USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > History of Nashville, Tenn. > Part 22
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No. 20. First Baptist Church.
No. 21. McKendree Church.
No. 22. Hardcastle's building, on South Market Street.
No. 23. A building on the corner of Vine and Broad Streets.
No. 24. The old State hospital, on the Franklin pike.
Besides these, there was a floating hospital on the Cumberland River, which moved up and down the river as it was necessary. This was the : " D. A. January," and was at Nashville during a portion of 1864. There was also the Cumberland field hospital, located west of what is now Bel- mont Avenue and between Broad and Church Streets, and which covered about ten acres of ground.
All of these hospitals were discontinued, from time to time, during the summer of 1865.
The quartermaster's department of the army, with head-quarters in Nashville, was a most important one, Nashville in this respect being to the West what Washington was to the East. Brigadier-general J. L. Donaldson was chief quartermaster of the military department of the Mis- sissippi, and had under him about fifteen depot quartermasters. Captain T. B. Rushing was assistant chief quartermaster. Captain J. D. Cox had charge of camp and garrison equipage; Captain George B. Hibbard,
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of the forage department; Captain F. H. Ruger, of transportation; Colonel E. H. Crane, of military railroads; Captain E. B. Carling, same ; Lieutenant S. H. Stevens, of the Chicago Board of Trade battery, of river transportation ; Lieutenant S. E. Isenstein, assistant; Captain George B. Howland, purchase of Government animals, etc .; Captain J. H. James, assistant; Captain Charles T. Wing, disbursing quartermaster ; Captain John F. Isom had charge of the fuel department; Lieutenant John Ruhm, present United States Attorney, was assistant quartermaster ; Captain H. M. Smith had charge of the cavalry department; Major A. W. Wills, present postmaster at Nashville, had charge of public and pri- vate buildings, of the fuel department, and of the Government printing house; Captain William A. Wainwright, of quartermasters' stores; Ma- jor E. B. Kirk, now at Jeffersonville, Ind., had charge of Govern- ment shops, corrals, etc; and Major Charles H. Irwin, of the Nineteenth Michigan, had general oversight of the entire Nashville depot. It is es- timated that the camp and garrison equipage and all kinds of stores at this place were worth from $50,000,000 to $60,000,000. After the close of the war Major A. W. Wills was constantly engaged from March until August, 1865, in selling off the Government's surplus of goods left at this point.
One of the most interesting episodes connected with the reconstruction era, which is dwelt on briefly in this work, occurred in connection with the ratification of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States by the Legislature of the State of Tennessee. This amend- ment was submitted to the States for their ratification, June 16, 1866, and three days. later Governor Brownlow issued a proclamation convening the Legislature on July 4, for the purpose of considering it. A quorum of the lower house could not be secured for several days; and therefore on July II a resolution was adopted, directing the speaker to issue warrants for the arrest of seven members of the House who were refractory; and the sergeant-at-arms, Captain Heydt, was authorized to appoint such as- sistants as might be necessary to enable him to carry out the resolution.
This resolution and the proceedings under it were based on the follow- ing section of the Constitution of the State: " The Senate and House of Representatives, when assembled, shall each choose a speaker and its other officers; be the judges of the qualifications and election of its mem- bers. . Two-thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized by law to compel the attendance of absent members."
Section 12 of the Constitution provides that each house of the General Assembly may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members
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for disorderly behavior, and shall have other powers necessary for a branch of a Legislature of a free State. In accordance with this section of the Constitution, the House of Representatives in 1865 adopted " Rule 14" for its government as follows: "No member shall absent himself from the service of the House without leave first obtained; and in case a less number than a quorum of the House shall convene, they are hereby authorized to send the door-keeper, or any other person or persons, for any or all absent members, as the majority of such members present shall agree, at the expense of such members respectively, unless such excuse for non-attendance shall be made as the House, when a quorum is con- vened, shall judge sufficient."
