recognize the Constitution, and which the authorities of the United
States do not recognize, then there are these alternatives, and these
only: the rebel States must be governed by Congress till they submit
and form a State government under the Constitution; or Congress must
recognize State governments which do not recognize either Congress
or the Constitution of the United States; or there must be an entire
absence of all government in the rebel States--and that is anarchy.
To recognize a government which does not recognize the Constitution is
absurd, for a government is not a constitution; and the recognition of
a State government means the acknowledgment of men as governors and
legislators and judges, actually invested with power to make laws, to
judge of crimes, to convict the citizens of other States, to demand the
surrender of fugitives from justice, to arm and command the militia, to
require the United States to repress all opposition to its authority,
and to protect it against invasion--against our own armies; whose
Senators and Representatives are entitled to seats in Congress, and
whose electoral votes must be counted in the election of the President
of a government which they disown and defy. To accept the alternative
of anarchy as the constitutional condition of a State is to assert the
failure of the Constitution and the end of republican government. Until,
therefore, Congress recognize a State government, organized under
its auspices, there is no government in the rebel States except the
authority of Congress. * * * When military opposition shall have been
suppressed, not merely paralyzed, driven into a corner, pushed back, but
gone, the horrid vision of civil war vanished from the South, then
call upon the people to reorganize in their own way, subject to the
conditions that we think essential to our permanent peace, and to
prevent the revival hereafter of the rebellion--a republican government
in the form that the people of the United States can agree to.