Under these circumstances it is not at all surprising that the Republicans of the North strongly felt that the freedom of the negro had not yet been sufficiently guaranteed to render the acknowledgment of the resumption of "State"-powers by the communities so lately in rebellion against the United States for the upholding of negro slavery safe and wise. [Sidenote: Correctness of the Republican position.] It was certainly natural, and it was just and right, that the party in power in Congress should have considered it their duty to so amend the Constitution of the United States, before according "State"-powers to the communities lately in rebellion, as to reap the just fruits of their triumph over secession and slavery. It was certainly their duty to the country to secure the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, and any further amendment, necessary to accomplish this result, before putting the recently rebellious communities in a position to defeat the same. And it is certainly not strange that the Republicans should have feared that the Democrats of the North in Congress would soon be found fraternizing with the Senators and Representatives from the reconstructed "States," and that it was their duty to secure "perpetual ascendancy to the party of the Union," before admitting the Senators and Representatives from these "States" to participation in public power. Properly interpreted this only meant that loyal men must govern the country. But it did not follow that only Republicans were loyal men, and that the loyal Democrats of the North would follow {55} the recently disloyal Democrats of the South in legislating upon the issues of the war. Republicans were likely to commit this fallacy in their reasoning. Many of them did commit it. And the result of it was to intensify partisanship at the expense of statesmanship. [Sidenote: The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.] Just two weeks after the passage of the Stevens resolution by the House of Representatives, Mr. Seward announced the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In making this announcement, he declared that there were thirty-six "States" in the Union, and that the legislatures of twenty-seven "States," just three-fourths, the necessary number, had voted its adoption; and among those voting to adopt, he counted the legislatures of Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.