BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
REPRINTED BY ORDER OF THE UNION STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, August 9th, 1866. ALFRED BARSTOW, Secretary. 
 
 V.BWARY 
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 JOINT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The Joint Committee of the two Houses of Congress appointed under the con- 
 current resolution of December 13, 1865, with direction "to inquire into the 
 condition of the States which formed the so-called Confederate States of 
 America, and report whether they or any of them are entitled to he represented 
 in either House of Congress, with leave to report by bill orotherwise" ask leave 
 to report: 
 
 That they have attended to the duty assigned them as assiduously as other 
 duties would permit, and now submit to Congress, as the result of their delibera- 
 tions, a resolution proposing amendments to the Constitution, and two bills, of 
 which they recommend the adoption. 
 
 Before proceeding to set forth in detail their reasons for the conclusion to 
 which, after great deliberation, your committee have arrived, they beg .leave to 
 advert, briefly, to the course of proceedings they found it necessary to adopt, 
 and to explain the reasons therefor. 
 
 The resolution under which your committee was appointed directed them to 
 inquire into the condition of the Confederate . States, and report whether they 
 were entitled to representation in Congress. It is obvious that such an investi- 
 gation, covering so large an extent of territory and involving so many important 
 considerations, must necessarily require no trifling labor, and consume a very 
 considerable amount of time. It must embrace the condition in which those 
 States were left at the close of the war ; the measures which have been taken 
 towards the reorganization of civil government, and the disposition of the people 
 towards the United States ; in a word, their fitness to take an active part in the 
 administration of national affairs. 
 
 As to their condition at the close of the rebellion, the evidence is open to 
 all and admits of no dispute. They were in a state of utter exhaustion. 
 Having protracted their struggle against federal authority until all hope of 
 successful resistance had ceased, and laid down their arms only because 
 there was no longer any power to use them, the people of those States were 
 left bankrupt in their public finances, and shorn of the private wealth which 
 had before given them power and influence. They were also necessarily in 
 a state of complete anarchy, without governments and without the power to 
 frame governments except by the permission of those who had been successful 
 in the war. The President of. the United States, in the proclamations under 
 which he appointed Provisional Governors, and in his various communications to 
 them, has, in exact terms, recognized the fact that the people of those States 
 were, when the rebellion was crushed, " deprived of all civil government," and 
 must proceed to organize anew. In his conversation with Mr. Stearns, of Mas- 
 sachusetts, certified by himself, President Johnson said, " the State institutions 
 are prostrated, laid out on the ground, and they must be taken up and adapted 
 
 x 
 
2 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 to the progress of events." Finding the Southern States in this condition, and 
 Congress having failed to provide for the contingency, his duty was obvious. 
 As President of the United States, <hejigd no .power, except to execute the laws 
 of the land as Chief Magistrate. 'TOest; *la\v? gave him no authority over the 
 subject of reorganization, but by the Constitution he was commander-in-chief of 
 the army and navy of the United States. The Confederate States embraced 
 a portion of the people of the Union who had been in a state of revolt, but had 
 been reduced to obedience^ by force of arms. They were in an abnormal condi- 
 tion, without civil government, without commercial connections, without national 
 or international relations, and subject only to martial law. By withdrawing 
 their representatives in Congress, by renouncing the privilege of represenation, 
 by organizing a separate government, and by levying war against the United 
 States, they destroyed their State Constitutions in respect to the vital principle 
 which connected their respective States with the Union and secured their fed- 
 eral relations ; and nothing of those constitutions was left of which the United 
 States were bound to take notice. For four years they had a de facto govern- 
 ment, but it was usurped, and illegal. They chose the tribunal of arms wherein 
 to decide whether or not it should be legalized, and they were defeated. At the 
 close of the rebellion, therefore, the people of the rebellious States were found, 
 as the President expresses it, "deprived of all civil government." 
 
 Under this state of affairs, it was plainly the duty of the President to enforce 
 existing national laws, and to establish, as far as he could, such a system of 
 government as might be provided for by existing national statutes. As com- 
 mander-in-chief of a victorious army, it was his duty, under the law of nations 
 and the army regulations, to restore order, to preserve property, and to protect 
 the people against violence from any quarter until provision should be made by 
 law for their government. He might, as President, assemble Congress, and 
 submit the whole matter to the law-making power ; or he might continue military 
 supervision and control until Congress should assemble on its regular appointed 
 day. Selecting the latter alternative, he proceeded, by virtue of his power as 
 commander-in-chief, to appoint Provisional Governors over the revolted States. 
 These were regularly commissioned, and their compensation was paid, as the 
 Secretary of War States, " from the appropriation for army contingencies, because 
 the duties performed by the parties were regarded as of a temporary character, 
 auxiliary to the withdrawal of military force, the disbandment of armies, and 
 the reduction of military expenditure, by provisional organizations for the pro- 
 tection of civil rights, the preservation of peace, and to take the place of 
 armed force in the respective States." It cannot, we think, be contended that 
 these governors possessed, or could exercise, any but military authority. They 
 had no power to organize civil governments, nor to exercise any authority 
 except that which inhered in their own persons under their commissions. Neither 
 had the President, as commander-in-chief, any other than military power. 
 But he was in exclusive possession of the military authority. It, was for him 
 to decide how far he would exercise it, how far he would relax it, when and on 
 what terms he would withdraw it. He might properly permit the people to as- 
 semble, and to initiate local governments, and to execute such local laws as they 
 might choose to frame not inconsistent with, nor in opposition to, the laws of 
 the United States. And, if satisfied that they might safely be left to them- 
 selves, he might withdraw the military forces altogether, and leave the people 
 of any or all of these States to govern themselves without his interference. In 
 the language of the Secretary of State, in his telegram to the Provisional Gov- 
 ernor of Georgia, dated October 28, 1865, he might '^recognize the people of 
 any State as having resumed the relations of loyalty to the Union," and act in his 
 military capacity on this hypothesis. All this was within his own discretion, as 
 military commander. But it was not for him to decide upon the nature or effect 
 of any system of government which the people of these States might see fit to adopt. 
 
REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE. 3 
 
 This power is lodged by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, 
 that branch of the government in which is vested the authority to fix the 
 political relations of the States to the Union, whose duty it is to guarantee to 
 each State a republican form of government, and to protect each and all of them 
 against foreign or domestic violence, and against each other. We cannot, there- 
 fore, regard the various acts of the President in relation to the formation of 
 local governments in the insurrectionary States, and the conditions imposed by 
 him upon their action, in any other light than as intimations to the people that, 
 as commander-in-chief of the army he would consent to withdraw military rule 
 just in proportion as they should, by their acts, manifest a disposition to pre- 
 serve order among themselves, establish governments denoting loyalty to the 
 Union, and exhibit a settled determination to return to their allegiance, leaving 
 with the law-making power to fix the terms of their final restoration to all their 
 rights and privileges as States of the Union. That this was the view of his 
 power taken by the President is evident from expressions to that effect in the 
 communications of the Secretary of State to the various Provisional Governors, 
 and the repeated declarations of the President himself: Any other supposition 
 inconsistent with this would impute to the President designs of encroachment 
 upon a co-ordinate branch of the government, which should not be lightly attrib- 
 uted to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. 
 
 When Congress assembled in December last the people of most of the States 
 lately in rebellion had, under the advice of the President, organized local govern- 
 ments, and some of them had acceded to the terms proposed by him. In his 
 annual message he stated, in general terms, what had been done, but he did not 
 see fit to communicate the details for the information of Congress. While in 
 this and in a subsequent message the President urged the speedy restoration 
 of these States, and expressed the opinion that their condition was such as to 
 justify their restoration, yet it is quite obvious that Congress must either have 
 acted blindly on that opinion of the President, or proceeded to obtain the inform- 
 ation requisite for intelligent action on the subject. The impropriety of pro- 
 ceeding wholly on the judgment of any one man, however exalted his station, 
 in a matter involving the welfare of the republic in all future time, or of adopt- 
 ing any plan, coming from any source, without fully understanding all its bear- 
 ings and comprehending its full effect, was apparent. The first step, therefore* 
 was to obtain the required information. A call was accordingly made on the 
 President for the information in his possession as to what had been done, in 
 order that Congress might judge for itself as to the grounds of the belief ex- 
 pressed by him in the fitness of States recently in rebellion to participate fully 
 in the conduct of national affairs. This information was not immediately com- 
 municated. When the response was finally made, some six weeks after your 
 committee had been in actual session, it was found that the evidence upon which 
 the President seemed to have based his suggestions was incomplete and unsatis- 
 factory. Authenticated copies of the new constitutions and ordinances adopted 
 by the conventions in three of the States had been submitted, extracts from 
 newspapers furnished scanty information as to the action of one other State, and 
 nothing appears to have been communicated as to the remainder. There was 
 no evidence of the loyalty of those who had participated in these conventions, 
 and in one State alone was any proposition made to submit the action of the con- 
 ventions to the final judgment of the people. 
 
 Failing to obtain the desired information, and left to grope for light wherever 
 it might be found, your committee did not deem it either advisable or safe to 
 adopt, without further examination, the suggestions of the President, more 
 especially as he. had not deemed it expedient to remove the military force, 
 to suspend martial law, or to restore the writ of habeas corpus, but still 
 thought it necessary to exercise over the people of the rebellious States 
 his military power and jurisdiction. This conclusion derived still greater 
 
4: RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 force from the fact, undisputed, that in all these States, except Tennessee 
 and perhaps Arkansas, the elections which were held for State officers and 
 members of Congress had resulted, almost universally, in the defeat of candi- 
 dates who had been true to the Union, and in the election of notorious and un- 
 pardoned rebels, men who could not take the prescribed oath of office, and who 
 made no secret of their hostility to the government and the people of the United 
 States. Under these circumstances, anything like hasty action would have been 
 as dangerous as it was obviously unwise. It appeared to your committee that 
 but one course remained, viz : to investigate carefully and thoroughly the state 
 of feeling and opinion existing among the people of these States ; to ascertain 
 how far their pretended loyalty could be relied upon, and thence to infer whether 
 it would be safe to admit them at once to a full participation in the government 
 they had fought for four years to destroy. It was an equally important inquiry 
 whether their restoration to their former relations with the United States should 
 only be granted upon certain conditions and guarantees which would effectually 
 secure the nation against a recurrence of evils so disastrous as those from which 
 it. had escaped at so enormous a sacrifice. 
 
 To obtain the necessary information, recourse could only be had to the exam- 
 ination of witnesses whose position had given them the best means of forming 
 an accurate judgment, who could state facts from their own observation, and 
 whose character and standing afforded the best evidence of their truthfulness 
 and impartiality. A work like this, covering so large an extent of territory, 
 and embracing such complicated and extensive inquiries, necessarily required 
 much time and labor. To shorten the time as much as possible, the work was 
 divided and. placed in the hands of four sub-committees, who have been dili- 
 gently employed in its accomplishment. The results of their labors have been 
 heretofore submitted, and the country will judge how far they sustain the Presi- 
 dent's views, and how far they justify the conclusions to which your committee 
 have finally arrived. 
 
 A claim for the immediate admission of senators and representatives from the 
 so-called Confederate States, has been urged, which seems to your committee not 
 to be founded either in reason or in law, and which cannot be passed without 
 comment. Stated in a few words, it amounts to this : That inasmuch as the 
 lately insurgent States had no legal right to separate themselves from the Union, 
 they still retain their positions as States, and consequently the people thereof 
 have a right to immediate representation in Congress without the imposition of 
 any conditions whatever ; and further, that until such admission Congress has 
 no right to tax them for the support of the government. It has even been con- 
 tended that until such admission all legislation affecting their interests is, if not 
 unconstitutional, at least unjustifiable and oppressive. 
 
 It is believed by your committee that all these propositions are not only 
 wholly untenable, but, if admitted, would tend to the destruction of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the people of these Stetes, without justification 
 or excuse, rose in insurrection against the United States. They deliberately 
 abolished their State governments so far as the same connected them politically 
 with the Union as members thereof under the Constitution. They deliberately 
 renounced their allegiance to the federal government, and proceeded to establish 
 an independent government for themselves. In the prosecution of this enter- 
 prise they seized the national forts, arsenals, dock-yards-, and other public prop- 
 erty within their borders, drove out from among them those who remained true 
 to the Union, and heaped every imaginable insult and injury upon the United 
 States and its citizens. Finally, they opened hostilities, and levied war against 
 the government. They continued this war for four years with the most deter- 
 mined and malignant spirit, killing in battle, and otherwise, large numbers of 
 loyal people, destroying the property of loyal citizens on the sea and on the 
 
REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE. 5 
 
 land, and entailing on the government an enormous debt, incurred .to sustain its 
 rightful authority. Whether legally and constitutionally or not, they did, in 
 fact, withdraw from the Union and made themselves subjects of another govern- 
 ment of their own creation. And they only yielded when, after a long, bloody, 
 and wasting war, they were compelled by utter exhaustion to lay down their 
 arms ; and this they did, not willingly, but declaring that they yielded because 
 they could no longer resist, affording no evidence whatever of repentance for 
 their crime, and expressing no regret, except that they had no longer the power 
 to continue the desperate struggle. 
 
