Among other reasons recited in the preamble for the declaration contained in the resolution is the ratification by the State government of Tennessee of “the amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolishing slavery, also the amendment proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress.”  If, as is also declared in the preamble, “said State government can only be restored to its former political relations in the Union by the consent of the lawmaking power of the United States,” it would really seem to follow that the joint resolution which at this late day has received the sanction of Congress should have been passed, approved, and placed on the statute books before any amendment to the Constitution was submitted to the legislature of Tennessee for ratification.  Otherwise the inference is plainly deducible that while, in the opinion of Congress, the people of a State may be too strongly disloyal to be entitled to representation, they may nevertheless, during the suspension of their “former proper practical relations to the Union,” have an equally potent voice with other and loyal States in propositions to amend the Constitution, upon which so essentially depend the stability, prosperity, and very existence of the nation.

A brief reference to my annual message of the 4th of December last will show the steps taken by the Executive for the restoration to their constitutional relations to the Union of the States that had been affected by the rebellion.  Upon the cessation of active hostilities provisional governors were appointed, conventions called, governors elected by the people, legislatures assembled, and Senators and Representatives chosen to the Congress of the United States.  At the same time the courts of the United States were reopened, the blockade removed, the custom-houses reestablished, and postal operations resumed.  The amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery forever within the limits of the country was also submitted to the States, and they were thus invited to and did participate in its ratification, thus exercising the highest functions pertaining to a State.  In addition nearly all of these States, through their conventions and legislatures, had adopted and ratified constitutions “of government whereby slavery was abolished and all ordinances and laws of secession and debts contracted under the same were declared void.”  So far, then, the political existence of the States and their relations to the Federal Government had been fully and completely recognized and acknowledged by the executive department of the Government; and the completion of the work of restoration, which had progressed so favorably, was submitted to Congress, upon which devolved all questions pertaining to the admission to their seats of the Senators and Representatives chosen from the States whose people had engaged in the rebellion.