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The reConsTruCTion CourTs As Northern victory became ever more certain, Abraham Lincoln determined upon the course, as articulated in his Second Inaugural Address, that would indulge in “malice toward none, with charity for all.” His view of Reconstruction was simple: secession had been illegal; therefore, the Southern states had never really left the Union. As the commander in chief who defeated the rebellion, he would decide the terms of their readmission: the wayward states would have to pledge their renewed allegiance to the Union, revise state constitutions to delete references to slavery, and apply for statehood.The South would be reassimilated into the Union with a minimum of recrimination or constitutional restructuring. Lincoln would have to effect this plan over the hate-filled determination of radicals within his own party, men who wanted to whip and scourge and punish the South not just for the war, but for a generation of intractable pugnacity as well. They argued that the South had indeed left the Union, and now it was Congress’s prerogative to dictate the terms of readmission, just as it would do for any other new territory seeking to become part of the country. Lincoln’s assassination on April 14, 1865, only five days after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, gave the congressional radicals the momentum they needed to bring their vision to reality. Lincoln would have had severe difficulties enacting his program over their opposition in any event, and the new president, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee , had nothing like Lincoln’s persuasive powers. He was able to at least initiate Lincoln’s plans in the phase known as Presidential Reconstruction. Texas’s rehabilitation began with the arrival of General Gordon Granger (a minor figure in the war) with eighteen hundred troops to begin the occupation and declare the end of slavery on June 19, 1865 (celebrated afterward as the holiday Juneteenth). He was followed on July 21 by the man Johnson appointed provisional governor, the former Unionist congressman Andrew Jackson Hamilton, who, as war approached, had evaded a secessionist mob seven 76 THe Texas supreme CourT in Austin by hiding in the sinkhole at his brother’s ranch (later known as Hamilton Pool). He had served as a Union officer during the war, which had prompted another Austin mob to burn his wife and six children out of their home.1 Virtually all statewide and even county offices were under Hamilton’s appointment. While there were not many who had, like himself, deserted the state to fight for the North, he was fortunate in that there were plenty of moderate Democrats of the Sam Houston mold to choose from, men who had opposed secession but remained quietly at home and supported the troops. Their appointments to fill the long list of jobs were usually acceptable to all. On August 19, Hamilton opened voter registration for an election on January 6, 1866, to send delegates to a convention scheduled to meet in Austin on February 7 to revise the state constitution to omit consideration of slavery. Presidential Reconstruction was proving easier to implement than many had feared, but when the convention set to its task, so far from acting as though the Confederate defeat should soften their long-standing political views, the delegates took full advantage of the moment and northern softness to promulgate a document almost stunning in its restatement of traditional southern mores.2 Of paramount importance, according to the delegate and former justice Oran Roberts, was to “keep Sambo from the polls” and form “a white man’s Govt.”3 The racial restrictions outlined in the Constitution of 1866 would not operate until given legislative effect, and when the Eleventh Legislature met that autumn, it passed a numberof laws that became known collectivelyas the “Black Codes.” Unlike even more unreconstructed southern states,Texas paid some heed to federal oversight by never specifying race in the statutes; they would apply to all citizens, but everyone knew how selectively they would be enforced. As the federal revenue collector for Austin, John L. Haynes, wrote to Unionist former governor Elisha Marshall Pease as the Black Codes passed one by one, the legislature “completed its series of bills to reenslave the negroes.”4 For Congress’s benefit, framers like Oran Roberts could point to aspects of the new Texas constitution that improved the station of blacks: they had access to the courts, and they could enter into contracts, own or lease real estate, devise wills and inherit property...

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