Tide Turns Case 7
Southern Reconstruction Fears
During the Civil War, William T. Joynes helped lead the Petersburg and Weldon railroads of Virginia and North Carolina, successfully delivering soldiers and weapons into strategic locations. He was an influential civic leader, lawyer, and judge, known as a pragmatic administrator who regularly rubbed elbows with elites. In this letter to Judge Joynes, attorney John Lyons reported North and South Carolinian elites’ concerns over Lincoln’s plans for Reconstruction. Many feared that a “re-union… [would] subject them to treatment, involving their degradation.” In fact, according to Lyons, many believed Lincoln’s plans not only would confiscate their land and permanently emancipate enslaved people but also compel Southerners to become “servants of their own slaves.”
Carolinian elite fears were premature. Thirty-five days after this letter, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln, whose plans would never be realized. This block of wood and nail were part of Ford’s Theatre the night Lincoln was assassinated.
Label Audio
MS-SC240
John Lyon to William T. Joynes, 5 March 1865
Petersburg, Va.
March 5th 1865.
My dear Judge,
I comply with your request, to drop you a line respecting public opinion, in North & South Carolina, upon the question of re-construction. During three visits, which since 1st December I have made to those states, I enjoyed intimate and familiar intercourse with many honest & intelligent gentlemen—some of high position—earnestly desirous of peace. I am satisfied that there, as well as Virginia, the great obstacle in in the way of peace and re-construction of the Union, is the apprehension—honest, earnest, & pervading apprehension—that the Govt of the U.S. in the event of re-union, would impose upon the Southern people terms, and subject them to treatment, involving their degradation; and to which no man of honor & courage could submit, whatever may be his political opinion. If the U.S. Govt could and would satisfactorily assure the people of these states, that their rights of person & property would be respected; that their ancient civil & political liberties would be guaranteed; in short, that their Status as members of the Federal Union, would, notwithstanding the war, be the same of that of Mass. or N.Y., I have no doubt the popular will in & out of the army, would in one month, compel the men in power, to consent to re-union; and I believe also to the gradual abolition of slavery.
Do not suppose that I share the apprehensions to which I refer. A statement of some of them will excite your laughter as they did mine. I know a D.D. and an M.D. in different states, both men of intelligence & influence, who express to me the honest belief, that it is the purpose of the U.S. Govt to emancipate the slaves; and then confiscate our lands, & sell them with all our chattels, to pay the debt of the United States; to reduce us as individuals to absolute poverty so as to compel us to become the servants of our slaves. These people live under the apprehension, that they will be obliged to black Pompey’s boots, and that their wives & daughters will become cooks, washer-women, & hand-maidens of the dusky Dinahs who now occupy the kitchen. Similar apprehensions are also honestly & seriously entertained by men of our own profession, eminent for talent & learning, and upon most subjects for good sense. In short the prevalence & strength of these fears is inaudible to any but actual observers. I have generally found it impossible to combat them, even with the most intelligent. The masses of course take their opinions, from those who are accustomed to think for them. These fears constitute in my opinion, the only real obstacle to re-union. Men who believe such things must of course be desperate. When will the Govt of the U.S. be wise enough to conciliate & re-assure them?
Very truly, your friend
John Lyon
Hon. Wm T. Joynes.
Letter Audio