About the Book
From the INTRODUCTION.
THIS book is an attempt to portray an important phase of the Civil War, which has passed without consideration, and with little notice, by the historians of that period. Its preparation has required an examination of the Constitutions and legislation of all the States, south as well as north, and of their statutes allowing soldiers to vote in the field; and also of the legislative proceedings which resulted in such legislation, or in which such legislation was attempted but failed. By legislation is meant changes in constitutional limitations, as well as laws enacted within the constitutional limitations. I have tried to show not only what the people did, but how they did it, who supported, and who opposed this legislation; or when legislation was defeated who was responsible for the defeat, and the grounds upon which the legislation was supported, and the grounds upon which it was opposed. To do this has required me not only to make full abstracts of the legislation in the different States, using in many cases the exact language of the statutes, but also to give the language of the Governors in recommending or vetoing such legislation, and the language of the reports of the legislative committees in favor of and against it, and, so far as is now possible, the language of the legislative debates. I believe that the language of the actors best preserves the "form and pressure of the time," and therefore at the risk of repetition, and even of prolixity, I have endeavored to give that language. And as laws are only the expression of the desires of the people, I have deemed it proper in many cases to show the situation of the States and the mood and temper of the people whose legislatures adopted or refused to adopt legislation for soldiers' voting in the field. My story therefore embraces the history of legislation or an attempt to legislate in every Southern State except four, - Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas; and in every Northern State except Oregon. It is important, I think, not only for what it accomplished, but because it showed the desire of the people that the man who fought for the Confederacy, or for the Union, should not thereby be disfranchised.
Voting in the field was provided for, or attempted to be provided for, between May 8,1861 and October 13, 1864, in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nevada, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maryland, Indiana, Delaware and New Jersey, and was also provided for in 1865 by legislation in Illinois.
It is my purpose to state what this legislation was, and as far as is now possible what was done under it.
