What I state here every one knows in America. Mr. Lincoln called it to mind in his proclamations. You have not neglected to call it to mind in turn. The states which, by your request, have summoned conventions and proceeded to reorganize provisionally, all knew well that the final conditions of their return would be fixed by Congress. The admission or readmission to Congress is a question that belongs to Congress or to no one. They knew this the more inasmuch as the congressional discussions called forth by the rebel states which had already claimed the right of being represented at Washington in a preceding session, had been echoed far and wide. No mistake, therefore, is possible. Congress can neither divest itself of the absolute right of admitting new states, nor of reopening its doors to those which have attacked the Constitution by armed force, nor of deciding authoritatively what guarantees should be exacted after such a crime, nor of regulating whatever relates to the abolition of slavery and the condition of the colored race. Competence, moreover, is far from excluding influence ; and what influence can be compared to yours ? If you do not finally decide questions, you shape their decision. The provisional reconstruction effected by your request is a first step toward definitive reconstruction; your acts, your speeches, are precedents of the highest importance. The general impulse which you have given is accepted, I am convinced, by the great majority of Americans, and will naturally make itself felt in the deliberations of Congress. A single word of yours contains a whole political system ! On the day that Congress takes up the question of the freedmen, it will remember that you have called them “ fellowcitizens.” * II. Would to God that there was nothing to decide but a question of competence between you and Congress ! It would speedily be resolved by common accord ; for the
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