Year: 1866

made, some six weeks after your COM
mittee had been in actual session,it was
found that the evidence upon which the
President seems to have based his sug-
gestions was incomplete and unsatifac-
tory. Authenticated copies of the con-
stitutions and ordinances adopted by
the conventions in three of the States
had been submit ed ; extracts from news
papers furnished scanty information as
to the action of one other State, and
nothing appears to have been commu-
nicated as to the remainder. There
was no evidence of the loyalty of those
who participated in these conventions,
and in one State alone was any propo-
sition made to submit the action of the
convention to the final judgment of the
people.


Failing to obtain the desired informa-
ton, and left to grope for light wherev-
er it might be found, your committee
did not deem it either advisable or safe
to adopt, without further examination,
the suggestions Of the President, more
especially as he had not deemed it ex-
pedient to remove the military force, to
suspend martial law, or to restore the
writ of habeas corpus, but still thought
it necessary to exercise over the people
of the rebellious States his military
power and jurisdiction. This conclu-
sion derived greater force from the fact,
undisputed, that in all those States, ex-
cept Tennessee, and perhaps Arkansas,
the elections which were held for State
officers 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 prescribed oath of Office,
and who made no secret of their hos
tillty to the government and the peo-
pie of the United States. Under these
circumstances anything like hasty ac-
ton would have been as dangerous as
it was was obviously unwise.


1t appeared to your committee that
but one course remained, viz to inves-
tigate carefully and thoroughly the
state of feeling and opinion existing a
mong the people of these States to as
certain 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 participation in the
Government they had fought for four
years to destroy. 1t was an equally
important inquiry whether their resto-
ration to their former relations with
the United States should only be gran
ted upon certain conditions and guaran-
tees, which would effectually secure the
nation against a recurrence of evils so
disastrous as those from which it had
escaped at so enormous a sacrifice.


To obtain the necessary information, re-
course could only be had to the examination
of witnesses whose position had given them
the best means of forming an accurate judg-
ment, who could state facts from their own
observation, and whose character and stand


ing afforded the best evidence of their truth
fulness and impartiality. work like this,
covering so large an extent of territory and
embracing such complicated and extensive


inquiries, necessarily required much time and
labor To shorten the time as much as pos
sib1e, the work was divided and placed in
the hands of four subcommittee, who have
been diligently employed in its accomplish
ment. The result of their labors has been
heretofore submitted, and the country will
Judge how far they sustain the Presidents
views, and how far they justify the conclu-
sions to which your committee have finally
arrived.


A claim for the immediate admission of
Senators and Representatives from the So
called Confederate States has been urged,
which seems to your committee not to be
founded either in reason OIL in law, and
which cannot be passed without comment.
Stated in few words, 1t amounts to this:
that, inasmuch as the lately insurgent States
had no legal right to separate themselves
from the Union, they still retain their posi-
tions as States, and consequently the people
thereof have right toimmediate representa-
ton in Congress, without the imposition of
any conditions whatever; and further, that
until such admission, Congress has no right
to tax them for the support of the Govern
ment. 1t has even been contended that, until
such admission, all legislation affecting their
interests is, if not unconstitutional, at least
unjustifable and oppressive.


1t is believed by your committee that all
these propositions are not only wholly un-
tenable, but, if admitted, would tend to the
destruction of the Government


1t must not be forgotten that the people
of these States, without justification or ex-
cuse, rose in insurrection against the United
States. They deliberately abolished their
State governments, so far as the same con-
nected them politically with the Union as
members thereof under the Constitution
They deliberately renounced their allegiance
to the Federal Government, and proceeded
to establish an independent government for
themselves. In the prosecution of this en-
terprise they seized the national forts, arsen-
ais, dock-yards, and other public property
within their borders, drove out from among
them those who remained true to the Union,
and heaped every imaginable insult and in
jury upon the United States and its citizens.
Finally they opened hostilities and levied
war against the Government. They contin-
ued this war for four years with the most
determined and malignant spirit killing in
battle and otherwise large numbers of loyal
people, destroying the property of loyal citi-
zens on the and on the land, and entail
ing on the government an enormous debt in
CURED to sustain it's rightful authority
Whether legally and constitutionally OR not
they did in fact withdraw from the Union,
and made themselves subjects of another
government of their ON creation; and they
only yielded when, after long, bloody, and
wasting war, they were compelled by utter
exhaustion to lay down their arms and this
they did, not willingly, but declar ng that
they yielded because they could no longer
resist, atfording no evidence whatever of re
pentance for their crime, and expressing no
regret except that they had no longer the