The New York herald., 1874-09-15
Peace and Reconstruction-A Voice
from Washington.

can, q newspaper holding delicate and Official
relations with the administration. The value
of this article is twofold. 1t presents with
consummate ability the republican side OF the
question, "How to solve the problem of recon-
structiOn." 1t gives us an idea of the attitude
CT the President on the subject Ii correctly
represented he is in this respect far wiser than
his party for, while some of the kettle
drum newspapers-whose duty is to
bang away at the old tunes until they
have new music, and time to learn it-have
been disposed to ridicuie the HERALD argu-
ment as sensation" covert "plea for dis
| union," or ON assault upon the republican
party Sin the interest of the democracy, the
President sees beyond thus the presence of
vast and living idea, and he proposes to accept
and studyit. On many occasions General Grant
has shown himself rich in saving common
sense. And if we are perfectly informed as to
the meaning of this voice from Washington he
is disposed to show as much wisdom and
| courage in dealing with the South as he
showed when, in spite Of the furious protests
of large body of his followers, he defeated
imitation and put himself on record il favor
Of national honesty and solvency.
The writer Of this article arrives ut the
HERALD conclusion by new ground. He criti-
cIses our position as ''an attack on the republi
can party and at the same time thinks we sup
press the argument which we ''do not attempt
to answer" ''that the South is responsible for
the ills under which she is suffering, not be-
cause we of the North had made the mistake
Of treating slavery as crime instead of an in
stitution, but because the Southern states
men, the leaders of her opinion, her journal
lists and her politicians, have been and are to-
day making the mistake of treating freedom
as a crime instead of an institution" We did
not fail to note this presentation of the case,
but we regarded it as On ant,thes;s rather than
as serious, cold argument While the Southern
leaders brought on the war, as the means of
founding government whose corner stone
would be slavery, we cannot forget that
before the war, from the time of Jefferson,
almost without an interruption, to the time Of
Lincoln, the Southern men governed the
country. John Quincy Adams was all anti
escent in slavery. Martin Van Buren, be-
leved in free soil, but never expressed that
belief until he had retired from the Presi-
dency. Other Northern Presdents-Harri-
son, Pierce, Fillmore, Buchanan-gave way at
once before the will Of the South and became
partisans Of slavery. Twenty years ago there
were only two or three pen who dared to
say in the Senate that slavery was other
than o sacred institution. Even when the
war became q fact Mr. Lincoln was believed
to care more for the good will OF slaveholding
Kentucky than for the aid of anti-slavery Mas
sachusetts, and Mr.. Seward who preached
about ''higher law" and ''irrepressible con-
ficts' when Senator, no sooner became Sec
retary of State than he fastened to assure for
eign Powers that the war was not against
slavery, but for the Union.
The conclusion to which we are therefore
inevitably forced, and from the pitiless logic
of which there is no escape, is that, having
protected slavery as an institution for genera
tions and having only abolished it
as cruel, reluctant necessary meas
ure of war-not that we loved the
blacks, but because we would conauer
the whites-we are bound to so consider
it in dealing with reconstruction. This is o
new and it may be startling position. We
are not surprised that it should be unwelcome |
to defender and an exponent Of the republi- |
can party. But we are surprised that delibe-
rate, sagacious thinkers like the Hon. John NJ
Francis, Of Troy, should assume that because
we have presented this proposition as a vital
element in any reconstruction problem, we
propose to pay the Southern masters for
their negroes We expressly disclaimed any
such purpose. 1t is a clamor and not an
argument. We feel that something should
be done for the South that we should
avoid this St Domingo war of races that
seems gathering its brutal force, that we should
stamp out the spirit of reputation which
stains and corrupts our credit, brings injury
upon the American name and which, ii not
checked, will bring this Republic into con-
1ition compared to which disunion would
have been blessing. Rising to higher ground
md appealing, not to the fears of the North,
but to those nobler feelings of fraternity and
knship which lived at Brandywine, New Or
eans and Monterey, when Northman and
poured out their blood for
he one dear old fag we asked from
he North that we should cease to
,ease and plunder and harass the South, and
enter upon the work of reconstruction in a
brave, manly way; that we should look at
as solemn high duty, and
not as q mere political expedient. And we
'aid: "What better means OF arriving at har-
nonious result than for these Commonwealths,
through their representatives, to meet in
solemn national convention in 1876, to con-
'ider the state of the Union, the wear and
ear of the hundred years OF republican ex-
,eriment what the war has imposed upon the