Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1867-07-26
Gcrrit Smith On the Duty the North to
"a the South.
A LETTER TO TuADDEus STEVENS.

A LETTER TO THADDEUS STEVENS.
= Hon. THADDEys STEvENs-DEAR SIR:
< GU are reported in the New York Tribune
as having recently said on the floor of Con-
gress:
cit is now held by one of the most liberal
and enlightened gentlemen in the country &
mean Gerrit Smth) that we should even
pay portion of the damage inflicted on the
Rebels, and pay a portion of the Rebel
debt"
Of course, you do not mean that this is
literally So My often repeated proposition
is that Government lend or give moneys to
the South to help her to an upward start
from the depths Of her poverty and desolation.
BY what logic you we're able to construct
from the letter of this proposition your figure
of speech is for you, not for me, to explain.
I am truly sorry that it is in your heart to
hold up to ridicule my reasonable PROPOSE
ton. Y on are too old and too intellectual
to be making such concessions to passion and
prejudice. There are two reasons why the
North should be glad to help the South
First, the South is poor-very poor-and
the North is rich. Second, the North is
largely responsible 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 unfolding and extending sla-
very. Until the breaking out of the war,
every Congress- was for slavery. The repeal
of the Missouri compromise was the work Of
the Northsas well as of the South. So, too,
was thesenactnent Of that Internal fugitive
slave act, which even the good Abraham
Lincoln was compelled by the pro-slavery
sentiment of the North as we'll as of the
South to enforce 50 vigorously. With COM
paratively..few exceptions, our Northern col
lcges, theological seminaries, and political
and religious parties were on the side of slav-
cry The commerce of the North was en-
phatically in the interest of slavery.
In the light of such facts, it surely cannot
be denied that the North made herself large
ly 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 degree that the
North was responsible for the war and for
it's ruinous results to the South.
You call my sympathy with the South,
and my desire to have the North nelp her,
sssickly humanity" I call it simple homes
ty. If my neighbour and | join in getting
each other drunk, and he in his frenzy goes
to tearing down my house, and [ in selfde-
fence demolish his, am not to disown his
claim upon my sympathy. | am to feel that
honesty requires me to help him rebuild.
Would to God that Congress we're so just
and wise as, at this very session, to lend fif-
ty millions of dollars to the Confederate
Statcs-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 US a pre-
MUM Of 40 per cent. and our Government
would no longer have to pay I per cent. nor
much more than half per cent. interest on
it's loans.
Very respectfully, yours,
GERRIT SMITH.