It was Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, who did more than anybody else to give the proper logical interpretation to these feelings and invent the theory of Reconstruction on which the Republicans could plant themselves. Briefly stated that theory was that, while secession was a nullity legally from the beginning, and could not take the territory {60} occupied by the "States" attempting it, or the people inhabiting that territory, out of the Union, or from under the rightful jurisdiction of the United States Government and Constitution for one instant, yet it worked the loss of the "State" status in the Union, and from a legal point of view left this territory and the inhabitants of it subject exclusively to the jurisdiction of the United States Government, a status from which they could be relieved only by the erection of "States" anew upon such territory, an operation which could be effected, under the Constitution of the United States, only by the co-operation of Congress with the loyal inhabitants of such territory. [Sidenote: Mr. Sumner's theory of Reconstruction.] [Sidenote: The Republicans in Congress almost unanimously in favor of the Shellabarger-Sumner plan.] This was sound political science and correct constitutional law. It could not fail to command the assent of the great majority of the Republicans in the House and in the country. This same doctrine was, at the same time, developed in the Senate by Mr. Sumner, Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Wilson, and it was easy to see that it had become the theory of the Republican party in Congress long before the final report of the Committee on Reconstruction promulgated it. Even Stevens and his radical followers were in line with it in so far as practical results were concerned. That is, the Republicans all stood together on the principle that Reconstruction could only be effected by Congressional acts, since it was tantamount to a conferring, or reconferring, of the "State" status upon a population at the moment subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Government of the United States. This meant that the entire Republican party in Congress, with the exception of the four members of the Senate already named, and of Mr. Raymond and one other in the House (and this constituted a majority of two-thirds in each House) would antagonize the plan of Executive Reconstruction {61} devised by Lincoln and Seward and persisted in by Johnson and, to that moment, by his cabinet. How far the Republicans in Congress would go in the attempt to set aside Executive Reconstruction depended chiefly upon the moderation of the President, and the sincerity of the people in the South. It depended also in some degree, to say the least, upon what would be necessary to keep the Republican party, which conceived itself to be the only really loyal party to the Union, in power.