y would be forced to hard labor. This method was
denounced in the North as a re-establishment of slavery under a new
name. The Republican majority in December, 1865, refused for a time to
admit any members from the States that had been in rebellion.

QUARREL BETWEEN CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.

Thus a quarrel arose between the President and Congress. The latter
proposed to keep the States on probation for a time, before giving them
their full rights, while the President strenuously insisted that they
should be admitted at once on the same status as those that had not been
engaged in secession. To keep out the eighty-five members who had been
refused admission, Congress imposed a test oath, which excluded all who
had been connected in any way with the Confederate government. The
Republicans had a two-thirds vote in Congress which enabled them to pass
any bill they chose over the President's veto. While they had not
formulated any clear policy, they were resolved to protect the freedmen
in all their rights. The reorganization of Tennessee being satisfactory,
her members were received by Congress in 1866.

The congressional elections of this year intrenched the Republicans in
Congress, and they were sure of the power for the next two years to
carry through any policy upon which they might agree. By that time, too,
they had fixed upon their plan of reconstruction and prepared to enforce
it.

This policy was to allow the freedmen to vote and to deprive the
Confederate leaders of the right to do so. To accomplish this, the plan
was to place all the seceding States under military governors, who
should call new conventions to form State governments. The negroes and
not the leading Confederates had the power to vote for these delegates.
Provided the new governments allowed the freedmen the right of suffrage,
and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment (which excluded the leading
Confederates from office), then the Southern senators and
representatives would be admitted to Congress.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.

The "civil rights" bill, which placed the blacks and whites on the same
footing, was vetoed by the President, March 27th. He pointed out the
danger of giving suffrage to 4,000,000 ignorant people, lately slaves,
and said unscrupulous men in the North would hasten South and take
advantage of their ignorance. This was precisely what took place. The
South was overrun by a set of scoundrels known as "carpet-baggers"
(because