against its Government. The third, which was really the
crucial one, provided a settlement of the franchise question which
cannot be regarded as extreme or unreasonable. It will be remembered
that the original Constitutional Compromise had provided for the
inclusion, in calculating the representation of a State, of all "free
persons" and of three-fifths of the "other persons"--that is, of the
slaves. By freeing the slaves the representation to which the South was
entitled was automatically increased by the odd two-fifths of their
number, and this seemed to Northerners unreasonable, unless the freedmen
were at the same time enfranchised. Congress decided to recommend that
the representation of the South should be greater or less according to
the extent to which the Negro population were admitted to the franchise
or excluded from it. This clause was re-cast more than once in order to
satisfy a fantastic scruple of Sumner's concerning the indecency of
mentioning the fact that some people were black and others white, a
scruple which he continued to enforce with his customary appeals to the
Declaration of Independence, until even his ally Stevens lost all
patience with him. But in itself it was not, perhaps, a bad solution of
the difficulty. Had it been allowed to stand and work without further
interference it is quite likely that many Southern States would have
been induced by the prospect of larger representation to admit in course
of time such Negroes as seemed capable of understanding the meaning of
citizenship in the European sense. Such, at any rate, was the opinion of
General Lee, as expressed in his evidence before the Reconstruction
Committee.

The South was hostile to the proposed settlement mainly on account of
the second provision. It resented the proposed exclusion of its leaders.
The sentiment was an honourable and chivalrous one, and was well
expressed by Georgia in her protest against the detention of Jefferson
Davis: "If he is guilty so are we." But the rejection of the Amendment
by the Southern States had a bad effect in the North. It may be
convenient here to remark that Davis was never tried. He was brought up
and admitted to bail (which the incalculable Greeley found for him), and
the case against him was not further pressed. In comparison with almost
every other Government that has crushed an insurrection, the Government
of the United States deserves high credit for its magnanimity in dealing
with the