course advocated no clearer summing up of the situation could be found than that set out at the close of the report. "First. The seats of the senators and representatives from the so-called Confederate States became vacant in the year 1861, during the second session of the thirty-sixth Congress, by the voluntary withdrawal of their incumbents, with the sanction and by direction of the legislatures or conventions of their respective States. This was done as a hostile act against the Constitution and government of the United States, with a declared intent to overthrow the same by forming a southern confederation. This act of declared hostility was speedily followed by an organization of the same States into a confederacy, which levied and waged war, by sea and land, against the United States. This war continued more than four years, within which period the rebel armies besieged the national capital, invaded the loyal States, burned their towns and cities, robbed their citizens, destroyed more than 250,000 loyal soldiers, and imposed an increased national burden of not less than $3,500,000,000, of which seven or eight hundred millions have already been met and paid. From the time these confederated States thus withdrew their representation in Congress and levied war against the United States, the great mass of their people became and were insurgents, rebels, traitors, and all of them assumed and occupied the political, legal and practical relation of enemies of the United States. This position is established by acts of Congress and judicial decisions, and is recognized repeatedly by the President in public proclamations, documents and speeches.

"Second. The States thus confederated prosecuted their war against the United States to final arbitrament, and did not cease until all their armies were captured, their military power destroyed, their civil officers, State and confederate, taken prisoners or put to flight, every vestige of State and confederate government obliterated, their territory overrun and occupied by the federal armies, and their people reduced to the condition of enemies conquered in war, entitled

only by public law to such rights, privileges, and conditions as might be vouchsafed by the conqueror.

"Third. Having voluntarily deprived themselves of representation in Congress for the criminal purpose of destroying the federal Union, and having reduced themselves, by the act of levying war, to the condition of public enemies, they have no right to complain of temporary exclusion from Congress; but, on the contrary, having voluntarily renounced the right to representation, and disqualified themselves by crime from participating in the government, the burden now rests upon them, before claiming to be reinstated in their former condition, to show that they are qualified to resume federal relations. In order to do this, they must prove that they have established, with the consent of the people, republican forms of government in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the United States, that all hostile purposes have ceased, and should give adequate guarantees against future treason and rebellion-guarantees which shall prove satisfactory to the government against which they rebelled and by whose arms they were subdued.

"Fourth. Having, by this treasonable withdrawal from Congress, and by flagrant rebellion and war, forfeited all civil and political rights and privileges under the federal Constitution, they can only be restored thereto by the permission and authority of that constitutional power against which they rebelled and by which they were subdued.

"Fifth. These rebellious enemies were conquered by the people of the United States, acting through all the coördinate branches of the government, and not by the executive department alone. The powers of conqueror are not so vested in the president that he can fix and regulate the terms and settlement and confer congressional representation on conquered rebels and traitors. Nor can he, in any way, qualify enemies of the government to exercise its law-making power. The authority to restore rebels to political power in the federal government can be exercised only with the concurrence of all the departments in which political power

is vested; and hence the several proclamations of the President to the people of the Confederate States cannot be considered as extending beyond the purposes declared, and can only be regarded as provisional permission by the commander-in-chief of the army to do certain acts, the effect and validity whereof is to be determined by the constitutional government, and not solely by the executive power.

"Sixth. The question before Congress is, then, whether conquered enemies have the right, and shall be permitted at their own pleasure and on their own terms, to participate in making laws for their conquerors; whether conquered rebels may change their theatre of operations from the battlefield, where they were defeated and overthrown, to the halls of Congress, and, through their representatives, seize upon the government which they fought to destroy; whether the national treasury, the army of the nation, its navy, its forts and arsenals, its whole civil administration, its credit, its pensioners, the widows and orphans of those who perished in the war, the public honor, peace and safety, shall all be turned over to the keeping of its recent enemies without delay, and without imposing such conditions as in the opinion of Congress, the security of the country and its institutions may demand.

"Seventh. The history of mankind exhibits no example of such madness and folly. The instinct of self-preservation protests against it. The surrender by Grant to Lee, and by Sherman to Johnston, would have been disasters of less magnitude, for new armies could have been raised, new battles fought, and the government saved.

"Eighth. As has been shown in this report, and in the evidence submitted, no proof has been afforded to Congress of a constituency in any one of the so-called Confederate States, unless we except the State of Tennessee, qualified to elect senators and representatives in Congress. No State constitution, or amendment to a State constitution, has had the sanction of the people. All the so-called legislation of State conventions and legislatures has been under military

dictation. If the president may, at his will, and under his own authority, whether as military commander or chief executive, qualify persons to appoint senators and elect representatives, and empower others to appoint and elect them, he thereby practically controls the organization of the legislative department. The constitutional form of government is thereby practically destroyed, and its powers absorbed in the Executive. And while your committee do not for a moment impute to the President any such design, but cheerfully concede to him the most patriotic motives, they cannot but look with alarm upon a precedent so fraught with danger to the republic.

"Ninth. The necessity of providing adequate safeguards for the future, before restoring the insurrectionary States to a participation in the direction of public affairs, is apparent from the bitter hostility to the government and people of the United States yet existing throughout the conquered territory, as proved incontestably by the testimony of many witnesses and by undisputed facts.

"Tenth. The conclusion of your committee therefore is, that the so-called Confederate States are not, at present, entitled to representation in the Congress of the United States; that, before allowing such representation, adequate security for future peace and safety should be required; that this can only be found in such changes of the organic law as shall determine the civil rights and privileges of all citizens in all parts of the republic, shall place representation on an equitable basis, shall fix a stigma upon treason, and protect the loyal people against future claims for the expenses incurred in support of rebellion and for manumitted slaves, together with an express grant of power in Congress to enforce those provisions.'

In order to carry the principles of their report into practical operation, the committee recommended the adoption of a constitutional amendment which should secure the results of the war, and two bills, one of which excluded five classes of Confederates from office and the other provided

that representatives and senators from a State lately in rebellion could be admitted upon its ratification of the proposed constitutional amendment.

The amendment as proposed repeated some provisions of the Civil Rights law, based representation on population, excluded ex-Confederates until July 4, 1870, and forbade payment of the rebel debt. The measure passed the House, but in the Senate it was amended and made to exclude Confederates who had taken an official oath of allegiance to the United States before the war. These changes were concurred in by the House.

In answer to the proposed legislation of the Southern States, aiming to introduce a system of public guardianship of the negroes, the first section forbade a State to abridge the privileges of citizens, or deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. In this way it was hoped that legislation and administration of law would be enforced uniformly as to both

By the second section the provision in the Federal Constitution counting three-fifths of the slaves for representation was abolished and the whole population was included, except Indiáns not taxed. This would increase, it is true, the number of southern representatives, but on the other hand if the right to vote at any election, State or Federal, was denied or abridged to any male citizen of age, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation was to be reduced proportionately. The wording met Sumner's objection to the race discrimination in the original draft of the amendment.

A third section prescribed the qualifications of senator, representative, elector and other officials by forbidding the election of anyone who having previously taken an official oath to support the Constitution of the United States had directly or indirectly engaged in rebellion. This of course was aimed at ex-Confederate officers and in effect took away the president's pardoning power, as Congress