The Van Buren press., 1867-07-05

about me, whispering "Only keep still
about universal amnesty, and your cleo
ton Is Certain. Just be quiet a few weeks,
and you can say what you please there
after You have no occasion to speak
now" i slept on the wellm sug-
gestion, and deliberately concluded that
! could not, in justice to myself, defer to
it. / could not purchase Office by even
passive, negative dissimulation. No man
should be enabled to say to me, in truth,
Z" II l had supposed you would persist in
your rejected, condemned amnesty hob.
by, ! would not have given you my vote"
So l wrote and published, on the 9th OF
that month, my manifesto entitled " The
True Basis of Reconstruction wherein,
repelling the idea that | proposed q
dicker with the cx-rcbels, 1 explicitly
said:
am for universal amnesty-so faI
as immunity from fear ofpunishment or
confscation is concerncd--cven though
impartial suffrage should, for the present,
be defeated. | DID think it desirable that
Jefferson Davis should be arraigned and
tried for treason; and it still seems to me
that this might properly have been done
many months ago But it was not done
then; and now | believe it would result
in far more evil than good 1t would re-
kindle passions that have nearly burned
out or been bushed to sleep; it would
fearfully convulse and agtatc the South I;
it would arrest the progress of reconcila-
ton and kindly feeling there; it would
cost alarge sum directly, and far larger
indirectly and-unless the jury were
scandalously packed-it would result in
a management or no verdict. | can
imagine no good end to be subservcd by
such atrial; and-holding Davis no bet
ter nor worse than several others-would
have him treated as they are"
Gentlemen, ] shall not attend your
meeting this evening. have an engage.
ment out of town, and shall keep it.
do not recognize you as capable of judg-
ing, or even fully apprehending me. You
evidently regard me us weak sentimen-
talist, misled by maudlin philosophy,
| arraign you as narrow minded block
heads, who would like to be useful to a
great and good causei but don't know
how. Your attempt to base great, en-
during party on the hate and wrath nee
essarily cngendcred by bloody civil
war, is as though you should plant col
ony on an iceberg which had somehow
drifted into a tropical ocean / tell you
here that, out of life earnestly devoted
to tho good ofhuman kind, yonr children
will select my going to Richmond and
signing that bail bond as the wisest act,
and will feel that it did more for freedom
and humanity than all of you were com
petent to do, though you had lived to the
age of Methuselah
All ! care for is, that you make this q
square stand-up fight, and record your
judgment by yeas and nays. care not
how few vote with me, nor how many
vote against me; for know that the lat
ter will repent it in dust and ashes before
3 years have passed. Understand, once
for all, that | dare you and defy you, and
that propose to fight it out on the line
that have held from the time of Lees s
surrender. So long as any man was
seeking to overthrow our government, he
was my enemy; from the hour in which
he laid down his arms, he was my for
merly erring countryman. SO long as
any is at heart opposed to the national
unity, the federal authority, or to that as
sertion of the equal rights of all mer
which has become practically identified
with loyalty and nationality, l shall dc
my best to deprive him of power; but
whenever he ceases to be thus, | demand
his restoration to all the privileges ol
American citizenship.
give you fair notice that / shall urge
the e-enfranchisement of those now pro
scfibed for rebellion so soon rs / shal
feel confident that this course is consist.
ent with the freedom of the blacks and
the unity ofthe republic, and that l shal
demand recall of all now in exile onl,
for participating in the rebellion, when
ever the country shall have been SC
thoroughly pacifed that its safety will
not thereby be endangered. And so
gentlemen, hoping that you will hence
forth comprehend me somewhat better
than you have done, | remain,