New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-07-10
AN APPEAL TO CONSERVATIVES
EOREE AND SOJTE.

OF wasting, burning, Killing, but nearly ac-
cord between diverse sections and classes, and
content in the hearts of our people. lmpoyer-
ishcd aud heavily burdened by four years Of
most destructive, exhausting War, we need the
devotion of all our intellect and energies, our
mind and muscle, to repairing, rebuilding
planting, t.lling, and the creation Of all kinds OF
material wealth. II is too late to grow much
except Food this year; but We ought next year
to produce more Cotton, Rice, Sugar, and Naval
stores, as well as more Wheat, Corn, Cheese,
Butter, Pork Beef, &C., &C., than ever before
TO this end, we need to close up the sterile
agtations and sOothe to rest the political
passions which so recently plunged us into the
abyss of Civil War. We need a comprehensive
adjustment of our late differences, which shall
encourage every inhabtant of our country to
work and earn and save in the assured convic-
ton that his right to the fruits of his industry Is
perfectly secured-that there is none to modest
or make him afraid.
Yet to-day grave disabilities and penalties
mpend over n large proportion Of the Southern
Rebellion; while the Blacks without exception,
with tn cir right even to themselves but par
TALLY, reluctantly admitted are about to pass
afrcsh under the dominion of laws and authori-
ties which regard them as interiors and depend
ants Of the more fortunate race, by whom they
are TO be governed, judged and employed. UpI
TO this hour, there is no Southern state III
which they are, or seem likely TO be, allowed
any voice in framing or executing the laws
which they are required to obey, and Oh which
all their rights of person and property must de-
pend. Even in loyal Free Tennessee, their
testimony against Whites is not admitted IN
the Courts; their children are excluded from
the only common schools that are provided;
and those children may be torn from them aud
bound out to White taskmasters without al
semblance Of justice or reason. If people sol
situated are free, then our fathers lied eyre
ciously when they charged George III. with
depriying them Of their liberties.
The Blacks are to-day -Four Millions Of our
people Torn from their ancestral homes by
violence brought hither by Whites for the adj
vantage and profit of Whites exclusively, they
have resolved to abide in the land Of their birth,
which their toll and sweat have done so much
to subdue and enrich. They are too many to
be exiled, and they will not voluntarily 60.
Shall they remain as freemen or as Seris 7 Shall
they have a voice in the Government or shall
they he governed wholly by othersi What
L Il. l. az of
less fit for or less worthy Of the ballot than are
those by whom they were hunted through the
streets Of our City in July, 1862
Do you urge that they are ignorantl If no
other ignorant persons were eniranchised, that
might be a plausible objection. Neither they
nor any one for them asks that they be exempt
from any restriction whereby Uhite ignorance,
vaerancy or vice. is excluded from the electoral
body. Say that all voters must read-that they
must pay a tax, or possess some property-and
we are content, so that you do not throw obsta-
cles in the way Of their acquiring the intelli-
cence or substance you thus prescribe. All that
is asked for them is free and fair Opportunity.
But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that,
in the great struggle just ended, the Blacks
have been loyal 10 the Union-that they lave
done what they could for the National cause
that more than Two Hundred Thousand of them
have shouldered arms in its behalf. Had they
thus ranged themselves on the other side, il is
not possible that their late masters would now
insist on their exclusion from political rights.
II they shall now be excluded, twill be because
they have prayed and hoped, have Struggled
and fought, for the Union. 1t would seem that
the coarsest and cOmmonest sense OF decency
would constrain White Unionists to insist that
they should not be thus punished for opposing
the Rebellion.
There arc two or three States in which the
Blacks are a majority of the entire People-arc
nearly or quite all the People who have not
willingly given aid and comfort TO the Re
bellion. In still Other States, they are ma
jority OF the adult males. In all the South,
they are large third Of the People living to-day.
They are to be represented in Congress 0he
House, by some twenty-five Members. Those
members, it is claimed, they shall have no
voice in eectng: they are to be chosen by the
votes Of Whites lately in revolt against the
Union. In practice, every ex-Rebel in the
South is to have two votes in Congress, while
the great mass Of the stcadiastly loyal South
erners are to have no votes at all. And this is
called Reconstruction!
If great engineer were required to throw a
dam across the Niagara River just above the
Falls, whereby to raise the level of Lake Erie