 It cannot, we think, be denied by any one having a tolerable acquaintance 
 with public law, that the war thus waged was a civil war of the greatest 
 magnitude. The people waging it were necessarily subject to all the rules 
 which, by the law of nations, control a contest of that character, and to all the 
 legitimate consequences following it. One of those consequences was that, 
 within the limits prescribed by humanity, the conquered rebels were at the mercy 
 of the conquerers. That a government thus outraged had a most perfect right 
 to exact indemnity for the injuries done, and security against the recurrence of 
 such outrages in the future, would seem too clear for dispute. What the nature 
 of that security should be, what proof should be required of a return to allegi- 
 ance, what time should elapse before a people thus demoralized should be re- 
 stored in full to the enjoyment of political rights and privileges, are questions 
 for the law-making power to decide, and that decision must depend on grave 
 considerations of the public safety and the general welfare. 
 
 It is moreover contended,, and with apparent gravity, that, from the peculiar 
 nature and character of our government, no such right on the part of the 
 conquerer can exist ; that from the moment when rebellion lays down its arms 
 and actual hostilities cease, all political rights of rebellious communities are at 
 once restored ; that, because the people of a State of the Union were once an or- 
 ganized community within the Union, they necessarily so remain, and their right 
 to be represented in Congress at any and all times, and to participate in the gov- 
 ernment of the country under all circumstances, admits of neither question nor 
 dispute. If this is indeed true, then is the government of the United States 
 powerless for its own protection, and flagrant rebellion, carried to the extreme 
 of civil war, is a pastime which any State may play at, not only certain that it 
 can lose nothing in any event, but may even be the gainer by defeat. If re- 
 bellion succeeds, it accomplishes its purpose and destroys the government. If 
 it fails, the war has been Darren of results, and the battle may be still fought out 
 in the legislative halls of the country. Treason, defeated in the field, has only 
 to take possession of Congress and the cabinet. 
 
 Your committee do not deem it either necessary or proper to discuss the ques- 
 tion whether the late Confederate States are still States of this Union, or can ever 
 be otherwise. Granting this profitless abstraction about which so many words 
 have been wasted, it by no means follows that the people of those States may 
 not place themselves in a condition to abrogate the powers and privileges inci- 
 dent to a State of the Union, and deprive themselves of all pretence of right to 
 exercise those powers and enjoy those privileges. A State within the Union has 
 obligations to discharge as a member of the Union. It must submit to federal 
 laws and uphold federal authority. It must have a government republican in 
 form, under and by which it is connected with the general government, and 
 through which it can discharge its obligations. It is more than idle, it is a 
 mockery to contend that a people who have thrown off their allegiance, destroyed 
 the local government which bound their States to the Union as members thereof, 
 defied its authority, refused to execute its laws, and abrogated every provision 
 which gave them political rights within the Union, still retain, through all, the 
 perfect and entire right to resume at their own will and pleasure, all their priv- 
 ileges within the Union, and especially to participate in its government, and to 
 
6 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 control the conduct of its affairs. To admit such a principle for one moment 
 would be to declare that treason is always master and loyalty a blunder. Such 
 a principle is void by its very nature and essence, because inconsistent with the 
 theory of government, and fatal to its very existence. 
 
 On the contrary, we assert, that no portion of the people of this country, 
 whether in State or Territory, have the right, while remaining on its soil, to 
 withdraw from or Deject the authority of the United States. They must obey 
 its laws as paramount, and acknowledge its jurisdiction. They have no right 
 to secede ; and while they can destroy their State governments, and place them- 
 selves beyond the pale of the Union, so far as the exercise of State privileges 
 is concerned, they cannot escape the obligations imposed upon them by the 
 Constitution and the laws, nor impair the exercise of national authority. The 
 Constitution, it will be observed, does not act upon States, as such, but upon 
 the people ; while, therefore, the people cannot escape its authority, the States 
 may, through the act of their people, cease to exist in an organized form, and 
 thus dissolve their political relations with the United States. 
 
 That taxation should be only with the consent of the taxed, through their own 
 representatives, is a cardinal principle of all free governments ; but it is not 
 .true that taxation and representation must go together under all circumstances, 
 And at every moment of time. The people of the District of Columbia and of 
 the Territories are taxed, although not represented in Congress. If it is true 
 that the people of the so-called Confederate States had no right to throw off the 
 authority of the United States, it is equally true that they are bound at all times 
 to share the burdens of government. They cannot, either legally or equitably, 
 refuse to bear their just proportion of these burdens by voluntarily abdicating 
 their rights and privileges as States of the Union, and refusing to be represented 
 in the councils of the nation, much less by rebellion against national authority 
 and levying war. To hold that by so doing they could escape taxation would 
 be to offer a premium for insurrection to reward instead of punishing treason. 
 To hold that as soon as government is restored to its full authority it can be 
 allowed no time to secure itself against similar wrongs in the future, or else omit 
 the ordinary exercise of its constitutional power to compel equal contribution 
 from all, towards the expenses of government, would be unreasonable in itself, 
 and unjust to the nation. It is sufficient to reply that the loss of representation 
 by the people of the insurrectionary States was their own voluntary choice. 
 They might abandon their privileges, but they could not escape their obligations ; 
 and surely they have no right to complain if, before resuming those privileges, 
 and while the people of the United States are devising measures for the public 
 safety, rendered necessary by the acts of those who thus disfranchised themselves, 
 they are compelled to contribute their just proportion of the general burden of 
 taxation incurred by their wickedness and folly. 
 
 Equally absurd is the pretence that the legislative authority of the nation 
 must be inoperative so far as they are concerned, while they, by their own act, 
 have lost the right to take part in it. Such a proposition carries its own refuta- 
 tion on its face. 
 
