So soon as the House of Representatives had elected its Speaker, Mr. Colfax, and other officers, and before the reception of the President's Message, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens presented a resolution which proposed the selection of a joint committee of the House and Senate to inquire into the condition of the "States," which formed the so-called Confederate States, and to report by bill or otherwise, whether, in the judgment of the Committee, these "States," or any of them, were entitled to be represented in either House of Congress, and which provided that "until such report shall have been made and finally acted upon by Congress, no member shall be received into either House from any of the so-called Confederate {43} States." The House passed this resolution by an overwhelming majority; and then adjourned without allowing a motion by Mr. Niblack of Indiana, to the effect that "pending the question as to the admission of persons claiming to have been elected representatives to the present Congress from the States lately in rebellion, such persons be entitled to the privileges of the floor of the House," the usual privilege accorded contestants, to come to a vote. [Sidenote: The view of the House that Reconstruction could not be effected by the Executive.] The view of the House was thus manifest from the start. It was that Reconstruction could not be effected by the Executive Department of the Government, but was a problem for Congress, and that this was a matter entirely separate from the power of each House to judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its members, a matter to be decided by the whole Congress prior to the consideration of the question of the elections, returns, and qualifications of the members of each House. In a word, it was the question of the admission, or the readmission, of "States" into the Union, or more correctly the question of the establishment or re-establishment of the "State" system of local government upon territory of the United States under the exclusive power of the central Government. [Sidenote: Passage of the Stevens resolution as a concurrent resolution.]