article of the Constitution, "have complete power to exclude from
counting all electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal, and it is
not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct the power by a
veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential to the
matter." The President further informed Congress that "he disclaims
all right on the part of the Executive to interfere in any way in the
matter of canvassing or counting the electoral votes, and he also
disclaims that by signing said resolution he has expressed any opinion
of the recitals of the preamble or any judgement of his own upon the
subject of the resolution."

The message was indeed throughout a sarcastic reflection upon the
action of Congress. It was as if the President had said, "You have
passed a resolution making certain declarations which nobody
controverts: you have claimed certain powers which nobody denies.
If I should sign your resolution without explanation, it might imply
my right to veto it, and thereby take from you your undoubted
Constitutional power. You are really guilty of weakening your own
prerogatives under the Constitution by asking me to assent to their
existence. If you intended your resolution as a reflection on my
policy of reconstruction, you might have spared yourself the trouble,
for that policy never contemplated the slightest violation of the
rights and prerogatives of Congress." The message throughout was
a singularly apt illustration of that keen perception and abounding
common sense which made Mr. Lincoln so formidable an antagonist in
every controversy political and official in which he became involved.
His triumph was complete both in the estimation of Congress and of the
people.

Mr. Lincoln really adhered with unexpected tenacity to the plan of
reconstruction which he had attempted, and which, putting aside the
opprobrious names applied to it, was called by himself "The Louisiana
Plan." He had stubbornly maintained his ground against the almost
unanimous protest of Republican senators and representatives, and he
justified himself by elaborate argument. He had been much influenced
by the representations made by General Banks who was commander of the
Military District, and much impressed by the perfect faith in its
success entertained by leading men of the State. In the last speech
he ever made (April 11, 1865), referring to the twelve thousand men
who had organized the Louisiana Government, the P