 While thus exposing fallacies which, as your committee believe, are resorted 
 to for the purpose of misleading the people and distracting their attention from 
 the questions at issue, we freely admit that such a condition of things should be 
 brought, if possible, to a speedy termination. It is most desirable that the Union 
 of all the States should become perfect at the earliest moment consistent with 
 the peace and welfare of the nation ; that all these States should become fully 
 represented in the national councils, and take their share in the legislation of 
 the country. The possession and exercise of more than its just share of power 
 by any section is injurious, as well to that section as to all others. Its tendency 
 is distracting and demoralizing, and such a state of affairs is only to be tolerated 
 on the ground of a necessary regard to the public safety. As soon as that safety 
 is secured it should terminate. 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 7 
 
 Your committee came to the consideration of the subject referred to them with 
 the most anxious desire to ascertain what was the condition of the people of the 
 States recently in insurrection, and what, if anything, was necessary to be done 
 before restoring them to the full enjoyment of all their original privileges. It 
 was undeniable that the war into which they had plunged the country had 
 materially changed their relations to the people of the loyal States. Slavery 
 had been abolished by constitutional amendment. A large proportion of the 
 population had become, instead of mere chattels, free men and citizens. Through 
 all the past struggle these had remained true and loyal, and had, in large num- 
 bers, fought on the side of the Union. It was impossible to abandon them, with- 
 out securing them their rights as free men and citizens. The whole civilized 
 world would have cried out against such base ingratitude, and the bare idea is 
 offensive to all right-thinking men. Hence it became important to inquire what 
 could be done to secure their rights, civil and political. It was evident to your 
 committee that adequate security could only be found in appropriate constitu- 
 tional provisions. By an original provision of the Constitution, representation 
 is based on the whole number of free persons in each State, and three-fifths of 
 all other persons. When all become free, representation for all necessarily 
 follows. As a consequence, the inevitable effect of the rebellion would be to 
 increase the political power of the insurrectionary States, whenever they should 
 be allowed to resume their positions as States of the Union. As representation 
 is by the Constitution based upon population, your committee did not think it ad- 
 visable to recommend a change of that basis. The increase of representation 
 necessarily resulting from the abolition of slavery was considered the most im- 
 portant element in the questions arising out of the changed condition of affairs, 
 and the necessity for some fundamental action in this regard seemed imperative. 
 It appeared to your committee that the rights of these persons by whom the 
 basis of representation had been thus increased should be recognized by the 
 general government. While slaves they were not considered as having any 
 rights, civil or political. It did not seem just or proper that all the political 
 advantages derived from their becoming free should be confined to their former 
 masters, who had fought against the Union, and withheld from themselves who 
 had always been loyal. Slavery, by building up a ruling and dominant class, 
 had produced a spirit of oligarchy adverse to republican institutions, which finally 
 inaugurated civil war. The tendency of continuing the domination of such a class, 
 by leaving it in the exclusive possession of political power, would be to encourage 
 the same spirit, and lead to a similar result. Doubts were entertained whether 
 Congress had power, even under the amended Constitution, to prescribe the 
 qualifications of voters in a State, or could act directly on the subject. It was 
 doubtful, in the opinion of your committee, whether the States would consent to 
 surrender a power they had always exercised, and to which they were attached. 
 As the best if not the only method of surmounting the difficulty, and as eminently 
 just and proper in itself, your committee came to the conclusion that political power 
 should be possessed in all the States exactly in proportion as the right of suffrage 
 should be granted without distinction of color or race. This it was thought 
 would leave the whole question with the people of each State, holding out to all 
 the advantange of increased political power as an inducement to allow all to 
 participate in its exercise. Such a provision would be in its nature gentle and 
 persuasive, and would lead, it was hoped, at no distant day, to an equal partici- 
 pation of all, without distinction, in all the rights and privileges of citizenship, 
 thus affording a full and adequate protection to all classes of citizens, since all 
 would have, through the ballot-box, the power of self-protection. 
 
 Holding these views, your committee prepared an amendment to the Consti- 
 tution to carry out this idea, and submitted the same to Congress. Unfortu- 
 nately, as we think, it did not receive the necessary constitutional support in 
 the Senate, and therefore could not be proposed for adoption by the States. 
 
8 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The principle involved in that amendment is, however, believed to be sound, 
 and jour committee have again proposed it in another form, hoping that it may 
 receive the approbation of Congress. 
 
 Your committee have been unable to find, in the evidence submitted to Con- 
 gress by the President, under date of March 6, 1866, in compliance with the 
 resolutions of January 5 and February 27, 1866, any satisfactory proof that 
 either of the insurrectionary States, except, perhaps, the State of Tennessee, 
 has placed itself in a condition to resume its political relations to the Union. 
 The first step toward that end would necessarily be the establishment of a re- 
 publican form of government by the people. It has been before remarked that 
 the Provisional Governors, appointed by the President in the exercise of his 
 military authority, could do nothing by virtue of the power thus conferred 
 towards the establishment of a State government. They were acting under 
 the War Department and paid out of its funds. They were simply bridging 
 over the chasm between rebellion and . restoration. And yet we find them 
 calling conventions and convening legislatures. Not only this, but we find 
 the conventions and legislatures thus convened acting under executive di- 
 rection as to the provisions required to be adopted in their constitutions and 
 ordinances as conditions precedent to their recognition by the President. The 
 inducement held out by the President for compliance with the conditions im- 
 posed was, directly in one instance, and presumably, therefore, in others, the 
 immediate admission of senators and representatives to Congress. The char- 
 acter of the conventions and legislatures thus assembled was not such as to in- 
 spire confidence in the good faith of their members. Governor Perry, of South 
 Carolina, dissolved the convention assembled in that State before the sugges- 
 tion had reached Columbia from Washington that the rebel war debt should be 
 repudiated, and gave as his reason that it was a " revolutionary body." There 
 is no evidence of the loyalty or disloyalty of the members of those conventions 
 and legislatures except the fact of pardons being asked for on their account. 
 Some of these States now claiming representation refused to adopt the condi- 
 tions imposed. No reliable information is found in these papers as to the con- 
 stitutional provisions of several of these States, while in not one of them is there 
 the slightest evidence to show that these " amended constitutions," as they are 
 called, have ever been submitted to the people for their adoption. In North 
 Carolina alone an ordinance was passed to that effect, but it does not appear to 
 have been acted on. Not one of them, therefore, has been ratified. Whether, 
 with President Johnson, we adopt the theory that the old constitutions were ab- 
 rogated and destroyed, and the people "deprived of all civil government," or 
 whether we adopt the alternative doctrine that they were only suspended and 
 were revived by the suppression of the rebellion, the new provisions must be 
 considered as equally destitute of validity before adoption by the people. If 
 the conventions were called for the sole purpose of putting the State govern- 
 ment into operation, they had no power either to adopt a new constitution or to 
 amend an old one without the consent of the people. Nor could either a con- 
 vention or a legislature change the fundamental law without power previously 
 conferred. In the view of your committee, it follows, therefore, that the people 
 of a State where the constitution has been thus amended might feel themselves 
 justified in repudiating altogether all such unauthorized assumptions of power, 
 and might be expected to do so at pleasure. 
 
