- mitted to take their seats therein upon being qualified by
oath according to law."
In speaking in opposition to this minority resolution, Mr. Stevens said: "I think I may say without impropriety, that until yesterday there was an investigation into the condition of Tennessee, to see whether by act of Congress we could admit that State to a condition of representation here, and admit its members to seats here, but since yesterday there has arisen a state of things which the committee deem puts it out of their power to proceed further without surrendering a great principle, without the loss of all their dignity, without surrendering the rights of this body to the usurpation of another power." The "Concurrent Resolution," introduced by Mr. Stevens, was carried without amendment, so the readmission of Tennessee was again postponed indefinitely.
Two months later, however, its readmission was foreshadowed in a speech by Mr. Bingham on the Fourteenth Amendment. "I trust," he said, "that this amendment will pass this House, that the day will soon come when Tennessee—loyal Tennessee—loyal in the very heart of the rebellion, her mountains and plains blasted by the very ravagers of war and stained with blood of her faithful children fallen in the great struggle for the maintenance of the Union, having already conformed her constitution and laws to every provision of this amendment, will at once, upon its submission by Congress, irrevocably ratify it, and be, without further delay, represented in Congress by her loyal Representatives and Senators. Let that great example be set by Tennessee, and it will be worth a hundred thousand votes to the loyal people in the free North."
The suggestion contained in this speech was promptly acted upon by the Radical government in Tennessee. On the 19th of June, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified by the Legislature. Mr. Brownlow immediately sent the following telegram to Washington:
