Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-10-02
/ W. ~ !: 49, &c. $ss;sS' oo""i''s'
CHAPEL HILL, Sept. %, 1868.

CHAPEL HILL, Sept. %, 1868.
Gentlemen /: Your letter of the 10Th in
slant, requesting for publication a certain
part of the speech which delivered to the
citizens of Chapel Hill and its vicinity, a
few days ago, is now before me. Yielding
to your wishes L have written out the
part you require, and hope it may meet
with the same acceptance elsewhere as il
seems to have met with here.
For the kind terms in which your wishes
have been communicated to me, please
accept my most heartfelt thanks.
Very truly yours,
w. FL. BATTLE.
To P. H. McDade, Esq, Chairman, and
Jones Watson, Esq, James t. Croker,
VIM. Fetter, committee.
FeAov. Citizens Many of you are aware
that was, by appointment, to have sd
dressed you two weeks ago upon the great
topics which now agitate the country. You
are aware, too, that I was prevented from
doing so by a sad event which deprived the
State of one of her ablest and most useful
citizens, and me of valued and lifelong
friend. I am grateful to the kind Provi-
dence which has permitted me to fulfil
promise which I made to appear before
you to-day. I thank you for coming out to
hear me. I esteem it as high compliment
that you have done SO particularly as, IN
doing it, you have had to neglect your ag-
ricultural labors at this busy season of the
year. must return my thanks to the Ia
ladies, also, for honoring me by their pres
ence. Whether it proceeds from a sounder
Judgment or q more delicate instinct, the
fact is certain, that tbs ladies are generally
on the right side and it must be great
support to any public speaker to find him
self encouraged by their presence and
cheered by their smiles.
This occasion, fellow citizens, is one of
no ordinary interest. It is great crisis
in the life of the nation. More than three
years have elapsed since the close of the
late civil war, and yet the country is IN a
state of confusion and alarm. Complaints
of injustice and oppression are heard on
every side. Many of US feel ourselves de-
prived of our just rights and privileges. and
there is more Or less Of distrust and I'M
quietness prevailing everywhere through
| out the land. Why is this so is the great
question which I have to discuss and I
think 7 can demonstrate to your entire sat
isfaction, that it has been caused by the
So called laws which are generally known
as the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. -
Those measures I believe to be 1nconsti-
tutio 1al, and therefore null and void, and
now take upon myself the task OF proving
them to be SO.
At the close of the late war, when the
armies under Generals Lee and Johnson
had surrendered, great question was pre-
sented as to how the Southern States were
to be restored to their former condition IN
the Union. The task of accomplishing
this was certainly one of the greatest mag
nitude, but to mind unmoved by passion
and unbiased by prejudice, it presented no
very formidable obstacle. The President
of the United States, in all his prociama-
tions and other public acts, and Congress,
in all its laws and resolutions, had declared
that the war was wsged on their part solely
for the purpose of suppressing the rebel
lion, and repudiated again and again the
idea that it was war for conquest. Hav-
ing these things in view, General Sherman
concluded a Convention with Gen. Joseph
E. Johnson, which, if it had been ap-
proved and ratified by the Administration,
would have restored all the States lately IN
revolt at once, to their former relations to
the Government. And all this would have
been effected without the slightest viola
ton of the Constitutions of either the y pl-
ted States or of the States. Conventions
would have been Immediately called to-
gether in the several States by the proper
authorities thereof, such changes in their
respective Constitutions, in relation to the
abolition of slavery, and N such other par
ticulars as the General Government had a
right to require, would have been adopted,
and the whole country would long since
have been pacifed, and would now be en-
Toying a state of comparative peace and
nrosperitv Tn nrOpOsing his plan, Gen,