CHAPTER XV

RECONSTRUCTION

Death of Lincoln--Conflict of opinions concerning the status of the seceding states--Lincoln's proclamation of December, 1863--Reconstruction of Louisiana in pursuance thereof--Trumbull reports a joint resolution admitting that state--Sumner prevents the Senate from voting on it--Lincoln's last speech on Reconstruction--His plan indorsed by William Lloyd Garrison--Andrew Johnson as President adopts it--Recognizes Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas as restored to the Union--Issues an executive order appointing a governor of North Carolina to call a constitutional convention--Negroes not included in the list of voters--Similar orders issued for the other seceding states--Wendell Phillips sounds a blast against President Johnson--Northern newspapers at first favorable to Johnson--Desperate industrial condition of the South 231