Civil and Political Rights for Freedmen. -- Slavery having been abolished by the 13th Amendment, adopted in 1865, the investment of the negro with civil rights followed as a neces sary incident of his new status. Some of the Southern legislatures in 1865 passed laws deny ing the freedmen the right to own real estate in some cases and to give testimony in the courts and having otherwise abridged their civil rights, Congress in April 1866 passed over the President's veto the noted Civil Rights Act which conferred upon all persons of color the status of citizenship and placed them upon an equality with white citizens in the making and enforcing of contracts, in suing and giving testimony in the courts, in acquiring, holding and conveying real as well as personal property and in the enjoyment of equal protection of the laws for the security of person and property. The United States courts were given jurisdic tion of cases arising under the act and the President was empowered to use the army and navy to enforce it. Foreseeing the possible re turn to power of those opposed to civil rights for the negro and the consequent repeal of the act, Congress immediately proposed the 14th Amendment, embodying the principles of the Civil Rights Act. To incorporate it in the Con stitution would have the effect of placing the civil rights of the negro beyond the reach of any hostile Congress. Ratification of this amendment by the Southern States was made a condition precedent to their restoration to the Union. Finally, in July 1868, Congress de dared that the amendment had been ratified by the requisite number of States and was, There fore, proclaimed a part of the Constitution. The amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside; provided for a reduction of the repre sentation in Congress of any State that should deny the suffrage to any of its adult male citizens; disqualified many of the prominent ex Confederates from holding Federal office; in validated all debts and other obligations in curred in aid of the rebellion and prohibited the States from abridging the privileges of citi zens or denying to any person the equal protec tion of the laws. By the threat of reducing their representation in Congress the nation offered an inducement to the Southern States to give the negro the right of suffrage, but it was soon discovered to be insufficient, and in February 1869 a new amendment (the 15th) was proposed which declared that the right to vote should not be denied or'abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Ratification of this amendment was imposed as a condition precedent to the readmission of the four States of Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Georgia, which still remained under military government and without representation in Con gress. By March 1870 the requisite number of States had ratified the amendment and it was proclaimed a part of the fundamental law. Al though this important amendment did not directly confer the suffrage upon the negro it did confer upon him an exemption from dis crimination upon the part of any State in fixing the qualifications for voting. Having secured full civil and political rights for colored citi zens, the Republican leaders now undertook, by an act of March 1875, to secure social equality for all colored persons in hotels, conveyances, theatres and other places of public amusement, but the Supreme Court held the act void as beyond the power of Congress.
The Freedmen's One of the agencies through which the process of recon struction was worked out was the Freedmen's Bureau, first established in March 1865 and placed under the supervision of the War De partment. In general, its purpose was to aid and advise the large number of freedmen who were demoralized and made helpless as a result of sudden liberation. During the last years of the war thousands of blacks left the planta tions and gathered about the camps or followed in the wake of the Federal armies. To provide for their support was a difficult problem which every commander in the South had to meet. At first appeals were made to philanthropic persons of the North for funds with which to support•this class, and generous responses fol lowed, but as the end of the war approached the number of negro "contrabands" increased until it was found impossible to rely wholly upon the support of charitable relief. Being released from the restraints of slavery, many freedmen made good use of their liberty to quit work and wander about the country only to find themselves, after a brief season, in a state of destitution. Others who continued to labor on the farms of their former masters were sometimes taken advantage of in regard to labor contracts and were denied the rights of free men which the results of the war had brought them. The bureau undertook to pro vide hospitals and medical relief for the sick and infirm; it distributed large quantities of food to the destitute; it undertook to prevent the infringement of the civil rights of freed men ; it provided special courts for the trial of accused freedmen in all cases in which the State excluded the testimony of colored wit nesses; it examined and approved their labor contracts; it circulated the emancipation proc lamation among the of the remote dis tricts; it instructed them as to their new duties and responsibilities; it urged them to labor and impressed upon them the sacredness of the ,marriage contract; it established schools and supplied teachers to such communities as wished them and in various other ways undertook to aid the unfortunate blacks whom emancipation had left to shift for themselves. The officials of the bureau also used their influence with the credulous blacks to induce them to enter into labor contracts with planters and thus per formed a service not without value to the white race.
