The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1866-09-05

I I
patton which we condemn that the condition of the
southern States and people is not such renders safe
their reddmissOn to share in the government of the
country that they still dsloyal in sentiment and
purpose, and that neither the honor, the credit
the interests Of the nation would be safe if they
reddmitted to share in its councils We might reply
to this:
l. That we have no right for such reasons, to deny
to any portion Of the States people, rights expressly
conferred upon them by the constitution OF the United
States
That so long as their acts those of loyalty
long they conform in all their public conduct to the
requirements of the constitution and laws-we have no
right to exact from them conformity In their sentiments
and opinions to own.
3. That we have no right to dstrust the purpose or
the ability of the people of the Union to protect and
defend, under all contingencies and by whatever
may be required, its honor and its welfare.
These would, IN our judgment, be full and conclusive
to the plea thus advanced for the exclusion of
these States from the Union But say further, that
this plea rests upon a complete misappreheuson
unjust peryersion Of existing facts
We do not hesitate to affirm that there is section
OF the country where the constitution and laws Of the
United States find prompt and entire obedience
than in those States and amongst those people who
were lately in arms against theme where there is
less purpose danger of any future attempt to
throw their authority. 1t would seem to be both natu
raj and inevitable tnat, IN States and sections
Gently swept BY the whrlwind of war; where all the
ordinary modes and methods of organised industry had
been broken up, and the bonds and influences that
guarantee social order have been destroyed-where
thousands and tens of thousands of turbulent spirits
have been suddenly loosed from the discipline Of war
and thrown without resources restraint upon dis
organised and chaotic society, and where the keen
sense of defeat is added to the overthrow Of ambition
and hope, Of violence should defy for time the
imperfect discipline of law, and excite the fears
anG torebodings OF the patriotic and well disposed 1t
is uuquestonabiY true that local dStu1 Dances of this
klnd accompanied by or less of violence do still
occur. But they confined entirely to the cities and
larger towns OF the southern States where different
and interests brought closely in contact
and where passions and reSentments always most
easily fed and famed into outbreak; and even there
they quite much the fruit of untimely and hurt
lul Potlcal agitation as OF any hostility the part of
the people to the authority of the national government
But the concurrent testimony ofthose best acquainted
with the condition of society and the state Of public
sentiment in the southncluding that Of its represen-
tatlves in this the fact that tEe
great mass OF the southern people accept with full
and sincere submission as do the people of the other
States the reestablshed supremacy of the national
thorty, and are prepared, the most loyal spirit and
with zeal quckened alike by their interest and their
PRIDE to cooperate with other States and sections in
whatever may be necessary to defend the rights main
tam the honor, and promote the welfare OF
mon country. History affords no instance where
people, powerful ia numbers, in resources and in
public spirit, after long in its duration de-
structyc IN its progress and adverse in its ISSUE
have accepted defeat and its consequences with much
OF good faith has marked the conduct of the people
lately IN msurrectiOn against the United States. Be
yond all question: this has been largely due to the wise
generosity with which their enforced surrender was
accepted by the president of the United States and the
generals IN immediate command Of their armies and
TO the liberal measures which afterwards taken
restore order, tranquility and law to the States where
all had Tor the time been oyerthrOWn. No steps could
have been better calculated to command the respect
win the confidence revive the patriotism, and
the permanent and aectonate allegiance Of the people
of the south to the constitution aud laws of the Union
than those which have been firmly taken and so
SteadlaStly pursued by the president of the United
States. And if that confidence and loyalty have been
since mparedi 1t the people OF the South are to-day
less cordial IN their allegiance than they immedi-
ately upon the close Of the war, believe it is
due to the changed tone Of the legislative department
raj 1ff,nT arls ham tia
ton by which congress has endeavOrcd to upFlan and
defeat the presidents wise and benefcent policy of
storaon to their exclusion from all participation in
our common government; to the withdrawal from them
of rights conferred and guaranteed by the constitution
and to the evident purpose of congress- in the exercise
of 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 provinces and conquered peo
pie IN all things subordinate and subject to the will Of
their conqncrors; free only to obey laws in making
which they are not allowed to share.
No people has ever yet existed whose loyalty and
faith such treatment long continued would not aeuae
and impair. And the ten millions of Americans who
live in the south would be unworthy citizens of free
country, degenerate Of heroic ancestry, unfit
to become guardians of the rights and liberties
bequeathed to by the fathers and founders of this
republic, if they could accept with uncompainng sub
misSivenesS, the humiatiOns thus sought to be I'M
posed upon them. Resentment of injustice is always
and everywhere essential to freedom and the spirit
which prompts the States and people lately in Insur
recon but nsurgent now no longer to protest against
tne imposition OF unjust ana degrading conutlonS,
makes them all the more worthy 30 share in the gov
ernment Of free commonwealth, and gives still frmer
assurance Of the future power and freedom Of the
public. For whatever responsibility the southern peO-
pie may have incurred in resisting the authority Of the
national government and in taking up arms for its
overthrow, they may be held to answer individuals,
before the judicial tribunals Of the lInd and for that
conduct societies aud organised communities, they
have already paid the most fearful penalties that
fall offending States in the losses the suerings and
humiatlOnS of unsuccessful war But whatever may
be the guilt the punishment Of the conscious authors
of the nsUrrection candor and common justice demand
the concession that the great Mass OF those who be
came involved In its responsibility acted upon what
they believed to be their duty in defense of what they
had been taught to believe their rights, or under
physical and moral which they were pow
erless TO resist Norc can 1t be amisS to remember that
terrible have been the bereavements and the losses
of this war; they have fallen exclusively upon neither
section and upon neither party-that they have fallen,
indeed with far greater weight upon those with whom
the war began; that in the death of relatives and
friends, the dispersion of families, the disruption of
social systems and social ties, the overthrow of gov
erHmentS, of law and OF order the destruction OF prop
erty and of farms and modes and means of industry,
the loss of political, commercial and moral influence,
in every shape and form which great calamities can
assume, the States and people which engaged IN the
against the government of the United States, have
suffered tenfod more than those who remained in allie
glance to its constitution and laws.
These considerations may not, they certainly do
not justify the action of the people Of the nsurgent
States but no Just or generous mind VIII refuse to
them very considerable weight in determining the line
of conduct which the government of the United States
should pursue towards them They accept not with
alacrity certainly without sulen resentment, the de-
feat and overthrow they have sustained. They
knowledge and acquiesce in the results to themselves
and the country which that defeat involves. They
longer claim for any State the right to secede from the
Union they no longer assert for any State aegi-
paramount to that which is due to the general
government. They have accepted the destruction Of
slavery abolished it by their State constitutions and
coucufred with the States and people of the whole
Union in prohibiting its existence forever upon the soil
or within the jurisdiction Of the United States. They
indicate and eyince their purpose just fast may
be possible and safe TO adapt their domestic laws to the
changed condition OF their society, and to secure by
the law and its tribunals equal and impartial justice to
all classes of their inhabitants. They admit the inFa
ditv of all of resistance to the national authority,
aud of all debts incurred in attempting its overthrow.
They their willingness to share the burdens and
discharge all the duties and obligations which rest upon
them in common with other States and other sections
of the Union; and they renew, through their repre-
seutativcs in this convention, BY all their public
duct in every way and by the most solemn acts by
which States and societies pledge their faith, their
engagement to bear true faith and allegiance, through
all time to come, to the constitution of the United
States and to all laws that may be made in pursuance
thereof
Fellow -countrymen we call upon you, in fall rei-
ance upon your intelligence and your patriotism, to
accept with generous and ungrudgng confidence, this
+i,a of late pl in rms