The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-04-06
Retuusttnttina.
HOY. HENRY WINTER DAVIS ON
RECONSTRUCTION.
[From lhe Mlsssuti Dcmoeral.l

III May laSt, IN response TO inQulry, Hon.
Henry Winter Davis wrote letter setting
forth with his characteristic elearness and
vogeney his views upon the problem Of re-.
construction. The letter has hitherto re.
r.ained unpublished. Tho consent of Mrs.
Davis to the publication having been oh.
tanned, a friend at Washington transmits to
MS the manuscript. The following is the
lc.:er:
BALTIMORE, May %, 1865.
My DEAR Sin; Please accept my &C.
acknowledgements for your kind note.
| wish could give you short and
satisfactory answer TO your brief aud preg
nant question touching our prospects under
President Johnson
The future Of the nation is summed up
in the restoration OF political power to the
States lately in rebellion.
OF what the Presidents policy is on that
topic know nothing
Tho conditions of the problem are plain
and the consequences of the several pos.
siblo solutions follow with logical certainty.
II rests with the President, IN the state IN
which Congress has loft the question, to
take the initiative, aud the mode in which
that is done will determine oil that follows.
Whatever State governments he allows to
be organized aud to elect Representatives
aud Senators TO Congress will he recognized
by Congress, in December, in all probability
None exist now in any States, which re-
beled; none can DO organized legally with
out the assent of the United States, and no
steps 10 secure that assent can be. taken
without his permission.
III. ell, ,,au.. ..... Al =.
question rests in his right TO refuse per
mission for any convention or election 10
be held, unless on terms satisfactory TO him;
but that power is decisive. If he refuse to
permit any election or any convention to
be held, things will await the solution of
Congress.
If he permit the aggregate white popu &.
iatiOn of the South, qualified 10 vote under
the old governments abrogated by tho re.
bellion, to organize the State governments,
that inslalls the revolutionary faction in
power in the States, and fills Congress with
their Representatives and Senators.
That is to place tho scepter in the hands
from which we have just wrested tho
sword.
II the President attempt to discriminate
the loyal from the disloyal and exclude
from voting all who have given aid and com.
fort to the rebellion, a mere handful 0f the
population will remain, wholly incompetent
to form or maintain n State government,
aud sure to be overwhelmed hy the polit.
ical countor.revolution at the next election,
which will restore power to the leaders of
the rebellion. While il stands under the
protection of the United States it will con
sttute an odious oligarchy, disposing of
the lives and property of the great mass of
their tellow-citizens, without any responsi-
bility, aud controlling the national legisla.
tion by tho people for whom they vote.
This result is unavoidable. The whole
mass of the population OF the South has
given aid and comfort to the rebellion The
war was made by the accession OF tho Union
men to the rebel faction. IL is idle 10 talk
Of quiescent mass OF loyal men overborne
by violence. 1t was the Union men who
passed the ordinance of secession in Vir.
ginia and who made it eifectual after II was
passed, In no State was the rebellion
dangerous without the active aid Of those
opposed to secession. .-t .rtls.t .sf F..
But the United States had no friends IN
the rebel States, and they have none to-day
The Union men OF the South preferred
Union and psace to disunion; they deplored
the outbreak of the war, but they never
hesitated moment which side 20 take. II
there was TO be war, they were for their
Statos and against the United States, There
was no respectable number of Union men
willing to aid tho United States in compel.
ing submission to the Constitution, and
there are none now All submit to force.
Many are willing to acqniesce in tho nm
ayoida6lc. All are willing TO govern the
United States again, since Independence is
impossible but all were also willing TO aid
the rebellion; and not AN assault and battery
was committed for the United States from
the Potomac TO the Gulf of Mexico.
rf The Union men of the South did not mere-
ly bow to overbearing force. but they
hasteued TO seek places in the Legislature.
the Congress, the Executive mansions and
gave it conntenance and support, without
which it must have fallen in year and
when it's cause was hopeless, they were
quiet and submissive and did not rise to
aid the United States. H
1t is certainly to this class of the white
population that we must look for aid il re-
storing civil government in these States;
but it is a great delusipn to suppose them
either bolI or strong enough 10 meet and
defy the united aud energetic faction Of
revolutionists which drove them into rebel.
hon. If they be in power, they will again
do the will Of the resolnto and reckless men
who stood behind aud around them, aud no
legal line discrimnates them from the rebel
mass.
If this discrimination be attempted by
the oath to support the Constitution Of the
United States, everybody will take it., aud
nobody will be excluded
If the leaders of tho rebellion, civil and
military, be excluded though willing to
submit aud take the oath, the mass of the
rebel factien will be admitted and that
will be the controlling and determining elc-
inent in selecting Representatives aud SEN
ators; and the practical rcsllt is the Same
as il nobody were excluded.
II either Of these forms be accepted by
the President and recognized by Congress,
it will instantly change the balance Of
political power in the United States.
1t is probable that the people who saved
the nation are not content TO accept its c0n-
sequences without murmur.
None OF the white population Of the
Southern States is interested In paying a
public debt or imposing taxes to meet lis
interest, They hold none of it II was
created TO subjngate them to lhe laws. il
has been consumed in their overthrow. Ii
is TO be paid in great part. out of their sub
stance. II has aunihilated their public debt.
II has filed the land with ostracised officers,
witls wounded soldiers. with AN odious free
negro population, lately their slaves, and
still under their political control
II the whites be restored to political
power, their representatives are interested
in repudiating that public debt, in refusing
to pay its interest, in restoring their officers