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.”
CHAPTER VI
TENNESSEE AND THE NEW AMENDMENTS
The deed of cession of Tennessee to the United States by North Carolina contained the provision “that no regulation made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate slaves.” The constitution under which Tennessee was admitted into the Union also recognized slavery by the use of the term “freeman” throughout the bill of rights. It was, however, exceedingly liberal in regard to the suffrage, conferring it upon every “freeman of the age of twenty-one years, and upwards.” Under this provision, free negroes were allowed to vote.