The
course of emigration, the development of industry and business, and
natural causes will raise up at the South men as devoted to the Union as
those of any other part of the land; but if they are all excluded from
Congress, if in a permanent statute they are declared not to be in full
constitutional relations to the country, they may think they have cause
to become a unit in feeling and sentiment against the Government. Under
the political education of the American people the idea is inherent and
ineradicable that the consent of the majority of the whole people is
necessary to secure a willing acquiescence in legislation.
The bill under consideration refers to certain of the States as though
they had not "been fully restored in all their constitutional relations
to the United States." If they have not, let us at once act together to
secure that desirable end at the earliest possible moment. It is hardly
necessary for me to inform Congress that in my own judgment most of
those States, so far, at least, as depends upon their own action, have
already been fully restored, and are to be deemed as entitled to enjoy
their constitutional rights as members of the Union.
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