CHAPTER II.

JOHNSON'S THEORY: THE EXPERIMENT, AND ITS RESULTS.

1. We have briefly reviewed the theories that obtained greater or less consideration during the progress of the war, and have seen that plan had been agreed upon by which the Southern States might resume their normal relations with the rest of the Union. Two or three States had, it is true, been nominally reconstructed under the provisions of the proclamation of December 8, 1863, but their good faith was strongly suspected, and their representatives were not able to secure recognition in Congress. The high personal esteem in which President Lincoln was held had prevented general demonstrations against his policy, but there was a wide-spread suspicion that he was inclined to deal too leniently with a people who had brought so much expense and misery upon the nation. The indignation of the North had increased with the progress of the war, and the belief that the South could be held in check only by the most stringent regulations and requirements was held by many.

2. So long as armed rebellion existed the question of reconstruction was a minor one, the attention of all being chiefly directed to the problem: "How can this rebellion be crushed out, and the South made thoroughly to realize that resistance is useless?" But when Andrew Johnson took the oath of office the rebellion was virtually a thing of the past, and the giant problem for the nation to solve during his administration was: "How shall we treat these conquered States lying helpless, awaiting whatever fate may be allotted them?" No other issue of importance served to offset it. The whole nation was debating the question, and all were waiting to see in what way the Executive would grapple with it.[38]

3. Those who feared that Lincoln had lacked sufficient firmness and had been too tender hearted, believed that in Johnson the nation had as its Executive a man with correct convictions and a strength of character which ensured both the proper treatment of the South and the stability of the Union. Johnson had an excellent record as military governor of Tennessee, where his fearlessness and vigorous administration had given him a reputation which brought to him the nomination of vice-president. From his severity to the rebels while governor of Tennessee it was reasoned that he would still remain severe and unyielding in his treatment of them as President of the United States. He himself was always fond of alluding to his past record as indicating his future course. Thus, only six days after he took the oath of office, he said while addressing a delegation of citizens of Indiana:[39] "In reference to what my administration will be, while I occupy my present position, I must refer you to the past. You may look back to it as evidence of what my course will be; * * * mine has been but one straightforward and unswerving course, and I see no reason now why I should depart from it. * * * My past is a better foreshadowing of my future course than any other statement on paper that might be made." Moreover, an examination of the speeches made by him during the war shows the grounds on which the people were justified in expecting a severe policy. An extract from an address delivered in Nashville, June 9, 1864, shows his views at that time as to who should carry on the work of reconstruction.[40] "In calling a convention to restore the State, who shall restore and re-establish it? Shall the man who gave his influence and his means to destroy the government * * * participate in the great work of reorganization? * * * Traitors should take a back seat in the work of restoration. If there be but five thousand men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to justice, these true and faithful men should control the work of reorganization and reformation absolutely." Later on in the same speech he said, referring to the traitor "born and reared among us:" "My judgment is that he should be subjected to a severe ordeal before he is restored to citizenship. A fellow who takes the oath merely to save his property, and denies the validity of the oath, is a perjured man, and not to be trusted."

4. Emphatic statements such as these, often repeated, insisting that the government of the States must be carefully kept in the hands of those whose loyalty was above suspicion, and advocating severe ordeals for those considered traitors, warranted the people of the nation in their faith in his extreme devotion to a strong Union. Yet soon after his inauguration a change in his attitude could be noticed. In his numerous speeches and interviews he shifts his ground, very gradually at first, but soon meeting the issue squarely, pledging himself to a policy which he faithfully carried into execution, and which the candid student must recognize as being thoroughly believed in by the President. Clemency towards the masses, but severity towards the leaders of the rebellion, was his attitude in his speech of April 21, above alluded to. He expressed his views as follows:[41] "It is not promulgating anything I have not heretofore said, to say that traitors must be made odious, that treason must be made odious, that traitors must be punished and impoverished. They must not only be punished, but their social power must be destroyed. If not, they will still maintain an ascendency, and may again become numerous and powerful; for, in the words of a former senator of the United States, 'when traitors become numerous enough, treason becomes respectable.' And I say that, after making treason odious, every Union man and the Government should be remunerated out of the pockets of those who have inflicted this great suffering upon the country. But do not understand me as saying this in a spirit of anger, for, if I understand my own heart, the reverse is the case; and while I say that the penalties of the law, in a stern and inflexible manner, should be executed upon conscious, intelligent and influential traitors--the leaders, who have deceived thousands upon thousands of laboring men who have been drawn into this rebellion--and while I say, as to the leaders, punishment, I also say leniency, conciliation and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived."

