ecember 8, 1863--Instructions to
Banks--Banks's Action in Louisiana--Louisiana Abolishes
Slavery--Arkansas Abolishes Slavery--Reconstruction in
Tennessee--Missouri Emancipation--Lincoln's Letter to Drake--Missouri
Abolishes Slavery--Emancipation in Maryland--Maryland Abolishes Slavery

To subdue the Confederate armies and establish order under martial law
was not the only task before President Lincoln. As rapidly as rebel
States or portions of States were occupied by Federal troops, it became
necessary to displace usurping Confederate officials and appoint in
their stead loyal State, county, and subordinate officers to restore the
administration of local civil law under the authority of the United
States. In western Virginia the people had spontaneously effected this
reform, first by repudiating the Richmond secession ordinance and
organizing a provisional State government, and, second, by adopting a
new constitution and obtaining admission to the Union as the new State
of West Virginia. In Missouri the State convention which refused to pass
a secession ordinance effected the same object by establishing a
provisional State government. In both these States the whole process of
what in subsequent years was comprehensively designated "reconstruction"
was carried on by popular local action, without any Federal initiative
or interference other than prompt Federal recognition and substantial
military support and protection.

But in other seceded States there was no such groundwork of loyal
popular authority upon which to rebuild the structure of civil
government. Therefore, when portions of Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas,
and North Carolina came under Federal control, President Lincoln, during
the first half of 1862, appointed military governors to begin the work
of temporary civil administration. He had a clear and consistent
constitutional theory under which this could be done. In his first
inaugural he announced the doctrine that "the union of these States is
perpetual" and "unbroken." His special message to Congress on July 4,
1861, added the supplementary declaration that "the States have their
status in the Union, and they have no other legal status." The same
message contained the further definition:

"The people of Virginia have thus allowed this giant insurrection to
make its nest within her borders; and this government has no choice left
but to deal with it where it finds it. And it has the less regret, as
the