Radicals prepared the ground for unilateral action by Congress. They had three powerful constitutional weapons. The first was familiar: the right of Congress to determine its own membership, that is the power to reject members even if they had won election in their states. The second, untested, weapon was the constitutional clause guaranteeing every state a republican form of government. This was, in Senator Charles Sumner’s words, a “sleeping giant.” Nothing else in the constitution gave “Congress such supreme power over the states.” The third were the war powers that allowed the continuing
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