As Johnson said, he promulgated nothing new in this statement of his beliefs regarding the treatment of the South, save possibly a more definite affirmation of clemency to the masses. In the Nashville speech of June 9, 1864, he had still more emphatically urged extreme measures towards the leaders.[42] "Treason must be made odious, and traitors must be punished and impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized and divided into small farms, and sold to honest, industrious men. The day for protecting the lands and negroes of these authors of the rebellion is past." Again on April 24, 1865, in an interview with a number of Virginia refugees, he reiterated the necessity of severity. In this case, perhaps owing to the nature of the interview, and the character of those to whom he was speaking, he makes no distinction between the leaders and their followers, his definition of treason apparently including all soldiers and their abettors. In it he says:[43] "It is time that our people were taught that treason is a crime, not a mere political difference, not a mere contest between two parties, in which one succeeded and the other simply failed. They must know it is treason; for if they had succeeded, the life of the nation would have been reft from it, the Union would have been destroyed. Surely the Constitution sufficiently defines treason. It consists in levying war against the United States, and in giving their enemies aid and comfort."

The great liberality with which, beginning with the following month, the President used the pardoning power, and the extreme leniency with which all the leaders were treated, were in striking contrast with these sentiments. A situation was presented for Johnson to meet as President, which necessitated modifications of views held by him as governor. His attitude towards the leaders must be admitted to have undergone actual modification, notwithstanding his claim a few months later that he simply wished to make the leaders sue for pardon and realize the enormity of their offence.

5. The real secret of the apparently strange development of his policy, which we are about to trace out, lies in the fact that although at this time nominally a Republican, he was in reality a strict constructionist. He had always been a Democrat, and still held Democratic views. Only when secession began to be urged by the southern branch of the Democracy, did he break loose from his old ties. Accustomed to interpret the Constitution from a strict constructionist standpoint, accustomed to the belief that the power of the State was restricted only by the specific limitations of the Constitution, and that the federal government could exercise no power beyond that expressly granted it, he naturally treated the question of reconstruction from the same standpoint. The surprising thing in Johnson's career is the fact that in spite of his strict construction views, he was strongly opposed to secession. He was therefore not strictly logical. The extreme strict constructionist claimed that the fact that the Constitution did not forbid a State from seceding, made secession constitutional. But Johnson's love for the Union was too great to permit him to carry his strict construction views to such an extreme. On the contrary, the fact that the Constitution offered no way for a State to secede from the Union proved to him that secession was unconstitutional, and he looked upon that fact as one of the greatest safeguards for the protection of the Commonwealth.[44] To his mind it logically followed that because secession was unconstitutional, it was absolutely impossible for a State to secede, and therefore equally impossible for a State to commit treason. Individuals might commit treason and be punished therefor, but States never. However strongly at any time he may have urged the punishment of traitors, he never argued for or believed in the abrogation of any of the State's privileges. His reputation for belief in severity was based entirely upon severity on individuals. "Make treason odious" was his favorite expression, but always used in a concrete sense.[45]

6. After his accession to the Presidency, the only modification of his policy was an increased clemency to the conquered rebel. This can be accounted for easily as the natural result of actual contact with the problem. Rhetorically to assert that all traitors must be punished is one thing--to apply the punishment is another. Then Johnson's most able advisers approved his attitude and urged even greater moderation. Finally, his firm faith in the success of his provisional governments persuaded him to a still more liberal use of the pardoning power, while the growing opposition of Congress added the element of stubbornness to the complication. But, the true explanation of the change is to be found in his general constitutional views.

So early as April 21 he frankly states his position. In his speech on that day he says: "Provision" (in the Constitution) "is made for the admission of new States; no provision is made for the secession of old ones. * * * The Government is composed of parts, each essential to the whole, and the whole essential to each part."[46] He emphatically urges that the Constitution provides a panacea for rebellion. "The United States (that is, the great integer) shall guarantee to each State (the integers composing the whole) in this Union a republican form of government. Yes, if rebellion has been rampant, and set aside the machinery of a State for a time, there stands the great law to remove the paralysis and revitalize it, and put it on its feet again." He also harmonizes his strict construction views with the fact of emancipation. "A State may be in the Government with a peculiar institution, and by the operation of rebellion lose that feature; but it was a State when it went into rebellion, and when it comes out without the institution it is still a State."

