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John Neely Bryan Leadership in trying to overturn African American Civil Rights With American victory in the War of the Rebellion over the Confederacy secured with the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1865, many Republicans hoped that political rights could be secured for the newly freed African American slaves. However, on April 15, 1965 Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became president. Andrew Johnson was a vile racist and engaged on a program of restoring white supremacy and the former Confederates to power in the seceded states and block aid to the newly freed slaves as well as opposing civil rights of any types for African Americans. In response, starting with the 39th Congress, Dec. 1865, Congressional Republicans started a program to implement an effective program to aid African Americans called Congressional Reconstruction or Radical Reconstruction. It was called Radical Reconstruction since to most white Americans actually giving African Americans civil rights seemed radical. This involved overriding the vetoes of Andrew Johnson and attempting to oust him from office.1 The failure to impeach Andrew Johnson is one of the great disasters in the history of race in American history. John F. Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage,” in which some Republicans are heroes for voting against impeachment is a white supremacist text, and the Kennedy family should realize it. Andrew Johnson in order to sustain his program of restoring white supremacy to the former slave states and to ensure his re-election as president attempted for form a new political party of Democrats and more conservative and racist Republicans. In February 1866 his supporters organized a National Union Club. On June 11, 1866 he met with supporters and committed his own money to forming a new party with a National Union Convention. On June 25, 1866 the call for the convention to be held on August 14, 1866 in Philadelphia.2
Two good sources of information about Reconstruction are “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution,” by Eric Foner, Harper & Row, New York, 1988 and the shorter and more recent book, “The Wars of Reconstruction,” by Douglas R. Egerton, Bloomsbury Press, New York, 2014. 2 Nichols, Roy, F., “A Great Party Which Might Have Been Born in Philadelphia,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 57 No. 4 (1933) pp. 359-374, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20086848, dates given on pages 361-363. Nichols was a white supremacist; the article was written in 1933. This was the best source I could find in JSTOR. 1
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At this time the Radical Republicans had already passed a Civil Rights bill over Andrew Johnson veto and plans for a 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was underway to grant African Americans rights as well as citizenship. The call doesn’t actually mention African Americans or the issues of civil rights directly. It calls for unity and the preservation of states’ rights by asking that the national government do nothing in regards as to who might vote in the former Confederate states or any legislation in opposition to what the white elites might pass in regards to African Americans, referred to as “domestic concerns.” This was the call given out for the meeting [Boldface added]:
A National Union Convention of at least two delegates from each Congressional District of all the States, two from each territory, two from the District of Columbia, and four delegates at large from each, will be held at the city of Philadelphia on the 14th of August next. Such delegates will be chosen by the electors of the several States who sustain the Administration in maintaining unbroken the union of the States under the Constitution which our fathers established, and who agree to the following propositions, viz: The rights, the dignity and the equality of the States in the Union, including the right of representation in Congress, are mutually guaranteed by that Constitution, to save which from overthrow, so much blood and treasure were expended in the late civil war. There is no right anywhere to dissolve the Union or to separate States from the Union, either by voluntary withdrawal, by force of arms, or by Congressional action; neither by secession of States, nor by the exclusion of their loyal and qualified representatives, nor by the National Government in any other form. Slavery is abolished, and neither can or ought to be re-established in any State or Territory within our jurisdiction. Each State has the undoubted right to prescribe the qualifications of its own electors; and no external power rightfully can or ought to dictate, control, or influence the free and voluntary action of the States in the exercise of that right. The maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially of the right of each State to order and control its own domestic concerns according to its own judgment exclusively, subject only to the Constitution of the United States, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends, and the overthrow of that system by
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usurpation in centralization of Power in Congress, would be a revolution, dangerous to a Republican Government and destructive of liberty. Each House of Congress is made by the Constitution the sole judge of its election returns and qualifications of its members; but the exclusion of loyal Senators and Representatives, properly chosen and qualified under the Constitution and laws, is unjust and revolutionary. Every patriot should frown down upon all these acts and proceedings everywhere, which can serve no other purpose than to rekindle the animosities of war, and the effect of which, upon our moral, social and material interests at home, and upon our standing abroad, differing only in a degree, is injurious like war itself. The purpose of the war having been to preserve the Union and the Constitution by putting down the rebellion, and the rebellion having been suppressed, all resistance to the authority of the General Government being at an end, and the war having ceased, war measures should also cease, and should be followed by measures of peaceful administration, so that union, harmony, and concord may be encouraged, and industry, commerce, and arts of peace revived and promoted, and the early restoration of all the States to the exercise of their constitutional powers in the Nation Government is indispensably necessary to the strength and the defense of the Republic, and to the maintenance of the public credit. All such electors in the thirty-six States and nine Territories of the United States, and in the District of Columbia, who, in a spirit of patriotism and love for the Union can rise above personal and sectional considerations, and who desire to see a truly National Union Convention, which shall represent all the States and territories of the Union, and to take measures to avert possible dangers from the same are specially requested to take part in the choice of such delegates. But no delegate will take a seat in such convention who does not loyally accept the national situation, and cordially endorse the principle above set forth, and who is not attached in true allegiance to the Constitution, the Union, and the Government of the United States. Washington, June 25, 1866 A.W. RANDALL, President. J.R. DOOLITTLE, O.H. BROWNING, EDGAR COWAN, CHARLES KNAP, SAMUEL FOWLER, Executive Committee National Union Club. We recommend the holding of the above convention, and endorse the call therefor. JAMES DIXON, T.A. HENDRICKS. DANIEL S. NORTON.
