The Cairo daily bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1870-1872, 1872-09-13
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That Is the material aspect of the late
reconstruction, as it has developed under
the auspices Of the president. Does it not
show in a glazing light how certainly the
worst results of social disorder will follow
close upon the attempt TO substitute per-
sonal for a constitutional government, or
a military for civil rule and do not the
two aspects, when taken together-the po-
litical and the material-demonstrate in
their delineation that policies more at va
rance with any success in restoring cor
dial good will in sections recently tran
quilted, could not have been fallen upon.
If the union is 10 be henceforth a bond.
indeed, then 1t must represent a common
protection, at the south as well as at the
north; its federal authority must be the
exponent Of the whole country, taking di-
rection from a free expression of the
whole people. 1t cannot in a state of
peace continue to enact a conquest and re-
fleet free government If it is to as
sumo the task of reconciliation, then it
must lay aside the role Of arbitrary power.
II 1t is to mean peace, 1t cannot with i'm
punity connive at plumber. Yet it was
peace and reconciliation which the presi.
dent pledged himself to accomplish.
And now answer, my fellow citizens, in
all sincerity, and banishing whatever Of
partisan feeling may have been aroused,
can it be possible that rule SO unpropit-
ious toward reconciliation as is thus de-
| monstrated out Of the facts of recopstruc-
ton, could possibly have emanated from
sincere desire to administer our national
affairs in that interest Is it not evident
that this great public demand has been I'M
hesitatingly sacrificed? An to what end
1t was not in the behalf of order, for, with
few local exceptions, no disorder has
been projected. 1t was not US a morality,
for l have shown that it has put to the
blush all past experiences of corrupt
spoliation. 1t could have been only,
therefore, to perpetuate power for the ad.
miuistration and its followers. And is it
not equally evident to you, in fact is it
not the one deduction that flows freely
forth from all this abuse of power, this
disregard of popular rights, this unparal-
leled devastation Of communities which it
claimed to govern, that the present ad-
ministration Is now utterly disqualified for
longer assuming the task Of reconciliating
the people of tine south to the new order,
and Of wedding them firmly to the life of
the republic? Against it there is every
prejudice; in it no qualification. Its
agents are not patriots who may be trusted
with such work, but plunderers, intent on
quite other accomplishment. Its lines
have been set and hardened in alien
policies, and only these who value part
isan success more, and peaceful restora-
ton less, can henceforth justify to their
own conviction longer support Of the
president and his policies, or further ex-
tension Of his official term.
The second great problem about which
the people of the United States have been
most concerned, because wisely foreseeing
that its achievement was the sole guaran-
tee of any abiding peace hereafter, has
been the reconciliation of the races at the
south, and the establishment of such civil
order there as would insure that result
Again, and in this respect has the admin
istration proved success?
In discussing this branch of the subject
it will be well first to discriminate as to
what success implies. You will readily
concede, know that all our experience Of
the subsection of the black race by the
white race under the old forms of slavery
was not success. 1t was not success,
although for many years sustained by the
whole power Of the federal government,
by the army and the navy, the congress
and the president. It was not q success
although subsection had tanned its spirit
and almost extinguished any courageous
aspiration for achieving its own liberty.
And so likewise may claim that any at
tempt to subject the white race to the
black race, to govern by virtue of caste, to
rule in the name OF color, will equally fail
to prove a success. Dwellers together in
the same land it must DO either peace or
war between the races. If IL Is to be
peace, then for other policies, us l shall
undertake to show, will have to be instilled
and commended there to the confidence of
both races, than any which have yet been
advanced by the administration. If it is
to be war, then rest assured that the sympa-
thies of this nation will follow those
against whom Injustice and oppression, and
deprivation of rights may be wantonly en-
forced. If it is to be war, then the fellow
ship of kindred blood will connect all over
this land, and they who have needed the
entire moral support of a freedom loving
people to rescue them from bondage, will
stand isolated in the attempt to perpetrate
the same injustice from which they them
selves have just been delivered. Nor will
| that be q success, but a failure so dismal
that history will weep to record its mis-
fortunes. Let it not be war then in any
event, IL the patriotism Of the nation can
avert such ending.
| The nine southern states whose recon-
struction, as it is called, has been under
taken by the administration, contain ac-
cording to the sensus of 1870 a popula-
ton thus enumerated.
White, Colored,
Alabama. ,............, 62l,3S4 475,bl0
ARKANSAS .........." 49,, ll6 l22, 1859
| floriua .0l,03l 81 $3.50
georgia. .',,,., ,,..,... .63s,926 1912
| Louisiana ..........,....3 62, O65 1854 90