Next followed a vote on the question of holding a state convention and the election of delegates to such a convention if held--a double election.The whites, who had been harassed in the registration and who feared race conflicts at the elections, considered whether they ought not to abstain from voting.By staying away from the polls, they might bring the vote cast in each State below a majority and thus defeat the proposed conventions for, unless a majority of the registered voters actually cast ballots either for or against a convention, no convention could be held.Nowhere, however, was this plan of not voting fully carried out, for, though most whites abstained, enough of them voted (against the conventions, of course) to make the necessary majority in each State.The effect of the abstention policy upon the personnel of the conventions was unfortunate.In every convention there was a radical majority with a conservative and all but negligible minority.In South Carolina and Louisiana, there were Negro majorities.In every State except North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, the Negroes and the carpetbaggers together were in the majority over native whites.
The conservative whites were of fair ability; the carpetbaggers and scalawags produced in each convention a few able leaders, but most of them were conscienceless political soldiers of fortune; the Negro members were inexperienced, and most of them were quite ignorant, though a few leaders of ability did appear among them.In Alabama, for example, only two Negro members could write, though half had been taught to sign their names.They were barbers, field hands, hack drivers, and servants.A Negro chaplain was elected who invoked divine blessings on "unioners and cusses on rebels." It was a sign of the new era when the convention specially invited the "ladies of colored members" to seats in the gallery.
The work of the conventions was for the most part cut and dried, the abler members having reached a general agreement before they met.The constitutions, mosaics of those of other states, were noteworthy only for the provisions made to keep the whites out of power and to regulate the relations of the races in social matters.The Texas constitution alone contained no proscriptive clauses beyond those required by the Fourteenth Amendment.The most thoroughgoing proscription of Confederates was found in the constitutions of Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia; and in these states the voter must also purge himself of guilt by agreeing to accept the "civil and political equality of all men"or by supporting reconstruction.Only in South Carolina and Louisiana were race lines abolished by law.
The legislative work of the conventions was more interesting than the constitution making.By ordinance the legality of Negro marriages was dated from November 1867, or some date later than had been fixed by the white conventions of 1865.Mixed schools were provided in some States; militia for the black districts but not for the white was to be raised; while in South Carolina it was made a penal offense to call a person a "Yankee" or a "nigger." Few of the Negro delegates demanded proscription of whites or social equality; they wanted schools and the vote.The white radicals were more anxious to keep the former Confederates from holding office than from voting.
The generals in command everywhere used their influence to secure moderate action by the conventions, and for this they were showered with abuse.
As provided by the reconstruction acts, the new constitutions were submitted to the electorate created by those instruments.Unless a majority of the registered voters in a State should take part in the election, the reconstruction would fail and the State would remain under military rule.The whites now inaugurated a more systematic policy of abstention and in Alabama, on February 4, 1868, succeeded in holding the total vote below a majority.
Congress then rushed to the rescue of radicalism with the act of the 11th of March, which provided that a mere majority of those voting in the State was sufficient to inaugurate reconstruction.Arkansas had followed the lead of Alabama, but too late; in Mississippi the constitution was defeated by a majority vote; in Texas the convention had made no provision for a vote; and in Virginia the commanding general, disapproving of the work of the convention, refused to pay the expenses of an election.In the other six States the constitutions were adopted.** Except in Texas, the work of constitution making was completed between November 5, 1867, and May 18, 1868.
These elections gave rise to more violent contests than before.They also were double elections, as the voters cast ballots for state and local officials and at the same time for or against the constitution.The radical nominations were made by the Union League and the Freedmen's Bureau, and nearly all radicals who had been members of conventions were nominated and elected to office.The Negroes, expecting now to reap some benefits of reconstruction, frequently brought sacks to the polls to "put the franchise in." The elections were all over by June 1868, and the newly elected legislatures promptly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
It now remained for Congress to approve the work done in the South and to readmit the reorganized states.The case of Alabama gave some trouble.Even Stevens, for a time, thought that this state should stay out; but there was danger in delay.The success of the abstention policy in Alabama and Arkansas and the reviving interest of the whites foreshadowed white majorities in some places; the scalawags began to forsake the radical party for the conservatives; and there were Democratic gains in the North in 1867.Only six states, New York and five New England States, allowed the Negro to vote, while four states, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, voted down Negro suffrage after the passage of the reconstruction acts.The ascendancy of the radicals in Congress was menaced.The radicals needed the support of their radical brethren in Southern States and they could not afford to wait for the Fourteenth Amendment to become a part of the Constitution or to tolerate other delay.On the 22d and the 25th of June, acts were therefore passed admitting seven states, Alabama included, to representation in Congress upon the "fundamental condition" that "the constitutions of neither of said States shall ever be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizens or class of citizens of the United States of the right to vote in said State, who are entitled to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized."The generals now turned over the government to the recently elected radical officials and retired into the background.Military reconstruction was thus accomplished in all the States except Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas.