President Johnson did not allow many days to pass by after his installation, before he began to give practical evidence of his attitude towards the conquered South.[47] The first step which he made was an order, issued April 29, restoring partial commercial intercourse to that portion of the Confederate States lying east of the Mississippi river and within the lines of national military occupation. This removed at the outset one of the chief burdens that had resulted from the insurrection, and would he thought act powerfully in the restoration of peaceful pursuits in that section. The following August another proclamation removed all remaining restrictions on trade in those States, declaring that all necessity for restriction had ceased.[48]

On May 9, 1865, the order restoring the administration of the United States in the State of Virginia was issued.[49] It authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to nominate assessors of taxes, collectors of customs, and other officers of the Treasury Department, and further provided that in making appointments the preference should be given to "qualified loyal persons residing within the districts where their respective duties are to be performed. But if suitable persons shall not be found residents of the districts, then persons residing in other States or districts shall be appointed." Post offices and post routes were to be established, and district judges empowered to hold courts, while "to carry into effect the guarantee of the Federal Constitution of a republican form of state government, * * * Francis H. Pierpiont, Governor of the State of Virginia, will be aided by the Federal Government," in his administration of the state government, in whatever way might be necessary.

The Amnesty Proclamation was issued on May 29, and was in effect a renewal of the provisions of Lincoln's proclamation of December 8, 1863, relating to amnesty; but it increased the number of classes excepted from the benefits of the proclamation, from seven to fourteen,[50] and provided that special application for pardon might be made by any of the excepted classes, to the President, who would exercise liberal clemency. Inasmuch as the excepted classes included all those whom less than three weeks previously he had been denouncing as traitors to be punished and impoverished, such great liberality, displayed in so short a time, was somewhat surprising.[51] The proclamation further empowered the Secretary of State to make all needful regulations for the administration and recording of the amnesty oath; and in accordance with this provision the Secretary of State ordered that the oath might be taken before any commissioned officer of the United States, or before any civil or military officer of a loyal State or Territory, who was legally qualified to administer oaths.

On the same day that he issued the Amnesty Proclamation, President Johnson appointed William W. Holden Provisional Governor of North Carolina.[52] This was his first radical step in the carrying out of his policy of reconstruction. The order restoring the authority of the United States in Virginia was not of so great importance, as the State had nominally been under the Pierpiont government since near the beginning of the war, and the mere restoration of certain United States officers in that State did not involve to any extent the vital questions of the hour.[53] But with the appointment of Mr. Holden, and the instructions accompanying the order of appointment, President Johnson unfolded, in its entirety, his theory.

The order declared that the rebellion, though now almost entirely overcome, had deprived the people of North Carolina of all civil government, and that accordingly the United States was constitutionally bound to secure to them a republican form of government. Therefore for the purpose of enabling the people to organize a government, he appointed William W. Holden Provisional Governor of North Carolina, whose duty it should be "at the earliest practicable period, to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary and proper for convening a convention, composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of the people of said State who are loyal to the United States, and no others, for the purpose of altering or amending the constitution thereof; and with authority to exercise, within the limits of said state, all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the State of North Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional relations to the Federal government, and to present such a republican form of state government as will entitle the State to the guarantee of the United States therefor, and its people to protection by the United States against invasion, insurrection, and domestic violence," provided, however, that all electors should have previously taken the oath of allegiance, and should be voters according to the law of North Carolina in force previous to secession. The order further directed that the Provisional Governor should be aided by the military power in carrying out the proclamation. The other clauses were similar to clauses in the order re-establishing the authority of the United States in Virginia.

Similar proclamations were issued as follows: June 13, for Mississippi; June 17, for Georgia and Texas; June 21, for Alabama; June 30, for South Carolina; July 13, for Florida.

