Volume 11 — VOTE OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS NECESSARY TO READMISSION OF REBEL STATES.

Resolution in the Senate, May 27, 1864.

The Senate having under consideration the credentials of certain claimants as Senators from Arkansas, Mr. Sumner offered the following resolution:—

RESOLVED, That a State pretending to secede from the Union, and battling against the National Government to maintain this pretension, must be regarded as a Rebel State, subject to military occupation, and without title to representation on this floor, until it has been readmitted by a vote of both Houses of Congress; and the Senate will decline to entertain any application from any such Rebel State, until after such vote of both Houses of Congress.

June 13th, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the resolution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, at the same time with a joint resolution by Mr. Lane, of Kansas, recognizing the existing government of Arkansas, and also the credentials of the claimants as Senators.

June 27th, Mr. Trumbull from the Committee reported adversely on all these references.

The requirement of this resolution was affirmed by the Senate, when it adopted the amendment of Mr. Gratz Brown to the Reconstruction Bill of the House, July 1st,[344] and it became a corner-stone of Reconstruction.