Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-05
rEECmER ON RECONsTnuCrlON

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, delivered a
lecture on Reconstruction, before the Young
Meme Christian Association Of Philadelphia,
last Thursday evening. In the course OF
his remarks he said;
Ii was intended that The emancipation
proclamation should be enforced, and those
10 whom il applied should be as free as the
proclamation and the Constitution declared
them tc be. The Christianity Of nation
was measured by the manner in which care
was taken Of the poor and ignorant No
foreign liberty would do for this country.
For instance, that known rs liberty in France
would not suit us. We want our own bill
Of items, carrying the right Of person, the
right Of labor, the right ofproperty, the civil
right and suffrage,
As TO seryile instructions the prophets
were ut fault, for no indiscretions had been
committed; yet we had been told the slaves
were blood thirsty men, only waiting the
opportunity 10 cut their masters Threats. In
one district in the South four thousand able
bodied men lived, and not a single evidence
could be brought forward where they had
committed one act of indiscretion. As TO
being towards, no Southern regiment who
mas ever ItitlNtu II tldlEt lAhAi AAlNiA Jaw
nets will say they are not brave.
Give him hope and he viii work; give
him ambition and show him he will be
higher than his father has been, and he
will work: but do not take every induce
ment away from him. Ii was hard TO change
an old custom, but in six months the slaves
had become freedmen and hired themselves
out, and the cry was for more hands ON the
.xl,,s,fs,... rhaoo uilapf ahanrrag Kvp
more significant and entitled 10 greater at
tention than we give them. These men
we're 10 be given rights 20 acquire property
and to transfer it as they please There
must not be one code for white men and
another for black men.
He wanted suffrage, not because a man
was black. but because he was a man, and it
was manhood's right The Legislature did
not give him the right TO vote, for when he
was born he had the right. The right, how
ever. eliminates with developments, as the
bell-aear is not expected 10 be sweet until
il is ripe. Some men are ripe at fifteen,
others are not when they are thirty, so the
law has determined the age of twenty-one 10
be the time OF manhood. Unless forfeited
by crime, il was the right Of every man TO
vote, and 10 withhold il was n manifest in
Justice. He was asked il he would permit
a ship load of emigrants 10 vote within a
wear after they landed, and would say yes,
because he did not know how we could get
along without more or less evil.
In a democratic republican government
there was nothing worse than large class
run down at the heels for the want of stiff
ening up by citizenship.
As 20 the black man voting, he thought
the citizens of Alabama would more cheer
fully accord them the privilege than would
those Of Philadelphia. The people Of the
North asked that fifteen Southern States be
excluded for refusing to let the colored
man dc what they will not permit. They
we're willing 10 have a Gospel preached in
missionary lands that they would not listen
20 at home. Was it fair 70 stand on the line
of reconstruction and ask that these States
should be forced TO do that which We refuse
10 do.
Constitutional amendments were needed
and the President seemed afraid too much
tampering would be done. Ii the venerable
instrument is opened, take out Of il all that
slavery put in, and put in all that slavery
kept out, and then shut il mp forever. The
present basis OF representation must come
out
The kind and patient Mr.. Lincoln was
bore il with patient spirit, reminding him
Of some horses who merely act when cudg-
eled. rs though il was TO brush flies of.
When they commenced whacking Mr.. John
son, they found pair Of heels through TIE
dashboard, and they left the wagon and took
to trees and bushes, crying. Beast, Brute,
but since then have cudgeled more carefully
He took both sides, and was for Mr. John.
ron and Congress also, deeming the question
10 be how to do, and not what 10 do. Re
construction was going on in the South,
where il after all must be made; yet il wa.
wise 20 have proper laws to fall back upon,
Let Georgia and Alabama pass laws Civ
ing rights and privileges 10 colored men
and let South Carolina enact the slave code
and the consequences would be that all would
leave the latter State and go to the former
The plantations must be worked by the col
ored men, and the people Of South Carolina
would quickly demand the repeal Of the
laws that drove them from their midst