uture, stop your aggressions upon
the Constitution of your country."

The vote having been taken on the amendment proposed by Mr. Johnson
and the substitute of Mr. Henderson, they were both rejected.

Mr. Sherman then offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute,
the preamble of which declared that "No legal State governments or
adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel
States." It retained the military feature of the original bill, with
the modification that the President, instead of the General of the
army, should appoint district commanders. The most important part of
the amendment was a plan of reconstruction, which added a new section
to the bill in the following form:

"SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That when the people
of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a
Constitution of government in conformity with the
Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by
a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of
said State twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, who have
been resident in said State for one year previous to the day
of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for
participation in the rebellion, or for felony at common law,
and when such Constitution shall provide that the elective
franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the
qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates, and
when such Constitution shall be ratified by a majority of
the persons voting on the question of ratification who are
qualified as electors of delegates, and when such
Constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for
examination and approval, and Congress shall have appointed
the same, and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature
elected under said Constitution, shall have adopted the
amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed
by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen,
and when said article shall have become a part of the
Constitution of the United States, said State shall be
declared entitled to representation in Congress, and
Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on
their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and
thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be