ient a year ago, it is no less wise and expedient now. If this
anomalous condition is right now--if in the exact condition of these
States at the present time it is lawful to exclude them from
representation--I do not see that the question will be changed by the
efflux of time. Ten years hence, if these States remain as they are, the
right of representation will be no stronger, the right of exclusion will
be no weaker.

The Constitution of the United States makes it the duty of the President
to recommend to the consideration of Congress "such measures as he shall
judge necessary and expedient." I know of no measure more imperatively
demanded by every consideration of national interest, sound policy,
and equal justice than the admission of loyal members from the now
unrepresented States. This would consummate the work of restoration
and exert a most salutary influence in the reestablishment of peace,
harmony, and fraternal feeling. It would tend greatly to renew the
confidence of the American people in the vigor and stability of their
institutions. It would bind us more closely together as a nation and
enable us to show to the world the inherent and recuperative power of a
government founded upon the will of the people and established upon the
principles of liberty, justice, and intelligence. Our increased strength
and enhanced prosperity would irrefragably demonstrate the fallacy of
the arguments against free institutions drawn from our recent national
disorders by the enemies of republican government. The admission of
loyal members from the States now excluded from Congress, by allaying
doubt and apprehension, would turn capital now awaiting an opportunity
for investment into the channels of trade and industry. It would
alleviate the present troubled condition of those States, and by
inducing emigration aid in the settlement of fertile regions now
uncultivated and lead to an increased production of those staples which
have added so greatly to the wealth of the nation and commerce of the
world. New fields of enterprise would be opened to our progressive
people, and soon the devastations of war would be repaired and all
traces of our domestic differences effaced from the minds of our
countrymen.

In our efforts to preserve "the unity of government which constitutes
us one people" by restoring the States to the condition which they held
prior to the rebellion, we should be cautious, lest, having rescued
our nation from