THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU AND CIVIL RIGHTS BILLS
Trumbull introduces two bills to protect the freedmen in the states--Provisions of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill--Trumbull contends that the Thirteenth Amendment authorized Congress to abolish the incidents and disabilities of slavery--The Freedmen's Bureau Bill passed by Congress and vetoed by the President--The Senate fails to pass it over the veto--Struggle in the Senate to obtain a two-thirds majority--Senator Stockton (Democrat), of New Jersey, unseated--Trumbull's Civil Rights Bill taken up--It does not deal with the right of suffrage--Debate in the Senate on the constitutional question--Bill passes Senate--Is opposed in the House by Bingham, of Ohio--Is vetoed by the President--Exciting scene in Senate when the bill is passed over the veto--Trumbull takes the lead in the campaign of 1866 and is reëlected to the Senate--The Civil Rights Act in the courts--An echo from the State of Georgia 257
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction reports the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution--It holds that the seceding states cannot be restored to their former places in the Union by the executive alone--Tennessee admitted to the Union by Congress--The Arm-in-Arm Convention at Philadelphia--President Johnson's unfortunate speech following that event--The Southern States refuse to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment--This refusal gives increased power to the radicals in the North 281
Decision of the Supreme Court in the Milligan case--It declares all trials of civilians by military commissions unlawful--It implies that Andrew Johnson's policy was preferable to that of Congress--All the members of the Cabinet support the President's policy--Stanton, however, secretly confers with the radicals to undermine the President--Sumner and Stevens become the leaders in Congress and pass bills annulling state governments in the South--The Conservatives follow reluctantly, believing that the negroes cannot be protected unless they have the right to vote--Remarkable series of Reconstruction Acts passed in 1867 and 1868--The case of Georgia--Trumbull overthrows Governor Bullock and his senatorial supporters 288
The Tenure-of-Office Bill passed to curtail the President's power to remove office-holders--It does not apply to members of the Cabinet--The President vetoes it--The veto message written by Seward and Stanton in conjunction--Bill repassed over veto--First mutterings about impeachment--The Judiciary Committee reports in favor of it--The House rejects the report--The President requests Stanton's resignation--Stanton refuses to resign--The President removes him and appoints Grant Secretary of War _ad interim_--Stanton retires--The Senate disapproves of the removal of Stanton--Grant retires and Stanton resumes office--The President accuses Grant of bad faith, and appoints Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War--The House votes to impeach the President and appoints managers therefor--The trial begins March 5, 1868--The President is acquitted by vote of 35 to 19, not two thirds--Seven Republican Senators including Trumbull vote "Not Guilty"--Newspaper comments sustaining the "Seven Traitors"--Trumbull's written opinion filed with the record--Consequences of the impeachment trial--Death of Fessenden--Death of Mrs. Lyman Trumbull 301