The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-27 00:00:00

The Rev. H. Ward Beecher.

The Rev. H. Ward Beecher has addressed the
following letter to Captain Duncan, a member of his
congregation :

Peokshill, Aug. 8, 1806.
My dear Friond,—l am obliged to you for your letter.
I am sorry that my friends and my congregation are

Eas no just grounds, whatever may be the seeming. -I
have not left, and do not propose to leave, or to be put out
of the Republican party. lam in sympathy with its aims,
its great principles, and its army of noble men. But I took
the liberty of criticising its policy, in a single respect, and
to do what I could to secure what I believed and still be-
lieve to be a better one. I am, and from the first have been,
fully of opinion that the amendment of the Constitution,
proposed by Congress, equalising representation in the
Northern and Southern States, was intrinsically just and
reasonable, and that it should bo sought by a wholesome
and persistent moral agitation. But, from the present con-
dition of the public mind and from the President's attitude,
I deemed such a change to be practically impossible in any
near period by political action ; and a plan of reconstruc-
tion based upon that seems to me far moro like a plan of
adjourning reconstruction for years, at least, with all the
liabilities of mischief which are always to be expected in
the fluctuation of politics in a free nation. It is not the
North that chiefly needs the restoration of Government to
its normal sphere and regular action. Either the advan-
tages of Union aro fallacious, or the continuous exclusion
of the South from it will breed disorder, make the future
reunion and especially subject the freedmen
tollto morn difficult,
veryo worst condition
t of society which can well
exist. No army, no Government, and no earthly power can
compel the South to treat four millions of men justly
if the inhabitants (whether rightly or wrongly) regard
those men as the cause, or even the occasion, of their
unhappiness and disfranchisement. But no army, or
government, or power will be required when Southern so-
and prospering in the renewed
ciety is restored, occupied,
Union. Then the negro will be felt to be necessary to
Southern industry, and interest will join with conscience
and kindness in securing for him favourable treatment
from his follow-citizens. We that live at a distance may
think that the social reconstruction involved in the eman-
cipation of four million slaves is as simple and easy as it
is to discourse about it. But such a change is itself ono of
the most tremendous tests to which industry and society
can be subjected; and to its favourable issue is required
every advantage possible. The longer, therefore, the South
is loft in turmoil, the worse it will bo for the negro. If
there were no other reason; if the white population were
not our fellow-citizens ; if we had lost all kindness and
regard for thorn, and all pride for the Union, as in part
represented by Southern States, and confined our attention
exclusively to the negro, the case would bo strong beyond
my power of expression, for an early resumption of Federal
relations with all the States. If this is to disregard the ne-
gro, then all social and natural laws have been studied in
vain. Neither anal a "Johnson man" in any received mean-
ing of that term. I accept that part of the policy which
he favours ; but with modification. I have never thought
that it would be wise to bring back all the States in a body
and at once, any more than it would be to keep them all
out together. One by one, in due succession, under a
practical judgment, rather than by a wholesale theoretic
rule, I would have them readmitted. I still think a middle
course between the President's and that of Congress would
be wiser than either. But with this my agreement with
the President ends. I have long regretted his ignorance
of Northern ideas and sentiment; and 1 have been
astonished and pained at his increasing indiscretions. Un-
consciously, the President is the chief obstacle to the re-
admission of Southern States. It is enough that he is
known to favour a measure to set the public mind
against it. This is to be deplored. But it is largely
owing to his increasing imprudent conduct. I believe
him to be honest, sincere in desiring what ho regards as
the public good, but slow and unapt in receiving help.
from other minds. Proud and sensitive, firm to ob-
stinacy, resolute to fierceness, intelligent in his own sphere
(which is narrow), he holds his opinions inflexibly. He
often mistakes the intensity of his own convictions for
strength of evidence. Such a man has a true sphere in
periods of peril, when audacious firmness and rude vigour
aro needed. But in the delicate tasks of adjustment which
follow civil war such a nature lacks that tact and delicacy
and moral intuition which constitute the true statesman.
Mr. Johnson's haste to take the wrong side at the atrocious
massacre of New Orleans was shocking. The perversion
and mutilation of Sheridan's despatches need no character-
isation. Ido not attribute this act to him Yet it was of
such a criminal and disgraceful nature that not to clear
himself of it by the exposure and rebuke of the offending
party amounted to collusion with crime after the fact.
What shall I say of the speeches made in the wide recent
circuit of the executive ? Are these the ways of reconci-
liation ? Yet Mr. Johnson is to be President for nearly
three years to come, clothed with a power which belongs
to few thrones. Beside the honour which a people owe
to him as the chief magistrate, wo must, as Christian citi-
zens, credit him with his real excellencies —his original
horror of secession, his bold resistance to treachery, his
persistent and self-denying heroism in the long, dark days
of Tennessee. We must not forget that ho has jealously
resisted a centralisation of power in the Federal Govern
ment ; that he has sought to dignify and secure a true
State rights ; that he has maintained simplicity of manners
and a true lovo of the common people. It is our duty,
likewise, to forestall and prevent as much as possible by
kind but faithful criticism of his errors on the one hand,
and by sympathy and kindness on the other, those dangers
to which he is liable under attacks which he is peculiarly