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By Root 1660 0

that, while factually accurate, suggests a finality scarcely anticipated when it was delivered) was in many ways typical of Lincoln. He urged Republicans to think of Reconstruction as a practical problem rather than a philosophical one. The question of whether the South was “in or out of the Union,” he said, was not only “practically immaterial” but downright “mischievous,” since all agreed that the seceded states were “out of their proper practical relation” to it. He insisted that the Louisiana regime should be supported, but denied being wedded to any “inflexible plan” for the other states. Even regarding Louisiana, he noted that “bad promises are better broken than kept,” suggesting that the process he had set in motion there might have to be modified or even abandoned. Lincoln closed by telling his audience to expect a “new announcement” regarding Reconstruction.

It was significant that Lincoln spoke of “reconstruction” and not “restoration,” as he had frequently done in the past. These terms carried very different implications. “Reconstruction,” one Democratic party leader observed around this time, “is synonymous with radicalism, restoration conservatism.” But if Lincoln expected the speech to quiet criticism of his course, he was disappointed. Lincoln, Sumner wrote to Chase, “had said some things better than any body else could have said them. But I fear his policy now.” Other Radicals were even more critical. It would be “wicked and blasphemous,” one wrote, “for us as a nation to allow any distinction of color whatever in the reconstructed states.” Even the moderate New York Times wondered what would prevent the southern states, if restored with their traditional rights intact, from abusing blacks? “The government cannot, without the worst dishonor, permit the bondage of the black man to be continued in any form,” it insisted.18

Many observers concluded from the speech that Lincoln remained undecided about Reconstruction. “Mr. Lincoln gropes…like a traveler in an unknown country without a map,” were the unkind words of the New York World. In fact, as a Washington reporter noted, most Republicans at this point had not yet “made up their minds” about Reconstruction. Even the Chicago Tribune, which favored black suffrage, acknowledged that under the Constitution, states had the right to set their own voting qualifications. One member of the audience, however, thought he understood exactly what Lincoln intended. “That means nigger citizenship,” the actor John Wilkes Booth is said to have remarked. Booth and a group of pro Confederate conspirators had been plotting to kidnap the president and demand the release of southern prisoners of war. “Now, by God,” Booth supposedly muttered, “I’ll put him through.”19

When the cabinet assembled on April 14, Lincoln noted that he had “perhaps been too fast in his desires for early reconstruction.” Before the meeting, he showed Attorney General James Speed a letter he had received from Chase urging the enfranchisement of all “loyal citizens” regardless of race when new state governments were formed. Speed thought Lincoln was moving toward the Radical position. “He [never] seemed so near our views,” Speed told Chase the next day. Lincoln now appeared to believe that the immediate problem was the prospect of anarchy in the South. He had directed Secretary of War Stanton to draw up a plan for interim military rule. Stanton presented to the cabinet a proposal to appoint a temporary military government for Virginia and North Carolina. Since his plan put off the establishment of civilian rule, he “left open” the question of whether blacks should vote. But Stanton’s proposal clearly implied that reliance on white Unionists might not be enough to establish loyal, stable governments. Little discussion ensued, and Lincoln urged his colleagues to devote their attention to “the great question now before us,” on which “we must soon begin to act.” Stanton was directed to redraft his proposal for consideration at the next cabinet meeting.20

That night, April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth mortally