Under this rule Captain Heydt arrested and brought in Hon. Pleasant Williams, of Carter County, and Hon. A. J. Martin, of Jackson County, on July 16; and on the 17th of the month Judge Thomas N. Frazier, of the Criminal Court, in the words of the charge of impeachment afterward preferred against Judge Frazier, " corruptly, willfully, maliciously, and with the intent to commit a breach of the privileges of the said House, for defeating a quorum and to disrupt and break up the same," issued a writ of habeas corpus, and caused the writ to be served upon Captain Heydt, commanding him to appear before him with the body of Pleasant Will- iams, etc. The House of Representatives thereupon, in consideration of said writ, passed a resolution denying the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court in the premises, and the authority of said court to interfere in the discipline and organization of the House; and directed Captain Heydt, as sergeant-at-arms, to tender the resolution to his Honor, Judge Frazier, as his return of said writ; and furthermore directed Captain Heydt to con- tinue under arrest all persons detained by him until otherwise instructed by the House. Judge Frazier disregarded this return, and issued an at- tachment against the sergeant-at-arms, and ordered the sheriff of David- son County to release Hon. Pleasant Williams from the custody of the House, and fined Captain Heydt $10, which the captain almost immedi- ately paid.
Notwithstanding these proceedings, the House on July 19 came to a vote on the adoption of the amendment, and, counting the two members above named who were under arrest, a quorum was present, and it was carried, the result being announced to Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secreta- ry of War, in the following characteristic telegram :
" NASHVILLE, TENN., July 19, 12 M.
"My compliments to the President. We carried the constitutional amendment in the House. Vote: Forty-three to eleven, two of his tools refusing to vote. WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW."
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At the expiration of the session, in February, 1867, articles of impeach- ment were presented against Judge Frazier, for the part he had taken in the issuance of the writ of habeas corpus, as above related, the result of the trial being that on June 3, 1867, the Judge was impeached and de- clared guilty by a vote in the Senate of 14 to 4. The counsel for the State in this trial were Hon. John Trimble, Hon. Horace Maynard, Hon. N. A. Patterson, and J. J. Noah. The counsel for the defense were Hon. Edwin H. Ewing, Hon. Edwin H. East, Hon. John S. Brien, and Hon. John C. Gaut.
Although Judge Frazier was a Republican and an appointee of Gov- ernor Brownlow, yet as an expression of the indignation of the people of Tennessee for the outrage done the independence of the judiciary of the State, the following clause was inserted in the Constitution of 1870, as Article V., Section 4: "The Legislature now has and shall continue to have power to remove the penalties imposed on any person disqualified from holding office by the judgment of a court of impeachment." This was inserted for the benefit of Judge Frazier, and on September 6; 1870, he was again elected Judge of the Criminal Court of Davidson and Rutherford Counties.
A similar contest arose in 1885, over the compulsory attendance of members of the Senate in order to form a quorum. This was in connec- tion with the attempt to pass a registration bill, introduced into the House by Hon. John E. Binns, of Nashville, January 16. This bill passed its third reading in the House March 10, but failed on its third reading in the Senate, April 4, by a vote of fifteen to sixteen, the Speaker, C. R. Berry, voting in the negative in order to move a reconsideration. The bill was certain, therefore, to come up again, and the Republican mem- bers felt sure that it would carry; and therefore, on Monday morning, April 6, were all absent from the Senate chamber. The number required then for a quorum was twenty-two, and only twenty were present. The absent members were J. W. Brown, H. B. Case, J. H. Farmer, S. T. Logan, J. M. Gaut, L. Metcalf [on account of sickness], W. J. Lyle, W. Phillips, H. B. Ramsey, S. P. Rowan, J. M. Simerly, Warren Smith, and W. J. Smith.
A resolution was thereupon adopted authorizing the Speaker to order the sergeant-at-arms to arrest and bring in the absent members, to the end that a quorum might be assembled to consider the unfinished busi- ness of the session. Thirteen Senators failed to respond on Tuesday morning, one (H. B. Ramsey) having been arrested and brought in, the others being secreted in such a manner as to be beyond the reach of the sergeant-at-arms. The Senate was at length, on the 10th of April, com-
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pelled to adjourn without having enforced the attendance of the refrac- tory Senators. The absent Senators, however, addressed to the Senate an explanation of their conduct, saying that they were not attempting to defeat any necessary and proper legislation; but that they were deter- mined to defeat the registration bill, because it had not been passed con- stitutionally in the House, although declared to have been so passed, the vote on the bill on its third reading being fifty-four in favor of the bill and nine against it, making sixty-three in all, whereas sixty-six were re- quired to make two-thirds. Ninety-three members, however, were pres- ent at roll-call.
