which will unite a very large section of the country against another
section of the country, however much the latter may preponderate. The
course of emigration, the development of industry and business, and
natural causes will raise up at the South men as devoted to the Union as
those of any other part of the land; but if they are all excluded from
Congress, if in a permanent statute they are declared not to be in full
constitutional relations to the country, they may think they have cause
to become a unit in feeling and sentiment against the Government. Under
the political education of the American people the idea is inherent and
ineradicable that the consent of the majority of the whole people is
necessary to secure a willing acquiescence in legislation.

The bill under consideration refers to certain of the States as though
they had not "been fully restored in all their constitutional relations
to the United States." If they have not, let us at once act together to
secure that desirable end at the earliest possible moment. It is hardly
necessary for me to inform Congress that in my own judgment most of
those States, so far, at least, as depends upon their own action, have
already been fully restored, and are to be deemed as entitled to enjoy
their constitutional rights as members of the Union. Reasoning from the
Constitution itself and from the actual situation of the country, I feel
not only entitled but bound to assume that with the Federal courts
restored and those of the several States in the full exercise of their
functions the rights and interests of all classes of people will,
with the aid of the military in cases of resistance to the laws,
be essentially protected against unconstitutional infringement or
violation. Should this expectation unhappily fail, which I do not
anticipate, then the Executive is already fully armed with the powers
conferred by the act of March, 1865, establishing the Freedmen's Bureau,
and hereafter, as heretofore, he can employ the land and naval forces of