born, and with the provisions and traditions of which
they were familiar, was never told.

His propositions found no favor with the Administration, nor were they
supported at the beginning by any considerable number even of the
extremists in Congress. It required much training by the centralizing
leaders for years and all the tyranny of caucus machinery after the
death of Mr. Lincoln to carry them into effect by a series of
reconstruction measures that were revolutionary in their character, and
which to a certain extent unsettled the principles on which the
Government was founded.

But the counsel and example of the distinguished Senator from
Massachusetts were not without their influence. Resolutions by radical
Republicans and counter resolutions, chiefly by Democrats, relative to
the powers and limitations of the Federal Government and the status of
States, followed in quick succession. On the 11th of June, the subject
having been agitated and discussed for four months, Mr. Dixon, a
Republican Senator from Connecticut, whose views coincided in the main
with those of Mr. Lincoln and the Administration, submitted, after
consultation and advisement, the following:

_Resolved_, That all acts or ordinances of secession, alleged to
have been adopted by any legislature or convention of the people of
any State, are as to the Federal Union absolutely null and void;
and that while such acts may and do subject the individual actors
therein to forfeitures and penalties, they do not, in any degree,
affect the relations of the State wherein they purport to have been
adopted to the Government of the United States, but are as to such
Government acts of rebellion, insurrection, and hostility on the
part of the individuals engaged therein, or giving assent thereto;
and that such States are, notwithstanding such acts or ordinances,
members of the Federal Union, and as such are subject to all the
obligations and duties imposed upon them by the Constitution of the
United States; and the loyal citizens of such States are entitled
to all the rights and privileges thereby guaranteed or conferred.

The resolution of Dixon traversed the policy of Sumner and was the
Executive view of the questions that were agitated in Congress as to the
effect of the rebellion and the condition of the States in insurrection.
The Administration did not admit that rebellion dissolved the U