t sent to the
Senate the civil rights bill, referred to, with his message vetoing
it. It passed both Houses with the requisite two-thirds majority,
and thus became a law. This veto was followed by other vetoes,
and, practically, the President abandoned his party. From this
time forth, I heartily joined with my political associates in the
measures adopted to secure a loyal reorganization of the southern
states. I was largely influenced by the harsh treatment of the
freedmen in the south under acts adopted by the reconstructed
legislatures. The outrages of the Ku-Klux-Klan seemed to me to be
so atrocious and wicked that the men who committed them were not
only unworthy to govern, but unfit to live. The weakness of the
position of Congress in the controversy with Mr. Johnson, was, that
it had furnished no plan of reconstruction and he was compelled to
act upon the urgency of events. Many efforts were made to provide
legislation to take the place of the proclamations and acts of the
President, but a wide divergence of opinion in the Republican party
manifested itself, and no substantial progress was made until near
the close of the second session of the 39th Congress. Several
bills were then pending in each House to provide governments for
the insurrectionary states. On the 13th of February, 1867, during
the short session, a bill with that title came from the House of
Representatives. It was manifest unless this bill could be acted
upon, that, in the then condition of Congress, all legislation
would fail. It was kept before the Senate and thoroughly debated.
On the 16th of February, after consultation with my political
colleagues, I moved a substitute for the House bill. The fifth
section of this substitute embodied a comprehensive plan for the
organization of the rebel states with provision for elections in
said states, and the conditions required for their administration
and restoration to the Union and the exercise by them of all the
powers of states, and provided for the election of Senators and
Members of Congress. In presenting this substitute, I briefly
stated my reasons for it, as follows:

"The principle of this bill is contained in the first two lines of
the preamble. It is founded upon the proclamation of the President
and Secretary of State made just after the assassination of President
Lincoln, in which they declared specifically that the Rebellion
had overthrown all civil governments in the ins