There were, however, other theories in the field, notably those of the radical
Republican leaders. According to the state-suicide theory of Charles Sumner,
"any vote of secession or other act by which any State may undertake to put an
end to the supremacy of the Constitution within its territory is inoperative
and void against the Constitution, and when sustained by force it becomes a
practical ABDICATION by the State of all rights under the Constitution, while
the treason it involves still further works an instant FORFEITURE of all those
functions and powers essential to the continued existence of the State as a
body politic, so that from that time forward the territory falls under the
exclusive jurisdiction of Congress as other territory, and the State, being
according to the language of the law felo de se, ceases to exist." Congress
should punish the "rebels" by abolishing slavery, by giving civil and
political rights to Negroes, and by educating them with the whites.

Not essentially different, but harsher, was Thaddeus Stevens's plans for
treating the South as a conquered foreign province. Let the victors treat the
seceded States "as conquered provinces and settle them with new men and
exterminate or drive out the present rebels as exiles." Congress in dealing
with these provinces was not bound even by the Constitution, "a bit of
worthless parchment," but might legislate as it pleased in regard to slavery,
the ballot, and confiscation. With regard to the white population, he said: "I
have never desired bloody punishments to any great extent. But there are
punishments quite as appalling, and longer remembered, than death. They are
more advisable, because they would reach a greater number. Strip a proud
nobility of their bloated estates; reduce them to a level with plain
republicans; send them forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the
workshops or handle a plow, and you will thus humble the proud traitors."
Stevens and Sumner agreed in reducing the Southern States to a territorial
status. Sumner would then take the principles of the Declaration of
Independence as a guide for Congress, while Stevens would leave Congress