Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-06-15
RE c ON CILIATIO ON
SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Secretary SEWARD is on a visit to his
home in Auburn, N. 7. On the evening
Of May 22d he addressed an assemblage
of the citizens on the condition of the
Union and the plans of Reconstruction
before the country. Mr.. Seward said
MY GOOD FRIENDs-Your kind i'm
portunity will not avail me as an excuse
for speaking if I ought to keep silence
Perhaps, however, the sOlicitude which
perVades the country may justify US all
in cOnversing upon political questions in
a candid and patriotic spirit. We were
together here in October last The ma
tional condition has undergone some ma
teriaI changes since that time. We were
then on the verge of a series of elections
throughout the States The leaders who
so pertinaciOusly claim to be Democratic,
organized with their customary machinery
and orations. They had wisely ceased to
denounce as a failure the war for the
Union, which at last had become a gIO-
rious success. They thought to under
mine the distinctive party Of the Union,
by effecting a new born admiration of Its
chief, Andrew johnson. They seemed
anxious to prove their devotion superior
to ours, by committing themselves to sup
port him as a candidate for the Presi-
III
ministratiOn mottoes of reconciliation
upon their neWly-Wrought banner, and re-
organizing their struggling lines as well
as they so hastily could, they vehemently
charged onward for a partisan not a pat
riotic victory. What led the Democratic
leaders to make this change, was the mar
velous phenomena which was Just then
exhibited in the scene of the rebellion
The whole disloyal community in that
blighted and desOlated region, accepting
the conditions of partial amnesty and the
Invitations to returning allegiance which
were proclaimed by the Administration,
all at once Fenounced the principles, prac-
tees and policy of Secession and Dis
union they rendered US a new covenant
of loyalty, sealed with their oaths, and
brought forward with alacrity the remains
of the long-eherished institution of sla-
very. and cheerfully threw them to be
burned upOn the constitutional altar they
/ had SO newly restored. These unexpected
I changes in the attitude of political ad-
versaries, once so obstinate, naturally
enough excited suspicious, jealousles and
| apprehensiOns among loyal and tried
| Union men.
1t was the old case of William of Or
] ange, who, having in civil war put down
/ the tories, afterwards found it necessary
/ to eoncede to repenting JacObltes and
| Papists the rights Of citizenship. 1t is
/ the case which has ever occurred, and
/ which eVermore must occur at the end OF
| a successful resistance to rebellion. How
| could Democrats and rebels be converted
to the support of a triumphant Union ad-
ministTatiOn2 This was the question
everywhere put by the Jealous leaders OF
the Union party. It was at that moment
/ / answered this question by asking 9th
ers, viz: How could Democrats and reb.
els avoid being converted? is it not then
conversion thatyOu contended for, and that
YOU now desire? / expressed the opinion
that the conditions Of peace with its new
responsibilities must theneefOrth be il
good faith accepted. L advised promp
cancellation, with the restoration at one,
of the constitutional symmetry of thj
Union. Rejecting the ungenerOus sus
: picion that the rebels and their Demo
t cratic abettOrs were only changing thei
. political strategy, with traitOrous pur
poses, [ argued that with few and market
exceptions, they were now to be receives
and accepted as fellow citizens and breth
rem. I argued that this could be ssfel
ct done, if only the tried friends of the Ad
ministratiOn remained united and har
mOnious, and thus retaining their justl
acquired prestige, should themselve
| promptly and magnanimously secure t
the nation the enjoyment of the ardentl
desired peace and indispensably require
3 prosperity. For a time the friends Of th
Union acted upon that policy. The eleC
tons everywhere resulted in the defes
and overthrow of the Democratic orgar
8 ization. and placed the Administration
Andrew johnson beyond the reach
danger at home or abroad. The work
reconstruction has outrun expectations
Indeed it has never had a parallel in hi
oil man affairs. With internal commotioI
and disturbances less serious than thol
which sometimes attend popular election
3 / in every free country in a time of profour
81 peace, the heretofore disloyal people
Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolin
South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansa
re Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texa
be successively, almost simultaneously, a
sembled and adopted new constitutions
a conformity with the Constitution of Il
1s United States. They rejected rebelliC
with all its spreading roots and all
poisonous fruits, and they accepted al
: ratified the then pending Oongression
fe amendment of the Constitution of Il
United States, which abolished slave
:. then, henceforth and forever.
=" The people of those States have at &
: same time chosen for themselves by Fl
nd and uncontrolled suffrage, Governor
y, Legislatures, Judioiaries and munioiI
4 authorities. Between the Federal 60
!. ernment and thsge restored and reorga