The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1866-08-30

have no right for such reasons to. deny to
any portion of the States or people rights
expressly conferred upon them by the
Constitution of the United States. Sec
ond, that 80 long as their acts are those
of loyalty, so long as they conform in all
their public conduct to the requirements
of the Constitution and laws, we have no
right to exact from them conformity in
their sentiments and opinions to our own.
Third, That we have no right to distrust
the purpose or the ability of the people of
the Union to protect and defend, under
all contingencies and by whatever means
may be required, its honor and its welfare.
These would, in our judgment, be full
and conclusive answers to the plea thus
advanced for the exclusion of these States
from the Union. But we say further,
that this plea rests upon complete mis-
apprehension or an unjust perversion Of
existing facts. We do not hesitate to af-
firm that there is no section of the coun--
trv where the Constitution and laws of
the United States find more prompt and
entire obedience thai in those States and
among those people who were lately in
arms AGAINST them, or where there is less
purpose or danger of any future attempt
! to overthrow their authority i,
1t would seem to be both natural and
inevitable that, in States or sections 30 re-
Gently swept by the whirlwind OF war,
where all the ordinary modes and me-
thods of organized industry have been
broken up, and the bonds and influences
that guarantee social order have been de-.
stroyed, where thousands and tens OF
thousands of our turbulent spirits have
been suddenly loosed from the discipline
of war, and thrown, without resources OF
restraint upon disorganized and chaotic
society. and where the keen sense OF de-
feat is added to the overthrow OF ambl-
tion and hope, scenes of violence should
defy, for time, the imperfect discipline
of law, and excite anew the fears and
forebodings of the patriotic and well-dls-
posed. tits unquestionably true that To-
cal disturbances of this kind, accompanied
by more or less of violence, do still occur,
but they are confined entirely to the cities
and larger towns of the Southern States,
where different races and interests are
brought more closely in contact, and
whore passions and resentments are al
ways most easily fed and famed into out
break. And even there they are quite as
much the fruit of untimely and hurtful
political agitation as of any hostility on
the part of the people to the authority of
the National Government.
But the concurrent testimony of those
best acquainted with the condition of So
ciety and the state of public sentiment in
the South, including that Of it's represen-
tatives in this Convention, establishes the
fact that the great mass of the Southern
people accept, with as full and sincere
submission as do the people of the other
States, the re-established supremacy of
the national authority, and are prepared,
in the most loyal spirit, and with a zeal
gu. xened alike by their interest and their
pride, to cooperate with other States and
sections in whatever may be necessary to
defend the rights, maintain the honor,
and promote the welfare of our common
country.
History affords no instance where a
people so powerful in numbers, ID re-
sources, and in public spirit, after a war
; so long in its duration, so destructive in
its progress, and SO adverse in its issue,
have accepted defeat and its consequences
with so much of faith as has marked the
conduct of the people lately in insurrec-
ton against the United States. Beyond
all question, this has been largely due to
the wise generosity with which their en-
? forced surrender was accepted by the
President of the United States and the
generals in immediate command Of their
armies, and to the liberal measures which
were afterwards taken to restore order,
tranquility and law to the States, where
!, all had for the time been overthrown.-
No steps could have been better calcula-
ted to command the respect win the con-
fdence, revive the patriotism and secure
the permanent and affectonate allegiance
f of the people of the South to the Consti-
: tuition and laws of the Union, than those
| which have been so firmly taken and SO
steadfastly pursued by the President OF
the United States.
And if that confidence and loyalty have
been since impaired-if the people of the
South are to-day less cordial in their al
legiance than they were Immediately upon
the close of the war-we believe it is due
to the changed tone Of the legislative de-
partment of the General Government to-
wards them; to the action by which Con-
gress has endeavored to supplant and de-
, feat the Presidents wise and benefcent
policy of restoration; to their exclusion
from all participation in our common
Government; to the withdrawalfrom them
of rights conferred and guaranteed by the
Constitution, and to the evident purpose
Congress, in the exercise Of a usurped and
unlawful authority, to reduce them from
the rank of free and equal members of q
Republic of States, with rights and digni
ties unimpaired, to the condition of con