Year: 1866

sentation in the two Houses of Congress.
The delegates to this Convention, repre-
senting the great body of the State, en-
bracing as well those who participated in
and sympathised with the rebellion, as those
whose loyalty to the Union was never ques-
toned, come forward to place upon the
record their united testimony against the
truth of this imputation of disloyalty, made
against the people of the State.


Upon the surrender of the Southern
armies. the people of Tennessee accepted
the result as a conclusive settlement of the
issues involved in the war. By the act
of laying down their arms, and surrender
ing to their victorious enemies, the South
ern soldiers acknowledged their defeat, and
pledged their honor not to renew the con-
fict. This pledge was made in good faith
by brave men. They returned to their
homes, resumed their peaceful avocations,
and have distinguished themselves by the
zeal andenergy with which they have prose-
cuted their various pursuits.


The result had established the indes-
tructability of the Union, by means of sepa-
rate State secession, and hence that the
several States which had sought to form a
new confederacy, had never been with
drawn from the Federal Union. In this
result the people of Tennessee acquiesced
unhesitatingly, and have waited patiently
for the adoption of such measures as would
restore them to their former rights in the
Union. In. the meantime they have sub
mitted, without complaint, to all the terms
and conditions imposed upon them as citi-
zens of a State lately in rebellion; and have
complied with all the acquisitions by which
their sincere loyalty to the constitution and
the Union could be made manifest.


The delegates to this convention, with a
full knowledge of their responsibility, do
not hesitate to affirm that the people of
Tennessee were never, at any time, more
sincerely anxious for the preservation of
good order and the restoration of civil law,
nor more earnestly united in their determi
nation to support, defend and preserve the
Constitution of the Union against all as
saults, open or concealed, domestic or
foreign, than they are at the present times
They are as ready now as they ever were
in days gone by. or, as are the people of
any other State in the Union, to pledge their
fortunes, their lives, and their eAcred honor,
in defence of the Constitution and the
Union.


In declaring their willingness to maintain
the Constitution, they desire to be under
stood as recognizing the late amendment,
forbidding the existence Of involuntary SER
yitude, as part thereof; and as avoWing
their determination TO give to that clause
an honest and sincere support. They are
prepared to aid in extending to the free per-
sons of color such protection as shall secure
to them the undisturbed enjoyment of all
the blessings of freedom, and of eonceding
to them all the civil and political rights
that may be compatible with the best in
terests of both races, They insist. however,
that this subject belongs exclusively to the
people of the State, and that the same has
not been transferred to Congress by the
amendment aforesaid They are satisfied
that whenever all extraneous influences are
withdrawn, the relations between the two
races will be established upon principles of
justice that viii be mutually satisfactory
and beneficial.


Entertaining these sentiments, the people
of Tennessee, with unprecedented unanimi-
ty, have observed with unaffected admira-
ton, the wise and patriotic efforts made by
President Johnson, to secure an early and
complete restoration of the Southern States
to the Union. By the liberal exercise of
executive clemeney he has shown that he
understands and appreciates the plighted
faith of brave men, and by reposing in
them this generous confidence, he has won
their hearts, and rendered their pledge of
loyalty doubly sure. not only in securing
their jealous support of the Union, but in
overcoming sectional antipathies, and in
securing sentiments of liberation and fra
ternity, between those who we're lately
public enemies. t-


The people of the Southern States had
responded SO promptly and efficiently to
wise suggestions and the liberal policy of
the President, that when the present Con-
gress assembled, most of the States lately
in rebellion had complied with the terms
and conditions upon which their restoration
to the Union was to be eonsummated.
Nothing was then wanting for the efeetu-
ating of the great work of re-establishing
the union of all the States except the aP-
prOval by Congress of the policy adopted
and carried out by the President. This
approval was withheld by dominant ma
joFity of Congress, who have thereby re-
pudiated the policy of the President, ig-
noraL the axistanca of the Santhern States.