The argument used by the majority at this time to sustain their attempt to compel the attendance of a quorum was as follows: "The attendance of members of the General Assembly is a thing for each branch of that body to determine, and in the nature of things not susceptible of being regulated and controlled by general laws. And if each house is clothed with all the power necessary for a branch of the Legislature of a free State, it would seem that the rules of that body are laws, and the only practicable laws within the meaning of the Constitution. The regulation of this matter by general statute might be constitutional, but it would be neither desirous nor advantageous."
As in the previous instance, a writ of habeas corpus was applied for in behalf of the member under arrest, to the Judge of the Circuit Court, Hon. Frank T. Reid. The writ was granted by Judge Reid, thus show- ing for the second time that in Tennessee the courts hold to the opinion that the majority in neither House of the General Assembly can constitu- tionally compel the attendance of absent members in order to make a quo- rum, under any rules that they may separately adopt for their govern- ment; or, in other words, that parliamentary law is not law in the sense in which that word is used in the Constitution; while the Legislature has as often and as tenaciously held to the contrary opinion that the rules adopted by each house respectively are laws in the constitutional sense, and sufficient to meet any such emergency.
A most interesting feature in the history of the State was connected with an attempt made in April, 1866, to pass what was called Senate Bill No. 364, introduced into the Senate April 23 by Hon. D. W. C. Senter. This attempted legislation was in accordance with recommendations to the Legislature made by Governor Brownlow in his message of October, 1865. In that message the Governor made use of the following language :
"It is not our policy or interest to treat oppressively the thousands who fought bravely in a bad cause, provided they act as becomes their circum- stances. As for the masses-the young and deluded masses-who blindly
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followed the standard of revolt, let them have full and free pardon, if you will, on their petition to the Legislature; but as many of them are guilty rebels, they should cheerfully submit to five or ten years' disfran- chisement, so as to give them time to wash the blood of loyal men off their hands. As for the original conspirators and leaders, who through long years of speaking, writing, and agitating got up this rebellion, who without provocation or even the pretense of wrong to themselves, treach- erously set the rebellion on foot; bad men, and men of talent who pressed it forward with all the malignity of fiends and the cruelty of savages; 'good Southern men,' who through rapine, arson, perjury, and butch- ery, filled the land with mourning-they are entitled to neither mercy nor forbearance. Let us not give a new growth and respectability to TREA- SON in the South, or in the Border States, by strengthening these unre- pentant malefactors with new schemes for a second rebellion.
"It is our duty to teach these leaders a lesson that they will never for- get, and one that will profit generations yet to come; teach them that leniency, without a distinction between loyalty and treason, is more cer- tain to subvert the government than is rebellion itself; teach them that clemency and sacrifice of justice is a criminal abandonment of justice ; teach them that treason is a crime against law and liberty, and that they who are guilty of it have forfeited all claims to protection and all rights of citizenship," etc.
The precise direction which legislation should take was not indicated by the Governor, but the General Assembly in April, 1868, discussed and came near passing what is known as Senate Bill No. 364, as stated above. The object was to indemnify loyal citizens for losses sustained during the war from the destruction and occupation of property by both the Federal and Confederate armies. Section I of the bill was as fol- lows:
" Be it enacted, etc., that the State of Tennessee assumes and under- takes to pay the loyal citizens of this State the following descriptions of claims when the same shall be established as hereinbefore provided :
" I. All claims for horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and other live stock, forage and provision of every description taken and used by the national forces during their occupation of this State in waging war against the re- bellion.
" 2. All claims for damage done by the national forces in the destruc- tion of fences, buildings, or other improvements, or of timber or fixtures to real estate, and for the use and occupancy of lands, houses, or other property by said forces.
