the
equal rights of the States, and is founded upon a theory which is
subversive of the fundamental principles of the Government. In the case
of Alabama it violates the plighted faith of Congress by forcing upon
that State a constitution which was rejected by the people, according to
the express terms of an act of Congress requiring that a majority of the
registered electors should vote upon the question of its ratification.

For these objections, and many others that might be presented, I can not
approve this bill, and therefore return it for the action of Congress
required in such cases by the Federal Constitution.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C., _July 20, 1868_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have given to the joint resolution entitled "A resolution excluding
from the electoral college the votes of States lately in rebellion which
shall not have been reorganized" as careful examination as I have been
able to bestow upon the subject during the few days that have intervened
since the measure was submitted for my approval.

Feeling constrained to withhold my consent, I herewith return the
resolution to the Senate, in which House it originated, with a brief
statement of the reasons which have induced my action. This joint
resolution is based upon the assumption that some of the States whose
inhabitants were lately in rebellion are not now entitled to
representation in Congress and participation in the election of
President and Vice-President of the United States.

Having heretofore had occasion to give in detail my reasons for
dissenting from this view, it is not necessary at this time to repeat
them. It is sufficient to state that I continue strong in my conviction
that the acts of secession, by which a number of the States sought to
dissolve their connection with the other States and to subvert the
Union, being unauthorized by the Constitution and in direct violation
thereof, were from the beginning absolutely null and void. It follows
necessarily that when the rebellion terminated the several States which
had attempted to secede continued to be States in the Union, and all
that was required to enable them to resume their relations to the Union
was that they should adopt the measures necessary to their practical
restoration as States. Such measures were adopted, and the legitimate
result was that those States, having conformed to all the requirements
of the Constitution, resumed their former