The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-07
piles of tha constitution inherited from our.

fathers 1t follows, therefore, That In al
hitting to the ballot box a new class of vo
tiers not qualified for the exercise of theelec
tive franchise, we weaken our system ofgov
eminent, instead of adding to its strength
and durability. I yield to no one in at
tachment to that rule of general suffrage
which distinguishes our policy as a nation
But there is limit, wisely observed hither
to, which makes the ballots privilege and {
trust, and which requires OF some classes s
time suitable for probation and PREPARATION
To give it unfortunately to new class
wholly unprepared, by previous habits and
opportunities, to perform the trust which il
demands, to degrade it, finally to destroy its
power; for it may be safely assumed that nc
political truth is better established than that
such indiscriminate and all embracing ex
tension of popular suffrage must end at last
in its overthrow and destruction"
I repeat the expression of my willingness
to join in any plan within the scope of oul
constitutional authority which promises to
better the condition of the negroes in the
South, by encouraging them to industry, en-
Tightening their minds improving their
morals, and giving protection to all their
Just rights as freedmen. But the transfer of
our political inheritance to them would in
my opinion, be an abandonment of a duty
we owe alike to the memory of our fathers
and the rights of our children.
The plan of putting the Southern States
wholly, and the general government partial
ly, into the hands OF negroes, is proposed at
time peculiarly unpropitious. The foun-
dations of society have been broken up by
civil war. Industry must be reorganized,
justice re, established, public credit main
tanned, and order brought out of confusion.
To accomplish these ends would require all
| cTo nd rtu nf Ina, n
formed our institutions originally. Iconf-
IDENTITY believe that their descendants will be
equal to the arduous task before them, but
| 1T is worse than madness to expect that ne
groes will perform it for us. Certainly we
ought not to ask their assistance until we
despair of our own competency.
The great difference between the two ra-
ces in physical, mental, and moral charac-
teristics will prevent all amalgamaton or fu-
sion of them together in one homogeneous
mass. IT the inferior obtains the ascendancy
over the other, it will govern with reference
only to its own interests for it will recog-
niZe no common interest-and create such Il
tyranny as this continent has never yet wit
messed. Already the negroes are influenced
by promises of contiscation and plumber
They are taught to regard as any enemy
every white man who has any respect for the
|
must become worse and worse, until all CT
will be subverted, all industry cease, and
the fertile fields of the South grow up into
a wilderness. Of all the dangers which our
nation has ye encountered, none are equal
to those which must result from the success
OF the effort now making to Africanizc that
half of our country.
l would not put considerations of money
in competition with justice and right. But
the expenses incident to reconstruction "
under the system adopted by Congress ag-
gravate what regard as the intrinsic wrong
of the measure itself. 1t has cost uncounted
millions already, and if persisted it 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 deludc ourselves.
1t will require strong standing army, and
probably more than two hundred millions of
dollars per annum, to maintain the suprema-
cy of 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 in vain to
hope that negroes will maintain their as
cendancy themselves Without military
power they arc wholly incapable of holding
| submit to the Judgment of Congress
whether the public credit may not be in
iuriously affected by system of measure
like this. With our debt, and vast private
interests which are complicated with it, we
cannot be too cautious of a policy which
might, by possibility. impair the confidence
of the world in our Government. That con-
fidcnce 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 engage
ments of every SORT Any serious breach of
the organic law, persisted in for a considera-
BILE time cannot but create fears for the
stability of our institutions. Habitual vio-
lation of prescribed rules, which we bind
ourselves to observe, must demoralizc the
people. Our only standard of civil duty
being set at naught, the sheet anchor of our
political morality is lost, the public con-
science swings from its moorings, and yields
to every impulse of passion and interest. If
we 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 day of July, 1861,
will assuredly diminish the market value of
our other promises Besides, if we now
acknowledge that the national debt was
created, not to hold the States in the Union,
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 l clio not admit that this
or any other argument in favor of repudia- !
ton can be entertained as sound but its |
influence on some classes of minds may well |
be apprehended. The financial honor of Il
great commercial nation, largely indebted,
and with republican form of government |
administered by agents of the popular choice,
is a thing of such delicate texture, and the
destruction of it would be followed by such |
unspeakable calamity, that every true patriot
must desire to avoid whatever might expose
it to the slightest danger.
The great interests of the country require |
immediate relief from these enactments.-
Business in the South is paralyzed by
sense of general insecurity, by the terror of
confiscation, and the dread Of negro suprema-
cy The Southern trade, from which the
North would have derived so great profit |
under a government of law, still languishes,
and can never be revived until it ceases to
he fattered bv the arbitrary mower which |