The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-09-12
Reconstruction.
LETTER FROM HENRY WARD EEEcHER.

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LETTER FROM HENRY WARD EEEcHER.
/ Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, having
been invited to act as Chaplain to the
Convention of Soldiers and Sailors, at
Cleveland, returned the FLOWING an
swer:
PEEKsK1LL, August 30, 1866.
Charles G. Halpine, Brevet Brigadier Gen
eral; II. w. Slocum, Major-G General; Cor
don Granger, Major-General. Committee:
/ Gentlemen am obliged to you for
the invitation which you have made to
me to act as chaplain to the Conven-
tionof Sailors and Soldiers, about to
convene at Cleveland. i cannot attend
lit, but | heartily wish it, and all other
conventions, Of what party soever, sue
cess, whose object is the restoration Of
all the States late in rebellion to their
Federal relations.
/ Our theory Of government has no
place for a State except in the Union.
It is justly taken for granted that the
duties and responsibilities Of a State in
federal relations tend to its political
health, and to that of the whole nation.
Even territories are hastily brought in,
often before the prescribed conditions
are fulfilled, as if it were dangerous to
leave a community outside of the great
body polite.
Had the loyal Senators and Repre-
sentatives of Tennessee been admitted
at once on the assembling of Congress,
and, in moderate succession, Arkansas,
Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and
Virginia, the public mind of the South
would have been far more healthy than
it is, and those States which fingered
on probation to the last would have
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been under a more salutary influence
to good conduct than if Q dozen armies
watched over then.
Every month that we delay this
healthful step complexities the case.-
The excluded population, enough UNI
settled before, grow more irritable the
army becomes indispensable to local
government, and supercedes it; the
Government at Washington is called to
interfere in one and another difficulty,
and this will be done inaptly, and
sometimes with great injustice; for our
Government, wisely adopted to its own
proper functions, is utterly devoid Of
those habits, and unequipped with the
instruments which fit centralized gov
eminent to exercise authority in remote
States over local affairs. Every at
tempt to perform such duties has resrl-
ted in mistakes which have excited the
nation. But whatever imprudence
there may be in the method, the real
criticism should be against the requisi-
ton Of such duties of the General Gov
eminent.
The Federal Government is unfit to
exercise minor police and local govern
ment, and viii inevitably blundel when
Lit attempts it. To keep half a score of
States under Federal authority, but
Without national ties and responsible
ties; 10 oblge the ceitral authority to
govern half the territory Of the Union
by Federal civil officers and by the
army, is policy not only uncongenial
| to our ideas and principles, but pre-
eminently dangerous to the spirit Of
our government. However humane the
ends sought and the motives, it is in
TACT a course Of instruction, preparing
our government to be despotic, and Ca
milarizing the people to stretch of
authority which can never be other
chan dangerous to liberty.
] anu aware that good men are with
held from advocating the prompt and
successive admission Of the exiled
States by the fear, chiefly, of its effects
upon parties and upon freedmen.
tt is said that if admitted to Congress
the Southern Senators and Representa-
/ tives viii coalesce with Northern DEM
ocrats and rule the county. Is this
nation, then, to remain dismenbered
to serve the ends Of parties Have we
learned no wisdom by the history Of
the last ten years, in which just this
!, course of sacrificing the nation to the
exigencies Of parties plunged us into
rebellion and war;
Even admit that the power would
passinto the hands Of q party made up
Of Southern men, and the hitherto dis
honored and misled democracy Of the
North, that power could not be used
| just as they pleased. The war has
changed, not alone. institutions, but
ideas. The whole country has advance
ed. Public sentiment is exalted far
beyond what it has been at any former
period. A new parry would, like a
river, be obliged to seek its channels in
the already existing slopes and forms
Of the continent.
We have entered new era of liber-
ty. The style Of thought is freer and
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