military interfered at all in the elections there, I have no authentic information about it.. By Mr. GRIDER: Question. What is your opinion and your conviction as to the effect of admitting the present delegation of representatives now elected from the State of Tennessee? Would it increase the loyalty and gratify the feelings of the people of the State, and would it decrease it to exclude them? Answer. I think to admit the representatives would unquestionably strengthen the loyal men there very much, and to reject them would unquestionably strengthen the disloyal element. I think that rejecting them would have a tendency to make a great many Union men discontented, and when men become discontented it is a very easy matter to drive them off into the opposite extreme. I desire to state one thing more definitely and distinctly than I have stated in my former answer with reference to the disunionists. I do not pretend to say, nor do I mean to be understood in anything I have said to say, that the original secessionists in our State have changed their hearts. I think their hearts are just where they were four years ago; but a great many of them are acquiescing in the present condition of things, and I think a great many of them intend to continue to acquiesce in the supremacy of the government of the United States. But I think their hearts are just where they were before; or, at least, that is the case with a majority of them. Question. I will ask you whether those gentlemen who are acquiescing, and who say they are willing to submit to the general government, are not generally men of capacity and influence and consideration? Answer. Yes, sir; they are generally, so far as I know, because those are the persons I generally come in contact with. I have not come in contact with many of the common refugees, and I know very little about their sentiments. It is generally persons of position with whom I have come in contact, or with whom I have had conversation. I have had conversation with a great many of them, and they are men generally of standing and respectability, or were so before the war. A great many of them have fallen off very much, in my estima tion, since that. John Williams sworn and examined. By Mr. BINGHAM: WASHINGTON, February 13, 1866. Question. In what part of Tennessee do you reside, and how long have you resided in that State? Answer. I reside in Knox county, East Tennessee, and have resided there all my life. Question. Have you the means of knowing the general state of public feeling in Tennessee? Answer. I think I have. Question. What is the feeling of the majority of the people of Tennessee towards the government of the United States? Answer. So far as I am advised, it is my opinion that the feeling of not only the majority, but almost the entire mass of the people of Tennessee, is friendly towards the government of the United States. I know of no opposition there, and hear of none except through the newspapers. You can hear contradictory statements upon that subject almost every day. Some contend that there is opposition to the government. But my observation is that there is none anywhere in the State, so far as I am advised. The rebels have been thoroughly whipped, and I think they are disposed to acquiesce in the supremacy of the authority of the United States. Question. Are the rebels disposed to take the possession and control of the government of Tennessee, if they get the chance to do so? Answer. I suppose if you were to give them the privilege of voting, as a matter of course they will go to the polls like everybody else, and they will vote; and in that event, there being a majority in Tennessee of those who were rebels, they would get the control of the State. But I am one of those who do not believe there is much opposition in the State of Tennessee to the government of the United States. If you permit them to go to the polls, of course they would be in the majority, because there are more of them than of the other party in Tennessee. Question. What is the relative strength of the rebel population in Tennessee, compared with the white Union population? Answer. I think that upon the question of separation from the Union, which was the last real test we had there, there were from 40,000 to 45,000 for the Union, and about 100,000 for secession. That was about the vote, as well as I now recollect. Question. Is it your opinion that the two parties sustain about that relative relation now? Answer. I do not think they do. Question. What do you think is now the difference between the whole number of Union voters and rebel sympathizers in Tennessee? Answer. That I cannot tell. We can only judge of that from the test of an election, and we have had no election which was anything like a test since the 8th of June, 1861, and therefore it would be impossible for me to form any exact idea as to what would be their relative strength at this time. I do not think, however, the proposition to secede again would now get a single vote in Tennessee. Question. I do not mean whether they would vote for secession now, but whether the rebels would vote to give themselves the control of the State. Answer. My observation and experience for the last twelve months in Tennessee would lead me to believe that some of those who have been the worst rebels have now got to be some of the most noisy Union men; they are the most clamorous and make the most noise. The great body of the Union men in my section of the country have not been to an election for some time. They refused to vote at any of the elections under the secession government, and a great many of them have not gone back to the polls since they have been under federal rule. Question. What is the reason of that? Answer. I suppose it is for various reasons. There is a state government in Tennessee now which a great many of the Union men do not indorse. Question. Why do they not indorse it? Answer. Because they do not think it was organized in accordance with principles laid down in the constitution of the State of Tennessee; that is all. Question. Do they still have that opinion? Answer. I think a great many of them have. Still they acquiesce in the gov ernment; they offer no resistance to it. You are asking me for my opinion. Question. Undoubtedly; and