Therefore I put aside all fine-spun theories running into the metaphysics of Constitutional Law. All such subtilties are absolutely futile. They must end in nothing. I found myself on existing facts, which are undeniable. Of these I select two. Whatever may have been the effect of the acts of Secession in point of law, it is plain that _de facto_ the Rebel States have ceased to take any part in the National Government. All loyal government in those States has been _de facto_ subverted. They are all without magistrates or officers bound by oath to support the National Constitution according to its requirement, so that _de facto_ there are no magistrates or officers of the Union in these States; nor are there any _de facto_ Senators or Representatives in Congress from those States. Such are unquestionable facts, all of which concentre in the great unquestionable _fact_, that for the time being there are no State Governments in these States which the National Government can recognize as such. There is another fact equally unquestionable. It is that the Rebel States have been _de facto_ in war against the National Government. Armies have been mustered, battles have been fought, and the whole country has been convulsed by this war. An immense national debt, mourning families, widows and orphans, attest this terrible fact. Everything has a natural consequence, and the consequence of this condition of things is that necessity which I have announced. These States cannot subsist without legal governments in just correlation with the other States and with the Nation. Necessity and duty commingle. If what is necessary is not always according to duty, surely duty is always a necessity. On the present occasion they unite in one voice for the Great Guaranty. It is at once necessity and duty. Glancing at the promises of the Fathers, I shall exhibit,-- _First_, the overruling necessity of the times; And, _secondly_, the positive mandate of the Constitution, compelling us to guaranty “a republican form of government,” and thus to determine what is meant by this requirement; all of which has been fortified by continuing Rights of War, and by the Constitutional Amendment authorizing Congress to enforce the abolition of Slavery. * * * * * In the life of a nation, as in that of an individual, there are moments when outstanding promises must be performed under peril of ruin and dishonor. Such is the present moment in the life of the Republic. Sacred promises, beginning with our history, are yet unperformed, although the hour has sounded when continued failure on our part will open the door to a long train of woes. And there are yet other promises, recently made, for the national defence against a wicked rebellion, which, like those of earlier date, are also unperformed. But the latter are all included in the former; so that our whole present duty centres in the performance of sacred promises coëval with the national life.