back under federal control – early 1865
On July 22, 1866 President Andrew Johnson reported to Congress that his administration had sent the recently passed Constitutional Amendment to the states for ratification. He used the occasion to explain his opposition to the amendment. He thought it was wrong to change the Constitution until all the states were represented in Congress. The eleven rebel southern states still had not been readmitted. Thanks to the telegraph it didn’t take long for a newspaper in one of those states to applaud the president’s words. On July 24th The Daily Phoenix in Columbia, South Carolina unsurprisingly agreed with the president, who had played the statesman versus Thaddeus Stevens and the rest of the radical Republicans who were abusing the Constitution for their own purposes, “who think that tinkering with the Constitution is a perfectly legitimate mode to advance their ambitious projects.” The people at large had not been given an opportunity to express their opinion of the proposed amendment. It was wrong to change the Constitution without the representation of the eleven states, all of which, except Texas, “have been entirely restored to all their functions as States.” And,
We honor Andrew Johnson for embracing this opportunity to reiterate his sound and patriotic views, at this critical juncture, and to announce to the people of America that the savage warfare waged upon him for months past has not moved him one inch from the policy he avowed at the beginning of his administration. We admire his tact and ability in frustrating, by this official declaration, the lying inventions of his enemies, to deceive the people of the United States as to his present views on the all-absorbing question now before the country. …
only twenty-five represented in Congress
The Phoenix link appears in an article at the Library of Congress about the 14th Amendment. Also from the Library of Congress: the drawing of “Lt Col Kennedy of the 13th Iowa, 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 17 A.C. raising the stars & stripes over the State House Columbia” (February 1865), which was published in the April 8, 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly; the Thirty-six star flag. The 1865 photograph of Columbia in ruins comes from the National Archives.
in need of a phoenix
