decree to sweep away all its signs and badges,civil,social,and political.Never,save perhaps in some of the civil conflicts of Greece or Rome,had there occurred in the affairs of a nation a social revolution so complete,so drastic,and far-reaching in its results.
Summary of the Sectional Conflict
Just as the United States,under the impetus of Western enterprise,rounded out the continental domain,its very existence as a nation was challenged by a fratricidal conflict between two sections.This storm had been long gathering upon the horizon.From the very beginning in colonial times there had been a marked difference between the South and the North.The former by climate and soil was dedicated to a planting system-the cultivation of tobacco,rice,cotton,and sugar cane-and in the course of time slave labor became the foundation of the system.The North,on the other hand,supplemented agriculture by commerce,trade,and manufacturing.Slavery,though lawful,did not flourish there.An abundant supply of free labor kept the Northern wheels turning.
This difference between the two sections,early noted by close observers,was increased with the advent of the steam engine and the factory system.Between 1815and 1860an industrial revolution took place in the North.Its signs were gigantic factories,huge aggregations of industrial workers,immense cities,a flourishing commerce,and prosperous banks.Finding an unfavorable reception in the South,the new industrial system was confined mainly to the North.By canals and railways New York,Boston,and Philadelphia were linked with thewheatfields of Ohio,Indiana,and Illinois.A steel net wove North and Northwest together.A commercial net supplemented it.Western trade was diverted from New Orleans to the East and Eastern credit sustained Western enterprise.
