A Just and Lasting Peace: A Documentary History of Reconstruction Read Online Free PDF

RESIDENT OF THE U NITED S TATES
A P ROCLAMATION
    Whereas, at the late session, congress passed a bill to “guarantee to certain states, whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government,” a copy of which is hereunto annexed;
    And whereas the said bill was presented to the President of the United States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him;
    And whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring the states in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of congress upon that subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before the people for their consideration;
    Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare, and make known, that while I am (as I was in December last, when by proclamation I propounded a plan for restoration) unprepared by a formal approval of this bill, to be inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration; and, while I am also unprepared to declare that the free state constitutions and governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for nought, thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to further effort, or to declare a constitutional competency in congress to abolish slavery in states, but am at the same time sincerely hoping and expecting that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery throughout the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am truly satisfied with the system for restoration contained in the bill as one very proper plan for the loyal people of any state choosing to adopt it, and that I am, and at all times shall be, prepared to give the executive aid and assistance to any such people, so soon as the military resistance to the United States shall have been suppressed in any such state, and the people thereof shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the constitution and the laws of the United States, in which cases military governors will be appointed, with directions to proceed according to the bill.
    In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

T HE W ADE- D AVIS M ANIFESTO
    (August 5, 1864)
    Senator Wade and Congressman Davis found Lincoln’s pocket veto and his accompanying proclamation infuriating and published the vituperative Wade-Davis Manifesto in the
New York Tribune
. They charged that the president brazenly disregarded the will of Congress and that his lenient Reconstruction program was a bid to win votes in the November election. Though the manifesto signaled loud and serious opposition to Lincoln’s approach to Reconstruction within Radical Republican ranks, it proved unsuccessful in denying Lincoln the Union party nomination and ultimately victory in the presidential election. Their politically indiscreet manifesto ended Davis’s political career (Marylanders failed to renominate him for office) and tarnished Wade’s reputation.
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    PROTEST OF SENATOR WADE AND H. WINTER DAVIS, M.C.
    To the supporters of the Government:
    We have read without surprise, but not without indignation, the proclamation of the President of the 8th of July, 1864. . . .
    The President did not sign the bill “to guarantee to certain States whose government have been usurped, a Republican form of government”—passed by the supporters of his Administration in both Houses of Congress after mature deliberation.
    The bill did not therefore become a law; and it is, therefore, nothing.
    The proclamation is neither an approval nor a veto of the bill; it is, therefore, a document unknown to the laws and Constitution of the United States.
    So far as it contains an apology for not signing the bill, it is a political manifesto against the friends of the Government.
    So far as it