Within three months after his inauguration, accordingly, Johnson had set the forces going throughout the South by which he hoped that peace and tranquillity might be established, and the Union once more become an undivided whole. In the execution of this most important work, he had not asked for the co-operation or advice of Congress. Confident of the correctness of his ideas, feeling sure that they were only the logical results of a true interpretation of the Constitution, he pursued his policy of reconstruction. In so doing he was also consistently following the path marked out by his predecessor. His plan was essentially that which Lincoln had advocated and attempted to carry into execution. But we have seen that even under a man enjoying such universal confidence as did Lincoln, the country viewed with distrust, and Congress openly resented, a policy which seemed to commit to a recently insurrectionary people the whole responsibility for proper reconstruction, requiring from them no surety for sincerity save an oath which all knew would be regarded by the majority as a mere form with little significance. The same policy when adopted by Johnson was naturally looked upon with still more suspicion.

Lincoln was a man of tact and judgment, who was capable of seeing and confessing a mistake, whose sole object was to do that which, all things being considered, should seem best for the Union.

Johnson, on the contrary, from his natural arbitrariness and narrowness, was a man who held most tenaciously to his views, had little consideration for the views of others, and who was always determined that his own way should be carried out. Under such circumstances it would have been little short of marvelous, had he been able to carry out a policy in itself disliked, without sooner or later coming into collision with those who disapproved his theory.

The provisional governors appointed were not slow in carrying out the provisions of the proclamations, and conventions met in the various states as follows: Mississippi, August 14; Alabama, September 12; South Carolina, September 13; North Carolina, October 2; Georgia, October 25; Florida, October 25; and Texas in March, 1866. In all these conventions the secession ordinances were repealed, annulled or declared null and void,[54] and slavery was declared abolished. All but Mississippi and South Carolina repudiated the rebel debt, and all but Mississippi and Texas ratified the 13th Amendment.

Meanwhile Johnson made liberal use of the pardoning power, and large numbers of the excepted classes were thus restored to all the privileges of citizens of the United States. The reconstruction was very rapid; so rapid, as Johnson himself said, that he could scarcely realize it; "it appears like a dream."

The extreme similarity of this method of reconstruction to that advocated by the Democracy could not escape attention, and Democrats freely asserted that in his ideas the President was "going over to them." This, while to a certain extent true, for he was always a Democrat in principle, was vigorously denied by Johnson in an interview with Geo. L. Stearns on October 3, 1865. In it he claimed that the Democratic party, finding its own views untenable, was gradually coming to adopt his principles, which he reasserted in the following form: "The States are in the Union, which is one and indivisible. Individuals tried to carry them out, but did not succeed, as a man may try to cut his throat and be prevented by the bystanders; and you can not say he cut his throat because he tried to do it. * * * Now we want to reconstruct the state governments, and have the power to do it. The state institutions are prostrated, laid out on the ground, and they must be taken up and adapted to the progress of events; this cannot be done in a moment. * * * We must not be in too much of a hurry; it is better to let them reconstruct themselves than to force them to do it; for if they go wrong the power is in our hands, and we can check them in any stage, to the end, and oblige them to correct their errors; we must be patient with them. I did not expect to keep out all who were excluded from the amnesty, or even a large number of them; but I intended they should sue for pardon, and so realize the enormity of the crime they had committed."

7. Johnson realized that the sentiment in favor of negro suffrage was gaining great power in the North; and while feeling that pure manhood suffrage was undesirable and totally impracticable, because of the danger of thereby creating a "war of races," which he seemed constantly to fear, he determined to use his influence towards a gradual introduction of the suffrage. He would give the suffrage to negroes who had served in the army, to those who could read and write, and to those owning real estate to the value of two hundred and fifty dollars. He made suggestions of this nature in letters to Governor Starkey of Mississippi, and Governor Hahn of Louisiana.[55] By some such limited suffrage he hoped that the radical element in the North would be satisfied, while there could result no danger to those States in which the negro population predominated.

He had long believed that the apportionment of Representatives should be based on the number of qualified voters; while a member of the legislature of Tennessee he had moved that the apportionment in that State be so made; and in the interview with Mr. Stearns he said: "The apportionment is now fixed until 1872; before that time we might change the basis of representation from population to qualified voters, North as well as South, and, in due course of time, the States, _without regard_ to color, might extend the elective franchise to all who possessed certain mental, moral or such other qualifications as might be determined by an enlightened public judgment."[56]

But however desirable a limited suffrage might be, he insisted that the only safety for the nation lay in leaving the whole subject to the discretion of the individual State. The only approach which he would make to national interference would be through constitutional amendment. In an interview with Senator Dixon of Connecticut, on January 28, 1866, he suggested that such an amendment might be worded in the following manner:

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to the number of qualified voters in each State.

"Direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to the value of all taxable property in each State."[57]

The great advantage of an amendment of this kind, in President Johnson's opinion, was that Congress would thus shift all responsibility regarding negro suffrage to the States. Each State would determine the qualifications for voters, and its representation in Congress would depend entirely upon the narrowness or broadness of the suffrage.

In the same interview with Senator Dixon, he described the current contention over negro suffrage as "ill-timed, uncalled for, and calculated to do great harm."

8. While the President was expressing his belief in qualified representation, and advising the States in process of reconstruction to grant some form of limited suffrage, the States themselves manifested no disposition to follow his advice. While he was describing them in October as lying helpless, they were busy framing laws which were aimed to counteract, so far as possible, the force of the emancipation proclamation.

When Georgia declared slavery abolished she did so with the proviso that "acquiescence in the action of the Government of the United States is not intended to operate as a relinquishment, or waiver, or estoppel of such claim for compensation of loss sustained by reason of the emancipation of his slaves, as any citizen of Georgia may hereafter make upon the justice and magnanimity of that Government."[58] Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida in their ratifications of the 13th Amendment stated their understanding to be that it did not confer upon Congress power to legislate upon the political status of the freedman. The Alabama legislature passed joint resolutions in which it was affirmed: "That Alabama will not voluntarily consent to change the adjustment of political power as fixed by the Constitution of the United States, and to constrain her to do so, in her present prostrate and helpless condition, with no voice in the councils of the nation, would be an unjustifiable breach of faith."[59]

But most important of all was the legislation of these States respecting the freedman. All were confronted by a host of emancipated blacks, whose legal status had to be determined. The legislatures had before them work of the most delicate nature, inasmuch as it not only vitally affected every person in their own section, but also attracted the keenest interest from the whole North. All realized that Johnson's policy would here undergo the crucial test. Would the legislators of these States, so soon thrown upon their own responsibility, show due consideration for the new order of things, or would they take advantage of their opportunity and proceed to draw the color line as sharply as ever, discriminating against the negro, and denying him privileges which should be allowed him? Had the South proved equal to the situation, the wisdom of Johnson's policy would have been sustained, and the bitterness characteristic of the 39th and 40th Congresses would have been avoided.

Mississippi was the first to adopt "black laws" obnoxious to the North. Her vagrant act was passed November 24, 1865. This provided that freedmen found with no lawful employment or business, or unlawfully assembling together, should be deemed vagrants, and be fined and imprisoned at the discretion of the court. A poll tax for a freedmen's pauper fund was to be levied on all freedmen, and should any fail or refuse to pay, he was to be hired out by the sheriff to any one who would pay the tax and costs, preference being given to his former master. Two days later a civil rights act was passed. This allowed freedmen to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, and to own personal property, but added the important proviso that the section should not be construed "to allow any freedman, free negro or mulatto to rent or lease any lands or tenements, except in incorporated towns or cities," where they should be controlled by the corporate authorities. Intermarriage of a white with any freedman, free negro or mulatto, should be punished by imprisonment in the state penitentiary for life. A laborer quitting before expiration of term of service without good cause, forfeited to his employer all wages for that year up to the time of quitting. Any one was authorized to arrest and return a deserting freedman, receiving therefor five dollars reward and mileage, all costs to be paid from the wages of the deserter. Any one persuading or attempting to persuade any freedman to desert his employer before his term of service expired, was guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to a fine of not less than twenty-five and not more than two hundred dollars, and if the offender attempted to persuade the freedman to desert, with a view of employing him without the limits of the State, the fine was to be not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars. While it was made lawful for a freedman to charge a white man with a criminal offence against his person or property, and to make all needful affidavits, a supplementary act passed December 2 provided that where sufficient proof was made before a court or jury that the arrest and trial had been falsely or maliciously caused, the freedman should be fined, and charged with all costs, and on failure to pay should be hired out at public outcry for the shortest time necessary to discharge the debt. An act passed November 29, among other restrictions, forbade freedmen to carry any fire arms, ammunition, dirk or bowie knife, under penalty, and declared that a freedman exercising the functions of a minister of the gospel, without a license from some regularly organized church, should be guilty of a misdemeanor, and become liable to an imprisonment not exceeding thirty days and to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.

