748 



UNITED STATES. 



to the ordinances, individual conviction decides 

 whether baptism shall be observed according 

 to Baptist or Pedobaptist views, and whether 

 feet-washing shall or shall not be practised. A 

 general publishing house, three periodicals in 

 English, and one in German, advocate the sen- 

 timents of the denomination, and eight colleges 

 and seminaries receive its fostering care. Since 

 the organization of its General Missionary So- 

 ciety, in 1853, $18,379.96 have been expended 

 on its foreign mission (in Western Africa) ; 

 $127,667.75 on its frontier missions ; and $276,- 

 249.43 on its home missions (under the control 

 of self-sustaining conferences). By the foregoing 

 table it is seen that the denomination at present 

 numbers 35 annual conferences, with 789 itin- 

 erant prenchers, and 3,297 classes or societies. 

 It has 755 local preachers, and a membership 

 of 91,570 (an increase since the last report of 

 7,047), whose contributions toward all purposes 

 amounted, for the year, to $341,279.91 some- 

 thing less than four dollars each. With 1,173 

 houses of worship, it maintains 1,775 Sabbath- 

 schools. Of its five bishops, one Rev. J. J. 

 Glossbrenner resides in Augusta County, Va.; 

 and the conference which bears the name of the 

 State, numbers 3,164 members. But the great 

 body of its churches lie in the Northwest. 



UNTITED STATES. The disapprobation of 

 a portion of the people of the United States 

 with the measures adopted by the President 

 for the restoration of the Southern States to the 

 Union was not decisively expressed until the 

 meeting of Congress in December, 1865. One 

 of the first acts of a large majority in each 

 House was the appointment of a joint com- 

 mittee of fifteen, to which was referred all ques- 

 tions relating to the conditions and manner in 

 which Congress would recognize those States 

 as members of the Union. Meantime the cre- 

 dentials of all persons sent as Representatives 

 or Senators from them were laid upon the 

 table in each House, there to remain until the 

 final action of the Committee of Ffteen. (See 

 COXGEESS U. S.) This was followed by the 

 passage of an act, known as the " Civil Rights 

 Act,"- and another for the extension of the 

 "Freedmen's Bureau." Both these bills were 

 vetoed by President Johnson. (See PUBLIC 

 DOCUMENTS.) Upon their return to Congress 

 they were reconsidered and passed by the ma- 

 jority required by the Constitution to make 

 them laws of the United States. An examina- 

 tion of these acts, and the debates which took 

 place on their passage, will serve to show what 

 were the views then entertained by the ruling 

 majority in the Government, relative to the 

 people in the Southern States; while, on the 

 other hand, the veto messages present the opin- 

 ions of the Executive on these incidental issues. 

 The great issue of reconstruction was not yet 

 developed ; but enough was seen to make it 

 evident that the disagreement between the 

 Executive and Congress foreshadowed during 

 the previous year, now not only actually ex- 

 isted, but was likely to become wider and more 



irreconcilable. Meanwhile the relations of the 

 Southern States remained in abeyance. The 

 great number of propositions offered by individ- 

 ual members of Congress relative to the people 

 of the Southern States and their restoration to 

 the Union, may be seen in tlie preceding pages 

 of the debates. It should be stated that, in 

 addition to these, a proposition was offered by 

 Senator Stewart, of Nevada, which was after- 

 ward designated as the " Universal Suffrage 

 and General Amnesty Measure." It proposed 

 to receive into the Union, and admit to repre- 

 sentation in Congress each one of the Southern 

 States which should so amend its constitution 

 as 1. To do away with all existing distinc- 

 tions as to civil rights and disabilities among 

 the various classes of its population, by reason 

 either of race or color, or previous condition 

 of servitude. 2. To repudiate all pecuniary 

 indebtedness which said State may have here- 

 tofore contracted, incurred, or assumed, in con- 

 nection with the late war. 3. To yield all claim 

 to compensation on account of the liberation of 

 its slaves. 4. To provide for the extension of 

 the elective franchise to all persons upon the 

 same terms and conditions, making no discrim- 

 ination on account of race, color, or previous 

 condition of servitude : Provided, That those 

 who were qualified to vote in the year 1860 

 by the laws of the respective States, shall not 

 be disfranchised by reason of any new tests or 

 conditions which have been or may be pre- 

 scribed since that year. 



Upon the ratification of these conditions by 

 a majority of the voters of the State, a general 

 amnesty should be proclaimed in regard to all 

 persons in each State who were connected with 

 armed opposition to the Federal Government. 



The views of the Executive Department of 

 the Government on the state of the country had 

 not only been expressed in speeches during the 

 previous year, and in the message to Congress 

 assembled in December, 1865, but in a conver- 

 sation with Senator Dixon of Connecticut, on 

 January 28th, the President is reported to have 

 expressed the following views: 



The President said that he doubted the propriety 

 at this time of making further amendments to the 

 Constitution One great amendment had already 

 been made, by which slavery had forever been abol- 

 ished within the limits of the United States, and a 

 national guaranty thus given that the institution 

 should never exist in the land. Propositions to 

 amend the Constitution were becoming as numerous 

 as preambles and resolutions at town meetings called 

 to consider the most ordinary questions connected 

 with the administration of local affairs. All this, in 

 his opinion, had a tendency to diminish the dignity 

 and prestige attached to the Constitution of the coun- 

 try, and to lessen the respect and confidence of the 

 people in their great charter of freedom. If, how- 

 ever, amendments are to be made to the Constitu- 

 tion, changing the basis of representation and tax- 

 ation (and he did not deem them at all necessary at 

 the present time"), he knew of none better than a 

 simple proposition, embraced in a few lines, making 

 in each State the number of qualified voters the basia 

 of representation, and the value of property the basis 

 of direct taxation. Such a proposition could be em- 

 braced in the following terms : 



