RECOGNITION BY CONGRESS
The Radical leaders in Tennessee naturally expected that the
readmission of the Representatives to their seats in Congress would
immediately follow the restoration of the State government. Therefore,
upon the assembling of the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress,
the full delegation from Tennessee was present on the floor, ready to
answer to their names. When Mr. Edward McPherson, the clerk of the
House, omitted the name of Tennessee along with the other Southern
States from the preliminary roll-call, Mr. Horace Maynard created a
dramatic scene by waving aloft his certificate of election, and
demanding recognition. In the discussion which followed the roll-call,
the cause of Mr. Maynard was championed by Mr. Brooks, the leader of
the Democratic minority. “If Mr. Maynard,” he said, “is not a loyal
man, and is not from a State in this Union, what man, then, is loyal?
In the darkest and most doubtful period of the war, when an exile from
his own State, I heard his eloquent voice on the banks of the St.
Lawrence rousing the people of my State to discharge their duties to
their country.” The action of Mr. McPherson was upheld by a vote of
the House.
This refusal to seat the Tennessee Representatives arose, partly on
account of the failure to distinguish between the loyal government in
Tennessee, and the so-called Johnson governments, but chiefly because
the Republican leaders wished to delay action until a complete
reconstruction policy could be mapped out. The Representatives
continued, however, to press the claims of the State for recognition
before the “Joint Committee of Fifteen,” to which was referred all
measures affecting the status of the Southern States.
This Committee was just on the point of yielding, when the veto of the
Freedman Bureau Bill occurred. The day after the veto, Mr. Stevens
brought before the House, from the Committee of Fifteen, a “concurrent
resolution concerning the insurrectionary States,” as follows: “Be it
resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that
in order to close agitation upon a question which seems likely to
disturb the action of the Government, as well as to quiet the
uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the eleven
States which have been declared to be in insurrection, no Senator or
Representative shall be admitted to either branch of Congress, from
any of the said States until Congress shall have declared such State
entitled to such representation.” A strong effort was made to exempt
Tennessee from the provisions of the Resolution. Mr. Grider, a member
of the Committee of Fifteen, offered, to that effect, a minority
report as follows: “The minority of the Committee on Reconstruction,
on the part of the House, beg leave to report that said committee have
caused an inquiry to be made as to the condition and loyalty of
Tennessee. There has been a large amount of evidence taken, a part of
it conducing to show that at some localities occasionally there have
been some irregularities and disaffection, yet the main direction and
weight of the testimony are ample and conclusive to show that a great
body of the people in said State are not only loyal and willing, but
anxious to have and maintain amicable, sincere, and patriotic
relations with the General Government. Such being the state of facts,
we offer the following resolution, to wit:
“_Resolved_, That the State of Tennessee is entitled to
representation in the Thirty-ninth Congress, and the
representatives elected from and by said State are hereby
admitted to take their seats therein upon being qualified by
oath according to law.”
In speaking in opposition to this minority resolution, Mr. Stevens
said: “I think I may say without impropriety, that until yesterday
there was an investigation into the condition of Tennessee, to see
whether by act of Congress we could admit that State to a condition of
representation here, and admit its members to seats here, but since
yesterday there has arisen a state of things which the committee deem
puts it out of their power to proceed further without surrendering a
great principle, without the loss of all their dignity, without
surrendering the rights of this body to the usurpation of another
power.” The “Concurrent Resolution,” introduced by Mr. Stevens, was
carried without amendment, so the readmission of Tennessee was again
postponed indefinitely.
Two months later, however, its readmission was foreshadowed in a
speech by Mr. Bingham on the Fourteenth Amendment. “I trust,” he said,
“that this amendment will pass this House, that the day will soon come
when Tennessee――loyal Tennessee――loyal in the very heart of the
rebellion, her mountains and plains blasted by the very ravagers of
war and stained with blood of her faithful children fallen in the
great struggle for the maintenance of the Union, having already
conformed her constitution and laws to every provision of this
amendment, will at once, upon its submission by Congress, irrevocably
ratify it, and be, without further delay, represented in Congress by
her loyal Representatives and Senators. Let that great example be set
by Tennessee, and it will be worth a hundred thousand votes to the
loyal people in the free North.”
The suggestion contained in this speech was promptly acted upon by the
Radical government in Tennessee. On the 19th of June, the Fourteenth
Amendment was ratified by the Legislature. Mr. Brownlow immediately
sent the following telegram to Washington:
“NASHVILLE, TENN., Thursday, July 18.
To HON. E. M. STANTON, _Sec. of War_,
Washington, D. C.
“My compliments to the President. We have carried the
Constitutional Amendment in the House. Vote 43 to 18; two of
his tools refusing to vote.