 So far as the disposition of the people of the insurrectionary States, and the 
 probability of their adopting measures conforming to the changed condition of 
 affairs, can be inferred from. the papers submitted by the President as the basis 
 of his action, the prospects are far from encouraging. It appears quite clear that 
 the anti-slavery amendments, both to the State and Federal constitutions, were 
 adopted with reluctance by the bodies which did adopt them, while in some States 
 they have been either passed by in silence or rejected. The language of all the 
 
REPORT OP THE COMMITTEE. 9 
 
 provisions and ordinances of these States on the subject amounts to nothing 
 more than an unwilling admission of an unwelcome truth. As to the ordinance 
 of secession, it is, in some cases, declared "null and void," and in others simply 
 " repealed ;" and in no instance is a refutation of this deadly heresy considered 
 worthy of a place in the new constitution. 
 
 If, as the President assumes, these insurrectionary States were, at the close 
 of the war, wholly without State governments, it would seem that, before being 
 admitted to participation in the direction of public affairs, such governments 
 should be regularly organized. Long usage has established, and numerous 
 statutes have pointed out, the mode in which this should be done. A conven- 
 tion to frame a form of government should be assembled under competent 
 authority. Ordinarily, this authority emanates from Congress ; but, under the 
 peculiar circumstances, your committee is not disposed to. criticise the Presi- 
 dent's action in assuming the power exercised by him in this regard. The con- 
 vention, when assembled, should frame a constitution of government, which 
 should be submitted to the people for adoption. If adopted, a legislature should 
 be convened to pass the laws necessary to carry it into effect. When a State, 
 thus organized, claims representation in Congress, the election of representa- 
 tives should be provided for by law, in accordance with the laws of Congress 
 regulating representation, and the proof that the action taken has been in con- 
 formity to law should be submitted to Congress. 
 
 In no case have the^e essential preliminary steps been taken. The conven- 
 tions assembled seem to have assumed that the constitutions which had been 
 repudiated and overthrown were still in existence, and operative to constitute 
 the States members of the Union, and to have contented themselves with such 
 amendments as they were informed were requisite in order to insure their return 
 to an immediate participation in the Government of the tlnited States. Not 
 waiting to ascertain whether the people they represented would adopt even the 
 proposed amendments, they at once ordered elections of representatives to 
 Congress, in nearly all instances before an executive had been chosen to issue 
 writs of election under the State laws, and such elections as were held were 
 ordered by the conventions. In one instance at least the writs of election were 
 signed by the Provisional governor. Glaring irregularities, and unwarranted 
 assumptions of power, are manifest in several cases, particularly in South Caro- 
 lina, where the convention, although disbanded by the Provisional Governor on 
 the ground that it was a revolutionary body, assumed to redistrict the State. 
 
 It is quite evident from all these facts, and indeed from the whole mass of 
 testimony submitted by the President to the Senate, that in no instance was re- 
 gard paid to any other consideration than obtaining immediate admission to 
 Congress, under the barren form of an election in which no precautions were 
 taken to secure regularity of proceedings, or the assent of the people. No con- 
 stitution has been legally adopted except, perhaps, in the State of Tennessee, 
 and such elections as have been held were without authority of law. Your 
 committee are accordingly forced to the conclusion that the States referred to 
 have not placed themselves in a condition to claim representation in Congress, 
 unless all the rules which have, since the foundation of the government been 
 deemed essential in such cases, should be disregarded. MfMCHcrr LJ*ARY 
 
 It would undoubtedly be competent for Congress to waive aTTIormalities and 
 to admit these Confederate States to representation at once, trusting that time 
 and experience would set all things right. Whether it would be advisable to 
 do so, however, must depend upon other considerations of which it remains to 
 treat. But it may well be observed, that the inducements to such a step should 
 be of the very highest character. It seems to your committee not unreasonable 
 to require satisfactory evidence that the ordinances and constitutional provisions 
 which the President deemed essential in the first instance will be permanently 
 adhered to by the people of the States seeking restoration, after being admitted 
 
10 KECONSTKUCTION. 
 
 to full participation in the government, and will not be repudiated when that 
 object shall have been accomplished. And here the burden of proof rests upon 
 the late insurgents who are seeking restoration to the rights and privileges 
 which they willingly abandoned, and not upon the people of the United States 
 who have never undertaken, directly or indirectly, to deprive them thereof. It 
 should appear affirmatively that they are prepared and disposed in good faith to 
 accept the results of the war, to abandon their hostility to the government, and 
 to live in peace and amity with the people of the loyal States, extending to all 
 classes of citizens equal rights and privileges, and conforming to the republican 
 idea of liberty and equality. They should exhibit in their acts something 
 more than an unwilling submission to an unavoidable necessity a feeling, if 
 not cheerful, certainly not offensive and defiant. And they should evince an 
 entire repudiation of all hostility to the general government, by an acceptance 
 of such just and reasonable conditions as that government should think the 
 public safety demands. Has this been done ? Let us look at the facts shown 
 by the evidence taken by the committee. 
 
 Hardly is the war closed before the people of these insurrectionary States 
 come forward and haughtily claim, as a right, the privilege of participating at 
 once in that government which they had for four years been fighting to over- 
 throw. Allowed and encouraged by the Executive to organize State govern- 
 ments, they at once place in power leading rebels, unrepented and unpardoned, 
 excluding with contempt those who had manifested an attachment to the Union, 
 arid preferring, in many instances, those who had rendered themselves the most 
 obnoxious. In the face of the law requiring an oath which would necessarily 
 exclude all such men from federal offices, they elect, with very few exceptions, 
 as senators and representatives in Congress, men who had actively participated 
 in the rebellion, insultingly denouncing the law as unconstitutional. It is only 
 necessary to instance the election to the Senate of the late Vice-President of the 
 Confederacy, a man who, against his own declared convictions, had lent all the 
 weight of his acknowledged ability and of his influence as a most prominent 
 public man to the cause of the rebellion, and who, unpardoned rebel as he is, 
 with that oath staring him in the face, had the assurance to lay his credentials 
 on the table of the Senate. Other rebels of scarcely less note or notoriety were 
 selected from other quarters. Professing no repentance, glorying apparently in 
 the crime they had committed, avowing still, as the uncontradicted testimony of 
 Mr. Stevens and many others proves, an adherance to the pernicious doctrine 
 of secession, and declaring that they yielded only to necessity, they insist, with 
 unanimous voice, upon their rights as States, and proclaim that they will sub- 
 mit to no conditions whatever as preliminary to their resumption of power 
 under that Constitution which they still claim the right to repudiate. 
 
