Lincoln and Johnson did
substantially right when they adopted a plan of their own and
endeavored to carry it into execution. Johnson, before he was
elected and while acting as military governor of Tennessee, executed
the plan of Lincoln in that state and subsequently adopted the same
plan for the reorganization of the rebel states. In all these
plans the central idea was that the states in insurrection were
still states, entitled to be treated as such. They were described
as "The eleven states which have been declared to be in insurrection."
There was an express provision that:

"No Senator or Representative shall be admitted into either branch
of Congress from _any of said states_ until Congress shall have
declared _such state_ entitled to such representation."

In all the plans proposed in Congress, as well as in the plan of
Johnson, it was declared that states had no right while in insurrection
to elect electors to the electoral college; they had no right to
elect Senators and Representatives. In other words they could not
resume the powers, rights and privileges conferred upon states by
the Constitution of the United States, except by the consent of
Congress. Having taken up arms against the United States, they by
that act lost their constitutional powers within the United States
to govern and control our councils. They could not engage in the
election of a President, or of Senators or Members of Congress;
but they were still states. The supreme power of Congress to
change, alter or modify the acts of the President and to admit or
reject these states and their Senators and Representatives at its
will and pleasure, and the constitutional right of the respective
Houses to judge of the election, returns and qualifications of its
own Members were recognized. When Mr. Johnson came into power he
found the Rebellion substantially subdued. His first act was to
retain in his confidence, and in his councils, every member of the
cabinet of Abraham Lincoln, and, so far as we know, every measure
adopted by him had the approval and sanction of that cabinet.
Every act passed by Congress, with or without his assent, upon
every subject whatever, connected with reconstruction, was fairly
and fully executed. He adopted all the main features of the Wade-
Davis bill--the only one passed by Congress. In his proclamation
of May 9, 1865, he provided:

"First, That all acts and proceedings of the political, military,
and civ