far retrieved, one State so far void of present offenses,
that the ban was withdrawn from her, and she again was placed on an
equal footing with the most favored States in the Union. The doors
were instantly thrown open to her Senators and Representatives, the
whole case was disposed of, and the nation approved the act. Here the
matter should have rested; here it should have been left forever
undisturbed. But no; before one week has made its round, we are called
upon to stultify ourselves, to wound the interests of the nation, to
surrender the position held by the loyal people of the country almost
unanimously, and the exigency is that a particular citizen of
Tennessee seeks to effect his entrance to the Senate of the United
States without being qualified like every other man who is permitted
to enter there.

"We are asked to drive a ploughshare over the very foundation of our
position; to break down and destroy the bulwark by which we may secure
the results of a great war and a great history, by which we may
preserve from defilement this place, where alone in our organism the
people never lose their supremacy, except by the recreancy of their
Representatives; a bulwark without which we may not save our
Government from disintegration and disgrace. If we do this act, it
will be a precedent which will carry fatality in its train. From
Jefferson Davis to the meanest tool of despotism and treason, every
rebel may come here, and we shall have no reason to assign against his
admission, except the arbitrary reason of numbers."

Mr. Conkling closed by moving that the joint resolution be laid on the
table, which was carried by a vote of eighty-eight to thirty-one.

During the same day's session--which was protracted until seven
o'clock of Saturday morning, July 28th--the same subject came up again
in the Senate, on the passage of the resolution to admit Mr. Patterson
to a seat in the Senate upon his taking the oaths required by the
Constitution and laws. After some discussion, the resolution passed,
twenty-one voting in the affirmative and eleven in the negative.

Mr. Patterson went forward to the desk, and the prescribed oaths
having been administered, he took his seat in the Senate. Thus, on the
last day of the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, Tennessee
was fully reconstructed in her representation.

CHAPTER XXI.

NEGRO SUFFRAGE.

Review of the Preceding Action -- Efforts of Mr. Yates for
Un