The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-07-19
Gerrit Smith on Our Duty to the
S0ufh-Letter to Thadtieus Stevens.

Hon. Thaddeus Stevens:
Dear Sir,-You are reported in the New
York Tribune as having recently said on
the floor of Congress:
{" 1t is now held by one of the most lbe-
raj and enlightened gentlemen in the coun-
try Il mean Gcrrit Smith) that we should
even pay a portion Of the damage inflicted
on the rebels, and pay portion Of the re-
bel debt"
Of course you do not mean that this is
literally so. My often repeated PROPOSE
ton is that Government lend or give mo-
neys to the South to help her to an up
ward start from the depths of her poverty
and desolation. By what logic you were
able to construct from the letter Of this
proposition your figure Of speech is for
you, not me, to explain. ain truly sorry
that it is in your heart to hold up to ridi-
cule my reasonable proposition. You are
too old and too intellectual to be
making such concessions to passion
and prejudice. There are two rea-
sons why the North should be glad to
help the South. First, the South is poor
very poor, and the North is rich-very
rich. Second, the North is largely re-
sponsible for the poverty of the South.
Our fathers united with the fathers of the
South in making this a land of slaves
and in our own day the North has gone
with the South in upholding and extend
ing slavery. Until the breaking out OF
this war every Congress was for slavery
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise
was the work Of the North as well as of
the South. So, too, was the enactment Of
that Internal Fugitive Slave act, which
even the good Abraham Lincoln was COM
PEELED by the pro-slavery sentiment of the
North as well as Of the South to enforce
so vigorously. With comparatively few
exceptions, our northern colleges, theologi-
cal Summaries, and political and religious
parties, were on the side of slavery. The
commerce of the North was emphaticaliy
in the interest Of slavery.
In the light Of such facts it surely can
not be denied that the North made herself
largely responsible for American slavery.
But the war came Of slavery; and the
poverty and desolation Of the South came
Of the war; and hence, to the same de-
gree that the North was responsible for
slavery is she responsible for the war and
for its ruinouS results to the South.
You call my sympathy with the South
and my desire to have the North help her.
"sickly humanity" I call it simple ho-
ncsty. If my neighbor and | join in get.
ting each other drunk, and he in his frenzy
goes to tearing down my house, and l in
self. defence demolish his, am not to dis
own his claim upon my sympathy. / am
to feel that honesty requires me to help
him rebuild.
Would to God that Congress were so
Just and wise as, at this very session, to
lend fifty millions Of dollars to the Con.
tederate States-to each Of them so much
Of it as would be proportionate to her
population and to what she has suffered
from the ravages of the war; The share
falling to each State to be distributed
throughout her territory in loans upon
adequate security. This, by proving the
love and pity Of the North for her, would
win the heart of the South, and would
thus produce true and lasting peace
between them. And then it would be
worth to the nation, if only in financial
point of view, many times fifty millions OF
dollars. Gold would no longer bear among
lis a premium of forty per cent, and our
Government would no longer have to pay
seven per cent, nor much more than halt
seven per cent. interest on its loans.
Very respectfully, yours,
GERRIT SMITH.
Petey1Or0'. July Is, 1867.