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PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Message of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States to the two Houses 

 at the commencement of the second session of 

 the Thirty-ninth Congress, December 3, 1866. 



Fellow- Citizens of the Senate and 



House of Representatives : 



After a brief interval the Congress of the United 

 States resumes its annual legislative labors. An all- 

 wise and merciful Providence has abated the pesti- 

 lence which visited our shores, leaving its calamitous 

 traces upon some portions of our country. Peace, 

 order, tranquillity, and civil authority have been for- 

 mally declared to exist throughout the whole of the 

 United States. In all the States civil authority has 

 superseded the coercion af arms, and the people, by 

 their voluntary action, are maintaining their govern- 

 ments in full activity and complete operation. The 

 enforcement of the laws is no longer " obstructed in 

 any State by combinations too powerful to be sup- 

 pressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceed- 

 ings ; " and the animosities engendered by the war 

 are rapidly yielding to the beneficent influences of 

 our free institutions, and to the kindly effects of un- 

 restricted social and commercial intercourse. An 

 entire restoration of fraternal feeling must be the 

 earnest wish of every patriotic heart ; and we will 

 accomplish our grandest national achievement when, 

 forgetting the sad events of the past, and remember- 

 ing only their instructive lessons, we resume our 

 onward career as a free, prosperous, and united 

 people. 



In my message of the 4th of December, 1865, Con- 

 gress was informed of the measures which had been 

 instituted by the Executive with a view to the grad- 

 ual restoration of the States in which the insurrec- 

 tion occurred to their relations with the General 

 Government. Provisional Governors had been ap- 

 pointed, conventions called, Governors elected, 

 Legislatures assembled, and Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives chosen to the Congress of the United 

 States. Courts had been opened for the enforce- 

 ment of laws long in abeyance. The blockade had 

 been removed, custom-houses reestablished, and the 

 internal revenue laws put in force, in order that the 

 people might contribute to the national income. 

 Postal operations had been renewed, and efforts 

 were being made to restore them to their former 

 condition of efficiency. The States themselves had 

 been asked to take part in the high function of 

 amending the Constitution, and of thus sanctioning 

 the extinction of African slavery as one of the legiti- 

 mate results of our internecine struggle. 



Having progressed thus far, the Executive Depart- 

 ment found that it had accomplished nearly all that 

 was within the scope of its constitutional authority. 

 One thing, however, yet remained to be done before 

 the work of restoration could be completed, and that 

 was the admission to Congress of loyal Senators and 

 Representatives from the States whose people had 

 rebelled against the lawful authority of the General 

 Government. This question devolved upon the re- 

 spective Houses, which, by the Constitution, are 

 made the judges of the elections, returns, aud quali- 

 fications of their own members ; and its consider- 

 ation at once engaged the attention of Congress. 



In the mean time, the Executive Department no 

 other plan having been proposed by Congress con- 

 tinued its efforts to perfect, as far as was practicable, 

 the restoration of the proper relations between the 

 citizens of the respective States, the States, and the 

 Federal Government, extending, from time to time, 

 as the public interests seemed to require, the judi- 

 cial, revenue, and postal systems of the country. 

 With the advice and consent of the Senate, the ne- 

 cessary officers were appointed, and appropriations 

 made by Congress for the payment of their salaries. 

 The proposition to amend the Federal Constitution, 

 BO as to prevent the existence of slavery within the 



United States or any place subject to their Jurisdio 

 tion, was ratified by the requisite number of States ; 

 and on the 18th day of December, 1865, it was offi- 

 cially declared to have become valid as a part of tha 

 Constitution of the United States. All of the States 

 in which the insurrection had existed promptly 

 amended their constitutions, so as to make them 

 conform to the great change thus effected in the 

 organic law of the land ; declared null and void all 

 ordinances and laws of secession ; repudiated all pre- 

 tended debts and obligations created for the revolu- 

 tionary purposes of the insurrection ; and proceeded, 

 in good faith, to the enactment of measures for the 

 protection and amelioration of the condition of the 

 colored race. Congress, however, yet hesitated to 

 admit any of these States to representation ; and it 

 was not until toward the close of the eighth month 

 of the session that an exception was made in favor 

 of Tennessee, by the admission of her Senators and 

 Representatives. 



I deem it a subject of profound regret that Con- 

 gress has thus far failed to admit to seats loyal Sen- 

 ators and Representatives from the other States, 

 whose inhabitants, with those of Tennessee, had en- 

 gaged in the rebellion. Ten States more than one- 

 fourth of the whole number remain without repre- 

 sentation ; the seats of fifty members in the House 

 of Representatives and of twenty members in the 

 Senate are yet vacant not by their own consent, 

 not by a failure of election, but by the refusal of 

 Congress to accept their credentials. Their admis- 

 sion, it is believed, would have accomplished much 

 toward the renewal and strengthening of our rela- 

 tions as one people, and removed serious cause for 

 discontent on the part of the inhabitants of those 

 States. It would have accorded with the great prin- 

 ciple enunciated in the Declaration of American In- 

 dependence, that no people ought to bear the burden, 

 of taxation, and yet be denied the right of repre- 

 sentation. It would have been in consonance with 

 the express provisions of the Constitution, that 

 " each State snail have at least one Representative," 

 and " that no State, without its consent, shall be de- 

 prived of its equal suffrage in the Senate." These 

 provisions were intended to secure to every State, 

 and to the people of every State, the right of repre- 

 sentation in each House of Congress ; and so im- 

 portant was it deemed by the framers of the Consti- 

 tution that the equality of the States in the Senate 

 should be preserved, that not even by an amendment 

 of the Constitution can any State, without its con- 

 sent, be denied a voice in that branch of the National 

 Legislature. 



It is true, it has been assumed that the existence 

 of the States was terminated by the rebellious acts 

 of their inhabitants, and that the insurrection hav- 

 ing been suppressed, they were thenceforward to be 

 considered merely as conquered territories. The 

 Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Departments 

 of the Government have, however, with great dis- 

 tinctness and uniform consistency, refused to sanc- 

 tion an assumption so incompatible with the nature 

 of our republican system, and with the professed 

 objects of the war. Throughout the recent legis- 

 lation of Congress the undeniable fact makes itself 

 apparent, that these ten political communities are 

 nothing less than States of this Union. At the very 

 commencement of the rebellion each House declared, 

 with a unanimity as remarkable as it was significant, 

 that the war was not "waged, on our part, in any 

 spirit of oppression, nor for anv purpose of conquest 

 or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or in- 

 terfering with the rights or established institutions 

 of those States, but to defend and maintain the su- 

 premacy of the Constitution and all laws made in 

 pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union with 

 all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several 

 States unimpaired; and that as soon as these ob- 

 jects" were "accomplished, the war ought to cease." 

 In some instances, Senators were permitted to con 



