loyal citizens have, in due form, claimed its protection. Those
loyal citizens this government is bound to recognize and protect, as
being Virginia."

The action of Congress entirely conformed to this theory. That body
admitted to seats senators and representatives from the provisional
State governments of West Virginia and Missouri; and also allowed
Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to retain his seat, and admitted
Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements as representatives from the same
State, though since their election Tennessee had undergone the usual
secession usurpation, and had as yet organized no loyal provisional
government.

The progress of the Union armies was so far checked during the second
half of 1862, that Military Governor Phelps, appointed for Arkansas, did
not assume his functions; and Military Governor Stanley wielded but
slight authority in North Carolina. Senator Andrew Johnson, appointed
military governor of Tennessee, established himself at Nashville, the
capital, and, though Union control of Tennessee fluctuated greatly, he
was able, by appointing loyal State and county officers, to control the
administration of civil government in considerable districts, under
substantial Federal jurisdiction.

In the State of Louisiana the process of restoring Federal authority was
carried on a step farther, owing largely to the fact that the territory
occupied by the Union army, though quite limited, comprising only the
city of New Orleans and a few adjacent parishes, was more securely held,
and its hostile frontier less disturbed. It soon became evident that
considerable Union sentiment yet existed in the captured city and
surrounding districts, and when some of the loyal citizens began to
manifest impatience at the restraints of martial law, President Lincoln
in a frank letter pointed the way to a remedy:

"The people of Louisiana," he wrote under date of July 28, 1862, "who
wish protection to person and property, have but to reach forth their
hands and take it. Let them in good faith reinaugurate the national
authority and set up a State government conforming thereto under the
Constitution. They know how to do it, and can have the protection of the
army while doing it. The army will be withdrawn so soon as such State
government can dispense with its presence, and the people of the State
can then, upon the old constitutional terms, govern themselves to their
own liking."

At about this date there occu