upon an equality with the other "States" in the federal system. These things are matters in which the President, as the executive power, cannot interfere. As participant in legislation, however, he may, at his own discretion, use his powers of recommendation and veto. If rebellion against the supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States should not be committed by an existing "State" organization, but by a new organization claiming to be the "State" organization within the district concerned, the existing organization remaining loyal, but requiring the aid of the central Government to maintain its authority, then the withdrawal of that aid by the President after the accomplishment of its purpose would, of course, leave the old {7} "State" organization with restored authority, and Congress would have no function to perform in the re-establishment of civil government in such a district, or in the readmission of its population to participation in the central Government. This was the course followed in Missouri and Kentucky, and it was the course, which, at first, was attempted in the case of Virginia. In the first two cases it was entirely correct. In the last it had to be abandoned, for reasons, and on account of conditions, which will be explained later. What we have, therefore, in the theory and history of Reconstruction is the case of existing "State" organizations forcibly resisting the execution of the supreme law of the land, and stricken down by the executive power of the central Government in the attempt, that power being exercised at its own motion and in its own way. {8} CHAPTER II PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S VIEWS AND ACTS IN REGARD TO RECONSTRUCTION