The organization of the bureau was quite elaborate. Its head was a commissioner, this office being held by Gen. 0. 0. Howard (q.v.) ; there was an assistant commissioner for each State and a number of sub-commis sioners, each in charge of a particular district of the State. In every locality was stationed an agent who acquainted the freedmen with the orders of the bureau, distributed the rations and performed various other duties. The law as passed in 1865 made no appropriation for the support of the bureau, but its income from the sale of certain confiscated property and the rent of abandoned lands was sufficient to meet expenses. In July 1866 a new act was passed and the operations of the bureau largely ex tended. It was not finally withdrawn from all the Southern States until 1872. Although the bureau accomplished some good it did not pro mote the harmonious relations between the two races which it was expected to do. The agents of the bureau were mostly subordinate military officers and a considerable number of them turned out to be inefficient and unscrupulous. Too of ter able-bodied freedmen were encour aged in their idle habits by the distribution of government rations. while in not a few cases they were led to believe that the lands were to be distributed among them. Likewise it fre quently happened that the zeal of the bureau officials for the enforcement of exaggerated rights led to violent conflicts between white citizens and the military forces which were at the disposal of the bureau.
The The recon struction acts by enfranchising the negroes and disqualifying large numbers of the more in fluential whites made it possible for the blacks to get possession of the governments in most of the Southern States and to rule them in a most ignorant and extravagant manner. They were made use of by unprincipled adventurers from the North who flocked to the South in considerable numbers after the close of the war, some to engage in the profitable industry of cotton planting, others to fill the offices from which the more prominent Southern whites were excluded. These Northern immigrants came to be called "carpet-baggers" by the native whites, in allusion to the popular assertion that all their worldly effects were carried in a carpet-bag. By no means all of the Northern men who came to the South at this time were unscrupulous adventurers bent upon plunder, but they all allied themselves on the side of the negro in political matters, thus increasing the bitterness of race antagonism. A few na tive Southerns — "scalawags," they were called — also allied themselves politically with the Northern men and negroes for the purpose of sharing in the offices. Both these classes of whites were bitterly hated by the native Southern element who saw themselves excluded from power by strangers and others who had little substantial interest in the State. The in fluence of the carpet-bag class over the negroes was at first very great. They organized the freedmen into political clubs, instructed them in the art of voting and made use of them to further their own political ambitions. The carpet-baggers secured the nominations to the more important offices and were easily elected by large black majorities. But the colored vot ers were not content to see all the offices held by their white allies, and their ambition was frequently too great to be ignored. Consequently many of the important offices came to be held by ignorant blacks who but a few years pre vious were field-hands on the plantations. In several States negroes filled the offices of lieu tenant-governor, secretary of state, superinten dent of education and other important offices. In some instances they even sat upon the benches of the higher courts, while they filled many minor judicial positions. They occupied seats in the legislatures of all the Southern States, that of Mississippi in 1871 having as many as 55 colored members. A considerable portion of these were ignorant, some of whom were unable to read or write and all of whom were the pliant chilies of unscrupulous Northern men. With the State and local governments con trolled by ignorant negroes and designing white men, an era of extravagance, misrule and corruption set in which in some instances amounted to outright robbery and plunder. Long and frequent sessions of the legislature were held for service in which the members voted themselves large per diem allowances. Old laws were ruthlessly repealed and replaced by bulky statutes, many of which bore the ear marks of animosity and oppression. Counties were rechristened with names full of offense to Southern whites. Laws favoring social equality were passed. Public school systems on an ex travagant scale for the children of both races were established and taught by Northern teachers. Offices were greatly multiplied— many of them mere sinecures — for the benefit of good Republicans. Gigantic schemes of pub lic improvement were undertaken, most of which were marked by frauds and extravagance. The rate of taxation was increased out of all proportion to the ability of the people to pay in their then impoverished condition resulting from four years of destructive war. In Mississippi this rate was increased from one mill ort the dollar in 1868 to 14 mills in 1871, and the inability of the people to pay resulted in the confiscation of one-fifth of the land of the State. Large debts were incurred for pro jected improvements, especially in Louisiana and South Carolina, where a wholesale system of plunder was carried out by the reconstruc tion governments. In the latter State the pub lic debt was increased from $5,000,000 in 1868 to nearly $20,000,000 in 1874. The tax levy was increased four-fold, although the value of tax able property had declined 100 per cent. Large gratuities were voted State officials, the State capitol was furnished after the manner of a European palace and vast sums were squandered in reckless schemes for public improvement.