From the beginning I have maintained these principles. Again and again I have expressed them in the Senate and elsewhere. At the last session I insisted upon the Louisiana Bill in preference to the Military Bill. In the earliest moments of the present session I introduced a bill of my own, prepared with the best care I could bestow, in which was embodied what seemed to me a proper and practical system of Reconstruction, with provisional governments to superintend the work and pave the way for permanent governments. This measure, which I now hold in my hand, is entitled “A Bill to guaranty a republican form of government in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and to provide for the restoration of these States to practical relations with the Union.” Its character is seen in its title. It is not a military bill, or a bill to authorize Reconstruction by military power; but it is a bill essentially civil from beginning to end.
The principles on which this bill proceeds appear in its preamble, which, with the permission of the Senate, I will read.
“Whereas in the years 1860 and 1861 the inhabitants of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas changed their respective constitutions so as to make them repugnant to the Constitution of the United States;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States made war upon the United States, and after many battles finally surrendered, under the rules and usages of war;
“And whereas the inhabitants of these States, at the time of their surrender, were without legal State governments, and, as a rebel population, were without authority to form legal State governments, or to exercise any other political functions belonging to loyal citizens, and they must so continue until relieved of such disabilities by the law-making power of the United States;
“And whereas it belongs to Congress, in the discharge of its duties under the Constitution, to secure to each of these States a republican form of government, and to provide for the restoration of each to practical relations with the Union;
“And whereas, until these things are done, it is important that provisional governments should be established in these States, with legal power to protect good citizens in the enjoyment of their rights, and to watch over the formation of State governments, so that the same shall be truly loyal and republican: Therefore”——
With this preamble, exhibiting precisely the necessity and reasons of Reconstruction, the bill begins by declaring that the provisional governments shall convene on the fourth Monday after its passage, and shall continue until superseded by permanent governments, created by the people of these States respectively, and recognized by Congress as loyal and republican. It then establishes an executive power in each State, vested in a governor appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except by such advice and consent. The legislative power is vested in the governor and in thirteen citizens, called a legislative council, appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not to be removed except by such advice and consent. All these, being officers of the United States, must take the test oath prescribed already by Act of Congress; and the bill adds a further oath to maintain a republican form of government, as follows:—
“I do hereby swear (or affirm) that I will at all times use my best endeavors to maintain a republican form of government in the State of which I am an inhabitant and in the Union of the United States; that I will recognize the indissoluble unity of the Republic, and will discountenance and resist any endeavor to break away or secede from the Union; that I will give my influence and vote to strengthen and sustain the National credit; that I will discountenance and resist every attempt, directly or indirectly, to repudiate or postpone, in any part or in any way, the debt which was contracted by the United States in subduing the late Rebellion, or the obligations assumed to the Union soldiers; that I will discountenance and resist every attempt to induce the United States or any State to assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; that I will discountenance and resist all laws making any distinction of race or color; that I will give my support to education and the diffusion of knowledge by public schools open to all; and that in all ways I will strive to maintain a State government completely loyal to the Union, where all men shall enjoy equal protection and equal rights.”