Disunion and Restoration in Tennessee: Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia UniversityNeal, John Randolph
History
Disunion and Restoration in Tennessee: Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University
Neal, John Randolph
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Tennessee; Tennessee -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865; Thesis (Ph. D.)
This Committee was just on the point of yielding, when the veto of the
Freedman Bureau Bill occurred. The day after the veto, Mr. Stevens
brought before the House, from the Committee of Fifteen, a “concurrent
resolution concerning the insurrectionary States,” as follows: “Be it
resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that
in order to close agitation upon a question which seems likely to
disturb the action of the Government, as well as to quiet the
uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the eleven
States which have been declared to be in insurrection, no Senator or
Representative shall be admitted to either branch of Congress, from
any of the said States until Congress shall have declared such State
entitled to such representation.” A strong effort was made to exempt
Tennessee from the provisions of the Resolution. Mr. Grider, a member
of the Committee of Fifteen, offered, to that effect, a minority
report as follows: “The minority of the Committee on Reconstruction,
on the part of the House, beg leave to report that said committee have
caused an inquiry to be made as to the condition and loyalty of
Tennessee. There has been a large amount of evidence taken, a part of
it conducing to show that at some localities occasionally there have
been some irregularities and disaffection, yet the main direction and
weight of the testimony are ample and conclusive to show that a great
body of the people in said State are not only loyal and willing, but
anxious to have and maintain amicable, sincere, and patriotic
relations with the General Government. Such being the state of facts,
we offer the following resolution, to wit:
“_Resolved_, That the State of Tennessee is entitled to
representation in the Thirty-ninth Congress, and the
representatives elected from and by said State are hereby
admitted to take their seats therein upon being qualified by
oath according to law.”
In speaking in opposition to this minority resolution, Mr. Stevens
said: “I think I may say without impropriety, that until yesterday
there was an investigation into the condition of Tennessee, to see
whether by act of Congress we could admit that State to a condition of
representation here, and admit its members to seats here, but since
yesterday there has arisen a state of things which the committee deem
puts it out of their power to proceed further without surrendering a
great principle, without the loss of all their dignity, without
surrendering the rights of this body to the usurpation of another
power.” The “Concurrent Resolution,” introduced by Mr. Stevens, was
carried without amendment, so the readmission of Tennessee was again
postponed indefinitely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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