berty
of deliberation would then be free, and Congress would have
full power to decide according to its judgment, there could
be no objection urged that the States most interested had
not been permitted to be heard. The principle is firmly
fixed in the minds of the American people that there should
be no taxation without representation.

"Great burdens have now to be borne by all the country, and
we may best demand that they shall be borne without murmur
when they are voted by a majority of the Representatives of
all the people. I would not interfere with the
unquestionable right of Congress to judge, each house for
itself, 'of the elections, returns, and qualifications of
its own members,' but that authority can not be construed as
including the right to shut out, in time of peace, any State
from the representation to which it is entitled by the
Constitution. At present, all the people of eleven States
are excluded--those who were most faithful during the war
not less than others. The State of Tennessee, for instance,
whose authorities engaged in rebellion, was restored to all
her constitutional relations to the Union by the patriotism
and energy of her injured and betrayed people. Before the
war was brought to a termination, they had placed themselves
in relation with the General Government, had established a
State government of their own; as they were not included in
the Emancipation Proclamation, they, by their own act, had
amended their Constitution so as to abolish slavery within
the limits of their State. I know no reason why the State of
Tennessee, for example, should not fully enjoy 'all her
constitutional relations to the United States.'

"The President of the United States stands toward the
country in a somewhat different attitude from that of any
member of Congress. Each member of Congress is chosen from a
single district or State; the President is chosen by the
people of all the States. As eleven are not at this time
represented in either branch of Congress, it would seem to
be his duty, on all proper occasions, to present their just
claims to Congress. There always will be differences of
opinion in the community, and individuals may be guilty of
transgressions of the law; but these do not constitute valid