followed which was of still graver moment: The problem of the reconstruction of the Southern States after the defeat of the rebel armies was from the outset surrounded with grave difficulties, and the views held upon this subject by the ablest Republicans were diverse and conflicting. Bills and resolutions embodying various theories of reconstruction were presented in Congress early in the war, but nothing was done with them, and no definite policy was fixed by enactment or even determined upon in private consultations. On Dec. 8, 1863, and in connection with the transmission to Congress of his third annual message, Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation offering amnesty to all rebels (with a few conspicuous exceptions) who should take an oath of loyalty, and declaring that whenever, in any of the seceded States, persons to the number of not less than one-tenth of the votes cast in such States at the presidential election of 1860, having first taken and abided by the prescribed oath, should re-establish a State government, republican in form and recognizing the permanent freedom of the slaves, it should "be recognized as the true government of the State." This plan Mr. Lincoln explained and defended at length in the message, and under it provisional governments were soon organized in Louisiana and Arkansas, and application was made for the admission of their Senators and Representatives to Congress. The President's action in this respect did not receive congressional sanction and was not endorsed by the majority of his supporters at the capitol. Many held that the subject was one which was wholly within the control of the legislative branch of the government, and that his proclamation was itself an unwarrantable assumption of authority by the Executive. Others objected strenuously to the "one-tenth clause," as oligarchical in tendency and certain to leave the real advantages of position within easy reach of the disloyal majority in any State thus reconstructed. As a rule those who opposed Mr. Lincoln's scheme favored establishing provisional governments in the South until there should spring up a loyal majority, which could be safely trusted with political power. Congress, therefore, referred the message and proclamation to special committees, refused to recognize the Louisiana and Arkansas governments, and passed on the last day of the session a reconstruction act differing radically in terms from the President's plan. Its bill provided that provisional governors should be appointed with the consent of the Senate, that an enrollment of white male citizens should be made when armed resistance ceased in any State, and that when a majority of the citizens so enrolled took the oath of allegiance the loyal people should be entitled to elect delegates to a convention to establish a State government; upon the adoption of an anti-slavery constitution by such a convention it was to be certified to the President, who, with the assent of Congress,