theory embodied in the
preamble, not by veto, but in the more innocent form of argument.
"If," said he, in a special message of July 25th, "the ratification
of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
be one of the conditions of admitting Tennessee, and if, as is also
declared by the preamble, said State Government can only be restored
to its former political relations to the Union by the consent of the
law-making power of the United States, it would really seem to follow
that the joint resolution, which at this late day has received the
sanction of Congress, should have been passed, approved and placed on
the statute-books before any amendment to the Constitution was
submitted to the State of Tennessee for ratification. Otherwise the
inference is plainly deducible that while in the opinion of Congress
the people of a State may be too disloyal to be entitled to
representation, they may nevertheless have an equally potent voice
with other States in amending the Constitution, upon which so
essentially depends the stability, prosperity and very existence of
the nation."

The argument in the message was regarded as an ingenious censure of
Congress by the President, and was loudly applauded on the Democratic
side of the House. He concluded by declaring that notwithstanding the
anomalous character of the resolution, he had affixed his signature to
it. "My approval, however," he added, "is not to be construed as an
acknowledgment of the right of Congress to pass laws preliminary to the
admission of duly qualified representatives from any of the States."
The senators and representatives of the State were sworn in and took
their seats as soon as the President's message approving the bill was
read, and the reconstruction of Tennessee was complete. She had
regained all her rights as a member of the Union, coming in through the
gateway of two Constitutional Amendments, the Thirteenth and the
Fourteenth. It was evident from that moment that no one of the
Confederate States would ever again be admitted, so long as the
Republican party held power in the country, except by giving their
assent to the incorporation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the
Constitution. The bill from the Reconstruction Committee requiring
this as a condition was not enacted into law, but the admission of
Tennessee was a precedent stronger than law. Of all the seceding
States Tennessee was held to be the least offending, and the