It was evident therefore to the least observing, that no other State which had been engaged in the Rebellion would be permitted to resume the privilege of representation on less exacting conditions than had been imposed on Tennessee.

It might be that their own conduct would cause more exacting conditions to be imposed.
Congress adjourned on the 28th of July.

Elections were to be held in the ensuing autumn for representatives to the Fortieth Congress, and an opportunity was thus promptly afforded to test the popular feeling on the issue raised by the President's plan of Reconstruction.
The appeal was to be made to the same constituency which two years before had chosen him to the Vice-Presidency,--augmented by the vote of Tennessee, now once more authorized to take part in electing the representatives of the nation.

Seldom in the history of the country has a weightier question been submitted to popular arbitrament; seldom has a popular decision been evoked which was destined to exercise so far-reaching an influence upon the progress of the nation, upon the prosperity of the people.

It was not an ordinary political contest between partisans of recognized and chronic hostility.