Call it, if you please, a question of form; but it is so closely associated with substance that it becomes substance.

Ask any student of republican institutions what is one of their admitted triumphs, and he will name the vote by ballot.

Do not dishonor the ballot, but see that it is required in the constitutions of these Rebel States.

Provided, That the constitution shall require the Legislature to establish and sustain a system of public schools open to all, without distinction of race or color.

I do not like to play the part of Cassandra,--but I cannot forbear declaring my conviction that we shall regret hereafter that we have not done more.

I am willing to make haste; but, following the ancient injunction, I would make haste slowly: in other words, I would make haste so that our work may be well done and the Republic shall not suffer.

Especially would I guard carefully all those who justly look to us for protection, and I would see that the new governments are founded in correct principles.

Let me, then, confess my regret that Congress chooses to employ the military power for purposes of Reconstruction.

Clearly it is according to the genius of republican institutions that the military should be subordinate to the civil.

By the system you have adopted, the civil is subordinate to the military, and the civilian yields to the soldier.

You accord to the army an “initiative” which I would assure to the civil power.

I am unwilling that Reconstruction should have a military “initiative.” I would not see new States born of the bayonet.

Leaving to the army its proper duties of protection, I would intrust Reconstruction to provisional governments, civil in character and organized by Congress.

Logically you should proceed to supply their places by other governments, while the military is in the nature of police, until permanent governments are organized, republican in form and loyal in character.

During this transition period, permanent governments might be matured on safe foundations and the people educated to a better order of things.

These States are like a potter’s vessel: you may mould them to be vessels of honor or of dishonor.

It is not a military bill, or a bill to authorize Reconstruction by military power; but it is a bill essentially civil from beginning to end.

I know well the whole history of oaths, and how often they are the occasion of perjury by the wholesale.

But I cannot resist the conclusion that at this moment, when we are taking securities for the future, we ought to seize the opportunity of impressing upon the people fundamental principles on which alone our Government can stand.

You may exclude Rebels; but their children, who are not excluded, have inherited the Rebel spirit.

The schools and colleges of the South have been nurseries of Rebellion.

I would exact from all seeking the public service, or even the elective franchise, a pledge to support a republican government; and to make this pledge perfectly clear, so that all may understand its extent, I would enumerate the points…

If a citizen cannot give this pledge, he ought to have no part in Reconstruction.

The bill then provides for permanent governments republican and truly loyal.

It is with difficulty that I renounce a desire long cherished to see Reconstruction under the supervision of Congress, according to the forms of civil order, without the intervention of military power.