"….The principle upon which the bill proceeds is the principle for which I have all along contended, that the rebel States, as communities, have been conquered by the arms of the United States in the prosecution of the war which resulted in the suppression of the rebellion waged by those States. I hold that, subject to the Constitution of the United States and to the duty of ultimately restoring the rebel States to their former standing under the Constitution, the Government of the United States has the same power in reference to those conquered communities as it would have had they been foreign territory. Let me not be misunderstood, sir. I do not say that the Government of the United States has precisely the same authority over the rebel States which it would have in reference to conquered foreign territory; but we hold them by the sword and by the right of conquest; yet we hold them in a fiduciary capacity, and the trust imposed upon the Government is ultimately and in our good time, as Congress shall judge most fit and expedient in reference to the public interest, to restore them to the enjoyment of all their former rights as members of the Union. But at present we hold them as conquered country. The governments which have been established there under the imperial edicts of the Executive have all depended for their vitality and force upon the military power of the United States; and it cannot be denied to-day that all these bogus governments in the rebel States I call them bogus only in the sense of their being unconstitutional rest upon the military edicts of the President of the United States, so far as they have any foundation and operation…." Congressman Howard, February 15, 1867