Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1865-10-26
speect-of Secretary Seward.


availed themselves of the opportunity which
his temporary presence at home afforded them,
and paid him visit to congratulate him upon
his escape from assassination, to renew, their
expressions Of friendship and sympathy, and to
listen to whatever he might choose to say in
reference to the present aspect Of political aft
fairs. Mr.. Seward responded to their address
by speech Of great ability, in the course Of
which he spoke in the very highest terms of
President johnson, and applauded the plan Of
restoration adopted by his administration. Of
this plan Mr.. Seward said: ,.s..,
This plan, although occasionally requiring
variation details, nevertheless admits OF no
substantial change or modification. 1t could
neither be enlarged nor contracted. Statecon-
| yentions in loyal States, however favorable, in
disloyal States however hostile, could not law
| fully or effecturlly disallow it; and even the
people themselves, when amending the Consti-
tuition of the United States, are only. giving to
that plants just and needful sovereign sanction.
In the meantime, the executive and legislative
authorities of Congress can do nombre than dis
charge their proper functions Of protecting the
recently insurgent States from anarchy during
| the intervening period while this plan is being
carried into execution. GAppause.l a.ia F"
| II is essential to this plan that the insurrec-
tionary States shall, bythemselves and for them-
selves. accept and adopt this plan, and thereby
| submit themselves to and recognize the national
| authority This is what meant when | said
| to Mr.. Adams, in a passage which You may pos
s;ble recall. that in the sense in which theword
subjugation was then used by the enemies of the
United States, at home and abroad, it was not
the expectation or purpose of this Government
| that the Southern States should be subjugated;
but that I thought that those States would be
brought, by the judiciousy mingled exercise of
pressure and persuasion, to condition in which
they would voluntarily return to their allegiance.
This was the explanation which Mr.. Adams.
rave TO Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister
! ofEngland. when that great, andI trust, not un-
friendly statesman, said that he did not believe
that the Federal Union could be restored, be-
cause he knew that while any man can lead a
horse to the water, no man could make him
drink. The plan, therefore. recognizes not the
destruction, nor even the subversion of States,
| but their active existence; and it reasons from
| facts as they are, not from assumed or possible
|
| less does it reason from mere chilneras. g
Theplan of reconcilationwe are pursuingha has
given us two great national advances i'll this
progress of moral and political elevation, which
are now to be made fast and firmly fixed. First
| it secures voluntary abolition of slavery by
every State which has engaged in insurrection;
and secondly, it must secure and does secure,
an effectual adoption, by the late slave States
themselves, of the amendment of the Federal
! Constitution which declares that neither slave
| ~ nor involuntary servitude, except for crime,
shall ever hereafter exist in any part OF the
United States. [Applause. The people who
| have so steadily adhered to the true path OF de-
mocratic progress and civilization through all
the seductions of peace, and through so many
difficulties. and at such fearful cost in war, will
now have new inducements and Acknowledgements
| TO perscvere in that path until they shall have
successfully reduced to veriety the sublime as
serton of the political equality of all men, which
| the founders. in their immortal declaration laid
down as the true basis of American Union
! Prolonged applause.] 1t is certain that the
plan of reconciliation which have thus largely
explained. must and will be adopted. Zap
,plause I 1t may however be hindered or has
! tened. How can it be Kindred You are your
selves aware of the answer when you fasten upon
any violent, factious or seditious exhibition Of
passion or discomfort in any of the lately re-
bellious States, and argue from it the failure of
the plan. You argue Justly. Every turbulent
and factions person in the lately insTrectionary
States is resisting, hindering and delaying the
work of reconstruction to the extent of his abil-
ity. But the case is precisely the same with
| ourselves iiiii 4l I'd l.si ~ I-A 81
Manifestations Of doubt, distrust; elimination,
contempt or defiance, in the loyal States, are
equally injurious, and equally tend to delay the
work of reconciliation. How then shall it be
fastened? / reply, virtually in the language of
the President-in the spirit of the Constitution
and in harmony, not only with our politics, but
with our religion-"Wemust trust each other
/ TApplause1 Can we not trust each other p
Once we were friends. We have since been enc
mics. We are friends again. Renewed applaus.
But. whether in friendship or in enmity, in
peace or in war, we are and can be nothing else
to each other than brethren. Loud applause.
| A few evenings ago, an hundred Southern men,
who recently had been more or less influential
and leading revolutionists, visited my house at
Washington They were frank, unreseryed and
earnest in their assurances of acquescence and
reconciliation, as also was in mine. Happily
party of intelligent Englishmen were in my
dwelling at the same time. | introduced the
| late rebels to the representatives of sympathiz-
ing England, and said to the parties "You
lately each Of you thought that the Southern
men preferred British rule to citizenship in the
United States" While the Englishmcn indi-
vidually disclaimed, both parties promptly an
swered. as they now do, that that idea was not
merely delusion, but an absurd mistake. They
now knew that even during the excitement Of
the war, the American citizen, whether North
or South, really preferred his own countrSmen
Of every section to any other people in the
| world.
Some Of you fear that the President may be
toolenient to those Southern leaders who plung-
ed the country into the calamities of civil war
Except those of you who have been MANNED or
bereaved, has any of you suffered more wrong,
insult and insolence at the hands of those lead
ers than he has? Can we not forget where he