a great deal of this testimony which you are giving is merely your opinion. Do these Union men of whom you speak intend to remain away from the polls under the existing State organization? Answer. I do not think they do. I think, as time rolls on, they will all go back to the polls. But men in a high state of excitement will not do a great many things which otherwise they will do. Question. Do you know anything about any agreement or organization among the rebels to acquiesce for the present, and after restoration to take control of the State? Answer. I have no knowledge of any such organization. Answer. None, except what I have seen published in the Nashville papers, as coming from some gentlemen there. A Mr. Fletcher, and others who are on a committee there, say that such is the fact. But I have no knowledge of the existence of any such organization. Question. Those men to whom you refer have made that statement public? Answer. Yes, sir; it is contained in an address to Congress, which I suppose you have all seen. Question. Do you think with the State of Tennessee under the control of rebels, without any restraint upon them from federal intervention, justice would be done to the freedmen in that State? Answer. I do not think there is any disposition upon the part of anybody in Tennessee, rebel or Union, to inflict any injury upon the colored man. Question. That is not exactly an answer to my question? Answer. Well, I will endeavor to answer as well as I can. Question. My question is whether you think, if the control of the State should pass into the hands of the rebel majority, justice would be done to the freedmen in Tennessee? Answer. I think it would; because I know personally a great many rebels who are as kind to the negro as any one else is, and therefore I think it is fair to infer that they would continue to be so. By Mr. GRIDER: Question. What effect do you think the admission into Congress would have upon the spirit and temper of the people of Tennessee? Would it gratify them. and make them more loyal, or would it tend to encourage the rebel feeling there? Answer. I think it would have a very beneficial influence; I think it would go a great way towards bringing about a better state of feeling than perhaps exists there now. There are some of our people there, good Union people, who are disposed to complain of the action of Congress in not admitting our representatives. I think their admission would put them in good humor and make them feel better disposed towards the government. Abner G. Jackson sworn and examined. By Mr. BINGHAM: WASHINGTON, February 13, 1866. Question. In what part of Tennessee do you reside, and how long have you resided there? Answer. I reside in Knox county, East Tennessee, and I have resided there for fifty-seven years. I was born in the neighborhood of Petersburg, Virginia. Question. What is your opinion of the present feeling of the majority of the people of Tennessee towards the friends and defenders of the Union in the State of Tennessee? Answer. So far as my observation goes, the feeling of the secession party is nothing like as bitter as it was some time ago. Until within the last two or three months there has been a great deal of bitterness and a great deal of trouble. But it is now much more quiet, so far as my observation goes. Question. Is it your opinion that the active Union men of Tennessee would be safe if the control of the government of the State was transferred to the hands of the majority, that majority being understood to have been rebel? Answer. I really think they would. I should be perfectly willing to risk it if it were thought practicable and advisable to do so. But just in that connexion, speaking of rebels, perhaps you and I would differ as to who were rebels. My neighbor, for instance, has been a rebel; but he is an honest man, and comes up and takes the oath. I do not now look upon him as a rebel, because by taking the oath he has wiped out his sin of rebellion. In regard to honest men, I take a different view of that subject from some others. An honest man before the war will be an honest man after the war. Question. In what majority are those persons in Tennessee who have been in favor of the rebellion? Answer. I am not as well posted in that respect as some others are. Question. Do you think they would be as about two to one to the Union men in Tennessee? Answer. I think, taking the whole State, perhaps they would be, or that they have been. Question. Are they now? Answer. I do not think they are. Question. Are they in the majority in the State now? Answer. I think it very likely that they have a decided majority. Question. Do you think the vote of the State now would be in the proportion that Mr. Temple has stated, whose testimony you have heard? Answer. I form my opinion more from what Mr. Temple and Mr. Jackson have stated than from my own observation, for they have bestowed more pains upon this subject than I have. Question. Do you know about what was the vote of Tennessee for governor at the last election for that office? Answer. I do not; I was absent from Tennessee at that time. By Mr. GRIDER: Question. You have spoken of the bitterness that existed between the rebels and the Union men some months ago. Will you not state whether that was not rather a personal difference, rather than a feeling of opposition towards the United States government? Answer. It was a personal difference, and confined to very low people, as a general thing. Question. What effect, in your opinion, would the admission of the delegation from Tennessee into Congress have upon the people of the State? Would it have a good effect? Answer. I think it would have a very decided effect to harmonize the people of Tennessee. Question. Will you state whether the rebel officers and the Union officers who have met in your neighborhood since the war ceased have not got along harmoniously together and like gentlemen? Answer. Officers and soldiers both have done so; that is true, with the exception, as I stated before, of low fellows. PART II. VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA. SUB-COMMITTEE. Mr. JACOB M. HOWARD, (of Michigan,) United States Senate. Mr. CONKLING, from the Select Joint Committee on Reconstruction, reported the following evidence. |