* But it also has a
place in the history of the presidential campaign of 1864.
Lincoln's plan of reconstruction was obnoxious to the Radicals in
Congress inasmuch as it did not definitely abolish slavery in
Louisiana, although it required the new Government to give its
adherence to the Emancipation Proclamation. Congress passed a
bill taking reconstruction out of the President's hands and
definitely requiring the reconstructed States to abolish slavery.
Lincoln took the position that Congress had no power over slavery
in the States. When his Proclamation was thrown in his teeth, he
replied, "I conceive that I may in an emergency do things on
military grounds which cannot be done constitutionally by
Congress." Incidentally there was a further disagreement between
the President and the Radicals over negro suffrage. Though
neither scheme provided for it, Lincoln would extend it, if at
all, only to the exceptional negroes, while the Radicals were
ready for a sweeping extension. But Lincoln refused to sign
their bill and it lapsed. Thereupon Benjamin Wade of Ohio and
Henry Winter Davis of Maryland issued a savage denunciation of
Lincoln which has been known ever since as the "Wade-Davis
Manifesto".
* Walter L. Fleming, "The Sequel of Appomattox".
Pages:
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238