The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-10-13


this was the accepted fact. The war was to
subdue an insurrection, not to conquer ma
ton. You we're defeated rebels, not vanquish-
ed alien enemies, and the Union was re-estab-
ished, not extended, over your territory. 1t
was upon this theory that the Government OF
the United States proceeded at first to renew
what were called the practical relations OF
the States 70 the Union, and you gladly
acceoted this view of the case and did
all in your power to resune your va
cant place. Now, it has always see emed to
me that YOU, by your acts at that time, gave
all the proof in your power that you abandon
ed the principles for which you fought, acce pit
ed the decision of your wager OF battle, and
bowed to the supremacy OF the constltu tlon.
You we're offered, and You ratified, an am end
ment to that instrument, absolutely and for
ever abolishing slavery. You manifested, so
far as have ever been able to see, DISPOSE
ton to take us on our own terms, and re-
nounce all you had fought for, pay
ing in full the stake for which you
had played and lost. To be sure You had no
choice, and you could not then have complained
if you had been treated for what you claimed
to be-alien enemies. But you might have
been sullen and refused to do anything. You
did the best you could do, as 1 have always
thought, and think the North would nave
done the very best that she could have done to
have taken you back in the fine temper IN
which General Grant reported he found you at
Vour nnOn1a here may
be, are different from any people have ever seen
or knew or read of; but I think it would have
been best to have then taken you cordially by the
hand, told you that we believed your promises,
accepted your word Of honor, and that by
cones should be by-gones. Besides, think
We we're in good faith bound. after you had ac-
cepted our own terms and acted upon them'
when offered by an authority which you BE-
ieved and still believe was adequa te to act
bindingly in the premises, to complete tne
transaction. Much as you were interested IN
oul doing so, think the North was even more
so. think it would have restored the
Union with the least shock to its frame
work and with the least possible STRAIN
to the constitution. Congress, however,
interposed to rend asunder once more the
knitting fracture, because they averred the
cure would never be fair and sound by that
process, and adopted another. Their first at
tempt was the Fourteenth Amendment, which
they offered you as dose preparatory to read
justment; but it was not stated to be final, and
there is muSS controversy at the North as to
your reasons for rejecting it. If it was tine
suffrage clause which decided YOU action, I
think, looking at it from your position, you were
wrong. you could not swallow the clause re-
quiring you to disqualify your leaders, my
heart tells me you were right. 1 hope
T shall never lisp any word Of reproach
against any man who refused to 60
back from his chosen foremost men at
such time. But, at any rate, its submis-
sion to you at all showed that thus far Con-
gress stuck to the Northern theory Of the con-
test. But next came an entire change OF base,
and Congress abandoned the Northern view OF
matters entirely, and thus late in the day came
over to the camp you had been beaten out of,
as the more tenable position of the two. They
took up your old ground and insisted that you
were after all an alien enemy, your country
conquered territory, yourselves prisoners
OF war, ald your rights of every kind
forfeited. This is, al the bottom, the meaning
OF the Reconstruction acts under which you
now live. They are based on conquest and
the right Of the victor in international war
fare. do not think that this was, upon
comprehensive view Of the general and permit
nent welfare of the whole people, generous,
wise, or q constitutional course to take; but it
has been taken, and now we come to the diff
culties of our position, as things do in fact
stand. What is it best for US to do? How
can We best moify or remedy existing evils ?
The case would be puzziiug enough at
bsst, but the addition Of the element OF
universal negro suffrage perplexes it
ten fold. There 1t is, complicated by
multitude of conflicting theories, prejudices,
and passions here as well as at tho North, and
the circumstances of peculiar political excite
ment attending Presidential election, which
this very question Of your proper status is the
vital issue, renders it we'll nigh impossible to
arrive at satisfactory conclusions. The best
consideration, however, which have been able
to give to the subject has led me to some
conclusions, which Ioffer with great difndence
but in entire good faith. I propose to try to
escape from our difficulties by reversing the
process that brought US into them when you
appealed to arms to decide disputed question
OF constitutional construction and set the fate
OF slavery upon the ordeal of battle You took, as
it seems to me- the first irreversib!e false step.
You refused to abide by the decision of the tri-
bunal provided by the constitution; and you
would not accept the verdict of the people, rem
dered under the constitutional form, when ad-
verse to you. The barriers which had been
provided for just such an emergency you in
heat and impatience threw down. No written
constitution can possibly be made strong
enough in itself to restrain the people unless
they themselves are calm and wise enough to
see, even in their hottest moments, even when
the temptation to grasp coveted object or
secure e threatened end is most overwhelm-
ing, that in the long run, and upon
a balance of contingencies, they will be hap
pier by observing, scrrpulously, their self-im-
posed limits. They may have to lose or defer
a cherished hope, that they may not by and by
be obliged to suffer degraded i'll; but the pas
sions which the slavery agitation aroused were
too fierce for argument, too impatient for the
tedious processes of the law. The second