 Examining the evidence taken by your committee still further, in connection 
 with facts too notorious to be disputed, it appears that the Southern press, with 
 few exceptions, and those mostly of newspapers recently established by Northern 
 men, abounds with weekly and daily abuse of the institutions and people of the 
 loyal States ; defends the men who led, and the principles which incited, the re- 
 bellion ; denounces and reviles Southern men who adhered to the Union ; and 
 strives, constantly and unscrupulously, by every means in its power, to keep 
 alive the fire of hate and discord between the sections ; calling upon the Presi- 
 dent to violate his oath of office, overturn the government by force of arms, and 
 drive the representatives of the people from their seats in Congress. The 
 national banner is openly insulted, and the national airs scoffed at, not only by 
 an ignorant populace, but at public meetings, and once, among other notable in- 
 stances, at a dinner given in honor of a notorious rebel who had violated his oath 
 and abandoned his flag. The same individual is elected to an important office 
 in the leading city of his State, although an unpardoned rebel, and so offensive 
 that the President refuses to allow him to enter upon his official duties. In an- 
 
KEPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 11 
 
 other State the leading General of the rebel armies is openly nominated for Gov- 
 ernor by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, and the nomination is hailed 
 by the people with shouts of satisfaction, and openly indorsed by the press. \ 
 
 Looking still further at the evidence taken by your committee, it is found to 
 be clearly shown by witnesses of the highest character, and having the best 
 means of observation, that the Freedmen's Bureau, instituted for the relief and 
 protection of freedmen and refugees, is almost universally opposed by the mass 
 of the population, and exists in an efficient condition only under military pro- 
 tection, while the Union men of the South are earnest in its defense, declaring 
 with one voice that without its protection the colored people would not be per- 
 mitted to labor at fair prices, and could hardly live in safety. They also testify 
 that without the protection of the United States troops, Union men, whether of 
 Northern or Southern origin, would be obliged to abandon their homes. The 
 feeling in many portions of the country towards emancipated slaves, especially 
 among the uneducated and ignorant, is one of vindictive and malicious hatred. 
 This deep-seated prejudice against color is assiduously cultivated by the public 
 journals, and leads to acts of cruelty, oppression, and murder, which the local 
 authorities are at no pains to prevent or punish. There is no general disposition 
 to place the colored race, constituting at least two-fifths of the population, upon 
 terms even of civil equality. While many instances may be found where large 
 planters and men of the better class accept the situation, and honestly strive to 
 bring about a better order of things, by employing the freedmen at fair wages 
 and treating them kindly, the general feeling and disposition among all classes 
 are yet totally averse to the toleration of any class of people friendly to the 
 Union, be they white or black ; and this aversion is not unfrequently manifested 
 in an insulting and offensive manner. 
 
 The witnesses examined as to the willingness of the people of the South to 
 contribute, under existing laws, to the payment of the national debt, prove that 
 the taxes levied by the United States will be paid only on compulsion, and with 
 great reluctance, while there prevails, to a considerable extent, an expectation 
 that compensation will be made for slaves emancipated and property destroyed 
 during the war. The testimony on this point comes from officers of the Union 
 army, officers of the late rebel army, Union men of the Southern States, and 
 avowed secessionists, almost all of whom state that, in their opinion, the people 
 of the rebellious States would, if they should see a prospect of success, repu- 
 diate the national debt. 
 
 While there is scarcely any hope or desire among leading men to renew the 
 attempt at secession at any future time, there is still, according to a large num- 
 ber of witnesses, including A. H. Stevens, who may be regarded as good 
 authority on that point, a generally prevailing opinion which defends the legal 
 right of secession, and upholds the doctrine that the first allegiance of the people 
 is due to the States, and not to the United States. This belief evidently pre- 
 vails among leading and prominent men, as well as among the masses every 
 where, except in some of the northern counties of Alabama and the eastern 
 counties of Tennessee. 
 
 The evidence of an intense hostility to the Federal Union, and an equally in- 
 tense love of the late Confederacy, nurtured by the war, is decisive. While it 
 appears that nearly all are willing to submit, at least for the time being, to the 
 Federal authority, it is equally clear that the ruling motive is a desire to obtain 
 the advantages which will be derived from a representation in Congress. Officers 
 of the Union army on duty, and Northern men who go South to engage in busi- 
 ness, are generally detested and proscribed. Southern men who adhered to 
 the Union are bitterly hated and relentlessly persecuted. In some localities 
 prosecutions have been instituted in State courts against Union officers for acts 
 done in the line of official duty, and similar prosecutions are threatened else- 
 where as soon as the United States troops are removed. All such demonstra- 
 
12 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 tions show a state of feeling against which it is unmistakably necessary to guard. 
 The testimony is conclusive that after the collapse of the Confederacy the 
 feeling of the people of the rebellious States was that of abject submission. 
 Having appealed to the tribunal of arms, they had no hope except that by the 
 magnanimity of their conquerors their lives, and possibly their property, might 
 be preserved. Unfortunately, the general issue of pardons to persons who had 
 been prominent in the rebellion, and the feeling of kindliness and conciliation 
 manifested by the Executive, and very generally indicated through the North- 
 ern press, had the effect to render whole communities forgetful of the crime they 
 had committed, defiant towards the Federal Government, and regardless of their 
 duties as citizens. The conciliatory measures of the Government do not seem 
 to have been met even halfway. The bitterness and defiance exhibited toward 
 the United States under such circumstances is without a parallel in the history 
 of the world. In return for our leniency we receive only an insulting denial 
 of our authority. In return for our kind desire for the resumption of fraternal 
 relations we receive only an insolent assumption of rights and privileges long 
 since forfeited. The crime we have punished is paraded as a virtue, and the 
 principles of republican government, which we have vindicated at so terrible a 
 cost are denounced as unjust and oppressive. 
 
