ted States should be re-admitted to
representation in Congress. The principal objects aimed at were at
least four in number. That which most largely engaged popular
attention at the outset was the increased representation which the
South was to secure by the manumission of the negroes. In the original
Constitution only three-fifths of the slaves were permitted to be
enumerated in the basis of apportionment. Two-fifths were now added
and an increase of political power to the South appeared probably as
the somewhat startling result of the civil struggle. There was an
obvious injustice in giving to the white men of the South the right to
elect representatives in Congress apportioned to their section by
reason of the four and a half million of negroes, who were enumerated
in the census but not allowed to exercise any political power. By
permitting this, a Confederate soldier who fought to destroy the Union
would be endowed with a larger power of control in the National
Government than the loyal soldier who fought to maintain the Union.
To allow this to be accomplished would be a mere mockery of justice,
the utter subversion of fair play between man and man.

Another subject deeply engaging Northern thought was the definition of
American citizenship. There was a strong desire to place it on such
substantial foundation as should prevent the possibility of sinister
interpretation by the Judiciary, and guard it at the same time against
different constructions in different States. This was an omission in
the original Constitution--so grave an omission, indeed, that the
guarantee entitling citizens of each State to the privileges and
immunities of citizens of the several States, was in many cases
ignored, often indeed defied and destroyed. If we were now to have a
broader nationality as the result of our civil struggle, it was
apparent to the mass of men, as well as to the publicist and statesman,
that citizenship should be placed on unquestionable ground--on ground
so plain that the humblest man who should inherit its protections
would comprehend the extent and significance of his title.

A third point had taken possession of the popular mind, quickened and
intensified as it was by the conflict between the President and
Congress. The President, as already stated, had by the lavish use of
the pardoning power signalized his change on the subject of
Reconstruction. Many of the worst offenders in the Confederate cause
h