Year: 1866

nation of Congress. While in this and
in subsequent message the President
urged the speedy restoration of these
States, and expressed the opinion that
their condition was such as to justify
their restoration, yet it is quite obvious
that Congress must either have acted
blindly on that opinion of the President
or proceeded to obtain the information
requisite for intelligent action on the sub
ject. The improperly of proceeding
wholly on the judgment of any one man,
however exalted his station, in matter
involving the welfare of the Republic in
all future time, or of adopting any plan,
coming from any source, without fully
understanding all its bearings and COM
pretending its full effect, was apparent


The first step, therefore, was to obtain the
required information. A call was ac-
cordingiy made on the President for the
information in his possession as to what
had been done, in order that Congress
might judge for itself as to the grounds
of the belief expressed by him in the
fitness of States recently in rebellion to
participate fully in the conduct of nation
al affairs. This information was not i'm
mediately communicated. When the
response was finally made, some six weeks
after your committee had been in actual
session, it was found that the evidence
upon which the President seems to have
based his suggestions was incomplete and
unsatisfactory. Authenticated copies of
the constitutions and ordinances adopted
by the conventions in three of the States
had been submitted; extracts from news
papers furnished scanty information as
to the action of one other State, and moth.
ing appears to have been communicated
as to the remainder. There was no evi.
dence of the loyalty of those who partic.
ipated in these conventions, and in one
State alone was any proposition made to
submit the action of the convention to
the final judgment of the people.


Failing to obtain the desired informa


tion, and left to grope for light wherever
it might be found, your committee did
not deem it either advisable or safe to
adopt, without further examination, the
suggestions of tho Presidedt, more es.
pecially as he had not deemed it expedi-
ent to remove the military force, to sus-
pend martial law, or to restore the writ
of habeos corpus, but still thought it nec-
essary to exercise over the people OF the
rebellidus States his military power and
jurisdiction. This conclusion derived
greater force from the fact, undisputed,
that in all those States, except Tennes-
see, and perhaps Arkansas, the elections
which were held for State offieers and
members of Congress had resulted almost
universally in the defeat of candidates
who had been true to the Union, and in
the election of notorious and unpardoned
rebels, men who could not take the pre-
scribed oath of office, and who made no
secret of their hostility to the Govern
ment and the people of the United States
Under these circumstances anything like
hasty action would have been as danger
Gus as it was obviously unwise. 1t ap-
peared to your committee that but one
course remained, viz to investigate care.
fully and thoroughly the state of feeling
and opinion existing among the people of
these States; to ascertain how far their
pretended loyalty could be relied upon,
and thence to infer whether it would be
safe to admit them at once to full par


ticipation in the Government they had
fought for four years to destroy 1t was
an equally important inquiry whether
their restoration to their former relations
with the United States should only be
granted upon certain conditions and guar
antees, which would etfectually secure
the nation against recurrence Of evils
so disastrous as those which it had
escaped at so enormous sacrifice.


To obtain the necessary information.
recourse could only be had to the exam
ination of witnesses whose position had
given them the best means of forming an
accurate judgment, who could state facts
from their own observation, and whose
character and standing afforded the best
evidence of their truthfulness and i'm
partiality. A work like this, covering SO
large an extent of territory, and embra-
cling such complicated and extensive in
quiries, necessarily required much time
and labor. To shorten the time as much
as possible, the work was divided and
placed in the hands of four sub commit
tees, who have been diligently employed
in its accomplishment. The result of
their labors has been heretofore submit
ted and the eountrv will ,udoa bo1v c.