Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-09-11
GENERAL LEES REPLY
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS.
"T-c,1, 1ORQ

WEST VIRGINIA, Aug. &c, 1868. (
General Il have had the honor to receive your
letter Of this date, and in accordance with your
suggestions l have conferred with a number of
gentlemen from the South, in whose Judgment
have cOntided, and who are we'll acquainted with
the public sentiment Of their respective States
They have kindly consented to unite with me in
replying to your communication, and their names
will be found, with my own, appended to this an
swer. With this explanation We proceed to give
you candid statement OF what be believe to be
the sentiment of the Southern people in regard
to the subject to which you refer.
Whatever opinions may haYe prevailed in the
past in regard to African slavery or the right of a
State to secede from the Union, we bel eve we eX-
press the almost unanimous judgment OF the
Southern people when we declare that they CON
slider that those questions were decided by the
war; and that it s their intention in good faith to
abide by that decision.
At the close of the war the southern people
laid down their arms and sought to resume their
former relations with the United States Govern
ment. Through their State conventions they
abolished slavery and annulled their ordinances
of secession, and they returned to their peace
full pursuits with sincere purpose to fulfil all
their duties under the Constitution of the United
States which they had sworn to protect. II their
action in these particulars had been met in a
spirit of frankness and cordially, we believe
that ere this old limitations would have passed
away, and the wounds inflicted by the war would
have been, in great measure, healed. AS far
as we are advised the people of the South enter
tain no unfriendly feeling towards the Govern
ment OF the United States but they complain
that their rights under the Constitution with
held from them in the administration thereof
The idea that the southern people are hostile
to the negroes, and would Cypress them if it were
in their power to do SO. is entirely unfouuded.
They have grown up in our midst, and We have
been accustomed from childhood to look up
on them with kindness. The change in the re-
lations of the two races has wrought no change
in our feeling towards them. They still consti-
| tute the important part of our laboring popula-
| ton Without their labor the lands Of the South
| would be comparatively unproductive Without
! the employment which southern agriculture
affords they would be destitute of the means of
subsistence, and become paupers, dependent on
puonc bounty. Self-interest, even if there were
| no niger motive, would, therefore, prompt the
| whites OF the South to extend to the negroes
| care and protection. The important fact that
the two races are, under existing circumstances,
necessary to each other, is gradually becoming
apparent to both, and we believe that but for the
influences exerted to stir up the passions of the
| negroes, the relations of the two races would
| soon adjust themselves basis of mutual
| kindness and advantage.
1t is true that the people of the South, together
| with the people of the North and West, are, for
| obvious reasons, opposed to any system OF laws
which will place the political power Of the eean
try in the hands of the negro race. But this OPP
position springs from no feeling of enmity. but
! from deep-seated conviction that at present the