Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-13

| would save il in the shortest way under
The constitution.
The sooner the national authority can be
restored, the nearer the Union viii be-the
Union as i was.
If lhere be those who would not save the
Unien unless they could at the same time
save slavery, l do not agree with them.
If there be those who would not save the
Union unless they should at the same time
destroy slavery, do not agree with them.
Ny paramount object Is 10 saUe the Union
aldaOt either 10 saueOr destroy slauay.
Unlike Chief Justice Chase, who speaks
Of theSouthern states as Communities, -
and, unlike the Radical leaders in Con-
gress, who resolve that they are dis
tricts Of country formerly occupied bv the
once existing States Of Virginia, North
Carolina. South Oarolina, Georgia Flori-
da, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana,
Arkansas and Texas Mr. Lincoln both
called and treated them as States in the
Union In his letter to the Hon Edward
Stanley, Military Governor Of North
Carolina, dated the 29th Of Septembe-,
1862, he said
81 shall be much gralifed if you can
find it practicable to have Congressional
elections held in that State before January.
1t is my sincere wish that North Carolina
may again govern herself conformably to
the constitution Of the United States"
Then in a letter to 4 committee of eiti-
zens of Louisisaa, dated the 10th of June,
1863, he said ia regard to an election to
be held in the succeeding November:
"The people of Bonisiana shall not lack
an opportunity for 4 fair election for both
Federal and State officers by want Of any
thing in my power to give them"
Here he urges and entreats these States,
not as territories but as sovereign States,
to send Representatives to Congress and
govern themselves cOnformably to the
constitution of the United States.
lie further illustrated his desire to
restore the Union by issuing a proc
lamation on theSth of December, 1863,
inviting the people of the seeded
States to re-establish their State gov
ernments, and promising the Execu-
tive protection TO the same, provided
these governments should be estab-
lished by as many as One-tenth of the
legal voters in the. Presidential election Of
1860 And he urged this policy upon
the people Of these States That his
whole course in this matter was sane
toned by the Republican party, we have
evidence in their unqualified Endorsement
of his acts in the platform adopted by
the Baltimore Convention. In the speech
which Mr. Lincoln made on the 18th Of
April, 1865, the last he ever made, and
after the surrender of Gen. Lee, which
was regarded as the virtual close of the
war, he expressed himself in favor of the
Immediate restoration Of the Southern
States as follows:
1--WE all agree that the seceeded State,
so-called, are out of their proper practical
relation with the Union, and that the sole
object Of the government, civil and military,
in regard TO those States, is to again get
them into that proper practical relation.
| believe it is not only possible, but in fact |
easier to do this without deciding, or even
considering, whether these States have ever |
been out of the Union, than with it. |
Finding themselves safely at home, it would |
be utterly immaterial whether they had |
ever been abroad Let US all Join in doing |
the acts necessary in restoring the proper |
practical relations between these States and 1
the Union, and each forever after innocent |
ly indulge his own opinion whether, in |
doing the acts, he brought the States from |
without into the Union, or only gave them |
proper assistance, they never having been |
out of it,
1t is true, there was then small fac,
ton of the Republican party, headed by |
Winter Davis, Ben Wade, and Thad.
Stevens, opposed to reconstruction, unless
they could control these States, but the
great body of the Republican party
favored the policy enunciated by Mr.
Lincoln There is scarcely doubt that
had Mr. Lincoln lived, he would have
carried out his policy of restoring these
States to their proper practical relation"
or the Republicans would have had to split
with him as they have with President
Johnson, who sought to carry out Mr.
Lincoln's policy.