If we seek for the principle which entered into this proceeding of the Continental Congress, we find it in the idea that nothing can be left to illegal or informal action, but that all must be done according to rules of constitution and…

We are not to take the will of the people from public meetings, nor from tumultuous assemblies, by which the timid are terrified, the prudent are alarmed, and by which society is disturbed.

These are not American modes of signifying the will of the people, and they never were.

I say that the will of the people must prevail, when it is ascertained; but there must be some legal and authentic mode of ascertaining that will, and then the people may make what government they please.

The new governments can all be organized by Congress, which is the natural guardian of the people, without any immediate government, and within the jurisdiction of the National Constitution.

Show me that I am wrong, that this conclusion is not founded in the Constitution, and is not sustained by reason, and I shall at once renounce it; for, in the present condition of affairs, there can be no pride of opinion which must not…

Not as partisan, not as advocate, do I make this appeal, but simply as citizen, seeking, in all sincerity, to offer my contribution to the establishment of that policy by which Union and Peace may be restored.

From the necessity of the case, ex necessitate rei, Congress must have jurisdiction over every portion of the United States where there is no other government; and since in the present case there is no other government, the whole region…

The whole broad Rebel region is tabula rasa, or “a clean slate,” where Congress, under the Constitution of the United States, may write the laws.

Perhaps the power of governing a Territory belonging to the United States, which has not, by becoming a State, acquired the means of self-government, may result necessarily from the facts that it is not within the jurisdiction of any…

If the right to govern may be the inevitable consequence of the right to acquire territory, surely, and by much stronger reason, this right must be the inevitable consequence of the sovereignty of the United States, wherever there is no…

If the President, disregarding the pretension of State Rights, can appoint military governors within the Rebel States to serve a temporary purpose, who can doubt that Congress can exercise a similar jurisdiction?

If it be asked, where in the Constitution such powers are bestowed upon Congress, I reply, that they are found precisely where the President now finds his powers.

But it is clear that the powers to “declare war,” to “suppress insurrections,” and to “support armies” are all ample for this purpose.

It is Congress that conquers, and the same authority that conquers must govern.

Nor is this authority derived from any strained construction; it springs from the very heart of the Constitution.

It is among those powers, latent in peace, which war and insurrection call into being, but as intrinsically constitutional as any other power.

Even if not conceded to the President, these powers must be conceded to Congress.

They are the powers conceded by civilized society to nations at war, known as Rights of War,--at once multitudinous and minute, vast and various.

It would be strange, if Congress could organize armies and navies to conquer, and could not also organize governments to protect.

But it will not be enough to crush the Rebellion; its terrible root must be exterminated, so that it may no more flourish in blood.

It is found in the constitutional provision, that “the United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion.” Here, be it observed, are words of guaranty…

Thus far our Government, habitually hospitable to all newly formed republics, has turned aside from Hayti and Liberia, although the former has been an independent power for nearly sixty years, and the latter for nearly fifteen.

In the original concession to the United States of this twofold power there was open recognition of the ultimate responsibility and duty of the National Government, conferring jurisdiction above all pretended State Rights; and now the…

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.