Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-08
MISSISSIPPI.
Will she Reconstruct on the COndi-
tiOns of Negro Suffrage.
What Judge Dent and the Radicals
Propose to do.
A Review of the Situation by One
who Knows.


Col. NJ. D. L. Stephens:
t i[y Dear Colonel: You ask an eX-
preston of nay opinion on the policy
of reconstruction, proper for us to
pursue in view of our unfortunate
surroundings
In january. 1861, Mississippi aban-
doned practically her position as
State in the Federal Union and be-
came with others involved in a war
against the United States 10 establish
q separate government; and after 4
conflict of four years we surrendered
without accomplishing the achieve
ment or recognition of independence,
but did actually effect a separation.
The position we originally occupied in
the Union is recognized by the con-
quering power as virtually G6GgI-
dOaed and CGc0at, and it is held and
decreed by that power that we shall
not reOccupy the pOsition-shali not
regain admissiOn-shall not resume
our place in the Union, except
it be upon certain terms which are in
themselves desIgnedly harsh and hui
initiating, kind of passage under
tho yOke" to restoration and national
confidence. The question, then, in
v
back on these terms, but tOiH we go
back under the conditions proposed?
| HiI we reconstruct on the conditions
of negro Su6rdge' and the disfran-
chisement OF portion of our people?
or will we continue in our present
anomalous situation?
| 1t is conceded, l believe, that the
people will accept readmissiOn on
the terms proposed. The difficulty is
OvercOme-nOt the difficulty of get
ting back but the difficulty of getting
cur consent to go back upon terms to
US seemingly so oppressive and Odi-
Gus.
But it is claimed by representative |
men y of the State, that reconstruction, !
even upon the Radical plan laid down |
| by Congress is of doubtful achieve |
ment, unless we Join the Republican |
party-get squarely behind Judge |
| Dent and follow him, Indian file, back |
| into the Union. 1t would be deemed |
| of high Ofiense to national courtesy to |
slam tie door in the face of the Pre5i- |
dents brOther-in-law. If he does not !
bow US into the Union, the fault will |
not be in the sagacity of the "rebel "
but in the rottenness of the cOHt-faH. |
What has Judge Dent TO do with |
recQnstructing Mississippi? He left US /
durii q the war and has been c1H-
Sfy1ictGd all the time. The recGnstruc-
tiOn plan of Congress is not submitted |
directly to the people who were en-
gagged in the +" REBELLION" and it is for
Us, to whom these terms of readmis-
sion are rendered, acting for ourselves,
to accept or to reject them.
When the reconstruction plan was
devised by Congress, it was designed
that Mississippi should be reconstruct
ed by that plan, that readmissiOn
should positively be secured by the
terms therein proposed and not left to
the mere contingency that some future
President Of the United States may
possibly have Il brOther-ijl-i0lU.
1t is said by some-if we accept the
situation" for ourselves and not by
'proxy-if we act through our own
representatives, we might be rejected,
because our conduct might be claimed
as a Democratic triumph. ! should
like to know who would be fool OF
traitor enough to claim readmissiOn
on Radical terms as Democratic
triumphW
l am opposed to any affiliatiOn with
the Republican party. These men
Knocked us in our mistOrtunes and at
tempted to render the harsh terms of {
re construction still more odiOus and
oppressive. l am under no obliga-
uOns to them because they could not
succeed.
The terms of reconstruction are sub
mitted to Us! wecan accept them if we
viii, without being forced to The ad-
ditiOnal modification ofbeing marched
in by Republican leaders.
A goOdiy number of representative
men have already proclaimed their
affiliatiOn with the Republican party,
and declared their purpose to support |
its nominees even month in advance
of knowing who they may be. Well,
it was their privilege to go-and even
had hasty action evinced a pre-dispO- 5
sitiOn in them to go where they have ]
gone, it yet would have been their
privilege.
Among these representative men" I
recognize certain distinguished
leaders who once in a time conducted
Us OiH of the Union. With the saga
cious eye of the statesman-With an
inspiration that beamed from heaven
upon their vision, tiptOed just little,
they looked beyond the outward Cir
cumstapee of things and saw the way {
perfectly open. Now without saying
that any mistake was made in con-
ductingus ont, L simply suggest that
a blunder might be committed in .
taking us back.
l see neither necessity nor wisdom | ,
in the policy Of voluntarily surrender
ing the State gOVernmentandp perhaps
its destiny for years to come, into the ]
hands OF a few Republicans who but
yesterday attempted 10 afilict US with
and ruin; and If they have
desisted ID is because they could not
succeed, which does not entitle them,
in my opinion, TO our confidence, GER
tainly not TO our support; or il. so, 1t
was not made apparent in the Adj
dress" and ann only surprised that
our representative men" should
have mada proposition so astound- |
ing, unlessithey could have given rea-
Sons for do4lg so, more plausible than
any they h&Ve yet ventured to make
public.
We are asked to adopt the policy
pursued by Virginia in the election
just tTanspiTed in that State. Why
should we pursue that policy? Ours
ID AlOA @ lJdldlANA Nti0I W NlAii bildt vi II
ginia. Walker was not q Radical and c
never attempted to force the Under a
wood Constitution on his people. But
how do we knPw that the people of
Virginia favored the policy adopted
in that State? The Judgment of the
people might have been iorestalled by
her T" representative men who some
times exercise control more by the in
huence of accustomed leadership than
by argument, Walker was elected Il
by only ten thousand majority,
when the Conservatives had a regis
tered majority of double that number.
Now how do we know that the peo-
pie approve thepblicy? Is itnot VERY
evident that theyldid not like it ali:
and does the result not prove that the
policy was impolitic and unwise; that
it OGcasiOned ten thousand Eirginians
to be silent; ten thousand have refused
to say whether they accept the "re-
plan y or not; and 10
that extent has it not prejudiced the
chances of the State for readmis- /
siOn?" And if Virginia, with reg
istered Conservative majority of TWEEN
ty thousand, could, on policy so un-