objections against the right of a State to representation. I
would in nowise interfere with the discretion of Congress
with regard to the qualifications of members; but I hold it
my duty to recommend to you, in the interests of peace and,
in the interests of union, the admission of every State to
its share in public legislation when, however insubordinate,
insurgent, or rebellious its people may have been, it
presents itself, not only in an attitude of loyalty and
harmony, but in the persons of Representatives whose loyalty
can not be questioned under any existing constitutional or
legal test.

"It is plain that an indefinite or permanent exclusion of
any part of the country from representation must be attended
by a spirit of disquiet and complaint. It is unwise and
dangerous to pursue a course of measures which will unite a
very large section of the country against another section of
the country, however much the latter may preponderate. The
course of emigration, the development of industry and
business, and natural causes will raise up at the South men
as devoted to the Union as those of any other part of the
land. But if they are all excluded from Congress--if, in a
permanent statute, they are declared not to be in full
constitutional relations to the country--they may think they
have cause to become a unit in feeling and sentiment against
the Government. Under the political education of the
American people, the idea is inherent and ineradicable that
the consent of the majority of the whole people is necessary
to secure a willing acquiescence in legislation.

"The bill under consideration refers to certain of the
States as though they had hot 'been fully restored in all
their constitutional relations to the United States.' If
they have not, let us at once act together to secure that
desirable end at the earliest possible moment It is hardly
necessary for me to inform Congress that, in my own
judgment, most of these States, so far, at least, as depends
upon their own action, have already been fully restored,
and"are to be deemed as entitled to enjoy their
constitutional rights as members of the Union. Reasoning
from the Constitution itself, and from the actual situation
of the country, I feel not only entitled but bound t