The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-05-30

ern hepfeScnt0tlCeS - d1S OptltVc Cf ne
construction-He Requires Reconeiliation--
He Defines the Position of the President.
AUBURN, May %. Secretary Seward de
livered l lengthy speech on national affairs |
at Corning Hall this evening before crowd
ed audience Mr.. Seward said we were to- I
gether here in October last. The national
condition has undergone some material cham
gcs since that time; we were then on the
verge of series of elections throughout the
States. The leaders who SO pertinaciously |
claim to he Democratic, organized with their
customary machinery and ovations. They
had wisely ceased to denounce as failure
the war for the Union which at last became !
a success They thought to undermine the
destructive party of the Union by affecting u
newborn admiration for its chief, Andrew
johnson They seemed anxious to prove
their devotion superior to ours by commit
ting themselves to support him as candi-
date for the Presidency in 1868.
HOW THE SOUTH ACCEPTS THE SITUATION.
They upturned the rebellion with all its
far-spreading roots and all its poisonous
fruits, and they accepted and ratified the
| then pending Congressional amendment to
| the Constitution of the United States, which
! abolishes slavery henceforth, forever. The
people of these States have at the same time
| chosen for themselves, by free and uncon-
trolled suffrage, Governors, Legislatures, lu-
diciaries and municipal authorities. Be
tween the federal government and these re-
| stored and reorganized State governments,
! there exists now more complete and prac-
| tical harmony than has ever before prevailed
| between the Union and so many of its mem
bers since it was first established. Within
| this period the Executive Department of the
I United States has assumed its functions
among the people of these former disloyal
| States.
| THE SOUTHERN REPRESENTATIVES,.
The State Department speaks for them,
with their free consent, to principalities and
| powers; the Treasury collects the national
| imports and taxes there the navy of the
United States rides freely in all their reopen
ed ports and harbors; the Postofice circu-
lates, through every vein and artery there,
the knowledge which is tine revivifying blood
of united republic. The people of the
lately disioyal States desiring to pass the
last stage of restoration as speedily as posi-
BILE, have chosen Senators to represent them
in the Senate, and members to answer for
them in the House of Representatives, and
those Representatives are daily waiting at
the Capitol.
CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT.
The future of affairs which disturbs the
| public mind is a supposed divergence be-
tween the President and the representatives
| in Congress of the National Union party,
| from which he and they have derived their
respective but coordinate powers.
| agree, therefore, that it would be sad
misfortune if divergence between the Presi-
| dent and Congress should work decline
and downfall of the National Union party
1t is dear to me, for am identified with its
rapid rise, Its majestic progress and its glo-
| rlous work.
The national life lately hung on the issue
! of victory won in war. 1t now hangs on the
issue of reconciliation or peace. The nation
must live forever, whether it receive the
needed care in any emergency at the hands
of one President, Congress and party, or at
| the hands of another.
Ireasoned in this way about the triumphs
of the war; reason in the same way now
in regard to reconciliation and peace ex-
pect that year hence shall be found to be
right now, as am now admitted to be right
one year, two years, three years ago.
! | don't think, however, that there is any
necessity for separation between the Presi-
dent, the Congress, and the party of the
| Union.
WHAT THE COUNTRY REQUIRES
At this point it will be well to settle for
| yourselves what it is that we are desiring to
see effected by the President and Congress.
| We all agree that we desire and seek just
what this nation needs at the present juno
ture. What then does the country actually
| need Most persons say reconstruction. /
| think it needs no such thing.
The country is reconstructed already It
was constructed in 1887. AS then construc-
| ted, it was Union of thirteen States, since
multiplied to thirty-six free, equal, separate,
| self-acting, and in regard to internal affairs,
| selfgoverning States. We do not reconstruct
! that which has not been destroyed
There has indeed been an attempt at de-
struction, but it has failed. The political
| system of 1887, constructed by our forefath-
| ers. stands now firm, compact, complete and
| perfect-just as it came from the builders
hands, 1t was constructed not for eighty
years only, nor yet for a period of civil war
| only, but for all alternating conditions of
peace anil war, and for all ages and all time.
RECONCILIATION.
What then does the nation need It needs
just what have dwelt upon so much and so
earnestly in these remarks 1t needs recon
ciliation-and just now needs nothing more.
1t needs moreover very little of this. 1t
| needs a reconciliation between the Senators
of the United States who are now acting,
and those Senators who, being loyal and
| qualified for membership of the Senate, had
been already, or may hereafter, be, elected by
the people of the several States which were
lately involved in the rebellion
1t needs reconciliation of the same kind
between the members of the House of Bep-
resentatives who are now acting, and loyal
members already elected by the people in
the same before mentioned States 1t needs
| just this Congressional reconciliation and
nothing more.
| 1t only shows that what is wanted is re-
conciliation between the alienated constitu
ents as well as between separated representa-
| tives Let the reconciliation be made first,
either in Congress or in any of the constitu
encies, and it will follow in the other place
immediately.
THE PRESIDENTS POSITION.
| The Presidents position is absolutely ta-
keh, well defined and universally understood.
1t is this, namely: That so far and so fast as
the unrepresented States present themselves
in a loyal attitude by representatives un-
questionably loyal, they are entitled to rep
resentation in Congress, equally with all 9th
er States and just as well as if there had
been no rebellion. The Representatives Of
the National Union party in Congress donot
agree with the President, but think they /