"3. All claims for property taken and destroyed or occupied by or in- 14
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jured by the Confederate forces in any part of the State, subsequent to the occupancy of Knoxville by Major-general Burnside, provided that such of the aforesaid claims as are collected from the General Govern- ment under the laws of the United States and the rules and regulations of the departments thereof, are not hereby assumed, and shall not be paid under this act."
Section 3 of this act required the Governor to appoint three experi- enced and competent commissioners, one for each of the three grand di- visions of the State, to adjudicate the claims that might be made under the act. Section 7 required the Governor to cause six per cent. coupon bonds of the State, or interest-bearing treasury notes of the State, with interest payable annually, of the denominations of $50, $100, and $500, bearing date January 1, 1867, and falling due January 1, 1877, payable by the Treasurer, to be issued in payment of said claims. The Comp- troller was required to keep a register of the claims in a well-bound book, and to issue his certificate of the allowance of such claims, which certifi- cate should be presented to the Secretary of State, whose duty it was to deliver the amount of such claim in said bonds or notes, taking said claim- ant's receipt therefor.
This bill came up in the Senate on its third reading November 27, 1866, and was on the next day referred to a special committee of five-viz .: Sen- ter, Trimble, Smith, Spence, and Cate-which committee was required to report at a future day. This committee made its report February 2, 1867, recommending the substitution of another bill in lieu, named Senate Bill No. 540. On the 13th this bill was made the special order for the 14th, and on that day adopted in place of the original bill. On the 19th of February the Senator from Davidson County moved to amend the bill in such way that not more than $5,000,000 of bonds should be issued in each of the three grand divisions of the State, which amendment was lost by a vote of 10 to 13. The bill itself was then rejected by a vote of II to 12.
The proceedings of the Legislature were of course discussed during all this time to a greater or less extent by the press and by the people. None watched the proceedings with greater interest than did those who had served in the Confederate army. These men and those who had ap- proved of their course were largely in the majority in the State, though at that time having no part in the government of the State. At the same time that they constituted the majority of the people of the State they to a greater degree owned most of the property in the State-that is, on the supposition that they still owned what was theirs before they went into the Confederate army, which ultimately turned out to be the case.
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They perceived that if the bill became a law they would have to pay per- haps four-fifths of the total amount of the claims allowed for losses dur- ing the rebellion, and as the Legislature was apparently determined to pass a bill prescribing no limit to the amount of money that might be spent in this way, the imagination was left free to consider the measure as one of practical confiscation. In addition to those in the State who could but look upon it with reference to themselves as a punitive measure there were those who had always sympathized with the cause of the Fed- eral Government and had fought in its defense, but who had not suffered much if any from destruction or use of their property by either army dur- ing the conflict. These would have to bear their proportion of the taxes which would have to be levied for the payment of the bonds or treasury notes to be issued in payment of claims, and hence were practically in the same boat with those who had fought on the other side. There was therefore a large element of the people opposed to the passage of the bill. Almost universally, however, they felt and knew that they were powerless to prevent legislation. They had no influence with Governor Brownlow's administration. All they could do or hope to do was to re- sist the enforcement of the law in case it were attempted to be enforced. This many of them, perhaps the most of them, particularly the ex- confederates, had resolved to do. But all preferred to prevent the passage of the bill if in any way the accomplishment of this end could be effected. But if done it must be through some one who could safely and effectively approach Governor Brownlow. Many knew that while he would pursue an enemy to the death, yet likewise he would do any thing in his power for his friends. The difficulty was to find some one who though having fought on the Confederate side during the war, was yet a friend to and recognized as a friend by Governor Brownlow. At length Ex-governor Neill S. Brown thought of Colonel William B. Reese, formerly of Knoxville, but then of Franklin, Tenn. It was known that Governor Brownlow was under obligations to Colonel Reese for important personal services rendered during the war, the Colonel having in fact interposed to prevent violence threatened toward the Gov- ernor by the Confederate soldiers in the early part of that conflict. Ex- governor Brown therefore wrote to Colonel Reese to come to Nashville without delay. Upon his arrival in response to the summons the situa- tion was discussed briefly, as no time was to be lost. Bill No. 364 be- ing the special order for that day at eleven o'clock, A.M. At about half- past ten Colonel Reese was ushered into the presence of the Governor in his room at the capitol, and after a cordial greeting by the Governor proceeded to explain the object of his mission, and to suggest to him the
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probable effect upon the people at large of an attempt to enforce the law then apparently certain to pass. The Colonel also suggested that it would be better for the entire people of the State of Tennessee that all such claims as were designed to be paid under the bill then in the course of its passage through the Legislature should be presented to the Congress of the United States, and paid by that body if paid at all.
