Whenever administration fails or seems to fail in securing any of the
great ends for which republican government is established, the proper
course seems to be to renew the original spirit and forms of the
Constitution itself.
ANDREW JOHNSON.
WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1867_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I have examined the bill "to provide for the more efficient government
of the rebel States" with the care and anxiety which its transcendent
importance is calculated to awaken. I am unable to give it my assent,
for reasons so grave that I hope a statement of them may have some
influence on the minds of the patriotic and enlightened men with whom
the decision must ultimately rest.
The bill places all the people of the ten States therein named under the
absolute domination of military rulers; and the preamble undertakes to
give the reason upon which the measure is based and the ground upon
which it is justified. It declares that there exists in those States no
legal governments and no adequate protection for life or property, and
asserts the necessity of enforcing peace and good order within their
limits.
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