The report of the dissenting members of the committee, Messrs. Johnson, Rogers and Grider, was an ably prepared document embodying at length the doctrines of the minority in Congress, composed of the Democrats and the few Republicans who still sustained the President. As a matter of course the argument was built upon the premise that the so-called Confederate States were never legally separated from the Union, but were bound by all the obligations and entitled to all the privileges of other States. "In its nature the government is formed of and by States possessing equal rights and powers." A State cannot be held to have forfeited its rights. "To concede that by the illegal conduct of her own citizens she can be withdrawn from the Union, is virtually to concede the right of secession." Were the States out of the Union, the minority continued, the submission to them of the proposed constitutional amendment would be absurd; and such submission virtually conceded that the condition of the States remained unchanged. The constitutional power to suppress insurrection is for the preservation, not the subjugation of the State. "The continuance of the Union of all the States is necessary to the intended existence of the Government," and a different principle leads to disintegration. The war power, as such, cannot be used to extinguish the States; the Government only seeks to suppress the insurrection, achieving which all the States resume their normal relations. The States now have organized governments, republican in form, and the manner in which they were formed is no concern of Congress. "Congress may admit new States, but a State once admitted ceases to be within its control and can never again be brought within it." There is nothing in the political condition of these States justifying their exclusion from representation in Congress. The proposed amendment would degrade the Southern States, as it would compel them to accept either a lessened representation or negro suffrage. Further, it interfered with the right of every State to regulate the franchise; and, by joining several subjects and requiring them to be voted on as a whole, deprived the people of the opportunity of passing on this important question separately. 8. The Joint Committee on Reconstruction had already reported two bills and one joint resolution which in its report of June 18 were declared to be the fruit of its labors. These were introduced in the House by Mr. Stevens, April 30. The resolution proposed an amendment to the Constitution, which, as finally amended, became the 14th Amendment.[111] The two accompanying bills were entitled respectively: (1) "A Bill to provide for restoring the States lately in insurrection to their full political rights." (2) "A Bill declaring certain persons ineligible to office under the Government of the United States."