olicy was outlined by Mr. Sumner, without the slightest reference to
what the President might communicate "on the state of the Union," and
a system of reconstruction proposed which was in absolute hostility to
the one that Mr. Johnson had devised. Mr. Sumner submitted resolutions
defining the duty of Congress in respect to guarantees of the National
security and National faith in the rebel States. While the conditions
were not put forth as a finality, they were significant, if not
conclusive, of the demands which would be made, first by the more
advanced Republicans, and ultimately by the entire party. These
resolutions declared that, in order to provide proper guarantees for
security in the future, "Congress should take care that no one of the
rebellious States should be allowed to resume its relations to the
Union until after the satisfactory performance of five several
conditions, which must be submitted to a popular vote, and be
sanctioned by a majority of the people in each of those States
respectively." These condition were, in some respects, marked by
Mr. Sumner's lack of tact and practical wisdom as a legislator. He
required stipulations, the fulfillment of which could not really be
ascertained.

Mr. Sumner demanded, first, "the complete re-establishment, in loyalty,
as shown by an honest recognition of the unity of the Republic, and the
duty of allegiance to it at all times, without mental reservation or
equivocation of any kind." How Mr. Sumner could determine that "the
recognition of the unity of the Republic" was _honest_, how he could
know whether there was not, after all, a mental reservation on the
part of the rebels now swearing allegiance, he did not attempt to
inform the Senate. The next or second condition was somewhat more
practical in fact, but might have been expressed in simpler form. He
demanded "the complete suppression of all oligarchical pretensions, and
the complete enfranchisement of all citizens, so that there shall be
no denial of rights on account of race or color." His third condition
was "the rejection of the rebel debt, and the adoption, in just
proportions, of the National debt and the National obligations to Union
soldiers, with solemn pledges never to join in any measure, directly
or indirectly, for their repudiation, or in any way tending to impair
the National credit." His fourth condition was "the organization of an
educational system for the equal benefit of all, witho