PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



no Court hare entertained a different doctrine 

 cases. Tlii-t, in the judgment 

 I, is a clear mlttpprelieasion. ()m- of iho 

 th'.M) cases w, whether in such a con- 

 \\.IL;.', I fur tin- extinguishment of 

 Ipeliiin-rent rights, as between the 

 < .iMl other nations, belonged to the for* 

 propel ly held Ilia! they <liil, but the 

 :i flic rebellion were de>i;;nale<l us 

 -, mi. I li.ilil.' tu In' tried as traitors when the 

 . terminate. If the Confederate 

 ti.in_ became foreign 

 their eliaracter as States of the 

 t was an international one, 

 ason was no more committed by citizens of 

 .iguinst the latter than those of the latter 

 r. Treason necessarily assumes 

 nment, nnd allegiance neces- 

 sarily assumes a continuing obligation to the Govern- 

 : n-r predicament was true except upon 

 is that the old state of things continued : 

 in other words, that the Slutcs, notwithstanding the 

 ti'M!, were continuously and are now States 

 of the t niteil States, and their citizens responsible 

 to the Constitution and the laws. 



'ixlly. What is there, then, in the present 

 political condition of such States that justifies their 

 ion from representation in Congress? Is it 

 they arc without organized governments, 

 or without governments republican in point of 

 form ? In fact, we know that they have govern- 

 ments completely organized, with "legislative, ex- 

 ecutive, and judicial functions. We know that they 

 are now in successful operation. No one within 

 their limits questions their loyalty, or is denied 

 their protection. How they were formed, under 

 wh.it auspices they were formed, are inquiries with 

 which Congress has no concern. The right of the 

 people of a State to form a government for them- 

 has never been questioned. In the absence 

 of anv restriction, that right would be absolute; 

 any form might be adopted that they might, de- 

 termine upon. The Constitution imposes but a 

 single restriction, that the Government adopted 

 shall be "of a republican form," and this is done 

 in the obligation to guarantee every State such 

 a form. It gives no power to frame a constitution 

 for a State. It operates alone upon one already 

 formed by the State. In the words of the Fed- 

 (No. 44) " it supposes a preexisting gov- 

 ernment of the form which is to bo guaranteed." 

 It is not pretended that the existing governments 

 of the States in question are not of the required 

 form. The objection is that they were not legally 

 established. But it is confidently submitted that that 

 is a matter with which Congress has nothing to do. 

 The power to establish or modify a Stategovernment 

 s exclusively to the people or the State. 

 "When they shall exercise it ; what provision it shall 

 contain, it is their e .\elu-i ve rittht to decide, and 

 when decided, their decision is obligatory upon 

 everybody, and independent of all congressional 

 control, if such government be republican. To con- 

 vert an obligation of guaranty into an authority to 

 re in any wny in the formation of the govern- 

 ment to be guaranteed is to do violence to language. 

 If it is to be said that the President did Illegally inter- 

 fere in the reorganization of such governments, tin- 

 answers are obvious. First, If it were true, if the 

 people of such States not only have n<>t, but do not 

 complain of it, but, on the contrary, have pursued 

 his advice, and are satisfied with and are living under 



'Tnincnts they have adopted, and those gov- 

 ernments are republican in form, what right has 



>s to interfere or deny their legal existence? 

 Second. Conceding, for argument's sake, that the 



alleged interference was unauthorized, 



not, for the same reason, follow that any like 

 interference by Congress would le equally unauthor- 

 ized? A different view is not to be maintained, be- 



cause of the difference in the nature of the powers 

 conferred upon Congress and the President the one 

 and the other executive for it M 

 emially and upon the same ground beyond the scope 

 of either to form a government for the people of* 

 onco in the Union, or jp expel such a State 

 from the Union, or to deny temporarily or perma- 

 nently the rights which belong to a State and her 

 people under the Constitution. 



Congress may admit new States, but a State once 

 admitted ceases to be within its control, and can 

 never again be brought within it. What changes 

 her people may at any time think proper to make in 

 her constitution is a matter with which neither Con- 

 gress nor any department of the Government can 

 interfere, unless such changes make tin State gov- 

 ernment anti-republican, and then it can only be 

 done under the obligation to guarantee that it be re- 

 publican. Whatever may be the extent of the power 

 conferred 'upon Congress in the third section, article 

 4, of the Constitution, to admit new States, in what 

 manner and to what extent they can under that 

 power interfere in the formation and character of 

 the constitution of such States preliminary to ad- 

 mission into the Union, no one has ever pretended 

 that when that is had the State can again be brought 

 within its influence. The power is exhausted when 

 once extended, the subject forthwith rising put of its 

 reach. The States admitted, like the original thir- 

 teen States, become at once and forever independent 

 of congressional control. A different view would 

 change the entire character of the Government, as 

 its framers and their contemporaries designed and 

 understood it to be. They never intended to make 

 the State governments subordinate to the General 

 Government. Each was to move supreme within its 

 own orbit, but as each would not alone have met the 

 exigencies of a government adequate to all the wants 

 of the people, the two, in the language of Mr. Jeffer- 

 son, constituted "coordinate departments of one 

 single and integral whole, the one having the power 

 of legislation and the administration in affairs which 

 concerned their own citizens only," the other, " what- 

 ever concerned foreigners or citizens of other States." 

 Within their respective limits each is paramount. 

 The States as to all powers not delegated to the Gen- 

 eral Government are as independent of that govern- 

 ment as the latter in regard to all powers that are 

 delegated to it is independent of the governments of 

 the States. The proposition, then, that Congress 

 can, by force or otherwise, under the war, or insur- 

 rectionary or any other power, expel a State from 

 the Union, or reduce it to a territorial condition, and 

 govern it as such, is utterly without foundation. 

 The undersigned deem it unnecessary to examine 

 the question further. They leave it upon the ob- 

 servations submitted, considering it perfectly clear 

 that States, not withstanding occurring insurrections, 

 continue to be States of the Union. 



Thirdly. If this is so, it necessarily follows that 

 the rights of States under the Constitution, as ori- 

 ginally possessed and enjoyed by them, arc still 

 theirs, and those they are nowenjovingas far as they 

 depend upon the executive and judicial departments 

 of the Government. Bv each of these departments 

 they are recognized as States. By the one all the of- 

 ficers of the Government required by law to be ap- 

 pointed in such States have been appointed, and arc 

 discharging without question their respective func- 

 tions. Bv the other thev are, as States, enjoying 

 the benefits and subjected to the powers of that de- 

 partment, a fact conclusive to show that, in the e-ti- 

 mation of the judiciary, they are, as they were at 

 frst, States of the Union, bound by the laws of the 

 Union, and entitled to all the rights incident to that 

 relation. And yet, so far, they are denied that right 

 which the Constitution properly esteems as the se- 

 curity for all t^e others, that right without which 

 government is any thing but a republic is, indeed, 

 but a tyranny the right of having a voice in the 



