Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 4

The premature attempts at reconstruction had, however, one justification. It was a common thought in Europe that though the Southern armies might be overcome, the Southern people, being united and determined in their hostility, could never be governed except as a subjugated people, and by arbitrary methods disowned by modern civilization.¹ That thought disturbed also some of our own people. The erection of almost any kind of local government, supported by a respectable portion of the inhabitants, and giving reasonable promise of accessions, would, as it was hoped, help to counteract that discouraging conviction or apprehension, whether existing abroad or at home, and thereby strengthen the government in its contest with the rebellion.²

The subject of reconstruction began at an early date in the war to occupy the President's thoughts. It was one for which he felt naturally a much greater aptitude than for the military operations then engrossing the public mind. In the spring of 1862 he appointed military governors for Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Louisiana, only sections of each of which were as yet within our lines. Their commissions, while contemplating the restoration of civil order, conferred no authority for the initiation of State governments, or of representation in Congress. In the autumn, however, he began action in that direction by instructions to Shepley, colonel and military governor, which eventuated in the election, December 3, of Hahn and Flanders as members of Congress from Louisiana, when New Orleans and its suburbs only were within our lines, and these places were held under the protection of gunboats.³ The time and manner of the election were fixed by military orders, and the commissions of the two candidates were signed by Shepley. Hahn and Flanders were admitted to scats in the House, but ‘not without contention and misgiving.’⁴ The Senate had no opportunity to pass upon the proceedings. The President resumed his active interest in the reconstruction of Louisiana in June, 1863, and from that time pressed it with great earnestness in his correspondence with the military officers of that department—with