 If we add to this evidence the fact that, although peace has been declared by 
 the President, he has not, to this day, deemed it safe to restore the writ of 
 habeas corpus, to relieve the insurrectionary States of martial law, nor to with- 
 draw the troops from many localities, and that the commanding General deems 
 an increase of the army indispensable to the preservation of order and the 
 protection of loyal and well disposed people in the South, the proof of a. condi- 
 tion of feeling hostile to the Union and dangerous to the Government through- 
 out the insurrectionary States would seem to be overwhelming. 
 
 With such evidence before them, it is the opinion of your committee 
 
 I. That the States lately in rebellion were, at the close of the war, disorgan- 
 ized communities, without civil government, and without, constitutions or other 
 forms, by virtue of which political relations could legally exist between them 
 and the Federal Government. 
 
 II. That Congress cannot be expected to recognize as valid the election of 
 representatives from disorganized communities, which, from the very nature of 
 the case, were unable to present their claim to representation under those estab- 
 lished and recognized rules, the observance of which has been hitherto required. 
 
 III. That Congress would not be justified in admitting such communities to 
 a participation in the government of the country without first providing such 
 constitutional or other guarantees as will tend to secure the civil rights of all 
 citizens of the republic ; a just equality of representation ; protection against 
 claims founded in rebellion and crime ; a temporary restoration of the right of 
 suffrage to those who have not actively participated in the efforts to destroy the 
 Union and overthrow the Government, and the exclusion from positions of public 
 trust of, at least, a portion of those whose crimes have proved them to be enemies 
 to the Union, and unworthy of public confidence. 
 
 Your committee will, perhaps, hardly be deemed excusable for extending this 
 report further ; but, inasmuch as immediate and unconditional representation of 
 the States lately in rebellion is demanded as a matter of right, and delay and 
 even hesitation is denounced as grossly oppressive and unjust, as well as un- 
 wise and impolitic, it may not be amiss again to call attention to a few undis- 
 puted and notorious facts, and the principles of public law applicable thereto,, 
 in order that the propriety of that claim may be fully considered and well un- 
 derstood. 
 
 The State of Tennessee occupies a position distinct from all the other insur- 
 rectionary States, and has been the subject of a separate report which your 
 committee have not thought it expedient to disturb. Whether Congress shall 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 13 
 
 see fit to make that State the subject of separate action, or to include it in the 
 same category with all others, so far as concerns the imposition of preliminary 
 conditions, it is not within the province of this committee either to determine or 
 advise. 
 
 To ascertain whether any of the so-called Confederate States " are entitled to 
 be represented in either house of Congress," the essential inquiry is, whether 
 there is, in any one of them, a constituency qualified to be represented in Con- 
 gress. The question how far persons claiming seats in either house possess the 
 credentials necessary to enable them to represent a duly qualified constituency 
 is one for the consideration of each house separately, after the preliminary ques- 
 tion shall have been finally determined. 
 
 We now propose to restate, as briefly as possible, the general facts and prin- 
 ciples applicable to all the States recently in rebellion : 
 
 First. The seats of the senators and representatives from the so-called Con- 
 federate States became vacant in the year 1861. during the second session of 
 the thirty-sixth Congress, by the voluntary withdrawal of their incumbents, 
 with the sanction and by direction of the legislatures or conventions of their 
 respective States. This was done as a hostile act against the Constitution and 
 Government of the United States, with a declared intent to overthrow the same 
 by forming a southern confederation. This act of declared hostility was speedily 
 followed by an organization of the same States into a confederacy, which levied 
 and waged war, by sea and land, against the United States. This war continued 
 more than four years, within which period the rebel armies besieged the na- 
 tional capital, invaded the loyal States, burned their towns and cities, robbed 
 their citizens, destroyed more than 250,000 loyal soldiers, and imposed an in- 
 creased national burden of not less than $3,500,000,000, of which seven or eight 
 hundred millions have already been met and paid. From the .time these con- 
 federated States thus withdrew their representation in Congress and levied 
 war against the United States, the great mass of their people became and were 
 insurgents, rebels, traitors, and all of them assumed and occupied the political, 
 legal, and practical relation of enemies of the United States. This position is 
 established by. acts of Congress and judicial decisions, and is recognized repeat- 
 edly by the President in public proclamations, documents, and speeches. 
 
 Second. The States thus confederated prosecuted their war against the United 
 States to final arbitrament, and did not cease until all their armies were cap- 
 tured, their military power destroyed, their civil officers, State and confederate, 
 taken prisoners or put to flight, every vestige of State and confederate govern- 
 ment obliterated, their territory overrun and occupied by the federal armies, and 
 their people reduced to the condition of enemies conquered in war, entitled only 
 by public law to such rights, privileges, and conditions as might be vouchsafed 
 by the conqueror. This position is also established by judicial decisions, and 
 is recognized by the President in public proclamations, documents, and speeches. 
 
 Third. Having voluntarily deprived themselves of representation in Congress 
 for the criminal purpose of destroying the Federal Union, and having reduced 
 themselves, by the act of levying war, to the condition of public enemies, they 
 have no right to complain of temporary exclusion from Congress ; but, on the 
 contrary having voluntarily renounced the right to representation, and disqual- 
 ified themselves by crime from participating in the Government, the burden 
 now rests upon them, before claiming to be reinstated in their former condition, 
 to show that they are qualified to resume federal relations. In order to do this, 
 they must prove that they have established, with the consent of the people, re- 
 publican forms of government in harmony with the Constitution and laws of the 
 United States, that all hostile purposes have ceased, and should give adequate 
 guarantees against future treason and rebellion guarantees which shall prove 
 satisfactory to the government against which they rebelled, and by whose arms 
 they were subdued. 
 
14 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 Fourth. Having, by this treasonable withdrawal from Congress, and by 
 flagrant rebellion and war, forfeited all civil and political rights and privileges 
 under the federal Constitution, they can only be restored thereto by the permis- 
 sion and authority of that constitutional power against which they rebelled and 
 by which they were subdued. 
 
