Federal authorities tried to implement President Abraham Lincoln’s “Ten Percent Plan” in many states.
In Florida, Major John Hay (formerly Lincoln’s private secretary) had tried to register 10 percent of eligible voters willing to pledge loyalty to the U.S. according to Lincoln’s plan. But strong Confederate support and the abortive Federal invasion in February led Hay to announce, “I am very sure that we cannot now get the President’s 10th” in Florida. Newspapers critical of Lincoln accused him of wasting “2,000 men in a sordid attempt to manufacture for himself three additional (electoral) votes in the approaching Presidential election.”
In Arkansas, Major-General Frederick Steele’s Federal troops supervised an election of delegates to a state constitutional convention. In accordance with Lincoln’s plan, only those who pledged loyalty to the U.S. were allowed to vote. Predictably, Unionists won overwhelming majorities. Unionist voters then elected state officials and ratified a Unionist Arkansas constitution that included abolishing slavery and repudiating secession. The election, supervised by Federal military, resulted in less than a quarter of the total votes cast in the unsupervised 1860 election. The convention that had adopted the new constitution consisted of delegates from only half the counties in Arkansas.
The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Andrew Johnson as Federal military governor of Tennessee. Johnson hailed from the predominantly Unionist region of eastern Tennessee, and had been the only U.S. senator from a seceded state who refused to relinquish his seat. Johnson quickly began the “process for State reconstruction” by calling for an election of county officials as soon as possible. Only those pledging loyalty to the U.S. would be permitted to vote. Johnson declared, “It is not expected that the enemies of the United States will propose to vote, nor is it intended that they be permitted to vote or hold office.”
Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, commanding the Federal Army of the Gulf which occupied New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana, had arranged elections for civil officials in accordance with the “Ten Percent Plan.” These elections only took place in areas under Federal military occupation and therefore virtually assured Unionist results. Michael Hahn was elected governor of the new “Free State” of Louisiana.
Hahn was a Bavarian immigrant and former Democrat who had switched allegiances when Louisiana seceded; he eventually became one of the state’s greatest champions of slave emancipation. Over the past year, Lincoln had relied on Hahn to gauge the political atmosphere in Louisiana. Hahn won the governorship by portraying himself as a moderate between the conservative J.Q.A. Fellows and the radical Benjamin F. Flanders. The extravagant inaugural ceremonies included 1,000 singers from local army bands singing the “Anvil Chorus” in Lafayette Square. In his inaugural address, Hahn declared that “although the people of a State may err, a State, as a member of the American Union, cannot die.” He continued:
“The Union of these States, handed down by our revolutionary ancestors, is of more value than any falsely styled ‘State rights,’ especially when these ‘rights’ mean sectional institution, founded on a great moral, social and political evil, and inconsistent with the principles of free government. The institution of slavery is opposed alike to the rights of one race and the interests of the other; it is the cause of the present unholy attempt to break up our government; and, unpleasant as the declaration may sound to many of you, I tell you that I regard its universal and immediate extinction as a public and private blessing.”
In addition to Hahn’s civil powers as governor, Lincoln bestowed military powers onto him as well, even though over 90 percent of Louisianan voters did not vote for him. Banks began to arrange another election, this time to elect delegates to a state convention that would rewrite the Louisiana constitution. Abolishing slavery was a given, but a debate raged over whether freed slaves should be allowed to vote.
In January, Lincoln had met delegates representing “the free people of color” of Louisiana, who presented a petition signed by over 1,000 blacks (27 of whom were veterans of the War of 1812) asking for Lincoln’s help in securing the right to vote. Impressed, Lincoln weighed in on the debate in a letter to Hahn. After congratulating him “as the first-free-state Governor of Louisiana,” the president wrote:
“You are about to have a convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of the colored people may not be let in–as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public but to you alone.”
Hahn sided with the moderate and conservative Unionists in opposing political equality for former slaves. Convention delegates rejected black suffrage but approved a provision empowering the state legislature to allow blacks to vote if it chose to someday revisit the question.
Bibliography
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