peace and safety of the Union." The report and doings
of the Committee of Fifteen, although by many impatiently criticised
as dilatory, resulted, before the end of the first session of the
Thirty-ninth Congress, in the reconstruction of one of the States
lately in rebellion.

CHAPTER XX.

RESTORATION OF TENNESSEE.

Assembling of the Tennessee Legislature -- Ratification of
the Constitutional Amendment -- Restoration of Tennessee
proposed in Congress -- The Government of Tennessee not
Republican -- Protest against the Preamble -- Passage in the
House -- New Preamble proposed -- The President's Opinion
deprecated and disregarded -- Passage in the Senate -- The
President's Approval and Protest -- Admission of Tennessee
Members -- Mr. Patterson's Case.

The most important practical step in the work of reconstruction taken
by the Thirty-ninth Congress was the restoration of Tennessee to her
relations to the Union. Of all the recently rebellious States,
Tennessee was the first to give a favorable response to the overtures
of Congress by ratifying the Constitutional Amendment.

Immediately on the reception of the circular of the Secretary of State
containing the proposed amendment, Governor Brownlow issued a
proclamation summoning the Legislature of Tennessee to assemble at
Nashville on the 4th of July.

There are eighty-four seats in the lower branch of the Legislature of
Tennessee. By the State Constitution, two-thirds of the seats are
required to be full to constitute a quorum. The presence of fifty-six
members seemed essential for the legal transaction of business. Every
effort was made to prevent the assembling of the required number. The
powerful influence of the President himself was thrown in opposition
to ratification.

On the day of the assembling of the Legislature but fifty-two members
voluntarily appeared. Two additional members were secured by arrest,
so that the number nominally in attendance was fifty-four, and thus it
remained for several days. It was ascertained that deaths and
resignations had reduced the number of actual members to seventy-two,
and a Union caucus determined to declare that fifty-four members
should constitute a quorum. Two more Union members opportunely
arrived, swelling the number present in the Capitol to fifty-six.
Neither persuasion nor compulsion availed to induce the two
"Conservative members" to occupy their seats, and the ho