No consideration could induce me to give my approval to such an election law for any purpose, and especially for the great purpose of framing the constitution of a State.

I confidently believe that a time will come when these States will again occupy their true positions in the Union.

If ever the American citizen should be left to the free exercise of his own judgment it is when he is engaged in the work of forming the fundamental law under which he is to live.

I have considered the bill entitled 'An act supplementary to an act entitled 'An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States,'' passed March 2, 1867, and to facilitate restoration.

A military republic, a government rounded on mock elections and supported only by the sword, was nearly a quarter of a century since pronounced by Daniel Webster, when speaking of the South American States, as 'a movement, indeed, but a…

When this shall have been consummated, I pray God that the errors of the past may be forgotten and that once more we shall be a happy, united, and prosperous people, and that at last, after the bitter and eventful experience through which…

All this legislation proceeds upon the contrary assumption that the people of each of these States shall have no constitution except such as may be arbitrarily dictated by Congress and formed under the restraint of military rule.

I herewith lay before the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty concluded on the 19th of March, 1867, between the United States and the Chippewa tribe of Indians of the Mississippi.

A letter of the Secretary of the Interior and a copy of a letter of Hon. Lewis V. Bogy, special commissioner, of the 20th instant, explanatory of the said treaty, are also herewith transmitted.

To the House of Representatives: I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of the 18th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with its accompanying papers.

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in answer to their resolution of the 18th instant, a report from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying paper.