Jas. S Brisbin to Thaddeus Stevens, 29 December 1865.
This document is a letter from an Union officer, James Brisbin, to Thaddeus Stevens commenting about Steven’s Speech on Reconstruction that he made in early December of 1865. Brisbin believes that the South is not loyal and he is concerned about others in Congress wanting to let them back in quickly and easily. He has fought in many Civil War battles, has seen many deaths fighting against the Confederacy, and wants the South to have some punishment. He does not want the Confederate representatives in Congress to be able to vote or come back into the Union until all of the Southern people are able to vote.
Confidential
Hon Thad Stevens
Dear SirI have just read your speech on Reconstruction and as a soldier and Pennsylvanian desire to thank you for the service you have done the country and the honor it confers on me and my native state. After four years of war during which we suffered all that men could suffer and after finally beating the rebles in battle we began to fear that the fruits of our toils our battles and seiges were to be bartered away and treason made as honorable as loyalty. For the assurance that rebles whose hands red with the blood of our brothers, are not just yet to be allowed to set themselves up to rule over us, thousands of loyal soldiers will thank you. You are right Mr Stevens in all you say. These people are not loyal; they are only conquered, I tell you there is not as much loyalty in the South to day as there was the day Lee surrendered to Grant. The moment they lost their cause in the field they set about to gain by politics what they had failed to obtain by force of arms. Beaten in battle they yet hoped by dissimulation and trickery to retain the civil control of the Southern states and keep themselves in honorable and lucrative positions[.] My God can any sane man look at the men who fill their so called state Legislatures and then say the states are loyal. Who are the men they send to Congress and ask you to give them seats? Majors, Colonels and Generals of the reble army from whose foul hands we have but just wrested the sword of rebellion. To admit such men into the councils of the nation would be to disgrace every soldier who fought in the the late war and I for one would curse the day I ever drew my sword in defense of such a union The bones of our dead brothers, falling in the great struggle lie buried in the soil of every Southern state and at least until they have returned to dust and their graves grown green we should not shake the bloody hands of the men who robbed them of life. The immodest haste (and it should be called brazen impudence) of the Southern people in attempting to get their delegations into Congress should be sufficient to arouse the suspicions of every Northern man that they were not sincere in all they said and done, The passage of the Amendment and all such acts were only whited sepulchers; by them they hoped to grease their way into Congress. These people are most anxious to renew their practical relations with the Federal Govt because as soon as they get into Congress their states will be acknowledged and then they can go to work in earnest in their state Legislatures to pass vagrant laws and reduce the blacks to a slavery worse than that from which they have just escaped. Once in Congress they even hope by the aid of Copperhead* friends in the North to control that body. Loyal men will not be elected to office in the South until the blacks are allowed to vote and I hope you will not allow any Southern member his seat until he comes there elected by a majority of all the people of his District. I am no politician but what I see I know and I tell you are right in what you said on re- construction.
Pardon so long a letter but as I was here on the ground in dispute I thought a word would not be unacceptable. If you desire to make any inquires I will give you all the information I can gladly.
Will you do me the honor to read the marked portions of the enclosed speech & believe me sir with sentiments of respect.
Footnotes
*--Copperheads were Northern Democrats, also called Peace Democrats, who were opposed to the Union’s war policy and wanted a peaceful solution. Lincoln assumed strong executive powers against them, because of their riotous activities. Their strength was in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and they had organizations such as the Knights of the Golden Circle, Sons of Liberty, and the Order of American Knights.
*’--James Sanks Brisbin (c.1838-92) He was well known as an antislavery orator before the war. He enlisted as a private and was promoted up the ranks.
Boatner, Mark Mayo, III. The Civil War Dictionary. David McKay Company, Inc.: New York, 1959.
(benson/HST41/blue/stevens2.htm)