The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1866-08-31


order, tranquility and law to
Athe States where all had for the time
been overthrow. No steps could have
been better calculated 70 command the
respect, win the confidence, revive the
patriotism, and secure the permanent
and sffectionate allegiance of the peo-
plerofthe South to the constitution
and laws of the Union than those
which have been so firmly taken and
so steadfastly pursued by the President
ofthe United States.
Effects OF Legislative Exclusion.
And ifthat confidence and loyalty
have been since impaired; if the peo-
pie of the south are to-day less cordial
in thor allegiance than they were i'm
mediately upon the close of the war,
we believe it is due to the changed
one of the legislative department of
the General Government toward them
10 the action by which Congress has
ondeavored TO supplant and defeat the
Presidents wise and benificient policy
of restoration TO their exclusion from
all participation in our common Gov
eminent; to the withdrawal from them
of rights conferred and guaranteed by
the constitution, and to the evident
purpose of Congress, in the exercise of
a usurped and unlawful authority, to
reduce them from the rank of free and
equal members of a Republic Of States,
with rights and dignities unimpaired,
TO the condition of conquered provin-
ces and q conqered people, in all things
subordinate and subject to the will of
their conquerors; free only to obey
laws in making which they are not al
lowed TO share.
ReprIsaI Against Oppression
Justified.
No people has ever yetexisted whose
loyalty and faithsueh treatment, long
continued, would not ALLEVIATE and i'm
pair. And the ten millions of Ameri-
cans who live in the South would be
unworthy citizens Of q free country,
degenerate sons of an heroic ancestry,
unfit ever to become guardians of the
rights and liberties bequeathed to us
by the fathers and founders Of this
republic, if they could accept, with I'M
%complaing submissiveness, the limita-
tons thus sought to be imposed upon
them. Resentment of injustice is al
ways and everywhere essential to
freedom; and the spirit which prompts
the States and people lately in %insurrcc-
ton, but insurgent now no longer, to
protest against the imposition of unjust
and degrading conditions, makes them
all the more worth to share in tho gov
eminent of a free commonwealth, and
gives still firmer assurance of the flu
ture power and freedom Of the Repub-
lie.
Rebellion has been EXpiated.
For whatever responsibility tho South
ern people may have incurred in rcsis-
ting the authority of the National Gov
ernment, and in taking up arms tor its
overthrow, they may be held to answer,
as individuals, before tho judicial stri-
bunals of the land; and for that
conduct, as societies and organized
communities, theyhave alreadypa tho
most fearful penalties that can fall on
offending States in the losses, the suf-
ferings and h~umiliations of unsuccess-
full war. But whatever may be the
guilt or the punishment OF the consci-
Gus authors ofthe insurrrection, candor
and common justice demand the con-
cession that the great mass of those
who became involved in its response
bility acted upon what they believed to
be their duty, in defense of what they
had been taught TO believe their rights
or uuder a complusion, physical and
moral, which they were powerless to
resist. Nor can it be amiss to remem-
Der that, terrible as have been the be-
reavements and the losses Of tins war,
they have fallen exclusively upon Meth
er ~party-that they have fallen, indeed
with far greater weight those with
whom the war began; thatin the death
of relatives and friends, the dispersion
Of families, the disruption of social sys-
tens and social ties, the overthrow of.
governments, of law and order, the de-
struction of property and Of forms and
modes and means Of industry, the loss
Of political, commercial ndmoralinfu-
ence, in every shape and form which
great calamities can assume, the States
and people which engaged in the war
against the Government of the United
States have suffered tenfold moro than
those who remained in allegiance to its
constitution and laws.
These considerations may not, as they GER
tainly do not, justify the action Of the people Of
the insurgent States; but no just or generous
mind viii refuse TO them very considerable
weight in determining theli of conductwhich
the Government of The United States should
pursue toward them.
Acceptance of its Penalties.
Thoy accept, IL not with alarcity, certainly
without sullen resentment, the defeat and over
throw they have sustained. They acknowledge
and acquiesee in the result, to themselves and
the country, which that defeat involves. They