The next step which I have taken to restore the constitutional relations of the States has been an invitation to them to participate in the high office of amending the Constitution.  Every patriot must wish for a general amnesty at the earliest epoch consistent with public safety.  For this great end there is need of a concurrence of all opinions and the spirit of mutual conciliation.  All parties in the late terrible conflict must work together in harmony.  It is not too much to ask, in the name of the whole people, that on the one side the plan of restoration shall proceed in conformity with a willingness to cast the disorders of the past into oblivion, and that on the other the evidence of sincerity in the future maintenance of the Union shall be put beyond any doubt by the ratification of the proposed amendment to the Constitution, which provides for the abolition of slavery forever within the limits of our country.  So long as the adoption of this amendment is delayed, so long will doubt and jealousy and uncertainty prevail.  This is the measure which will efface the sad memory of the past:  this is the measure which will most certainly call population and capital and security to those parts of the Union that need them most.  Indeed, it is not too much to ask of the States which are now resuming their places in the family of the Union to give this pledge of perpetual loyalty and peace.  Until it is done the past, however much we may desire it, will not be forgotten.  The adoption of the amendment reunites us beyond all power of disruption; it heals the wound that is still imperfectly closed; it removes slavery, the element which has so long perplexed and divided the country; it makes of us once more a united people, renewed and strengthened, bound more than ever to mutual affection and support.

The amendment to the Constitution being adopted, it would remain for the States whose powers have been so long in abeyance to resume their places in the two branches of the National Legislature, and thereby complete the work of restoration.  Here it is for you, fellow-citizens of the Senate, and for you, fellow-citizens of the House of Representatives, to judge, each of you for yourselves, of the elections, returns, and qualifications of your own members.

The full assertion of the powers of the General Government requires the holding of circuit courts of the United States within the districts where their authority has been interrupted.  In the present posture of our public affairs strong objections have been urged to holding those courts in any of the States where the rebellion has existed; and it was ascertained by inquiry that the circuit court of the United States would not be held within the district of Virginia during the autumn or early winter, nor until Congress should have “an opportunity to consider and act on the whole subject.”  To your deliberations the restoration of this branch of the civil authority of the United States is therefore necessarily referred,