New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-06-09
Report Of the Congressional Committee.
The Course of the President Reviewed, and the
Powers Of President and Congress Defined.
Reconstruction the Proper Charge Of the
LaW-Making Power
Illegal Organization Of State Governments
Exposed, and Revival of the Spirit
OfSeceSsiOn Portrayed.
GUARANTEES of Peace and Freedom to be Required
from the RebeliOuS States.
THE ULTIMATUM OF CONGRESS-.

Committee, submitted by Mr. Fessenden to the Senate
yesterday 1t signed by all the Republican members
of the Committee except Messrs Washburne and Blow,
who were absent
The Joint Committee Of the two Houses Of Congress
appointed under the concurrent resolution Of Dec. -,
1865 with direction TO inquire into the condition Of the
States which formed the socaed Confederate States Of
America and report whether they any Of them
titled to be represented in either House Of Congress- with
leave report by bill otherwise ask leave TO report:
That they have attended to the duties assigned them
assiduousy as other duties woad permit and submit
TO Congress as the result of their deliberations resolu-
ton proposing amendments TO the Constitution and two
bills of which they recommend the adoption.
Before proceeding forth in detail the reasons to
which, after great deberation your Committee have ar
rived they beg leave to advert briefly to the course of
proceedings they found it necessary to adopt and to
plain the reasons therefor.
The resolution under which your Committee was ap
pointed directed them 10 inquire into the condition of the
Confederate States and report whether they entitled
10 representation in Congress- 1t is obvious that such
an investigation covering large extent Of territory
and involving so many important considerations, must
necessarily require trAng labor, and consume very
considerable amount Of time. II must embrace the con-
don in which those State left at the close Of the
war; the measures which had been taken toward the
ganzaon of civil government and the disposition Of the
people toward the United States-n word their fitness
TO take an active part in the administration Of National
affairs.
As their condition at the close of the Rebellion, the
evidence is open TO ALL and admits of no dispute. They
were in state of utter exhaustion. Having protracted
their struggle against Federal authorities until all hope of
successful resistance had ceased and laid down their
only because there longer any power 10 them
the people of these States were when the Rebellion
crushed, deprived of all civil government and must
proceed TO organize anew In his conversation with Mr.
Searns of Massachusetts, certified by himself, President
johnson said "The State institutions Frustrated
laid out on the ground and they must be taken up and
adapted the progress of events Finding the Southern
States in this condition. and Congress having failed to
provide for the contingency his duty was obvious.
As President Of the United States he had power
cept TO execute the laws of the land Chief Magistrate
Those laws gave him authority the subject Of
organization but by the Constitution he Command
ern-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States
Those Confederate States embraced portion Of the people
of the Union who had been in state of revolt but had
been reduced TO obedience by force of They
in an abnormal condition-without civil government
without commercial connections without national or in
ternationa elaons-and subject only to martial law BY
Withdrawing their representatives in Congress- by renounc
ing the privilege of representation by organizing sep
arate government-snd by evying against the United
States they destroyed their State Constitutions in respect
to the vital principle which connected the respective States
with the Union and secured their federal reatons and
nothing Of those constitutions left Of which the United
States were bound to take notice. For four years they
had de fdcto government but it usurped and ie-
gal They chose the tribunal Of wherein to decide
whether it should be legazed, and they de-
feated At the close Of the Rebellion therefore, the peo
pie of the rebeious States formed the President
L xT.1tus
Under this state of affairs it plainly the duty of the
President enforce existing national laws and TO estab
ish as far he could such system Of government as
might be provided for by existing national statutes As
commandern chief Of victorious army, it his duty
under the law of nations and the army regulations to
order preserve proprey and TO protect the people
against violence from any quarter until provision should
be made by law for their government He might, as
President, assemble Congress and submit the whole
matter to the law-makng power OF he might continue
military supervision and control until Congress should
assemble its regular appointed day. Selecting the lat
ter alternative he proceeded by virtue Of his power
chief to appoint Provisional Governors in
the reyolted States These were regularly commissioned
and their compensation paid as the Secretary Of War
stated from the appropriation for army contingencies
because the duties performed by the parties were regarded
of temporary character auxiliary 70 the withdrawal of
the military force, the disarmament OF armies and the
reduction of military expenditure by provisional organiza
tons for the protection of civil rights the preservation
Of peace and to take the place Of armed force in the
respective States" 1t cannot, We think, be con-
tended that these Governors possessed, or would
exercise any but military authority. They had no power
known TO organize civil to exercise any
authority except that which nhered in their own persons
undsr their commissions Neither had the President or
any other than military authority.
II was for him to decide how far he would exercise it,
when. how far he would relax it, when and on what
terms he would withdraw it. He might properly
ner,nit the people TO assemble and to initiate local
governments and to execute such laws as they might
choose to frame. not inconsistent with in oppo-
son to the laws of the United States And, If satisfied
that they might safely be left to themselves, he might
withdraw the military forces altogether and leave the
people Of any all Of those States TO govern themselves
without his interference In the language Of the Secretary
of State in his telegram the Provisional Governor OF
Georgia. dated October 49, 1865 he might "recognize
the people Of any State as having resumed the re-
lations of loyalty to the Union" and act, in his
military capacity, on this hypothesis All TINS was
within his own discretion as military commander.
But not for him to decide upon the nature or effect
any system Of government which the people of those
States might fit to adopt This power lodged by the
Constitution in the Congress of the United States that
to Tx the political relations of the States to the Union and
to protect each and all Of them against foreign or domestic
violence and against each other We cannot therefore,
regard the various acts of the President in relation the
%mation Of local governments il the insvIrectionsY