Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-09
to all minOrities in proportion to their

and answered, than that it should have the
advantage of winning sympathy and
gaining p%artisans by making issue upon
the question Of the right of representation
instead of upon the fslsity of its obnoxious
principles.
Military government is in its very es-
senee a despotism, and any long continu-
ance of it after the cessation of armed re-
sistance is contrary to, and a confession of
the failure of r~epublicanism.
These and many similar general max
inns of government are the intellectual diet
upon which every living American has
been bred, and of which we have been
such earnest ~propagandists that no n of
US can deny them without mourning the
contempt of the civilized world. They
are mere distractions, it is true, but we
need to bear them in mind none the less
carefully for that.-AI rules are abstrae-
lions, whether they be the formule for
solving the problems of government or, of
other sciences. We recall them to test
our work, and we reckon ourselves tohave
made good progress in proportion to the
faithfalness with which we have adhered
to them. 4
In the heat Of our just wrath against
-"
those who would have swept republican,
ism from the continent, had they been sue
c~essful, we are in danger of forgetting
principles to which we owe allegiance,and
therefore we should not excuse ourselves
from the thankless task of reminding each
other of them. To follow these rules and
yet provide that the national safety be not
endangered, to determine who of the late
an aroSao .,f tho GnyarnpnanA ava Wifhnut
the pale Of clemency, and yet to extend
amnesty to the other millions of those who
were rebels, to restore political privileges
to those who were formerly masters, and
yet protect the freedom of those who were
formerly slaves-such Is the difficult and
delicate work before the executive and the
legislature of the Nation, and they may
rightly claim of US all such appreciation
OF their task as shall make US most kind
and charitable judges of their differences
from f~avorite measures of our own. We
have, indeed, reason to be devoutly thank
full hat the work has fallen upon men in
whose patriotism and wisdom we have so
great cause for confidence, and that the
progress they have already made promises
a conclusion which shall be reasonably
speedy and generally satisfactory to the
country.
In the presence of the vast interests
which are before US as part of the Ma
ton, the local concerns which affect
US as q State alone, are likely to be
dwarfed and lose their proper atten-
ton. 1 do not propose to enter into
any detailed or elaborated examination OF
our condition, or TO make recommends
tions of legislative action. This has been
fully and ably done by my predecessor.
l shall only glance at the outlines of
affairs and content myself with the brief
est and most cursory view of the situation.
In our official State duties we find no
such heavy responsibility a. rests upon
shoulders of the officers of our national
Government. The close of the war has
taken from US the necessity for putting
armies in the field, and relieved US, in GU
State capacity, of the labors incident to
close Cooperation with the General Gov
eminent in all the great affairs which
have made the past five years so memora-
Bile in our history. We are subsiding into
the quiet routine of peaceful times, and as
our young men are returning to their
farms, their merchandise and their shops,
the great drain upon our physical strength
being removed, the energetic use of intel
ligent labor will soon prove how rapidly
the recuperative powers Of this people act,
and how true it is that the times which
make least show in the worlds history are
very commonly those of greatest real
happiness and prosperity to a State. Our
veterans will not be adding new names to
the long list of their fields of glory, but
they will be winning victories over ply
steal nature and transforming the fruits of
the soil and the minerals of the earth into
that wealth which shall spread comfort
and happiness everywhere. We, who
have been called to guide the movement
of our State Government, will connect our
names with no such brilliant acts as have
given widespread reputation for high
statesmauship to the succession of State
Officers who have proceeded us during these
troubled times; but in the humber duties
which will fall to us We may rejoice that
these quiet days are, in some sense, our best
days, because they are, as we hope, the be-
ginning of an era of purer and more rapid
advancement in everything which tends
to the highest civilization.
The habit Of grasping great thoughts
and of daring to do great deeds has appa-
rently begotten in our people q disposition
which makes all business enterprise take
wider scope than heretofore, and the keen
insight with which all our resources are
scanned, and the adventurous energy with
which their development is pushed, leave
nothing to be desired in a business point
of view, unless it be an increase of that
sagacious caution which may save us from
the danger of those commercial revulsions
which have, with considerable regularity,
followed great expansions of the cur
rency. The late change in the banking
system of the country has transferred the
control of the circulating medium to Con-
gress, and comparatively little can be done
by Is directly to provide against the
threatened evils to which 1 have alluded,
except to exhort our fellow citizens to
prepare in season for every contingency.
The large tracts of valuable lands with
in the State which are still uncultivated
remind US of the ~desirability of encourage
ing immigration, and of the evident policy
of seeking to attract the most thrifty and
valuable classes of immigrants within our
borders. Wise foresight and prompt action
may unquestionably do much to induce
the best class of the foreigners who are
Aocking to our shores to settle amongst us,
where they will find in the highest degree
the advantages which have allured them
to this country, with many of those plea
sures of society and of an older civiliza-
ton which they must forego in the sparsely
settled regions of the far west to which
the great current of migration is tending.
1t will also be our duty to promote the
NEST rapid assimilation of the foreign
element with our native population. The
events through which we have just passed
have proven how rapidly the foreign set
tier has become American in interest, in
thought and in patriotism; but the good
results we have seen should only encou-
rage US to more systematic use of the
means which tend to so desirable q result.
A nation is strong in proportion to the
homogeneity of its people. To be country
men should in itself be q pledge Of
brotherhood wherever We meet, and
brotherhood implies community ofslangu-
age ard similarity of habit and Wrought.
To encourage and stimulate our natural
lied fellow-citizens, and the new corners
who purpose becoming such, to adopt our
language, to educate their children with
ours, and to identify themselves with us
as rapidly as possible, is the dictate of true
patriotism in US, and, at the same time, is
the best welcome We can give to them,
there can be no question that they
will thus become most quickly acquainted
with their rights as citizens, will be least
likely to be overreached and made dupes
of in business or in pelitics. and will find