Litchfield enquirer., 1866-09-20

fee holders. They have set price upon them selves so far below he value at which their party estimated them, that we wonder at their meanness almost as much as at their treachery. ,s.,..-,,. MT Beecher's Letters. .,s
 By far the best statement of the Conserve tive creed, we have seen, is that made by the Rev H w Beecher sin letter to the Commit tee of the Cleveland convention, which will be found on our first page, slightly modified by another in reply to certain gentlemen of his own congregation from which we also print an extract. -'' f}''+ '""- r ". ;. By far the best answer to Mir Beecher is furnished by the Southern Loyalists, lately as sembled at Philadelphia, who, in resolutions and addresses, a portion of which we gave our readers last week, state Jacts, coming necessa- rily under their own observation, for the truth of which this whole body of Southern gentle men, we'll known, and many of high position, have become responsible. 4' '4- m
 MT Beechers position conciseIy stated is this: That our General Government cannot, under any circumstances, interfere with the domestic affairs of the South without doing much more harm than good !; that the men who have governed that portion of our coun- try, must continue to govern it; that our only chance of successful reconstruction is in con- ciliatlng them and, above all, that nothing ought to be attempted in behalf of the freed- men, in opposition to them. Now, while we readily grant the general principle that indi. viduals or communities should have the fullest liberty of managing their own affairs in their own way we must not forget the exceptions tothat rule. If an individual transgre sses the law he is punished without hesitation. If those controlling any smaller community, with in State, interfere with the rights of individ- uals; they are compelled by the superior au- thority of the State to desist from such acts of oppression. To be sure the moral atmos- phere of such a locality may remain unwhole- some and work much injury, bot the restrain. inginauence of just laws, impar tially executed, tends greatly to lessen the evil. In like man. ner the General Government must exercise a restraining influence over those larger commu- mites, who for years waged desperate war to keep in slavery class of their inhabitants, which during that war, assisted us to the ex- tent of it's ability, which we freed by force and whose freedom it is both our duty and our interest to maintain, The question now at is- sue is, therefore, one of fact, not of law it is whether those men at the South, who up to the close of the war, beyond question used their controlling influence for the oppression of ne groes and Union whites, have, since that time, changed their views and conduct as to treat with reasonable fairness and justice, those classes of their fellow citizens! Here it is that the unvarnished tale of these persecuted South ern Unionists damages so terribly the rose: co'ored theories of the Brooklyn clergyman.
 Had their loyal representatives been imme ; diatey admitted to theirl: seats, says that gen. tleman ''the public mind of the South would have been more healthy than it is." The Loy- al Southerners, however, who have watched the effect 1.-the Presidents policy on the spot, say, thatit is his mistaken lenity, which has changed the state of southern feeling from bad to worse j; that ans unconditional return of Southern States, as now organized, to full State power and representation, would effect,
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 not restoration of the Union, but of the Confederacy that every Southern negro would become sert, every Southern Loyalsts an ex- lie. ~3 :aalss- ,aeg. ,ss ,aal B D a1s'yst J < 4.' MT Beecher further says that! nothing is to be feared, because the North is rich and intel ligent, the South poor and ignorant If we mistake not, this gentleman used to maintain, that it was because the South was ignorant, !, that she was dangerous; and it is certainly nov el argument, that, by being reduced to ipover- ty, men become less desperate or less danger. ous. .., ,-it. -..'. E i The gentleman also maintains, that :--.The sooner we dismiss from our minds the idea that the freedmen can be classified, and sepa- rated from the white population, and nursed aad defended by themselves the better it will be for them and us" Here he makes this great. mistake ,: we, do not desire any special privileges for the freedmen 1; we only ask that they shall not be 'sclassi6ed and separated from the white population" for the purpose of enslaving and oppressinA Athem, as our South ern friends tell us is everywhere being attempt ed. ,,. ..ags ',s 4eFs,s, .a f<e
 Southern Society must be .'soothed," says MT Beeeher. But, say the Southern Loyalists, this mode of treatment has already been tried, and it has failed. Mayor Munroe, and Judge Abel, may, indeed, be 'tsoothed' 2 by being al lowed to hang suchrof the Louisiaua Uonsep--
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