Whatever final judgment may be passed upon the radical reconstruction policy and its results, there can be no doubt of the political dexterity of those who carried it through.Chief among them was Thaddeus Stevens, vindictive and unscrupulous, filled with hatred of the Southern leaders, bitter in speech and possessing to an extreme degree the faculty of making ridiculous those who opposed him.He advocated confiscation, the proscription or exile of leading whites, the granting of the franchise and of lands to the Negroes, and in Southern states the establishment of territorial governments under the control of Congress.These states should, he said, "never be recognized as capable of acting in the Union...until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to make it what the makers intended, and so as to secure perpetual ascendancy to the party of the Union."Charles Sumner, the leader of the radicals in the Senate, was moved less than Stevens by personal hostility toward the whites of the South, but his sympathy was reserved entirely for the blacks.He was unpractical, theoretical, and not troubled by constitutional scruples.To him the Declaration of Independence was the supreme law, and it was the duty of Congress to express its principles in appropriate legislation.Unlike Stevens, who had a genuine liking for the Negro, Sumner's sympathy for the race was purely intellectual; for the individual Negro he felt repulsion.His views were in effect not different from those of Stevens.And he was practical enough not to overlook the value of the Negro vote."To my mind," he said, "nothing is clearer than the absolute necessity of suffrage for all colored persons in the disorganized states.It will not be enough if you give it to those who read and write; you will not, in this way, acquire the voting force which you need there for the protection of unionists, whether white or black.You will not secure the new allies who are essential to the national cause." A leader of the second rank was his colleague Henry Wilson, who was also actuated by a desire for the Negro's welfare and for the perpetuation of the Republican party, which he said contained in its ranks "more of moral and intellectual worth than was ever embodied in any political organization in any land...created by no man or set of men but brought into being by Almighty God himself...and endowed by the Creator with all political power and every office under Heaven." Shellabarger of Ohio was another important figure among the radicals.
The following extract from one of his speeches gives an indication of his character and temperament: "They [the Confederates] framed iniquity and universal murder into law....Their pirates burned your unarmed commerce upon every sea.They carved the bones of the dead heroes into ornaments, and drank from goblets made out of their skulls.They poisoned your fountains, put mines under your soldiers' prisons; organized bands whose leaders were concealed in your homes; and commissions ordered the torch and yellow fever to be carried to your cities and to your women and children.They planned one universal bonfire of the North from Lake Ontario to the Missouri."Among the lesser lights may be mentioned Morton and Wade, both bluff, coarse, and ungenerous, and thoroughly convinced that the Republican party had a monopoly of loyalty, wisdom, and virtues, and that by any means it must gain and keep control; Boutwell, fanatical and mediocre; and Benjamin Butler, a charlatan and demagogue.As a class the Western radicals were less troubled by humanitarian ideals than were those of the East and sought more practical political results.
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction which finally decided the fate of the Southern states was composed of eight radicals, four moderate Republicans, and three Democrats.As James Gillespie Blaine wrote later, "it was foreseen that in an especial degree the fortunes of the Republican party would be in the keeping of the fifteen men who might be chosen." This committee was divided into four subcommittees to take testimony.The witnesses, all of whom were examined at Washington, included army officers and Bureau agents who had served in the South, Southern Unionists, a few politicians, and several former Confederates, among them General Robert E.Lee and Alexander H.Stephens.Most of the testimony was of the kind needed to support the contentions of the radicals that Negroes were badly treated in the South; that the whites were disloyal; that, should they be left in control, the Negro, free labor, the nation, and the Republican party would be in danger; that the army and the Freedmen's Bureau must be kept in the South; and that a radical reconstruction was necessary.No serious effort, however, was made to ascertain the actual conditions in the South.Slow to formulate a definite plan, the Joint Committee guided public sentiment toward radicalism, converted gradually the Republican Congressmen, and little by little undermined the power and influence of the President.
Not until after the new year was it plain that there was to be a fight to the finish between Congress and the President.Congress had refused in December 1865, to accept the President's program, but there was still hope for a compromise.Many conservatives had voted for the delay merely to assert the rights of Congress; but the radicals wanted time to frame a program.The Northern Democrats were embarrassingly cordial in their support of Johnson and so also were most Southerners.The moderates were not far away from the position of the President and the administration Republicans.But the radicals skillfully postponed a test of strength until Stevens and Sumner were ready.
