people of those States from the nation. The resolutions of Sumner made the same conditions in regard to the acceptance of members from the States lately in rebellion as those which had been passed by the House.

The first day of the session of both House and Senate was devoted to a consideration of the state of affairs in the South, and not until the close of the proceedings did either body notify the President that it was organized and was ready to receive his Annual Message. The message came the next day. It had been eagerly looked for by the whole country, and there were varying opinions as to what it would be. There was general expectation, which turned out to have been well founded, that the message would increase the ill feeling which already existed between the President and the Republicans, who had elected him to his high office, and it was felt that it would lead to an offer of support from the Democrats, who, up that time, had been in greater or less opposition to him. The President was careful to exhibit a spirit of calmness and dignity in his message, and scrupulously avoided the use of any harsh terms which might give serious offense.

The moderation of the message was attributed to Seward, who had remained in his position much against the wishes of many of his friends, and, as has since been learned, much against his own inclination. In this instance, he labored hard with the President to induce him to moderation, and it seems that he had been quite successful in doing so. During his career in Congress he had not been noted for a tendency to compromise, but in the present instance his inclinations were all in that direction. His argument was to have each party in the dispute give way a little, and, at all events, avoid the danger of a disruption of the Republican party. In the message Johnson devoted considerable space to the consideration of the state of affairs in the South. According to his view, there were only two ways of dealing with the insurrectionary States; one, to bring them back into practical relations with the Union, and the other, to hold them in military subjection. He inclined to the former rather than to the latter method, pointing out the various objections which might be made to military rule. He then explained what he had done in the way of appointing provisional governors and calling conventions, and putting the State machinery in order generally; and sketched completely the course of events from the time he was sworn into office until the date of the assembling of Congress. He urged the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, in order that the Negro should be put in a condition of freedom, and maintained that the

general government should not interfere with the qualifications for suffrage in each of the States. He passed over in complete silence the most important part of the subject, and that was, the proceedings and spirit of the Southern Conventions and Legislatures. His friends, as well as his opponents, thought he made a great mistake in so doing. Some argued that he considered the action of the Conventions and Legislatures of so bad a character that it could not possibly be excused, and therefore he would make no mention of it; and others argued that he considered it outside of the line of his observationsomething that he had nothing to do with-and therefore it should be left out of his Annual Message to Congress. Either horn of the dilemma was one which would meet with very serious objections.

The Joint Committee on Reconstruction was ordered, and immediately began its work. Then, on the 18th of December, a debate on reconstruction began in the House; and it was probably one of the longest debates ever known in the history of Congress. It It was opened by Stevens, in the most radical and emphatic manner-as every one will understand who knew the character of that eminent speaker. In the opening of his speech he referred to the fourth article of the Constitution, which says that "new States may be admitted into the Congress of this nation." "In my judgment," said Stevens, "this is the controlling provision in this case. Unless the law of nations is a dead letter, the late war between the two acknowledged belligerents severed their original contracts and broke all the ties that bound them together. The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conqueror. They must come in as new States or remain as conquered provinces."

Stevens had persistently maintained this theory from the very beginning of the Rebellion, and he had never failed to put it forth whenever he had the opportunity to do so. Stevens proceeded to state in detail the effect which might be produced by the manumission of the slaves upon the congressional representation under the Constitution. He showed that the South would be entitled to eighty-three Representatives, if the Negroes were counted in the basis of representation, while, if the Negroes were excluded, the South would have but forty-six Representatives; and he contended that as long as the Negroes were excluded from the right of suffrage they should also be excluded from the basis of representation. His theory evidently was not to touch the question of suffrage by any national interference, but to compel the South to grant the suffrage to the Negro by excluding the entire colored population from the basis of representation

until the Southern States themselves should give the franchise to the Negro. In the course of his speech he said: "We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million slaves, and without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their pockets. The diabolical laws of slavery have prevented them from acquiring an education, understanding the commonest laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of life. This Congress is bound to look after them until they can take care of themselves. If we do not hedge them around with protecting laws, if we leave them to the legislation of their old masters, we had better have left them in bondage. Their condition will be worse than that of our prisoners at Andersonville. If we fail in this great duty now when we have the power, we shall deserve to receive the execrations of history and of all future ages."

The debate on the question of reconstruction lasted, with various intervals, throughout the session. In the Senate the same course was followed. Wilson of Massachusetts offered, during the first week of the session, a bill for the protection of freedmen that was designed to overthrow the odious laws which many of the Southern States had enacted to reduce the Negro to a condition of slavery. Wilson's bill provided that "all laws, statutes, acts, ordinances, rules and regulations in any of the States lately in rebellion, whereby inequality of civil rights and immunities among the inhabitants of said States is established, by reason of differences of color, race or descent, are hereby declared null and void."

A long debate followed the offering of this bill, in which Wilson, Reverdy Johnson, and Charles Sumner took the most prominent part. The debate was carried on in the Senate, as in the House, until the holiday adjournment, and then taken up afterward. In the early part of the session many of the members had cherished the hope that Congress might still be able to have some form of co-operation with the President; but on the reassembling of Congress after the holidays there was a general fear, even on the part of the most moderate of men, that it was impossible for a common policy to be arranged between the President and Congress. There was great danger that the Republican party, which had carried the government successfully through the long and perilous war, would be torn in pieces and completely wrecked by the differences of opinion between the people at the North. There was great temptation on the part of some members of Congress to bring about a compromise, even though it should involve a surrender of a great part of the congressional policy; but it is greatly

to the credit of the Republican members that they stood firm in this important crisis, remaining true to their principles and never swerving from what they believed to be the line of duty.

During the session the President, at the request of the Senate, furnished

information concerning the States lately in rebellion, in the shape of reports by General Grant, who had lately made a tour through the country, and the Hon. Carl Schurz. General Grant's opinion was that the people of the South had accepted the questions of slavery and the right of secession as having been