t of practical relations to the Union,"--which
is simply to decline venturing farther than one step in the analysis of
their condition,--or "States in rebellion," or "States whose governments
have lapsed," or "Territories"; but certainly, neither in principle nor
in fact, were they States in the Union, according to the constitutional
meaning of that phrase. The one thing certain is, that their criminal
acts did not affect at all the rights of the United States over their
geographical limits and population; for these rights were given by
conventions of the people of all the States, and could not therefore be
abrogated by the will of the particular States that rebelled. Whether or
not the word "Territories" fits their condition, it is plain that they
cannot be brought back to their old "practical relations to the Union"
without a process similar to that by which Territories are organized
into States and brought into the Union. If they were, during the
Rebellion, States in the Union, then the only clause in the Constitution
which covers their case is that in which each house of Congress is
authorized "to compel the attendance of absent members"; but, even
conceding that we have waged war in the character of a colossal
sergeant-at-arms, we should, by another clause of the Constitution, be
bound to compel their attendance as members, only to punish their
absence as traitors.

Still, even if we should admit, against all the facts and logic of the
case, that the Rebel communities have never been out of the Union as
States, it is plain that the conduct of the Executive has not, until
recently, conformed to that theory. He violated it constantly in the
processes of his scheme of reconstruction, only to make it reappear as
mandatory in the results. All the steps he took in creating State
governments were necessarily subversive of universally recognized State
rights. The Secessionists had done their work so completely, as regards
their respective localities, that there was left no possible organic
connection between the old States and any new ones which might be
organized under the lead of the Federal government. The only persons who
could properly call State conventions were disqualified, by treason, for
the office, and might have been hanged as traitors while occupied in
preserving unbroken the unity of their State life. In other words, the
only persons competent to act constitutionally were the persons
constitutionally incompet