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J.W. NESMITH.3 The white political leadership of Dallas, nearly entirely, if not entirely white supremacist, was ready to support this effort to keep African Americans subordinate in a condition little better than slavery. A rally led by John Neely Bryan was held on July 18, 1866, and reported in the July 21, 1866 issue of The Dallas Daily Herald, “Public Meeting in Dallas,” page 2, as follows:
At a meeting of a portion of the citizens of Dallas county, held at the Court House in the Town of Dallas, on the afternoon of the 18th July, 1866, for the purpose of appointing delegates to the Convention to be held on the 25th inst, On motion, Col. Jno. N. Bryan was called to the Chair, and Capt. W.L. Murphy appointed Secretary. Judge Burford explained the object of the meeting, in a few forcible and appropriate remarks. On motion, the Chairman appointed the following named gentlemen a committee to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting, viz: Nat. M. Burford, James E. Scott, W.H. Hord, John J. Good and Martin Rigg. During the absence of the Committee, the meeting was addressed by Dr. A.M. Cochrane, in an able and eloquent speech, favoring the objects for which the meeting was called. The Committee, through their Chairman, Judge Burford, reported the following resolutions, which, on motion, were unanimously adopted. Resolved, 1st, That the citizens of Dallas county cordially approve of the policy of President Johnson, and of the Executive Department of the Government of the United States, of prompt restoration of the Southern States, without any amendments to the Constitution, or change in the laws, until the States not now represented in Congress participate in the same.
The text for the call is from the news article “The National Union Convention,” The Charleston Daily News, June 30, 1866, Saturday, page 1, which included it in its entirety, extracted from the Richmond Dispatch, along with an editorial to support the convention. The call to the convention was also printed in the Daily Missouri Republican, June 29, 1866, page 2. 3
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Resolved, 2d, That the citizens of Dallas county cordially approve of the objects of the National Union Convention to be held in Philadelphia on the 14th day of August, 1866, to be composed of delegates representing the great Conservative masses of all the United States, and having for its object the full restoration of all the States to their rights and privileges in the great American Union. Resolved, 3d, That for the purpose of promoting the success of the above resolutions, we will send five delegates to represent Dallas county in the Conservative Union Convention of the State of Texas, to be held at Navasota, on the 25th inst. Resolved, 4th, That John M. Crockett, Dr. H.J. Moffett, Cap. James Thomas, Dr. J.H. Fender, Col. Geo. Wilson and Col. J.C. McCoy be appointed to represent the county of Dallas in the Conservative Union Convention at Navasota; and should the said delegates be unable to attend said Convention, then J.J. Diamond, P.W. Gray, A.M. Gentry and G.W. Diamond, are requested to represent the county of Dallas in said Convention. NAT M. BURFORD, W.H. HORD, JAS. E. SCOTT, MARTIN RIGG, JOHN J. GOOD, On motion of John J. Good, the following resolution was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That we respectfully recommend to the Conservative Convention to assemble at Navasota on the 25th inst., the name of Matthias L. Swing, as a suitable person for Delegate from this State to the Union Convention to assemble at Philadelphia, Penn., on the 14th August, 1866. The meeting was then addressed by Capt. J.K.P. Record, who appealed to the people to stand by the President, and to assist him and the Conservative Union party, in their rights under the Federal Constitution, Capt. Record, during his address, was repeatedly cheered. On motion of J.K.P. Record, the Secretary was requested to furnish a copy of the proceedings of this meeting to the editor of the Dallas Herald, for publication. On motion, the meeting adjourned sine die.4
4
“Public Meeting in Dallas,” The Dallas Daily Herald, July 21, 1866, Saturday, Page 2.
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If some of those names seem familiar it is because they are Dallas street names. 5 The first resolution is in opposition to the proposed 14th Amendment and any other amendments that might be proposed to secure African Americans their rights as citizens and also any civil rights legislation. These resolutions together are advocating the preservation of a system of white supremacy and the infamous Black Codes passed by the white state legislatures of the former Confederate states before they were replaced with the advent of Congressional (Radical) Reconstruction. This rally led by John Neely Bryan wasn’t just some outburst of white supremacist sentiment, but was part of a national plan to restore white supremacy and subordinate African Americans to lives of servitude.
Record Street is named after J.K.P. Record, Dallas Morning News, (DMN), 5/20/1928; Good-Latimer, has the Good from John J. Good, DMN 9/16/1923, 5/20/1928; Hord Street is named after William H. Hord, Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) Handbook entry for him; Byran Street is named after John Neely Bryan; Burford Street doesn’t exist anymore; Crockett St. is named for John M. Crockett, DMN, 9/16/1923; Thomas St. is named after James Thomas, DMN, 7/10/1921; McCoy St. is named after John C. McCoy, DMN, 7/22/1945. Murphy Drive might be named W.L. Murphy, but the DMN article 1/30/1891 only has that it is named after a pioneer without specifying the name. Dallas has a Riggs Street, Scott St., and Diamond Ave., but Ed Sebesta hasn’t tracked down the history of every street in Dallas, but these do seem worthy candidates for further research. 5