7

tion of the States which had formed the so-called Confede-
rate States of America, and report whether they, or any of
them, are entitled to be represented in either House of Con-
gress." On the 30th of April, 1866, the committee reported
amendments to the Constitution, and two bills constituting
their plan of reconstruction. One of the bills recited the
amendment proposed, and enacted that on the ratification by
any of the States lately in insurrection, &c., the Senators and
representatives of such State, if found duly elected and quali-
fiied, &c., might be admitted into Congress as such. The
second bill declared certain persons in those States ineligible
to office under the government of the United States. This
report of the committee failed of adoption by Congress.

Finally, on the 13th of June, 1866, the Joint Resolution
aforesaid, now before the committee, passed Congress, and on
the 16th of June, was filed in the State Department, and
transmitted to the Governor of this State, to be laid before the
Legislature for ratification.

The proposed amendment is substantially the same as that
reported by the committee on the 30th of April, and was sub-
sequently reported by the committee, as they say, "in another
form."

The report of the committee accompanying the proposed
amendment, with the documents, testimony, &c., is con-
tained in a volume of nearly eight hundred pages, printed in
small type. The testimony was exparte, and from witnesses
selected by the sub-committees, and summoned from all the
Southern States and elsewhere. The subject of their inqui-
ries was, they say, "in a word, the fitness of those States to
take an active part in the administration of national affairs."
They describe their condition at the close of the war to have
been one "of utter exhaustion." Having protracted their
struggle against Federal authority, until all hope of success-
ful resistance had ceased, and laid down their arms only be-
cause there was no longer any power to use them, the peo-
ple of those States were left bankrupt in their public finances,
and shorn of the private wealth which had before given them
power and influence." "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, afford-
ing 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." The committee
then conclude "that the war thus waged, was a civil war of
the greatest magnitude," and that by the law of nations,
"one of the consequences was, that within the limits pre-
scribed by humanity, the conquered rebels were at the mercy
of the conquerors." They say "the testimony is conclusive
that after the collapse of the Confederacy, the feeling of the