A few radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stevens boldly insisted that they had therefore ceased to exist as legal states. When invaded and controlled by the Union army they became “conquered provinces” subject to the conqueror’s will. But most Republicans were unwilling to go this far. Instead, many of them subscribed to one variant or another of a theory that by attempting the treasonable act of secession, southern states had committed “state suicide” (Charles Sumner’s phrase) or had “forfeited” their rights as states and reverted to the condition of territories.
