The Radicals passed the Tenure of Office law to prevent Johnson from replacing officers they had approved of. Johnson thought it was unconstitutional. Three days after Johnson fired Stanton as Secretary of War in violation of the Tenure of Office law, the House voted to impeach Johnson. The principal charge against him was the violation of the tenure law.
Johnson was right about the unconstitutionality of the tenure law. The Supreme Court of the time was intimidated by the radicals and wouldn't rule on the law, but the principles of the law were later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1926.
Radical Republicans were a dark blot on the nation's history. In Texas, they tried to retain power by force of arms after being voted out by the people. In Louisiana, they got a friendly judge to block elected members of the government from taking office, but let some who had not even stood for election fill those posts.
Here is a description of the views of Thaddeus Stevens after the war by CSA General Richard Taylor who met with him then:
He wanted no restoration of the Union under the Constitution, which he called a worthless bit of old parchment. The white people of the South ought never again to be trusted with power, for they would inevitably unite with the Northern "Copperheads" and control the Government. The only sound policy was to confiscate the lands and divide them among the negroes, to whom, sooner or later, suffrage must be given.
Listen to Northerners debate negro suffrage after the war:
Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 1866
January 15, 1866
Page | 235 | 236 | 237 | 238 | 239 | 240 | 241 | 242 |
January 15, 1866
Rep. John A. Kasson of Iowa
Rep. Hiram Price of Iowa
Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania
Rep. William D. Kelley of Pennsylvania
Mr. PRICE. I ask my colleague whether or no the question of negro suffrage was brought squarely before the voters of Iowa at the first election. Let him answer yes or no.Mr. KASSON. It was brought before the electors of Scott county in which my colleague resides.... (yada yada not answering the question)
Mr. PRICE. I ask the question again, and I want my colleague to answer me yes or no.
Mr. KASSON. I cannot yield to such a persistent determination of the gentleman. I have attempted to answer the question, and I now answer it again. (NOT)
Mr. PRICE. I pledge this House to answer the gentleman.
The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman yield the floor?
Mr. KASSON. No sir. If the gentleman has simply a question to ask or a fact to state I yield.
Mr. PRICE. I ask my colleague for an answer yes or no, and not a circuitous one, going all around the course. Was the question brought squarely before the voters of Iowa at the last election whether they would have negro suffrage in the State? I do not care which way he answers it.
Mr. KASSON. Mr. Speaker, I have answered the question already by reading the resolution. I have also stated the action of county conventions, and the fact that different speakers took different positions. What more can the gentleman ask?
Mr. PRICE. Yes or no. [Laughter]
Mr. KASSON. ... What does the gentleman mean by asking me to give him a straight answer, yes or no?
Mr. PRICE. I tried to get a straight answer from you.
Mr. KASSON. ... I will certainly answer in all courtesy his questions, but of course I must equally decline to have perpetual interruptions after I have answered them.
Mr. PRICE. I will not interrupt the gentleman any more. I will answer him when he has done.
Mr. KASSON. I resume, then. The question of negro suffrage was put in that way, involving the question of proper safeguards for the purity of the ballot-box: and among those safeguards, as I have shown by the declaration of the leading Republican paper of that State -- an exceedingly radical paper -- intelligence is recognized as one. I appeal to gentlemen of this House, especially those who were scholars in the common schools of the country, if we have not all learned from our childhood that the very basis of security of a republican Government is found in the intelligence and virtue of the people who control it. I have learned that from my infancy. I cannot unlearn it at the dictation of any man or set of men. I believe that the people control this Government. I believe that if those people have not intelligence to understand the policy and principles of our government to a reasonable extent, our institutions are unsafe and liable to be upset. I also believe in my heart and in my conscience that if you make suffrage universal in certain districts of the Union where ignorance actually predominates, you have no security in those districts that the institutions to which we are attached will retain their permanence.
Why, sir, look at those countries where mixed bloods have controlled the Government by universal suffrage. Look at Mexico and the South American republics, where revolutions are as frequent almost as the revolutions of the seasons. Look at the Latin races of the world, and where have they ever succeeded in establishing a permanent and reliable republican Government controlled by the will of the people?
Mr. STEVENS. Do I understand the gentleman's argument to be only against ignorant negro suffrage or equally against all ignorant suffrage?
Mr. KASSON. I was coming to that point presently. I will say that my argument militates against ignorance in the qualification of electors wherever found. There is another consideration, however, involved in its application to existing electors of which I shall speak presently.
Mr. KELLEY. With the gentleman's permission I will ask him whether he believes that the negro race has such mental or physical superiority in this country that, being but five million, it will, in spite of the fact that there is no negro immigration and a very large white immigration into the country, so diffuse itself into the American people as to make us a mixed race?
Mr. KASSON. If the gentleman will look at the census of 1860, he will find that in two States at the Sourth negroes have a numerical majority and that in other States they are so nearly equal with the white population that a few whites cooperating with them would be able to secure for any purpose control of the State government. That is my reply.
Take those countries where the blacks have succeeded in securing their own governments, as in Hayti, and you find there revolution after revolution; you find that in Hayti, instead of establishing a republican form of government, they have adopted an imperial form and sustained an emperor at their head.
Now, sir, I state these things because they are facts known to the members of this House. I do not want to state more opinions, to any extent, in the debate upon this question. I state the fact that this race of ours, known first as the Caucasian, and subordinately as the Anglo-Saxon, has developed the principles of self-government, and has protected itself under free institutions, more or less perfect, beyond any other race, white or black, and beyond any other modification of the Caucasion race; and hence it is that I say we should be very careful before, in any part of this country, we allow the power of this government to pass to another race which has not yet developed its ability to administer it.
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Mr. PRICE. I can state to the House in two minutes all I have to say. I have established the fact that the question of negro suffrage was before my State in that election, and all my colleagues, except the member from the fifth district, will corroborate my statement. So much in regard to that question of veracity....