They denied that the States had in any degree, even by rebellion, forfeited their prerogatives or changed their relations.

They insisted that nothing remained but to recognize them as restored to their old position.

In framing the present platform they re-affirmed this doctrine, under the declaration that "any attempt of Congress, on any pretext whatever, to deprive any State of its right (to regulate suffrage), or interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant usurpation of power, which cannot find any warrant in the Constitution." This broad assertion was designed to deny even the right of Congress to make impartial suffrage in the revised constitutions a condition precedent to the re-admission of the rebellious States to representation.

But the platform did not stop here.

With a bolder sweep it declared "_that we regard the Reconstruction Acts of Congress as usurpations, unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void_." This extreme proposition, deliberately adopted, was calculated to produce a profound public impression.