Year: 1866

instances may be found where large nlanta:y many
and men of the better class accept the s;t,a
ton and honestly strive to bring abont
better order of things by employing the freed
men at fair wages, and treating them kindlr
the general feeling and disposition amonn
all classes are yet totally averse to the tolsrae
ton of any class of people friendly to tha
Union, De they white or black; and this
aversion Is not unfrequently manifested in an
insulting and offensive manner.


The witnesses examined as to the will;n,
ness Of the people Of the South to contributs
under existing laws, to the payment of tbs
national debt, prove that the taxes levied INV
the United States will be paid only ON con-;
pulsion and with great reluctance. while tbaro
prevailed to great extent an expectation
that compensation will be made for slavn.
emancipated and property DESTROYED dur;n,,
the war The testimony on this point cons
from officers Of the Union army. officers of
the late rebel army, Union men of the Soutb-
ern States, and avowed secessionists. almost
all of whom state that, in their opinion ths
people Of the rebelious States would, if thew
should see a prospect of success, repud;ate
the national debt.


While there is scarcely any hope or desire
of
secession at any future time, there is still ac.
cortiing to witnesses, including A. II. Ste
phens, who may be regarded as good au-
thorlty on that point, generally PREVAILING
opinion which defends the legal RIGHT of
secession, and uphOlds the doctrine that the
first allegiance of the people is due to the
States, and not the United States This be,
lief evidently prevails among leading and
prominent men as well as among the masses
everywhere, except in some of the nortbern
counties of Alabama and the eastern counties
of ofTenncssee.


The evidence of an intense hostility to tba
Federal Union, and an equally intense love of
the late Confederacy nurtured by the war il
decisive. While itappears that nearly all ar.
willing to submit, at least for the time beina
to Federal authority, it is equally clear that
the ruling motive is a desire to obtain the
advantages which will be derived from a
representation in Congress Officers of the
Union army ON duty and Northern men who
go South to engage in business are generally
detested and prescribed Southern men who
adhered to the Union are bitterly hated and
relentlessly prosecuted. In some localities
prosecutions have been instituted in State
courts against Union officers for acts done in
the line of official duty, and similar prosecu-
tions are threatened elsewhere as soon as the
United States troops are removed. all such
demonstrations show state of feeling against
which it is Enthusiastically necessary to guard.


The testimony is conclusive that after the
collapse of the Copfederacy the feeling of the
people of the rebellieus States was that of
abject submission. Having appealed to the
tribunal of arms, they had no hope, except
by the magnanimity of their conauerors, their
lives and possibly their property might be
preserved. Unfortunately the general issue
of pardons to persons who had been promin-
ent in the rebellion, and the feeling of kind
ness and conciliation manifested by the
Executive, and very generally indicated
through the Northern press, had the effect to
render whole communities forgetfnf of the
crime they had committed, defiant toward
the Federal Government, and regardless of
their duties as citizens The conciliatory
measures of the Government do not seem to
have been met even half way The bitter
ness and defiance exhibited toward the
United States under such circumstances is
without a parallel in the history ofthe world
In return for our kindness we receive only an
insulting denial of our authority. In return
for our kind desire for the resumption of
fraternal relations, we receive only an insolent
assumption of rights and privileges long since
forfeited. The crime we have punished is
paraded as virtue, and the principles of re-
publican government, which we have vindi-
Gated as so terrible cost, are denounced as
unjust and oppressive.


If we add to this evidence the fact that.
although peace has been declared by the
President, he has not, to this day, deemed it
safe to restore the writ of habeds corpus to
relieve the insurrectionary State of martial
law, nor to withdraw the troops from many
localities. and that the commanding general
deems an increase of the army Indispensable
to the preservation of order and the protec-
tion of loyal and we'll disposed people in the
South, the proof of condition of feeling
hostile to the Union and dangerous to the
Government throughout the insurrection
States would seem to be overwhelming.


With such evidence before them, it is the
opinion of your committee


/. That the States lately in rebellion were,
at the close of the war, tlisorganized commu-
mites, without civil government, and with
out constitutions or other forms, by virtue
of which political relations could legally ex-
ist between them and the Federal Govern
ment


II. That Congress cannot be expected to
recognize as valid the election of representa-
tives from disorganized communities. which,
from the very nature of the case, were unable
to present their claims to representation un-
der those established and recognized rules,
the observance of which has been hitherto
required.


III. That Congress would not be justified
in admitting such communities to a partiei-
patton in the government of the country
without first providing such constitutional
or other guarantees as will aid to secure the
civil rights of all citizens of the republic;
just equality of representation protection
against claims founded in rebellion and
crimes; temporary restriction of the right
OF suffrage to those who have not actively
participated in the effort to destroy the Union
and overthrow the Government, and the ex-
clusion from positions of public trust of at
least portion of those whose crimes have
proved them to be enemies to the Union and
unworthy of public confidence.


Your committee will, perhaps, hardly be
deemed excusable for extending this report
further; but, inasmuch as Immediate and
unconditional representation of the States
lately in rebellion is demanded as matter
of right, and delay, and even hesitation, de-
nounced as grossly oppressive and unjust as
we'll as unwise and impolitic, it may not BE-
amiss again to call attention to few undis-
puted facts and the principles of public law
applicable thereto, in order that the propriety
OF that claim may be fully considered and
well understood.


The State of Tennessee occupied o posi-
tion distinct from all the other il,surrcction-