The three States named were the only ones which ratified the amendment before Congress adjourned.( 3) When the Reconstruction Committee reported the Fourteenth Amendment, they reported with it a bill declaring that "whenever said amendment shall become a part of the Constitution of the United States, and any State lately in insurrection shall have ratified the same and shall have modified its constitution and laws in conformity therewith," such State should be admitted to representation.

There had been during the entire session of Congress a disposition to make an exception in favor of the State of Tennessee.

She had of her own motion elected her loyal governor, and now for a year and a half the administration of the State was in a comparative degree orderly and regular.

When telegraphic intelligence of the action of the Tennessee Legislature reached the Capitol Mr.Bingham of Ohio moved a joint resolution, reciting in effect by preamble, that as the "State of Tennessee has in good faith ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and has also shown to the satisfaction of Congress, by a proper spirit of obedience in the body of her people, her return to due allegiance to the Government, laws and authority of the United States; therefore, be it resolved that the State of Tennessee is hereby restored to her former, proper, practical relations to the Union, and is again entitled to be represented in Congress by senators and representatives duly elected and qualified, upon their taking the oaths of office required by existing laws." Mr.
Boutwell of Massachusetts desired to add a condition that Tennessee, as a prerequisite to the privilege of representation, should provide "an equal and just system of suffrage for the male citizens within its jurisdiction who are not less than twenty-one years of age." Mr.
Bingham declined to admit it, shutting off all amendments by the force of the previous question, for which the House sustained his demand.
After a few hours' debate the House passed the joint resolution by 125 _ayes_ to 12 _noes_.

The Democrats all supported the measure, though they objected strenuously to some of the implications of the preamble.
The few votes in the negative were given by some radical Republicans, though Mr.Stevens, the leader of that wing of the party, supported the bill.
When the bill admitting Tennessee reached the Senate, there was a discussion of some length in regard to changing the preamble which had been adopted by the House, the principal aim being to insert the declaration that "said State Government can only be restored to its former political relations in the Union by the consent of the law-making power of the United States." There was division among the Republican senators in regard to the expedience of this change.