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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



not extinguished their functions suspended, but not 

 destroyed. 



But if any State neglects or refuses to perform its 

 offices, there is the more need that the General Govern- 

 ment should maintain all its authority, and, as soon as 

 practicable, resume the exercise of all its functions. 

 On this principle I have acted, and have gradually and 

 quietly, and by almost imperceptible steps, sought to 

 restore the rightful energy of the General Government 

 and of the States. To that end, Provisional Govern- 

 ors have been appointed for the States, Conventions 

 called, Governors elected, Legislatures assembled, 

 and Senators and Representatives chosen to the Con- 

 gress of the United States. At the same time, the 

 Courts of the United States, as far as could be done, 

 have been reopened, so that the laws of the United 

 States may be enforced through their agency. The 

 blockade has been removed, and the custom-houses 

 reestablished in ports of entry, so that the revenue of 

 the United States may be collected. The Post-Office 

 Department renews its ceaseless activity, and the 

 General Government is thereby enabled to commu- 

 nicate promptly with its officers and agents. The 

 courts bring security to persons and property ; the 

 opening of the ports invites the restoration of industry 

 and commerce ; the post-office renews the facilities 

 of social intercourse and of business. And is it not 

 happy for us all, that the restoration of each one of 

 these functions of the General Government, brings 

 with it a blessing to the States over which they are 

 extended? Is it not a sure promise of harmony and 

 renewed attachment to the Union that, after all that 

 has happened, the return of the General Government 

 is known only as a beneficence? 



I know very well that this policy is attended with 

 some risk; that for its success it requires at least the 

 acquiescence of the States which it concerns ; that it 

 implies an invitation to those States, by renewing their 

 allegiance to the United States, to resume their func- 

 tions as States of the Union. But it is a risk that must 

 be taken ; in the choice of difficulties, it is the smallest 

 risk; and to diminish, and, if possible, to remove all 

 danger, I have felt it incumbent on me to assert one 

 other power of the General Government the power 

 of pardon. As no State can throw a defence over the 

 crime of treason, the power of pardon is exclusively 

 vested in the Executive Government of the United 

 States. In exercising that power, I have taken every 

 precaution to connect it with the clearest recognition 

 of the binding force of the laws of the United States, 

 and an unqualified acknowledgment of the great social 

 change of condition in regard to slavery which has 

 grown out of the war. 



The next step which I have taken to restore the con- 

 stitutional relations of the States, has been an invita- 

 tion to them to participate in the high office of amend- 

 ing the Constitution. Every patriot must wish for a 

 general amnesty at the earliest epoch consistent with 

 public safety. For this great end there is need of a 

 concurrence of all opinions, and the spirit of mutual 

 conciliation. All parties in the late terrible conflict, 

 must work together in harmony. It is not too much 

 to ask, in the name of the whole people, that, on the 

 one side, the plan of restoration shall proceed in con- 

 formity with a willingness to cast the disorders of the 

 past into oblivion; and that, on the other, the evidence 

 of sincerity in the future maintenance of the Union, 

 shall be put beyond any doubt by the ratification of 

 the proposed amendment to the Constitution, which 



ousy and uncertainty prevail. This is the measure 

 which will efface the sad memory of the past; this is 

 the measure which will most certainly call population, 

 and capital, and security to those parts of the Union 

 that need them most. Indeed, it is not too much to 

 ask of the States which are now resuming their places 

 in the family of the Union, to give this pledge of per- 

 petual loyalty and peace. Until it is done, the past, 



however much we may desire it, will not be forgotten. 

 The adoption of the amendment, reunites us beyond 

 all power of disruption. It heals the wound that is 

 still imperfectly closed ; it removes slavery, the ele- 

 ment which has so long perplexed and divided the 

 country ; it makes of us once more a united people, 

 renewed and strengthened, bound more than ever to 

 mutual affection and support. 



The amendment to the Constitution being adopted, 

 it would remain for the States, whose powers have 

 been so long in abeyance, to resume their places in 

 the two branches of the National Legislature, and 

 thereby complete the work of restoration. Here it is 

 for you, fellow-citizens of the Senate, and for you, 

 fellow-citizens of the House of Representatives, to 

 judge, each of you for yourselves, of the elections, 

 returns, and qualifications of your own members. 



The full assertion of the powers of the General Gov- 

 ernment, requires the holding of Circuit Courts of 

 the United States within the districts where their 

 authority has been interrupted. In the present posture 

 of our public affairs, strong objections have been 

 urged to holding those courts in any of the States 

 where the rebellion has existed ; and it was ascer- 

 tained, by inquiry, that the Circuit Court of the Uni- 

 ted States would not be held within the District of 

 Virginia during the autumn or early winter, nor until 

 Congress should have "an opportunity to consider 

 and act on the whole subject." To your deliberations 

 the restoration of this branch of the civil authority of 

 the United States is therefore necessarily referred, 

 with the hope that early provision will be made for the 

 resumption of all its functions. It is manifest that 

 treason, most flagrant in character, has been com- 

 mitted. Persons who are charged with its commis- 

 sion, should have fair and impartial trials in the 

 highest civil tribunals of the countrv, in order that 

 the Constitution and the laws may be fully vindicated ; 

 the truth clearly established and affirmed that treason 

 is a crime, that traitors should be punished and the 

 offence made infamous j and, at the same time, that 

 the question may be judicially settled, finally and 

 forever, that no State of its own will has the right to 

 renounce its place in the Union. 



The relations of the General Government toward 

 the four millions of inhabitants whom the war has 

 called into freedom, have engaged my most serious 

 consideration. On the propriety of attempting to make 

 the freedmen electors by the proclamation of the 

 Executive, I took for my counsel the Constitution 

 itself, the interpretations of that instrument by its 

 authors and their contemporaries, and recent legis- 

 lation by Congress. When, at the first movement 

 toward independence, the Congress of the United 

 States instructed the several States to institute gov- 

 ernments of their own, they left each State to decide 

 for itself, the conditions for the enjoyment of the elec- 

 tive franchise. During the period of the Confederacy, 

 there continued to exist a very great diversity in the 

 qualifications of electors in the several States ; and 

 even within a State, a distinction of qualifications 

 prevailed with regard to the officers who were to be 

 chosen. The Constitution of the United States rec- 

 ognizes these diversities when it enjoins that in the 

 choice of members of the House of Representatives 

 of the United States, "the electors in each State 

 shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of 

 the most numerous branch of the State Legislature." 



After the formation of the Constitution, it remained, 

 as before, the uniform usage for each State to enlarge 

 the body of its electors, according to its own judg- 

 ment ; and, under this system, one State after another 

 has proceeded to increase the number of its electors, 

 until now universal suffrage, or something very near 

 it, is the general rule. So fixed was this reservation 

 of power in the habits of the people, and so unques 

 tioned has been the interpretation of the Constitution, 

 that during the civil war the late President never 

 harbored the purpose certainly never avowed tho 

 purpose of disregarding it; and in the acts of Con- 



