bedience in the body
of her people, her return to due allegiance to the Government, laws
and authority of the United States; therefore, be it resolved that the
State of Tennessee is hereby restored to her former, proper, practical
relations to the Union, and is again entitled to be represented in
Congress by senators and representatives duly elected and qualified,
upon their taking the oaths of office required by existing laws." Mr.
Boutwell of Massachusetts desired to add a condition that Tennessee, as
a prerequisite to the privilege of representation, should provide "an
equal and just system of suffrage for the male citizens within its
jurisdiction who are not less than twenty-one years of age." Mr.
Bingham declined to admit it, shutting off all amendments by the force
of the previous question, for which the House sustained his demand.
After a few hours' debate the House passed the joint resolution by 125
_ayes_ to 12 _noes_. The Democrats all supported the measure, though
they objected strenuously to some of the implications of the preamble.
The few votes in the negative were given by some radical Republicans,
though Mr. Stevens, the leader of that wing of the party, supported
the bill.

When the bill admitting Tennessee reached the Senate, there was a
discussion of some length in regard to changing the preamble which had
been adopted by the House, the principal aim being to insert the
declaration that "said State Government can only be restored to its
former political relations in the Union by the consent of the law-making
power of the United States." There was division among the Republican
senators in regard to the expedience of this change. It was the
judgment of the more conservative Republicans who followed Mr.
Fessenden, that it was needless to risk a veto of an important bill of
this character by confronting the President with a distinct negative of
his own theory in a place where it practically availed nothing. After
much discussion however it was concluded to change the preamble for
the sake of establishing a precedent in the first one of the
Confederate States restored to the right of representation in Congress.
The phrase, "hereby restored to her former, proper, practical relations
to the Union," was one much cherished, because it was the original
expression of Mr. Lincoln in his last public speech. The House readily
concurred in the change of preamble.

The President accepted the challenge of his