Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-03-30
Speech of Hon. Thos. S. Bocock.

We make the following extract from the
speech delivered by Hon. Thos. S. Bocock at
the banquet given to Ex-President johnson by
the citizens of Lynchburg on Thursday night
week:
When the forces of the South in the late civil
conflict laid down their arms, and the South
ern people surrendered their cause, those who
knew them best knew well that their surrender
was as honest, as faithful, and as true, as had
been their devotion to the defeated enterprise.
Scarcely an honorable man could be found in
the land who did not accept in good faith ''the
logic OF events, and was not ready to yield full
and unhesitating obedience to the authority,
Constitution and laws of the United States
There were two ways in which this state of
things might be responded to by the Govern
ment m OF the Union. The one was, to regard
the citizens of the Southern States as liable in
their individual capacity, for what they did col
lectlvely and as a people. In that case those
suspected should have been subjected to trial,
the guilty punished, the innocent acquitted,
and the affair forever settled. The idea of
treating whole States and communities untried
as felons and outlaws, subject to the pains and
penalties of the Constitution, but not entitled to
its privileges and benefits, appeared abhorrent
not only to the spirit of Anglo-Saxon liberty
and to the civilization of the nineteenth century,
but to all recognized ideas of Constitutional
Republican Government.
But there was another way of meeting the
contingency. That was, in spirit of chival-
rous magnanmity, to accept the surrender of
the Southern men in the spirit in which it was
offered to regard the objects of the war as ac-
complished and the Union restored; and at
once to extend the Constitution with all it's re-
quirements and all its privileges, to every part
of every State within our limits. And what
result would have followed Brave hearts al
ways respond to brave and magnanimous ac-
tlon The Constitution would have been saved as
at once the ensign and palladium of American
liberty; the confidence of true men would have
been carried captive; those who originally dis
believed in or doubted the policy of secession
would have been confirmed those who had ia
vored 1t would have been forced to yield their
position the affections of the masses would
have gathered warm around the government
and Union sentiment as irresistible in it's rush
as the current of Niagara itself, would have
swept over the land
Ere this, the scars and ravages of war would
have been to good extent healed new pros
perlty would have beamed from the sloping hills
and broad savannas of restored South; trade
would have flowed again in rich currents into
the laps OF the Northern commercial empori-
ums, and the commerce of the Union would
have regalned its former supremacy in the
trade relations of the world. Every murmur
Of discord would have died away in the general
peace and day Of universal hallelujah would
have begun to dawn upon country so lately
rent and torn by dissension That such course
was not pursued is matter of deep regret, but
not Of surprise 1t was too high a demand
upon the faculty of human nature The fierce
conflict in which We had been engaged had en-
gendered feelings and excited passions which
could not SO readily be subdued The tempest
had passed away, but the waves which it crea-
ted must needs roll and toss for yet little
while longer.
And then, men had their schemes of personal
and party ambition to gratify-ah, there is the
rub