The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-07-05

inent European diplomatist once
told us that war was only disorgan-
lied diplomacy. 1t is certainly only
a more brutal and uncivilized pro-
cess of controversy, and it in fact
settles nothing but the fact of supe-
lrior brute force. To conquer the
I South upon the battle field was difli-
cult, and taxed us to the last man
and the last dollar; to conciliate the
South and restore the old peaceful
relations Of a constitutional Union is
yet more difficult, and calls for the
! wisest craftsmanship and highest
courage. 1t would hays been easy,
my fellow citizens. for US to follow
the example set in times past by 9th
er governments, and confiscated and
hung, until our enemies were brutal
ly stamped out, but we are met by
the fact that if We would retain our
beautiful and perfect system Of gov
.ernment, we must conciliate and har-
monize. The Southern insurgents,
when they laid down their arms, took
up their rights under cur Constitu-
ton, by which mean the individual
right to life, liberty, and property.
The difference between us and the
Democracy is to be found in the fact
that the Democracy insist that they
shall take up their wrongs also. Ad-
mitting that slavery went down to
the clash Of arms, they assert that
the worst result of slavery, found in
the law of caste and the superiority
of race, shall remain. Their religion
and their politics run together. As
they would have made our Savior
say, "Let little( white children come
unto me, for of such is the kingdom
of heaven )" and, Blessed are the
(white, poor in spirit, for they shall
inderit," DC, so they tell us that
constitutional liberty is the white
mans liberty, and the right to life
and property kepends altogether up
on the color of the skin.
i When the Southern insurgents va
Gated their State governments under
our Constitution and failed to sus-
tain their confederation, they put
themselves in the condition of citi.
zens- If may use such 4 term in
this connection-andw We are all call
ed upon to reconstruct, precisely as
We have heretofore created States,
out of new territory. And as we
have appointed Governors and
Judges, and enacted laws for the
Territory, looking solely to the for
nation of the State, so now we appoint
these officers and enact these laws,
looking only 20 constitutional re-
construction, that national pettifog-
ger, Henry Stanbery, to the contrary
Notwithstanding.
know that this is hard. When
peace was proclaimed, when our ban
ners were furled and our drums beat
the sweet march of Home, Broth
ers, Home" our war-worn veterans
marched back by the graves of their
fallen comrades, over the field where
our flag was trampled in the dust
past the loathsome prisons, where
thousands and thousands of our best
and brayest died a cruel death from
exposure and starvation. 1t is now
hard to take these wrong-doers by
the hand and say "Let by cones be
by cones. 1t is well, brother, for us
to be at peace again" But if We
would retain the freedom our fathers
gave US, if we would strengthen the
foundations of our constitutional
Government, for which We fought
and suffered, we must do this thing.
/ We had, not long since, burst OF
popular Indignation because one OF
our most cherished and able leaders
went on the bond that released JEFF.
| Davis from his Imprisonment. This
indignation was natural, but it was
unjust. My friends, we cannot try
these men on the charge of treason.
We did not grant them belligerant
rights; by the Lord Of Hosts, they
won them for them for themselves.
: And 50 long as the two Bull Runs,
Fredericksburg and Charlottesville
remain in memory, for jury oi
twelve Virginia gentlemen to sit for
4 verdict, with condemnation OF
ourselves on side and a gallows for
jeff Davis on the other, would be
monstrous. | cannot consent to
the hanging of Davis so long as An
drew johnson remains acting Presi
dent. The great enemy was at least
consistent and brave in the de-
fense of what he considered his coun-
try, and true to his friends. John
son makes Davis respectable; and to
have the last the culprit, and the 9th
er his executioner, shocks my finer
sensibilities and provOkes resent
ment.
We have passed certain laws call
ed acts Of reconstruction, and the
Democracy of the North are filled
with anguish at what they are pleas
ed to term their unconstitutionality
and wrong. But the Democracy Of
the South, led on by such men as
Longstreet and Wade Hampton, call
them peace otferings--as they are in
fact-and beg of Andrew johnson
and the Democracy North tolet them
alone.
1 do not propose to enter here up
on an argument as to the constitu-
tionality of the laws. After all that
the Democracy has done in the pur-
chase Of Louisiana, and the acquisl-
ton of Texas, out of which State
were created, as we create towns,
townships and counties, it is too late
to waste our time IN such uprofitable
speculations. cannot consent to
follow the ground rail of Virginia
abstraction by considering the reso-
lutions of '9s, and what they are
pleased to call State rights, which
few understand and none believe in.
The South did not fight for them, but
treated them with scorn, and assert
ed to the world that she was strug-
Cling tor the recognition of her ma
tionality, and, failing in that, now
scorns to fall back on the abstrac-
tions dug from the worm-holes OF an
tiquity.
What / propose to fight now is
something more potent than which
appeals to your passions and preju-
dice, In the assertion that we are AT
ricanizing America, which will end
in war of races, ruinous to the peo-
pie we seek to protect. ID. -4
/ APPROXIMATION.