Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-10-18
LINCOLN AND THE SLAVES.
What the Hon. r. M. T. Hunter Said
Mt the Winchester (ya.) Fair
on the Sth.
New York Tribune Report

reJ0lceQ that they were beginning ~
recover from the depression in which
agriculture, as well as the other inter
ests of the State, was left at the close
of the war. He would like to tell
them of some successful experiment
to animate their hopes, or some new
and rational theory to develop which
might open up some fairer prospect OF
success than had yet been presented.
But there was no short cut to relief
from such difficulties as those In which
they we're plunged by the war, and it
was upon time and themselves that they
must rest their hopes of relief. No
mean dependence would do. Il may
truly say he continued, that no
people ever had to discharge the daily
cares and usual duties of life under
greater difficulties, or with less assis-
lance from those from whom they had
perhaps a right to expect it, than has
been our case since the war" The
whole country was nearly stripped of
its cattle and stock, the negroes eman-
cipated without a cent of compensa-
ton, the whole system of labor disor-
ganized, the capital of the country
lost, and nothing left but debts and
the naked land. Scarcely a dollar was
to be borrowed abroad, for there was
no security to offer but land of little
value. No aid could be obtained from
the State. itself poor and in debt. The
Federal Government, which emancipa-
ted the slaves, offered no compensation
as other governments had done when
trying the experiment. Indeed" Mr..
Hunter said, 1T seemed to be their
purpose to make all these changes OPP
crate on us rs harshly as possible, and
| if it had been their design to depress
/ still further the country and the peo-
pie, already poor enough, their course
| of action could not have been much
better suited to that end. Such were
the difficulties under which we had to
| begin the work of reconstructing our
entire system of industry and produc-
ton. Deeply rs we were in debt, our
Government was debarred by certain
clauses in the Constitution of the
United States from attempting to read
Just the contracts of the country so as
to adopt their performance more easily
to the changes of the times and the
true spirit of the original agreementin
the contemplation of the parties to it. ="
! He referred to the action of other
governments for the relief of the deb
tor class after a war, and called atten-
ton to the United States Constitution
to show that such relief as was deem
! ed just and necessary in othercountries
was impossible in this Here the poor
citizens had been forced to pay heavy
taxes upon their productions, espec-
| tally of tobacco, from the cultivation
of which the people of Virginia hoped
to derive the means to resuscitate their
agricultural industries. He had seen
it recently reported Virginia had paid
in internal taxes since the war $50, 600, .
600 of which by far the greater pant
had been paid on tobacco. Such a
fund as this, judiciously distributed in
loans among the people, would have
done much to build up the industrial
interests of the State.
Fellow citizens" Mr.. Hunter con-
tinued, Il well recollcct that, in the
interview at Old Point Comfort be-
tween Mr.. Lincoln and Mr.. Seward on
the one hand, and Commissioners of
the Confederate States (of whom |
was one) Oh the other, this subject of
compensation for the emancipated
slaves was introduced by Mr.. Lincoln
himself. He said that a prominent
citizen of the North whose name, if
given, would probably surprise us, had
written to him to say that if the slaves
were emancipated, the sum of 800, :
DOC, 900 ought to be distributed among
their former owners by way of COM
pensation. The money, as well as /
remember, was proposed to be given
to the States in proportion to the num-
Der of negroes freed within their bor-
ders, and by them to be distributed
among the individual owners. That
this would have been a very inadequate
compensation for 4,500,000 slaves is
evident to all But who can estimate
the relief which it would have afforded
to the despoiled and stricken South /;
if distributed among them Just after
the war, it would have been of inesti-
mable value. Mr. Lincoln said he had
no authority to speak for any one but
himself, but he himself was in favor
of it. Upon this, Mr. Seward express
ed some Impotence, saying that the
Government paid enough in the ex-
; penses of the war, which / suppose he
felt to have been waged for negro
emancipation-a poor excuse to be
made in regard to the claims of any of
the States, but none, certainly, in the
cases of Kentucky, Missouri, Mary
land and Delaware, which never seced-
ed, and were never even called rebell-
ious. To this Mr.. Lincoln replied
with equal earuestness: i know you
all say that it was sinful to hold slaves,
and, as there was no right to do so,
there is no justice in the claims for
compensation. Now said he, if it
was a sin in the South to hold slaves,
it was a sin in the North to sell them,
. which they did to very great extent,
as We all know"
The orator then spoke at some length
to prove this last assertion of Mr..
, Lincoln, quoting in its support from
Mr.. Dabney's Defense of Virginia
and of the South" and said: There
was no point of view in which we
could be considered as'deprived of the
claim to compensation If we were
still citizens, and States within the
Union, the spoliation was unconstitu-
tional, and we were certainly entitled
to some compensation for damage sus-
tanned. If We were separate and indie
pendent belligerents, such an act of
plumber was not justified by the laws
of war, and we were entitled to com
pensation upon the precedents of both
, wars with Great Britain. She solemnly
bound herself by the treaty of 1888
to pay for all our slaves whom she
carried away, and she was found liable
to do the same thing for those she took
away in the last war by an award of
the Emperor of Russia, a decision
made upon the very terms of the
Treaty of Client" New England, he
continued, is mistaken, if she hopes to
escape all moral responsibility at the
bar of public opinion, for what she
acknowledges to have been great
wrong, by throwing the whole loss and
} punishment upon those whom she ac-
cuses of being the recipients of the
stolen goods.
The United States may yet do some
thing. he thinks, for the relief of the
South and to remove the stain which
must otherwise rest upon its reputa-
ton for justice and fair dealing. 1t
; can deposit the amount of 800, 600,
600 mentioned by Mr.. Lincoln. on the
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