US Presidency
1867

They might very well say, even when their action is in conflict with the Supreme Court of the United States, That court is composed of civil officers of the United States, and we are not bound to conform our action to any opinion of any such authority. This bill and the acts to which it is supplementary are all rounded upon the assumption that these ten communities are not States and that their existing governments are not legal. Throughout the legislation upon this subject they are called rebel States, and in this particular bill they are denominated so-called States, and the vice of illegality is declared to pervade all of them. The obligations of consistency bind a legislative body as well as the individuals who compose it. It is now too late to say that these ten political communities are not States of this Union. Declarations to the contrary made in these three acts are contradicted again and again by repeated acts of legislation enacted by Congress from the year 1861 to the year 1867.