The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-04-26
Hon. Thomas Ewing.
He Iiews of What Is Necessary to give
Peace and quiet to the Country.

From The Washington Patriot
We are permitted to publish the fol
lowing letter, which he addressed to a
leading Republican member of the
House of Representatives, before par
tisan legislation had taken its present
obnoxious form. The words of pat
riotism and wisdom uttered by this
venerable statesman will hardly be
heard in the din and strife of passion
here, which agitators like Morton and
Butler have stirred up for political
purposes; but they cannot fail to reach
the eandor and intelligence of the
country, and contribute to that heal
thy reaction which is manifesting it.
self in almost every Northern State:
WASHINGTON, March 20, 1871.
My DEAR SIR: Allow me to sug-
gest to you what L think Congress can
do, to give quiet and peace to the coun-
try.
1. Pass the bill pending in the
Senate to remove disabilities, but
first strike out all exceptions. Few as
these are, they will produce much
mischief; they select a bIdy of the
most influential men of the South,
and make it to their interest. to keep
up rather than quiet disorder, and you
disable them for all good service, and
arm them with tenfold power for mis-
@As u-l- ~ H. I'LL
disposed men of the South will look
upon these excepted few as martyrs to
the cause which they have all believed
in, and all supported. This may be
very wrong: but until God creates
men anew, and gives them new souls,
new passions. and new social feelings,
this will, under all like conditions, be
the effect of special acts of power such
as the exception in the Senate's disa-
bility act.
1t should not be the question, what
do these excepted rebels deserved
But how is it for the public interest
that O deal with them? And it
seems to me much better to have
their aid than their opposition in your
effort to give peace and quiet to the
country and perhaps they are less
culpable, in the forum of conscience,
than we are inclined to admit. They
may have thought secession a right, or
even a patriotic duty. They were mis-
taken. We lave done what Web
ster's logic failed to do-convinced
them, by the solid arguments of our
professors of the cannon law-and
now we may we'll treat the the revolt
rather as an error than a crime 1t
may be true that our Southern -breth-
rem and sisters do not heartily love us,
but we cannot hope to gain. their good
will, or quiet the natural irritation of q
vanquished people, by pouring baskets
of live pismires on their heads; or
whipping them with nettles. But if
you strike out the exceptions and pass
the bill, it will do much good-it will
enable the people to govern themsel-
YES, which was impossible while the
intelligence of the country was under
the ban, and emancipated slaves and
adventures on the one side, and the
K. K. K. on the other, struggling for
power. In this contest it could not be
expected that the prescribed intellect
of the country would take sides with
either; but restore to the rights of
citizens, and you at once give them
power and responsibility-now they
have neither the one nor the other.
2. Make the commission of South
ern investigation joint, and put on it
fair men of both political parties
not extreme men of cither-men not
so far biased but that they can see the
truth and tell it, and who will be be-
lieved by the public at large. They
should look to the present and future,
not to the past. Over that you have
no power, though you assumed thu
responsibility largely by rendering
powerless the only men who had inter-
est and capacity to suppress disorder
and violence. Let your commission
ers note carefully the coIrse of events
as they arise, and report them fairly,
and they will do much good.
3. Do not pass any law giving the
President powers not conferred by
the Constitution, nc matter how strong
the necessity may SEEM North and
South we have a right to the protee-
ton of that instrument, and if You
violate it, and those wronged thereby
resist, you aiidrnot they are pro hac
vice in rebellion. The argument that
you may violate the Constitution to
save the. Union would conclude to this
also, that you may cut a mans throat
to saw his life.
| But do what youf may, these ma
yaudfng bands wifi for aetime mfest
the country. It has always been the
case at the close of civil wars, end how
they may.
The cavafiers-the best men in