Similar laws were enacted in the other States, varying slightly in severity of punishment. The labor contract act of Louisiana, passed in December, is of especial interest as an evidence of the systematic way in which the Southern legislators hoped to mould the unwieldy mass of freedmen into a docile set of serfs. All agricultural laborers were required by this act to make their contract for the ensuing year before the tenth day of January; said contract to embrace the labor of the whole family. After the contract had been agreed to, no laborer was to be allowed to "leave his place of employment until the fulfillment of his contract, unless by consent of his employer, or on account of harsh treatment, or breach of contract on the part of employer," under penalty of forfeiture of all wages to the time of leaving. "Failing to obey reasonable orders, neglect of duty, and leaving home without permission, will be deemed disobedience; impudence, swearing, or indecent language to or in the presence of the employer, his family or agent, or quarreling or fighting with one another, shall be deemed disobedience. For any disobedience a fine of one dollar shall be imposed upon the offender. For all lost time from work hours, unless in case of sickness, the laborer shall be fined twenty-five cents per hour. For all absence from home without leave the laborer will be fined at the rate of two dollars per day."[60]

The cruelty and injustice possible in the administration of these acts is even greater than their casual perusal would indicate. Many of these acts, nominally applying to both races with equal severity, were in reality intended to apply solely to the negro. The vagrants always proved to be colored. The acts purporting to secure the protection of the freedmen were cunningly hedged in by limitations which made them worthless. The employer was made the sole judge of the acts of his employees--a privilege which could not but be flagrantly abused. Laws that made it almost impossible for the freedman to secure the just return for his labor, were followed by laws punishing him for his poverty. The fines for his so-called offences were excessively severe, and the punishments were almost always such as to reduce him to slavery for limited terms. The whole system, taken advantage of as it could not fail to be where the dominant classes were almost unanimously desirous to retain the negro in subjection, resulted in his practical slavery during those seasons of the year in which his labor was most needed, and in utter neglect and lack of support when his labor was not in demand.

9. Although the enactment of these stringent laws at this time was a political mistake, and was fraught with most serious consequences for the South, it is proper to notice what was said in their justification. Many of them did not differ materially from similar statutes in the Northern States. Even some of the harshest laws, those which were received with wide-spread indignation throughout the North, could almost be duplicated by laws at that time in force in such States as Rhode Island and Connecticut. Even the phraseology, the using of the words master, mistress and servant, which was deemed objectionable and suggestive by Northern Republicans, could be found in Northern statutes.

The South felt confident that the negro was unable actively to assume the duties of citizenship. The Southern people feared, and with reason, that the immense mass of undeveloped humanity was liable to become turbulent and unmanageable, unless stringent laws could be framed which would hold it in check.[61] They were sincere in their statements that they believed that the interests of property, peace and good order demanded these laws. Unfortunately, the humanitarian ideas of the North harmonized too well with the political ideas of Congress. The enactment of the laws against the negro seemed to strike at the one and make possible the success of the other. The radical majority were quick to see their advantage, and did not hesitate to make the most of the opportunity. They assumed that the South deliberately intended to defy Northern sentiment, and ignored the possibility that the legislation in question was sincerely believed to be a necessary act of self-defense.

10. To Stevens and his followers the South had proved its impenitent condition, and had justified the most stringent measures of reconstruction. They declared that Johnson's policy had been fairly tested and that the results of the experiment were apparent. They argued that the South, emboldened by the conciliatory conduct of the President, was permitting the old rebel leaders to continue to wield the chief influence in affairs of state. The exclusion of these leaders from participation in the preliminary work of the reconstruction conventions was no check upon their influence in the State, and with the completion of reconstruction there was nothing to prevent them from occupying the chief state offices. What the President in the previous April had feared, was coming to pass, through his failure to do that which he had then said must be done--to make treason and traitors odious. In proof of the ascendency of the old elements, the highly questionable legislation of the South was cited, and the conviction of the Republican party that sterner measures were necessary was strengthened. As a natural result the doctrine of Thaddeus Stevens that the South should be regarded and governed as a conquered territory became practically the doctrine of the majority of Republicans, and Stevens became the leader of the House of Representatives. The year 1865 had made plain the necessities of the hour, the condition of the South, the attitude of the President, and in short had prepared the people for the great struggle which was to follow in the 39th and 40th Congresses.[62]