ble and oppressive.

"It is moreover contended that, from the moment when
rebellion lays down its arms, and actual hostilities cease,
all political rights of rebellious communities are at once
restored; that because the people of a State of the Union
were once an organized community within the Union, they
necessarily so remain, and their right to be represented in
Congress at any and all times, and to participate in the
government of the country under all circumstances, admits of
neither question nor dispute. If this is indeed true, then
is the Government of the United States powerless for its own
protection, and flagrant rebellion, carried to the extreme
of civil war, is a pastime which any State may play at, not
only certain that it can lose nothing, in any event, but may
be the gainer by defeat. If rebellion succeeds, it
accomplishes its purpose and destroys the Government. If it
fails, the war has been barren of results, and the battle
may be fought out in the legislative halls of the country.
Treason defeated in the field has only to take possession of
Congress and the Cabinet."

The committee in this report asserted:

"It is more than idle, it is a mockery to contend that a
people who have thrown off their allegiance, destroyed the
local government which bound their States to the Union as
members thereof, defied its authority, refused to execute
its laws, and abrogated every provision which gave them
political rights within the Union, still retain through all
the perfect and entire right to resume at their own will and
pleasure all their privileges within the Union, and
especially to participate in its government and control the
conduct of its affairs. To admit such a principle for one
moment would be to declare that treason is always master and
loyalty a blunder."

To a favorite argument of the advocates of immediate restoration of
the rebel States, the report presented the following reply:

"That taxation should be only with the consent of the
people, through their own representatives, is a cardinal
principle of all free governments; but it is not true that
taxation and representation must go together under all
circumstances and at every moment of time. The people of the
District of Columbia and of the Territories are taxe