Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-11
THE HISTORY OF RECONsTRUC.
TgON


TEON.
We reproduced some weeks ago the i'm
portant portions of the Hon. Gideon Welles'
article in the GALAXY magazine for April,
showing the authorship of the reconstruc-
ton forced upon the South by the Radical
party, and which Grant has carried out
faithfully during bis administration. Mr..
Welles was Secretary of the Navy under
both Lincoln and johnson, and he there
fore writes whereof he knows. The fol-
lowing extracts from his paper in the May
Galaxy, on the same subject, will be found
worthy of careful reading: 49,
"Thaddeus Stevens, who with other Radi
Gals had been in consultation with Henry
Winter Davis, called to see me on the. Both
of June, 1865, and made some sarcastic hits
at the President and most of bis Cabinet.
He expressed his contempt for State rights:
and for any step which would place the
Rebels on an equality with loyal men, his
indignation was unutterable. Only bOys,he
said, ignorant of their duty, or men as in
competent as boys, destitute of all states
manship, could think of re establishing the
Rebel States, and admitting them and the
Rebels to participate in the government
with the same rights as ourselves. When
spoke of constitutional obligations, he said
constitutional obligations meant constitu-
tional distractions; they were impediments
to prog ess. We bad, he averred, outgrown
The garments made and put on in 1889.
hey did not ut US. The men who man
ufactured the constitution had given us but
piece of patchwork at best. They did
not like it themselves in some respects, but
it was the best they could do in the then
existing Gil cumstances. They were very
good men, and wise for the times in which
they lived. We, however, belonged to a
later age, a more advanced civilization, and
were blockheads if we could not improve
on their work. 1t was an absurdity for us
to attempt to go along, broken up into fifty
different states or corporations; we must
be more compact, have nationality, and
get rid of the ridiculous theories and fanci-
full notions that we were thirty or fifty
different sovereignties."
Mr.. Welles ascribes the real leadership
Of the Radical element to Henry Winter
Davis, and declares that his address at
Chicago, July 4, 1865, was intended to be,
and was the keynote of Radicalism, and the
watchword of those who afterwards COM
lined against President johnson. The fol-
lowing paragraphs of that address admiIa-
bly, set forth the policy under which the
South has teen governed for the last seven
years:
"The best way to preserve the bond Of
peace is not by compromise or concession,
or by friendly proposals. Who does not
| know that the negro is manP State
| rights are responsible to the bayOnet.
| States are immortal, but State governments
that are organized by men, and may be used
| for selfish purposes, perverted TO the pur-
poses of treason to defy the Union, are, by
| the laws of the United States, not immor
tai, but amenable to the laws as men, and
die by treason.
"They have suffered and suffered much
by the confiscatiOn of their slaves; the next
best punishment is to deprive them of the
rights of citizenship.
al am no enthusiast, am very little of
philauthropist. l have no supreme love Of
the intellectual superiority of the negro
| over the white; but l know his vote is i'm
pOrtant, and if have not much respect for
justice and humanity, have for the FIVE
twenties. We need the votes of all the
colored people; it is numbers, not iutelli-
gence, that count at the ballot box; it is
right intention, not philosophic judgment,
that casts the vote"
Speaking of Davis, Stevens, Wade, and
the rest, Mr.. Welles remarks:
"Mr. Lincoln had fathomed and we'll nm
derstood these men and their purposes, and
hence under no circumstances would he
have convened Congress, where malevolent
intrigues and factious designs could be
foste. ed and have effect. The centralizing.
usurping, unconstitutional purposes of the
Radical leaders he deprecated, and thew,
knowing his opposition to their ultra
schemes, had endeavOred to prevent his re-
nomination and reelection in 1864"
OfPresident johnson, Mr.. Welles SAYS
+" Elected with Mr.. Lincoln, he Inherited
and adopted his measure, and also the cab
iIet which had counselled. and advised
those measures. The tolerant and benev-
client policy which Mr.. Lincoln initiated
and Mr.. johnson adopted toward the
South, was opposed by the party which
elected them. he extreme men of that
party assumed for the government imperial
and arbitrary authority over the states and
people of the South, denied them equality
Of rights, and shut them ont from repre-
sentation, and many of their constitutional
guarantees. 1t was not sufficient that the
people of those states modified their consti-
tuition and laws so as to conform to the
results of the war; their governments thus
modified were overthrown, and the Presi-
| dent was denounced because he would not
unite in these anti-Republican movements.
| With him the unien of the States and the
rights of the States, based on popular SOW
ereignty, were cardinal points. With his
| opponents, an imperial central government,
which should hold the States in subsection
and allow them no rights but such as Con-
gress might grant, was the aim and rule.
| Tie Pie ident recognized the States South
and North as equal in political rights and
| the whole people as fellow-citizens. His
opponents denied these positions, refused
to admit the political equality Of the States,
and excluded both States and people from
the National Legislature, where laws were
enacted for the whole country"
1t is creditable to Mr.. Greeley that he has
steadily opposed the vindictive, revolution
airy policy which the Radical wing of his
party adopted and are stiIl pursuing toward
the South. Had his advice prevailed, we
would have had restored Union" and
been Zone people" long ago. ,