G50 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



which shall prove satisfactory to the Government 

 against whom they rebelled and by whose arms they 

 were subdued. 



Fourth. Having by this treasonable withdrawal 

 from Congress, and by flagrant rebellion and war, for- 

 feited all civil and political rights and privileges un- 

 der the Federal Constitution, they can only be re- 

 stored thereto by the permission and authority of 

 that constitutional power by which they were sub- 

 dued. 



Fifth. Those rebellious enemies were conquered 

 by the people of the United States, acting through 

 the coordinate branches of the Government, and not 

 by the Executive Department alone. The powers of 

 the conqueror are not so vested in the President that 

 he can fix and regulate the terms of settlement and 

 confer congressional representation on conquered 

 traitors, nor can he in any way qualify enemies of the 

 Government to reverse 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 declared, and can only 

 be regarded as provisional permissions by the com- 

 mander-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 Ex- 

 ecutive power. 



Sixth. The question before Congress is, then, 

 whether conquered enemies have the right and shall 

 be permitted, at their own pleasure and own terms, 

 to participate in making laws for their conquerors ; 

 whether conquered rebels may change their theatre 

 of operations from the battle-field, where they were 

 defeated and overthrown, to the halls of Congress, 

 and their representatives seize upon the Government 

 which they fought to destroy ; whether the national 

 treasury, the armv 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's institutions may demand. 



Seventh. The history of mankind exhibits no ex- 

 ample of such madness and folly. The instinct of 

 self-preservation protests against it. The surrender 

 by Gen. Grant to Lee, and by Sherman to Johnston, 

 would have been disasters of less magnitude, for new 

 armies could have been raised, battles fought, and 

 the Government saved. The anti-coercive policy, 

 which, under pretext of avoiding bloodshed, allowed 

 the rebellion to take form and gather force, would be 

 surpassed in infamy by the matchless wickedness 

 that would surrender the halls of Congress to those 

 so recently in rebellion, until proper precautions 

 shall have been taken to secure the national faith and 

 the national safety. 



Eighth. As has been shown in this report and in 

 the evidence submitted, no proof has been afforded 

 to Congress cf a constituency in any one of the so- 

 called Confederate States, unless we except the State 

 of Tennessee, qualified to elect Senators and Rep- 

 resentatives in Congress. No State constitution or 

 amendment to a State constitution has had the sanc- 

 tion of the people. All the so-called legislation of 

 State conventions and Legislatures has been had 

 under military dictation. If the President may at 

 his will and under his own authority, whether as 

 military commander or chief executive, qualify per- 

 sons to appoint Senators and elect Representatives 

 and empower others to elect and appoint 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 

 sommittee do not for a moment impute to the Pres- 



ident any such design, but cheerfully concede to liinc 

 the most patriotic motives, they cannot but look with 

 alarm upon a precedent so fraught with danger tc 

 the Republic. 



Ninth. The necessity of providing adequate safe- 

 guards for the future before restoring the insurrec- 

 tionary 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 wit- 

 nesses and undisputed facts. 



Tenth. The conclusion of your committee, there- 

 fore, is that the so-called Confederate Statfes are not 

 at present entitled to representation in the Congress 

 of the United States ; that before allowing such rep- 

 resentation, adequate security for future peace and 

 safety should be required ; that this can only be 

 founcl in such change of the organic law as shall de- 

 termine 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 further claims 

 for the expenses incurred in support of rebellion and 

 for manumitted slaves, together with an express 

 grant to Congress to enforce these provisions. To 

 this end they offer a joint resolution for amending 

 the Constitution and the two several bills designed to 

 carry the same into effect before referred to. 



Before closing this report, your committee beg 

 leave to state that the specific recommendations sub- 

 mitted by them are the result of mutual concession, 

 after a long and careful comparison of conflicting 

 opinions. Upon a question of such magnitude, in- 

 finitely important as it is to the future of the Repub- 

 lic, it was not to be expected that all should think 

 alike. Sensible of the imperfections of the scheme, 

 your committee submit it to Congress as the best 

 they could agree upon, in the hope that its imperfec- 

 tions may be cured and its deficiencies supplied by 

 legislative wisdom, and that, when finally adopted, it 

 may tend to restore peace and harmony to the whole 

 country, and to place our republican institutions on 

 a more stable foundation. 



Minority Report of the Joint Committee in 

 Congress on Reconstruction, made June 8, 

 1866. 



The undersigned, a minority of the joint commit- 

 tee of the Senate and House of Representatives, con- 

 stituted under the concurrent resolution of the 13th 

 of December, 1865, making it their duty to " inquire 

 into the condition of the States which formed the so- 

 called Confederate States of America, and to report 

 whether they or any of them are entitled to be repre- 

 sented in either House of Congress, with leave to re- 

 port by bill or otherwise," not being able to concur 

 in the measures recommended by the majority, or in 

 the grounds upon which they base them, beg leave 

 to report : 



In order to obtain a correct apprehension of the 

 subject, and as having a direct bearing upon it, the 

 undersigned think it all-important clearly to* ascer- 

 tain what was the effect of the late insurrection upon 

 the relations of the States where it prevailed to the 

 General Government, and of the people collectively 

 and individually of such States. To this inquiry 

 they therefore first address themselves. 



First as to the States. Did the insurrection at its 

 commencement, or at any subsequent time, legally 

 dissolve the connection between those States and 

 the General Government? 



In our judgment, so far from this being a "profit- 

 less abstraction," it is a vital inquiry. For if that 

 connection was not disturbed, such States during 

 the entire rebellion were as completely component 

 States of the United States as they were before the 

 rebellion, and were bound by aU the obligations 



