Year: 1867

To the House Of Representatives:


have examined the bill "to provide
for the more efficient government of the
rebel States" with the care and anxiety
which its transcendent Importance IS
calculated to awaken. | am unable to
give 1t my assent for reasons so grave,
that hope statement of them NAV
have some influence on the minds of the
patriotic and enlightened men with
whom the decision must ultimately
rest.


The bill places all the people of the
ten States therein named under the alb
solute domination of military rulers;
and the preamble undertakes to give
the reason upon which the measure is
based, and the ground upon which it is
justified. 1t declares that there exists
in those States no legal governments,
and no adequate protection for life or
property, and asserts the necessity of
enforcing peace and good order within
their limits. Is this true as matter of
fact?


1t is not denied that the States in
question have each of them an actual
government, with all the powers, exc
cutlve, judicial, and Legislative, which
properly belong to a free State. They
are organized like the other States of
the Union, and, like them, they make,
administer, and execute the laws which
concern their domestic affairs. An ex-
listing de fdcto government, exercising
such functions as these, is itself the law
Of the State upon all matters within it's
jurisdiction. Topronounce the supreme
law-making power of an established
State illegal, is to say that law itself is
unlawful.


The provisions which these Govern
ments have made for the preservation
of order, the suppression of crime, and
the redress of private I'M juries, are in
substance and principle the same as
those which prevail in the Northern
States and in other civilized countries.
They certainly have not succeeded in
preventing the commission Of all crime,
nor has this been accomplished any
where in the world There as well as
elsewhere, offenders sometimes escape
for want of vigorous prosecution, and
occasionally, perhaps, by the iueficien-
cy of courts OF the prejudice of Jurors.
It is undoubtedly true that these evils
have been much increased and aggra-
waited, North and South, by the demor
alizing influences of civil war, and the
rancorous passions which the contest
has engendered. But that these people
are maintaining local Governments for
themselves, which habitually defeat the
object of all government and render
their own lives and property insecure,
is in itself utterly improbable, and the
averment of the bill to that effect is not
supported by any evidence which has
come to my knowledge. All the infor-
nation 1 have on the subject convinces
me that the masses Of the Southern
people and those who control their pub
| lie acts, while they entertain diverse
opinions on questions Of Federal policy.
are completely united III the effort to
re-organize their society on the basis of
| peace, and to restore their mutual pros
! perity as rapidly and as completely as
their circumstances will permit.


The bill, however, would seem to
show upon its face that the establish
! ment of peace and good order is not its
/ real object. The fifth section declares
that the preceding sections shall cease
to operate in any State where certain
events shall have happened. These
| events are-First, the selection of dele
gates to State Convention by an cleo
ton at which negroes shall be allowed
to vote. Second, the formation of a
State Constitution by the Convention
so chosen. Third, the insertion into the
State Constitution of provision which
will secure the right of voting at all
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men as may not be disfranchised for re
hellion or felony. Fourth, the submis
sion of the Constitution for ratification
to negroes and white men not disfran
chised, and its actual ratification by
their vote. Fifth, the submission of the
State Constitution to Congress for ex
animation and approval; and the actual
approval oft by that body. Sixth, the
adoption of certain amendment to the
Federal Constitution by vote of tht
Legislature elected under the new Con
stitution. Seventh, the adoption Of sai6
amendment by a sufficient number o
other States to make it part of tht
Constitution of the United States. AL
these conditions must be fulfilled before
the people of any of these States can b'
| TelleNCu Ulc VI
domination !; but when they are fulfill
ed, then Immediately the pains ant
penalties of the bill are to cease, NJ


matter whether there be peace and or


der or not, and without any referenc


to the security of life or property. Th


excuse given for the bill in the pream


BILE is admitted by the bill itself not t.


be real. The military rule which it es


tablishes is plainly to be used--not 70


any purpose of order or for the prever
ton of crime, but solely as a means c
| coercing the people into the adoptio
of principles and measures to which
is known that they are opposed, an
upon which they have an undeniabl


ri ght to exercise their own judge


ment.


submit to Congress whether thi


measure is not, in its whole characte


scope and object, without precedent an


without authority, in palpable confiie


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