Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/44

Rh izations as States, while the legal and constitutional jurisdiction and authority of the National Government over the people and territory remain unimpaired; that these several communities can be organized into States only by the will of the loyal people, expressed freely and in the absence of all coercion; that States so organized can become States of the American Union only when they shall have applied for admission, and their admission shall have been authorized by the existing National Government; that, when a people have organized a State upon the basis of allegiance to the Union and applied for admission, the character of the institutions of such proposed State may constitute a sufficient justification for granting or rejecting such application; and, inasmuch as experience has shown that the existence of human slavery is incompatible with a republican form of government, in the several States or in the United States, and inconsistent with the peace, prosperity and unity of the nation, it is the duty of the people and of all men in authority, to resist the admission of slave States wherever organized within the jurisdiction of the National Government.”

The logical consequence of these positions was that upon the conquest of the States engaged in the rebellion the National Government could govern the people as seemed expedient and readmit them into the Union at such times and upon such terms as the Government should dictate. They antagonized the doctrine then accepted by many Republicans “Once a State always a State”—a doctrine that would have transferred the government at once into the hands of the men who had been engaged in an effort to destroy it.

Mr. Sumner was wiser in this respect. His theory that the rebellious States should be reduced to a Territorial condition was in harmony with the views that were embodied in the resolutions. At the time, however, they did not receive the support of all the members of the Republican Party.