“W. G. BROWNLOW.”
On the same day the news of this ratification was received, Mr.
Bingham introduced into the House the following resolution:
“Joint resolution declaring Tennessee again entitled to
Senators and Representatives in Congress.
“_Whereas_, The State of Tennessee has in good faith
ratified the article of amendment to the Constitution of the
United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress to the
Legislatures of the several States, and has also shown, to
the satisfaction of Congress, by the proper spirti of
obedience in the body of her people, her return to her due
allegiance to the Government, laws, and authority of the
United States; therefore,
Be it resolved by the Senate and the House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That the State of Tennessee is hereby restored to
her former proper practical relation in the Union, and again
entitled to be represented by Senators and Representatives
in Congress, duly elected and qualified, upon their taking
the oaths of office required by existing laws.“
In urging the immediate adoption of the resolution, Mr. Bingham
declared that: “Inasmuch as Tennessee has conformed to all our
requirements; inasmuch as she has, by a majority of her whole
Legislature in each House, ratified the amendment in good faith;
inasmuch as she has of her own voluntary will conformed her
constitution and laws to the Constitution and Laws of the United
States; inasmuch as she has by her fundamental law forever prohibited
the assumption or payment of the rebel debt, or the enslavement of
men; inasmuch as she has by her own constitution declared that rebels
shall not exercise any of the political power of the State or vote at
elections; and thereby giving the American people assurance of her
determination to stand by this great measure of security for the
future of the Republic, Tennessee is as much entitled to be
represented here as any other State of the Union.”
The resolution was opposed by a few members on the ground that
Tennessee had not, as yet, conferred the suffrage upon the negro. Mr.
Boutwell offered an amendment providing that Tennessee should not be
readmitted until it had established an “equal and just system of
suffrage.”
On June 20th the resolution passed the House, one hundred and
twenty-five voting in the affirmative, and twelve in the negative. On
the succeeding day, it came up for consideration in the Senate. Mr.
Trumbull proposed, in the place of the preamble which had been framed
by Mr. Bingham and passed by the House, the following substitute:
“_Whereas_, In the year 1861, the government of the State of
Tennessee was seized upon and taken possession of by persons
in hostility to the United States, and the inhabitants of
said State in pursuance of an act of Congress were declared
to be in a state of insurrection against the United States,
and whereas said State government can be restored to its
former political relations in the Union only by the consent
of the law-making power of the United States; and whereas
the people of said State did on the 22d of February, 1865,
by a large and popular vote adopt and ratify a constitution
of government whereby slavery was abolished, and all
ordinances and laws of secession and debts contracted under
the same were declared void; and whereas a State government
has been organized under said Constitution, which has
ratified the amendment to the Constitution of the United
States abolishing slavery, also the amendment proposed by
the Thirty-ninth Congress, and has done other acts
proclaiming and denoting loyalty; Therefore, etc.”
Mr. Sherman opposed the substitution of this preamble on the ground
that it would probably cause the President to veto the resolution.
“These political dogmas,” he said, “cannot receive the sanction of the
President, and to insert them will only create delay, and postpone the
admission of Tennessee.”
After a considerable discussion, the question being taken on the
passage of the preamble as substituted by the Senate, together with
the resolution of the House, resulted in twenty-eight votes in the
affirmative, and four in the negative. The House promptly agreed to
the amendment of the Senate, and the joint resolution was sent to the
President for his approval.
The President approved the joint resolution, but sent a message to the
House which was in the nature of a protest against the opinions
expressed in the preamble. After giving at length his objections to
the preamble, the President said:
“Earnestly desiring to remove every cause of further delay,
whether real or imaginary, on the part of Congress to the
admission to their seats of loyal Senators and
Representatives from the State of Tennessee, I have,
notwithstanding the anomalous character of this proceeding,
affixed my signature to the resolution. My approval,
however, is not to be construed as an acknowledgment of the
right of Congress to pass laws, preliminary to the admission
of duly qualified representatives from any of the States.
Neither is it to be construed as committing me to all the
statements made in the preamble, some of which are, in my
opinion, without foundation in fact, especially the
assertion that the State of Tennessee has ratified the
amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed
by the Thirty-ninth Congress. No official notice of such
ratification has been received by the Executive, or filed in
the Department of State; on the contrary, unofficial
information from most reliable sources, induces the belief
that the amendment has not yet been constitutionally
sanctioned by the Legislature of Tennessee. The right of
each House, under the Constitution, to judge of the
elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members is
undoubted, and my approval or disapproval of the resolution
could not in the slightest degree increase or diminish the
authority in this respect conferred upon the two branches of
Congress.”