And he then undertook to put this class in possession of the functions and powers of the "loyal State governments" subverted by the rebellion, by proclaiming and declaring, "that whenever in any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of the year A.D. 1860, each having taken the oath aforesaid, and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the State existing immediately before the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others, shall re-establish a State government which shall be republican and nowise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the State, and the State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that 'the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on application of the Legislature, or the executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.'"

It is true that Mr. Lincoln was careful to say in this proclamation that "whether members sent to Congress from any State shall be admitted

to seats, constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive," but it is plain that he did not think the Houses could constitutionally use their power of judging of the qualifications and elections of their members to keep members from "States" reconstructed upon his plan from taking their seats on the ground that these "States" had not been properly reconstructed.

And it is also true that there occurs in the proclamation another paragraph which appears to militate against the theory of the perdurance of a "State" through the period of its rebellion against the United States. It reads: "And it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal State government in any State the name of the State, the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution and the general code of laws as before the rebellion be maintained, subject only to the modifications made necessary by the conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not contravening such conditions which may be deemed expedient by those framing the new State government."

It certainly may appear from this language that while Mr. Lincoln regarded it as convenient and desirable that the new "State" should be considered a continuation of the old "State," yet that he did not look upon it as absolutely necessary. Still, it seems more probable that this was only his cautious habit of leaving open a way of escape out of any position when necessity or prudence might require its abandonment than that he doubted the correctness of his idea of the indestructibility of the "States" in spite of the rebellion of a part of their population, or even of the whole of their population.

Mr. Lincoln was not alone in this view of the nature of the "States" of the Union and the problem of Reconstruction. His able Secretary of

State certainly agreed with him; the resolutions and acts of Congress down to that time may be better explained upon this theory than upon any other; and so far as the Supreme Court had dealt with the question, its dicta, if not its exact decisions, had indicated the same trend of opinion. The President felt, therefore, no hesitation in applying his plan in the specific cases that were in a condition for its realization.

Before treating of his reconstruction of Louisiana and Arkansas under this plan, however, there are two points of the proclamation which

should be briefly noticed. The first is the omission of Virginia from the names of the "States" to which the proclamation should apply. The reason for this is simple, and easily understood. The President had always recognized what was called the Pierpont Government at Alexandria as the true government of Virginia. Virginia, therefore, according to his view needed no reconstruction. It belonged in the class with Kentucky and Missouri.

The other point is the proposition to found "State" government upon ten per centum of the population of the "State." Now we know that "State"

government in the federal system of the United States is local self-government. But local self-government cannot really exist where the part of the population holding the legal authority does not really possess the sinews of power; and where the conditions of the society are democratic, or anything like democratic, one-tenth of the population cannot really possess the sinews of power. The actual power to make their government valid, to enable their government to govern would have to come from the outside. While this may happen under certain temporary exigencies without destroying local self-government on the whole, yet it cannot be permitted as a principle upon which to build a local self-government, a "State" in a federal system. Provincial governments, Territorial governments may be sustained in that way, but the distinguishing principle of "State" government forbids it. It is simply not "State" government when holding in this way the power to govern, as the principle of its life, no matter what name we may give it. Upon this point, then, Mr. Lincoln's reasoning was crude and erroneous, and when applied was destined to result in mischievous error.

As far back as the first week in December of 1862 General Shepley, then Military Governor of Louisiana, had, by permission from the President,

ordered an election for members of Congress, in the districts over which his jurisdiction extended. The President had cautioned him against any choice of Northern men at the point of the bayonet, and had declared to him that such a procedure would be "disgraceful and outrageous." The General heeded the warning, and two old citizens of

Louisiana, Messrs. Hahn and Flanders, were chosen, and were admitted by the House of Representatives to their seats. This happened in February of 1863, and it was certainly good evidence that the House of Representatives was, at that moment, resting on the theory of the perdurance of the "State" of Louisiana throughout the rebellion within its limits against the United States.

Things went no further than this, however, during the year 1863, the military situation requiring the whole thought and activity of the