Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1867-12-13

pared by previous habits and opportuni-
ties to perform the trust which il demands,
Is to degrade it, and fually to destroy its
power. For il may be safely assumed,
that no political truth is better established
than that such indiscriminate and all
embracing extension of popular suffrage
must end at last in its overthrow and
destruction. | repeat the expression Of
my willingness to join in any plan within
the scope of our constitutional authority,
which promises to better the condition of
the negroes in the South, by encouraging
them in industry aud enlightenment, the
improvement of their morals and giving
protection to all their just rights as freed
men; butsto transfer our political inherit
anoo 10 them would in my opinion be an
abandonment Of duty, which we owe
alike the memory of our fathers and
the rights of our children. The plan Of
pdttng the Southern States wholly, and
the Federal Government partially, into
the hands of negroes, is proposed at time
peculiarly unpropitious. The foundations
of society have been broken up by civil
war, Industry must be reorgaaized, JUS
tice re-established, public credit maintain
ed, and order brought out Of confusion.
To accomplish these ends would require
all the wisdom and virtue Of the great
men who framed our institutions original
ly. | confidently believe that their de-
scendants will be equal to the arduous
task before them; but it is worse than
madness to expect that negroes will per-
form it for us. Certainly we ought not
to ask their assistance until We despair of
our own competency The great differ
ence between these two races in physical,
mental and moral characteristics, will
prevent an amalgamation or fusion of
them together in one homogeneous mass.
If the inferior obtains ascendancy over
the other, it will govern with reference
only to its own interests, for it will recog-
nize no common interests, and create such
a tyranny as this continent has never yet
witnessed. Already negroes are inHuenc-
ed by promises of con6scation and plum
der They are taught to regard as an
enemy every white man who has any res
pect for the rights of his own race. If
this continues, it must become worse and
worse, until all order will be subverted,
all industry cease, aud the fertile fields of
the South grow up into wilderness. OF
all the dangers which our nation has yet
encountered, none are equal to those
which must result from the success of the
effort now making to Alricanize half our
country. l would uot put considerations
of money in competition with justice and
right, but the expenses incideut to Re-
construction, under the system adopted by
Congress, aggravate what | regard as the
intrinsic wrong of the measure itself. 1t
has cost uncounted millions already, aud
if 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 ourselves. 1t will re-
quire strong standing army, and proba-
bly, more than two hundred millions Of
dollars per annum, to maintain the SUI
premacy of negro governments after they
are established. This 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 ascendancy themselves,
without military power. They are wholly
incapable of holding in subsection the
white people of the South. l submit to
the judgment Of Congress, whether the
public credit may not be injuriously
affected By a system of measures like this.
With our debt and the vast private inter-
esis which are complicated with it, we
can not 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 care
fully inculcatng the principles Of justice
and honor on the popular mind, aud by
the most scrupuious fidelity to all our
engagements Of every sort. Any serious
breach of the organic law, persisted in for
q considerable time, cannot but create
fears for the stability Of our institutions.
Habitual violation of the prescribed rules
which we bind ourselves to observe, must
demoralize the people. Our only stand.
ard of civil duty being set at naught, the
sheet anchorof our political morality is
lost, the public conscience swings from
its moorings and yields to every impulse,
passion and interest If we repudiate the
Constitution we will not be expected to
care much for mere pecuuiary obligations.
The violation Of such pledge a. We
made on the 22d OF July, 1861, will as.
suredly diminish the market value OF our
other promises. Besides, if VIC now ac-
knowledge that the National debt was
created, not to hold the States ia the I'm
ion, as the tax payers were led to suppose,
but to expel them from it, and band 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 this or any other argument in favor
of Reputation can be entertained as sound,
but its influence on some classes of minds
may be well apprehended. The financial
honor of a great commercial nation, large.
ly indebted, and with Republican form
of Government, administered by agents Of
the popular choice, is thing of such
delicate texture, aud the destruction Of il
would be followed by such unspeakable
calamity. that every true patriot must de.
sire 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 the sense Of general
insecurity, by tho terror of coufscation,
and the dread of negro supremacy. South
ern trade, from which the North would
4. L.. IL.