Year: 1868

added, in justification for exten ding the
oath to support the Constitution so as
to embrace the declaration "to abide ~
his proclamation of emancipation,
this passage in his message:


"But if it be proper to require as a
test of admission to a political body an
oath of allegiance to the Constitution
and the Union under it, why not alse to
the laws and proclamationsi in regard to
slayeryl These laws and proclama-
tions were enacted and put forth for the
purpose of aiding in the suppression of
the rebellion. To give them their full
est effect there had ts be pledge for
their maintenance. In my judgment
they have aided and will further aid the
cause for which they were intended.
To now abandon them would be not on


ly to relinquish lever of power, but
would also be a cruel aud an astound-
ing breach Of faith"


This attitude assumed by the Presi-
dent, and which ushered in the year
1864, the whole Republican party, in
and out of Congress, heartily assumed.
But the views of ambition in Presi-
Dental aspirants worked change be-
fore the close of the summer session.
Messers. Wade and Winter Davis, Chair
man of the Reconstruction Committees
of the Senate and House, worked
through Congress bill which was to
withdraw the subject of restoring the
relations of tho States in the Union |
from the President and to take the
whole matter into the hands of Con-
gress, and, moreover, to withdraw the |
subject from the people of the States |
themselves, and dictate in Congress the |
Constitution of these States. They in
duced Congress to enact law prescrib-
| ing Constitutions to the States, disfran-
chising whole classes of citizens, max
ing them ineligible for Office and in
capable of voting, declaring that every
person who shall hereafter hold or ex-
ercise any Office, civil or military, be-
low the grade of Colonel, is hereby de-
elared not TO be citizen Of the United
States, and appointing Provisional
Governor, who is authorized to call
Convention to adopt the Constitution
thus prescribed, to be submitted to
Congress for its assent. The President,
by proclamation, shall recognize the
governments thus formed, and none
other, as the established government of
the State.


This bill was thrust upon the House
on the day it was reported. The SEN
ate passed substitute entirely chaGg-
ing its character, but after attempts TO
modify in Committee of Conference, to
measure, which was in fact the as
sumption of Congress to ordain the
fundamental law for State governments,
was accepted and passed as originally
reported to the House. The President,
in his proclamation laying this bill be-
fore the country, with his reasons for
not signing it, states that it reached
him for his approval less than an honr
before ''the sine die adjournment of said
session."


But the Presidents objection was not
to the plan of instruction SGT forth in
the bill. 1t was that Congress had no
power delegated to it in the Constitu-
tion of the United States to make State
Constitutions; that under the theory of
our Government this power belonged to
the people of the States. He says in
proClaiming this bill as measure for
the consideration of the country, "while
am unprepared by a formal approval
of this bill to be committed to any sim
gle plan of restoration; and while am
also unprepared to declare that the free
State constitutions already adopted and
| installed in Arkansas and Louisiana
shall be set at naught, thereby repel-
ling and discouraging the loyal citizens
who have set up the same as to further
effect, or to declare the competency in
! ~ 90 oh ioh oil m IN
but am at the same time sincerely hop
ing and expecting that a constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery through
out the nation may be adopted; never
theless | am fully satisfied with the
system for restoration contained in the
bill as one rery proper plan for the loyal
people Of any State choosing to GdOpth


In the last words, marked in italic,
as they deserve to be, the President pro-
claims the principle on which Congress
has made the war with the Executive
Department, which threatens revolu-
tion. The bill carried through the
House in day, and which the Senate,
| in Committee of Conference, accepted
in an evil hour, aud which it was de-
mandcd of the President he should sign
in less than an hour, was designed to
alter the whole frame of our Govern
ment. The people of the States origina-
ted their State governments. They
conquered their independence of the
British Government, and they then cre-
ated the Government Of the United
States, to combine and guarantee the
republican State governments. All
our governments, local and national,
originate with the people. The Davis
and Wade bill was designed to reverse
the whole system, enable Congress
to create State governments and
make them what it chose to make them.
Mr.. Lincoln said, no: l am willing to
submit your plan "as one very proper
for the loyal people of any State choos-
ing to adopt it," This did not comply
with the Davis and Wade bill. That
was peremptory law-conpulsory-was
absolute subjugation of the people TO
the will of Congress. The stand taken
for this high-handed measure was thus
asserted in the preamble of the bill as
sent to the Senate: "JThereds, the so
called Confederate States are a public
enemy. waging an unjust war, whose
injustice is so glaring that they have no
right to claim the mitigation of the
extreme rights of war, which are
awarded by modern usage to an enemy
who has right to consider the war
just one."


The measure thus derives its princi-
pie from the assumption that the rights
of humanity had been forfeited by the
whole Southern people. This was the
starting point of the Radical party. In
refusing to sanction it aud give new
origin to the State governments, not
only unwarraEted by the Constituti on
of the United States, but incompatible
with our whole system and incompati-
BILE with the idea of free Government,
founded on the consent of the govern
ed" the President was subject to violent
abuse put forth in an appeal to the peo:
pie by Wade and Davis, the Chairman OF
the Committees of the two Houses, re-
nnrting the hill "The President, (they