It contained the following declarations and provisions. First, the preamble designated the ten communities reconstructed under the President's direction as "the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia," and so on. This was certainly an untruth. If they were "States" at all, they certainly were not rebel "States." They might with some appearance of correctness and sincerity have been termed the late rebel "States," but to be called simply rebel "States" was, to say the very least, one of the {119} grossest exaggerations to be found in the wording of the statutes of Congress. It was simply a play on words whereby to justify a dubious procedure. It was at the very best, a confounding of the supposed sentiments of the population of these regions with actual political status. Second, the preamble declared that no legal "State" governments or adequate protection for life or property existed in these "rebel States." As a legal proposition the first part of this declaration was true, and as a matter of fact the second part was substantially true. It would have been an unprecedented thing if anything like an adequate protection of life and property had been re-established, in the short period of two years, in communities which had been disturbed, demoralized and destroyed by four years of civil war, especially when the outcome of the conflict was total defeat and the utter destruction of the basis of the old social, political, and economic systems. It was, however, a serious question whether such a situation required drastic measures rather than mild and soothing measures. The Republican Congress decided, after much deliberation, that the former were necessary to the maintenance of peace and good order, and, therefore, enacted that the "said rebel States" should be divided into five military districts, as previously described in the original bill; that the President should assign to the command of each of these an army officer of not lower rank than brigadier-general, and place under his command a sufficient force to enable him to perform his duties and execute his authority in his district; that these commanders should have the power to govern these districts by martial law in so far as, in their judgment, the reign of order and the preservation of the public peace might demand, under the limitations simply that "all persons put under military arrest {120} by virtue of this act shall be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted, and no sentence of any military commission or tribunal hereby authorized affecting the life or liberty of any person, shall be executed until it is approved by the officer in command of the district--and no sentence of death under the provisions of this act shall be carried into effect without the approval of the President."