The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-08-17
LETTER FROM GOV. JOS. E. BROWN.

i
REPLY OF GOV. j. E. BROWN, TO HON. B. H
HILL, OF GEORGIA.
To the Editors Of the Chronicle and Sent''
mel, augusta, Ga.
To recapitulate in few words the remedy
discussed in my last Mr.. Hill advises the
people
1. If need be, before God and the coun-
try. to renew the fight and die for their LOST
rights. u.
2. To sue, or indict Gen. Pope, and all act-
ing under the authority OF Congress- IN case
they or any of them, arrest any citizen or
seize his property.
3. To maintain the existing State Gov
eminent independent OF the ACT OF congress,
and in defiance of the power OF General
Pope. who is sustained by the act OF Con-
eress, and the army OF the United States.
People of Georgia, this is the remedy, the
whole remedy and every part of the RENE
DIV. that can be found in, or extracted from,
the fourteen numbers of "Notes on the Stu
alton by B. H. Hill," said in his Atlanta
speech. 1t is the only grain OF supposed
wheat to be found in the entire bushel OF
chaff, and when examined it IS found to
be a defective grain of cheat
As the champion of words in Georgia can
suggest no practical relief against these
Military bills" and as your rejection OF the
terms proposed by them will again orlnS
down the power of the conqueror upon you,
and entail mon ,ou the same disfranchise-
ment and disability under which MIR. Hill
chafes. with confiscation of your property to
nav the war debt added; what is best tor
YOU to do9 Will you renew the ytght
with a certai nty of being whipped, and defy
the Government, which has the control over
you; and thereby provoke it to make your
burdens still more grievous? If you do this
in the hope of maintaining the right OF Mr..
Hill and others who are DISTINGUISHED to
hold office, you will find it a vain hope
You may cause yourselves to be disfranchis-
ed when Congress again meets, but you can
relieve none who are now DISTINGUISHED till
it is the pleasure of Congress to grant the re-
lief. Those who accept the terms prescribed
by Congress, and support them in good faith,
if they have not held high political position
in connection with the rebellion, will, have
no doubt, be relieved very soon after the re-
construction is completed Those who do
not, cannot expect relief.
You who have never held Office have
doubtless observed that the former Office
holders are, as general rule, the most bitter
of all others against the the present plan OF
reconstruction. AS all men are more or less
ambitious, for power this is not unnatural
They have had the benefits in the past, and
rs the fortunes of war have been against
them, they must now stand aside, for time
at least, and live as you have always lived
without Office And while they are exclud-
ed, such of you as may be selected from your
own number, must come forward and ill
the positions of homer and trust in their
places.
Judging from the past, it is natural to
conclude thatif Congress had required fur
ther sacrifice of the peoples property, without
interfering with the rights of the leaders to
hold office, as the terms of settlement, it
would have been as promptly and cheertullY
yielded as they yielded slavery. But when
Congress required the leaders to yield this
right, to settle the question, and save to the
people the balance left them. how few have
been viii to make this sacrifice for the pub
lie good. Those who have been accustom-
to 0ccupy the positions of honor and profit,
seem to think the country is ruined beyond
redemption if they are deprived OF this
right Doubtless other men Will rise up in
the places of many of them as honest and as
capable as they were, and the country will
still prosper after they are forgotten.
It is much to be regretted that many of
our former leaders seem to employ all their
powers in widening the breach, and stirring
up our prejudices against the people OF the
North. When the war ragged, this was natu-
raj. But when hostilities ceased, it became
unnatural. Enemies in war should in peace
be friends, is the precept of high authority
Suppose the leaders of the North had all
been as active in arousing the bitter preju-
dices of the masses against u.s. what would
have been the result? Before this time our
whole property would have been confiscated
to pay the war debt. and all who volunta-
rily aided in the rebellion would have been
forever DISTINGUISHED. If we had been the
conquerors, and the people of the North the
conqered, do you not believe the same SOIL
thern leaders who now labor so faithfully TO
keep alive our passions and our prejudices
against the people of the North, would have
favored the dictation of as hard, nay, harder
terms to them than they now prescribe to
us. Mr.. Hill, in his Savannah speech, above
referred to, before the war began, laid down
the terms upon which we were to allow
them to come into our Union or Confeder-
acy after we had g burned their cities and
devastated their country" If they came
humbly enough as hewers of wood and
drawers of water, they might come" These
are the terms upon which he and others, as
Radical Southern leaders, proposed to allow
them to come back into our Union after we
them. And many of the same men, who
then entertained this revengeful spirit, are
now the men who denounce the governing
men of the North as perjured traitors for
proposing milder terms to US; and all our
people as perjured traitors who accept mild
er terms.
Again, the masses of the Northern people
have shown none of this relentless spirit to-
ward us since the war. Our cities were
burned and our country devastated by the
war. This was followed by drought and
very short crop. Thousands of our people
were on the very verge of starvation. We
had not the means of relief among ourselves.
We appealed to the humanity of the people
of the North and they responded with no.
BILE and generous sympathy. Our agents
who went among them to represent our des-
titution, distress and suffering, were not
turned empty away. The people of the
North lent a listenening ear and they OPEN
eel their hearts, and their houses, their gran
aries, and their purses and contributed hun
dreds of thousand of dollars in value to the
relief of our poor-to feed the hungry and
clothe the naked but a short time
previous, were enemies in arms against them.
Even the Congressional fragmentary con-
clave of perjured traitors" as Mr.. Hill calls
them, appropriated larger sum to the re-
lief of the suffering poor of the South, as
well aS thOco who boI boar, tbo.o