The Governor was the more willing to attempt to prevent the passage of the bill, as on the 6th of November he had made to the Legislature sub- stantially the same recommendations that were suggested to him by Colonel Reese, and went immediately to the Senate chamber and had the bill withdrawn for further consideration and amendment if necessary, with the result of its being referred to the committee as above narrated, and with the further result of its complete overthrow February 19, 1867.
Just one year thereafter, on February 19, 1868, the Legislature passed an act entitled "An Act to Secure to the Loyal Citizens of Tennessee Recompense from the United States for Losses Incurred by the Rebell- ion." By this act the Legislature was required to elect a General Claim Commissioner for Tennessee, who should hold his office for two years, and receive for his services $2,000 per annum. The Governor was required to appoint three commissioners in each county in the State who should approve or reject all claims, which however whether approved or reject- ed were to be filed with the General Claim Commissioner, and that any person who should knowingly or willfully audit any claim of any disloyal citizen should be deemed guilty of a felony, etc. Very little, however, was accomplished under this law, and in 1869 it was repealed.
Thus the impending act of confiscation of much of the property of the Confederates was happily averted.
In 1867, 1868, and a part of 1869 the "carpet-bag" government held sway in Nashville. Those who had been disfranchised were still in that condition, because they could not swear that they had not been Confed- erates or sympathizers with them during the war, this being the oath re- quired to enable them to vote. Non-residents, or "carpet-baggers," ruled the city. E. A. Alden was Mayor. All departments of the City Government were in harmony, and extravagance was the order of the day. Expenditures were twice as great as the receipts. Ruin was inevitable if this course were persisted in, and property-holders and tax-payers were alarmed. A Tax-payers' Association was organized to resist extrava- gance and corruption. Of this association H. G. Scovel, a Union man, was elected President, and many of the leading citizens were members. Dr. J. Berrien Lindsley was the originator of the movement, and, with many others, took an active part.
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A meeting was held in the spring of 1869, at which a committee was appointed to devise some measure of redress. A subsequent meeting gave this committee full authority to act on the suggestions it had made. Colonel A. S. Colyar, Judge Joseph C. Guild, and Ex-governor Neill S. Brown were engaged to make application to the Chancery Court for a decree placing the city in the hands of a receiver, and to enjoin the of- ficers of the city from exercising any further authority. Chancellor Charles G. Smith, after long and exhaustive arguments, granted the de- cree, and appointed Hon. John M. Bass receiver of the Chancery Court for the city. The bond given by Hon. John M. Bass as such receiver was in the sum of $500,000, and was signed by all the largest property- holders in Nashville, five or six of the signers being negro men. This. fact had a happy influence on the negroes generally.
Mr. Bass took possession of the offices and books of the city, and ap- pointed a new set of men to carry on its business. An injunction dis- placing the " carpet-bag" government was sought to be dissolved, but Judge E. H. East, Chancellor for Davidson County, after much study of law and precedent, refused the petition praying for a dissolution of the injunction. Mr. Bass was eminently successful in bringing about an economical condition of affairs, assisted by the property-holders, who were more than ordinarily prompt in the payment of taxes. In October following, the restrictions as to voting having been removed, the people met in mass-meeting in the court-house, and nominated K. J. Morris for Mayor, and a Board of Aldermen and Councilmen that pleased the peo- ple, and these officers were triumphantly elected. The business of the corporation was thereafter transacted in accordance with the wishes of those most deeply interested. The overwhelming debt left by the carpet- baggers, however, required the most skillful management.
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