 Fifth. These rebellious enemies were conquered by the people of the United 
 States, acting through all the co-ordinate branches of the government, and not 
 by the executive department alone. The powers of conqueror are not so vested 
 in the President that he can fix and regulate the terms of settlement and con- 
 fer congressional representation on conquered rebels and traitors. Nor can he, 
 in any way, qualify enemies of the government to exercise 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 as extending beyond the 
 purposes declared, and can only be regarded as provisional permission by the 
 commander-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 on their own 
 terms, to participate in making laws for their conquerors ; whether conquered 
 rebels may change their theater of operations from the battlefield, where they 
 were defeated and overthrown, to the halls of Congress, and, through their rep- 
 resentatives, seize upon the Government which they fought to destroy ; whether 
 the national treasury, the army 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 and its institutions may demand. 
 
 Seventh. The history of mankind exhibits no example of such madness and 
 folly. The instinct of self-preservation protests against it. The surrender by 
 Grant to Lee, and by Sherman to Johnston, would have been disasters of less 
 magnitude, for new armies could have been raised, new battles fought, and the 
 Government saved. The anti-coersive policy, which, under pretext of avoiding 
 bloodshed, allowed the rebellion to take form and gather force, would be sur- 
 passed in infamy by the matchless wickedness that would now 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 of a constituency in any one of the so-called 
 Confederate States, unless we except the State of Tennessee, qualified to elect 
 senators and representatives in Congress. No State Constitution, or amend- 
 ment to a State Constitution, has had the sanction of the people. All the so- 
 called legislation of State Conventions and Legislatures has been had under mil- 
 itary dictation. If the President may, at his will, and under his own authority, 
 whether as military commander or chief executive, qualify persons to appoint 
 senators and elect representatives, and empower others to appoint and elect 
 them, he thereby practically controls the organization of the legislative depart- 
 ment. The constitutional form of government is thereby practically destroyed,. 
 and its powers absorbed in the Executive. And while your committee do not 
 for a moment impute to the President any such design, but cheerfully concede 
 to him the most patriotic motives, they cannot but look with alarm upon a pre- 
 cedent so fraught with danger to the Republic. 
 
 Ninth. The necessity of providing adequate safeguards for the future, before 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 15 
 
 restoring the insurrectionary 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 witnesses and by undisputed facts. 
 
 Tenth. The conclusion of your committee therefore is, that the so-called Con- 
 federate States are not, at present, entitled to representation in the Congress of 
 the United States ; that, before allowing such representation, adequate security 
 for future peace and safety should be required ; that this can only be found in 
 such changes of the organic law as s-hall determine the civil rights and privi- 
 leges 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 future claims for the expenses incurred in support of rebellion and for 
 manumitted slaves, together with an express grant of power in Congress to 
 enforce those provisions. To this end they offer a joint resolution for amending 
 the Constitution of the United States, 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 submitted by them are the result of mutual concession, after 
 a long and careful comparison of conflicting opinions. Upon a question of such 
 magnitude, infinitely important as it is to the future of the Republic, 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 imperfections may be cured, and its deficiencies sup- 
 plied, by legislative wisdom ; and that, when finally adopted, it may tend to re- 
 store peace and harmony to the whole country, and to place our republican insti- 
 tutions on a more stable foundation. 
 
 W. P. FESSENDEN, J. M. HOWARD, JNO. A. BINGHAM, 
 
 JAMES W. GRIMES, GEORGE H. WILLIAMS, ROSCOE CONKLIXG, 
 
 IRA HARRIS, THADDEUS STEVENS, GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 
 
 JUSTIN S. MORRILL, 
 
 UNION STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, STATE OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 At a meeting of the UNION STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, held at No. 623 Merchant 
 street, in the City of San Francisco, August 1st, 1866, a majority of the Committee being 
 present, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That in the name of justice and liberty, and the living and dead heroes of the 
 war for the security of the millions who shall hereafter people this great land, and in behalf 
 of the universal rights of man we earnestly indorse and approve of the following proposed 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States : 
 
 JOINT RESOLUTION proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
 America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), That the 
 following Article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an 
 amendment to the Constitution of the United States,. which, when ratified by 
 three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, 
 namely : 
 
 ARTICLE 14. 
 
 SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject 
 to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 
 wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge 
 the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State 
 deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor 
 to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 
 
16 RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States ac- 
 cording to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
 each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any 
 election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United 
 States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, 
 or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhab- 
 itants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United 
 States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other 
 crime, the basis of representation, therein shall be reduced in the proportion 
 which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 
 citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 
 
 SEC. 3o No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 
 of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the 
 United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a 
 member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any 
 State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support 
 the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebel- 
 lion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Con- 
 gress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 
 
 SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
 law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services 
 in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither 
 the United \States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 
 incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any 
 claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations, 
 and claims, shall be held illegal and void. 
 
 SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legisla- 
 tion, the provisions of this Article. 
 
 Resolved, That until such amendment is adopted, those States lately in rebellion should not 
 be admitted to representation in Congress ; that by all laws the victor should not place polit- 
 ical power in the hands of the vanquished, until full and ample guarantees for future peace 
 are given and accepted ; that the people who have waged for four years an unjust war against 
 the Government, cannot complain of injustice at being denied the opportunity to do in the 
 halls of legislation what they were powerless to accomplish on the field of battle. 
 
 Resolved, That the Union party of California are opposed to any legislation or to any policy 
 in Congress, or by the President, which shall fall short of a full settlement of the question of 
 human slavery, in fact as well as name, throughout our whole country ; and any " recon- 
 struction," " reorganization," or "re-habiiitation," which does not assure to the whole people, 
 black as well as white, " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," will be mischievous in its 
 results, and a full admission that the Republic does not possess the genius to preserve what it 
 had the valor to win. 
 
 Resolved, That the work of reconstruction implies a moral regeneration of disloyal men 
 and parties, and should be carried on among defeated and disorganized rebels and rebel 
 States, rather than in the ranks of the Union party ; that the Vallandighams, the Woods, the 
 Seymours, who are active in promoting a Convention at Philadelphia, and who it is certain 
 are to participate in it, are not fit associates for loyal men, and not to be trusted in any degree 
 with the destinies of the Republic ; that the party which has proved capable of carrying the 
 country successfully through years of bloody war may safely be trusted to finish, in time of 
 peace, the work yet remaining to be done to insure the permanency of pure republican insti- 
 tutions in America. 
 
 Resolved, That we approve of the action of Congress, and of our Union delegation in Con- 
 gress, on the question of reconstruction, and that any course less "radical" would not have 
 met the approval of the people of California. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted to our Union delegation 
 in Congress, and published in the Union press of the State. 
 By order of the Committee. 
 
 W. H. PARKS, Chairman. 
 
 ALFRED BARSTOW, Secretary.