Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-12-04

freemen; but 20 transfer our poliiiel
inheritance TO them would, in my opinion
be an abandonment OF duty which W
owe alike to the memory. Of our father
and TO the rights Of our children.
The plan Of putting the Southern
States wholly, and the Federal Govern
ment partially, In the hands OF negroes
is proposed at time peculiarly unpro
ptious. The foundations OF sociel,
have been broken up by civil war. In
dustry must be recognized, justice
re- established, public credit maintained
and order brought out of confusion. IL
accomplish these ends would require al
the wisdom and virtue Of the great mel
who formed our Institutions originally
| confidently believe that their descend
ents will be equal to the arduous tasl
before them butt is worse than madness
to expect that negroes will perform II fol
us. Certainly we ought not to ask theiI
assistance until we despair Of our own
competency. The difference between
the two races in physical, mental and
moral characteristics will prevent an
amalgamation or fusion Of them together
in one homogeneous mass. IL the inte
rior obtains ascendancy over the other,
it will govern with reference only to its
own interests; for it will recognize no
common interest and create such
tyranny as this continent has never yet
witnessed. Already negroes are influ-
enced by promises of confscatlon and
plumber. They are taught to regard as
an enemy every white man who has any
respect for the rights of his own race.
If this continues II must become worse
and worse until all order will be sub
verified, all industry cease, and the fertile
fields of the South grow up into a will
derness. Of all the dangers which our
nation has yet encountered, none are
equal to these which must result from
the success of the effort now making to
Africanize half our country.
| would not put considerations, OF
money in competition with Justice and
right but the expenses incident to re.
construction under the system adopted
by Congress, aggravate what | regard rs
the intrinsic wrongs of the measure
itself. 1t has cost uncounted millions
already, and ,fif persisted in, will add
largely to the weight of taxation, already
too oppressive to be borne without just
complaint, and may finally reduce the
treasury Of the nation to condition OF
bankruptcy. We must not delude our
selves. 1t will require strong standing
army, and probably more than two hun.
bred millions of dollars per annum to
maintain the supremacy of the negro
governments after they are established.
The sum thus thrown away would, If
properly used, form sinking fund large
enough to pay the whole national debt in
less than fifteen years. 1t is vain to hope
that negroes will maintain their ascend
ancy themselves. Without the military
power they are wholly incapable of
holding in subsection the white people Of
the South.
1 submit to the judgment of Congress
whether the public credit may not be in
juriously affected by system of mea-
sures like this. With our debt and the
vast private interests which are compli
Gated with it, we cannot be too cautious
of policy which might, by possibility,
impair the confidence of the world in our
Government. That confidence can only
be retained by carefully intoxicating the
principles of justice and honor on the
popular mind, and by the most scrupulous
fidelity to all our engagements of every
sort. Any serious breach of organic
law, persisted in for considerable time,
cannot but create fear for the stability
of our institutions. Habitual violation
of prescribed rules which we bind our
selves to observe must demoralize the
people. Our only standard of civil duty
being set at naught, the sheet anchor of
our political morality is lost; public
conscience swsys from its moorings and
yields to every impulse of passion and |
interest five repudiate the Constitution
we will not be expected to care much for
mere pecuniary obligations
The violation of such pledge as we
made on the 22d of July, 1861, will
assuredly diminish the market value of
our other promises Besides, if we now
that the national debt was
created, not to hold States in the Union,
as tax payers we're led to suppose, but to
expel them from it and hand them over
to be governed by negroes, the moral
duty to pay it may seem much less
clear. | say it may seem so; for |
do not admit that it or any other
in favor of reputation
can be entertained as sound; but
its influence on some classes of minds
may well be apprehended. The financial
honor of great commercial nation,
largely indebted, and with republican
form of government administered by
agents of popular choice, is a thing of
such delicate texture, and the destruc-
ton of it would be followed by such I'M
speakable calamity, that every true
patriot must desire to avoid whatever
might expose it to the slightest danger.
The great interests of their country
require immediate relief from these en-.
lctments. Business in the South is
Daralyzed by sense of general inse
,urity, by the terror of coniscation
and dread of negro supremacy.
Southern trade, from which the North |
would have derived so great a profit
lnder a Government of laws, still
anguishes and can never be revived
while it can be fettered by the arbitrary
power which makes all its operations
Unsafe. That rich country, the richest
n natural resources the world ever saw,
s worse than lost if it be not soon
placed under the protection of a free
Instead of being, as it
ought to be, source of wealth and
power, it will become an intolerable
burden upon the rest of the nation.
Another reason for retracing our steps
will doubtless be seen by Congress in the
ate manifestations Of public opinion on
his subject We live in country where
popular will always forces obsdienoe to
tself sooner or later. 1t is vain TO think
,f onnosing II with ANYTHING short of