6

To understand the nature and object of the proposed
amendment, it is necessary to know its history and the
grounds upon which its ratification is urged.

The people of the eleven Southern States who attempted
to secede from the jurisdiction of the Constitution and laws
of the United States, and to establish a separate Confederacy,
having utterly failed in their attempt, after four years of civil
war, were compelled to lay down their arms and return to
their obedience to the Constitution and laws of the United
States.

The obligation of the Federal Government to restore fugi-
tive slaves, had, in the progress of political and fanatical
strife, become one of exceedingly difficult fulfillment. State
legislation had virtually nullified the fugitive slave law in
a majority of the free States, and the state of popular feeling
against it in the others rendered it next to impossible to
execute it. In the progress of the civil war, in order to get
rid of the constitutional obligation, and to aid the Govern-
ment and weaken the other party to the war, the Govern-
ment determined to abolish slavery. It was admitted at the
time that this could only be done, legally and effectually, by
an amendment of the Constitution. Upon the surrender
of their armies, the people of each State accepted the propos-
itions of the President and Commander-in-Chief, as the basis
of organizing their State governments in accordance with the
results of the war; and in order to the performance of their
Federal obligations, the State governments were estalished
by the people in each State, and these governments, and the
Constitution and laws of the United States, were recognized
in every way by the people of each State as obligatory upon
every person within their limits. The State Legislatures, un-
der these constitutions, ratified the Constitutional Amend-
ment abolishing slavery. The Executive department so pro-
claimed, and Congress acquiesed, and the amendment thus
became a part of the Constitution of the United States. Each
State duly elected its Senators and Representatives to Con-
gress, the compliance with which Federal obligation by any
of the insurgent States by the first day of January, 1863,
Mr. Lincoln, by his proclamation of September, 1862, had
declared, should, in the absence of strong countervailing
proof, "be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and
the people thereof," were no longer in rebellion. Upon the
assembling of Congress, in December, 1865, those Senators
and Representatives presented their credentials, and were
ready to take their seats, but were refused admission. This
refusal was not based on any objection to "the elections, re-
turns and qualifications" of the Southern Senators and Repre-
sentatives, of which, by the Constitution, "each House shall
be the judge," but the two Houses oppointed "a Joint Com-
mittee on Reconstruction, charged to inquire into the condi-