Taken as a whole, the message unquestionably contained many strong arguments against the bill, and was virtually a summary of the arguments advanced by the minority in Congress. But the struggle had passed beyond the province of unbiased debate, and each side was equally determined not to yield any point. A measure open to the most serious suspicions regarding its constitutionality, was passed by an inflexible majority, settled in the belief that the condition of the South required the measure, and that the Constitution must accordingly be stretched to cover the case. Those supporters of the bill who were recognized as the most careful in their judgments confidently asserted that that portion of it establishing the military districts contained nothing that could not have been carried out legally by the government as a military measure, without the formality of enacting the bill. The insurrectionary States would legally remain in a condition of insurrection until Congress should formally declare the insurrection to be at end. Consequently martial law could constitutionally prevail, trial by jury and the writ of _habeas corpus_ be suspended, and civil government utilized as an aid to military rule, to any extent that might seem advisable to the general in charge. The claim that the measure amounted to an enormous bill of attainder was immediately dismissed as absurd, as no corruption of blood or forfeiture of estates was involved, and the whole measure was avowedly temporary, to cease as soon as the State should comply with the conditions of reconstruction. Congress felt justified in passing the bill over the veto, and accordingly the general process of reconstruction was established with conditions far more onerous than had been intended in the first session of the 39th Congress. The provisions of the act immediately went into force, and the commanders of the districts were appointed on March eleventh. 3. The bill was conceded by all its supporters to be incomplete. It provided for the establishment of districts and the governing of these districts by military law, and it was hoped that the immediate crying need of a strong government to enforce order and prevent the continuance of the oppression of the freedmen was satisfied. This done, they could proceed more deliberately to the enactment of measures which would provide the mechanism for carrying out the provisions of the fifth section. The adjournment of the 39th Congress at noon of March 4 prevented any action until the next Congress; but preparation had been made for such an emergency by an act which provided that in future each Congress should convene upon the adjournment of its predecessor.[165]