mendment providing that Tennessee
should have representation in Congress whenever, in addition to having
ratified the constitutional amendment, it should establish an "equal
and just system of suffrage." Mr. Boutwell, although opposed to the
joint resolution before the House, had no "technical" objections to
the immediate restoration of Tennessee. "I am not troubled," said he,
"by the informalities apparent in the proceedings of the Tennessee
Legislature upon the question of ratifying the constitutional
amendment. It received the votes of a majority of the members of a
full house, and when the proper officers shall have made the customary
certificate, and filed it in the Department of State, it is not easy
to see how any legal objection can be raised, even if two-thirds of
the members were not present, although that proportion is a quorum
according to the constitution of the State."

Mr. Boutwell declared that his objections to the pending measure were
vital and fundamental. The government of Tennessee was not republican
in form, since under its constitution more than eighty thousand male
citizens were deprived of the right of suffrage. The enfranchisement
of the freedmen of Tennessee should be the beginning of the great work
of reconstruction upon a republican basis. "We surrender the rights of
four million people," said Mr. Boutwell in concluding his remarks; "we
surrender the cause of justice; we imperil the peace and endanger the
prosperity of the country; we degrade ourselves as a great party which
has controlled the government in the most trying times in the history
of the world."

Mr. Higby thought that Tennessee should not be admitted without a
restriction that she should not be allowed any more representation
than that to which she would be entitled were the constitutional
amendment in full operation and effect.

Mr. Bingham advocated at considerable length the immediate restoration
of Tennessee. "Inasmuch," said he, "as Tennessee has conformed to all
our requirements; inasmuch as she has, by a majority of her whole
legislature in each house, ratified the amendment in good faith;
inasmuch as she has of her own voluntary will conformed her
constitution and laws to the Constitution and laws of the United
States; inasmuch as she has by her fundamental law forever prohibited
the assumption or payment of the rebel debt, or the enslavement of
men; inasmuch as she has by her own constitution declared that rebels
s