Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/307

Rh North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida as included. He pronounced the insurrection "at an end and henceforth to be so regarded". This proclamation may be regarded as the end of the presidential plan.

The States, excepting Texas, had perfected what they had been required to do, and but for the friction caused by the armed forces of the Union everywhere, the tendency to race collisions in the administration of the Freedman's bureau, and grave apprehension as to the future action of Congress, matters were beginning to assume normal conditions in the re-establishment of civil government, which had been destroyed immediately after the close of armed resistance throughout the South. Congress had adjourned in March and left matters entirely in the hands of President Lincoln, so that when it met December 4, 1865, there had been a recess of over eight months, in which Presidents Lincoln and Johnson had had time to carry out their plans coincident with the rapid happening of events incident to the sudden collapse of the Confederate government. Upon the meeting of Congress a concurrent resolution was immediately passed by a party vote in both houses to appoint a committee of fifteen, nine representatives and six senators, with instructions to look into the condition of the seceded States, and to advise Congress as to whether or not they should be represented in Congress under the organization effected through the plan of President Johnson. The committee, as conceded by leading men of the time, was really to look after the interests of the Republican party, and to devise some scheme to perpetuate its power. It was admirably organized for this purpose, and was composed of twelve Republicans and three Democrats. Its duty was to visit the States lately at war with the United States and take testimony on which to formulate a re-